Matt Cleary

Or what it takes to defeat a champion boxer at cricket and win $20

It's the burning question of the day for all right-thinking Australians, but there are no easy answers

He has had a fine run in India, but swatting full tosses out of Nagpur is no indication of a batsman's ability to see off James Anderson's outswingers in Brisbane

Why pick bowlers, why have fielders, why grow grass on wickets? Let's give people what they want - a welter of runs

The Sheffield Shield needs to toughen up and national players must feature in it for at least two months before the Test season

Especially when they are offered up as an afterthought. Why not give the 25-over two-innings format a shot?

Miserable or magnificent - who knows which Mitchell Johnson will turn up on any given day?

With lots and lots of limited-overs cricket. In India. Say what?

Who failed, who passed, and who will make it to the squad for the home Ashes

All of us who wrote him off when we heard he had been picked for the Ashes will now proceed to eat our hats

Ten nightwatchmen who (mostly) went above their call of duty

Cricketers who could also swing a club or a foot or two

Let us compile a list of the most implausible reasons shall we?

For Australia, it's a time of bitter introspection about what has gone wrong

The DRS has opened up a whole other barrel of monkeys with machine guns, hasn't it?

He doesn't do enough in the air or off the pitch - except for when he does

Thought only selectors make shocking picks? How about having no frontline spinner for the first Ashes Test?

Ask a few of the kilt-raising, cricket-hating Scots who met him in Worcester in 1999 and they'd agree wholeheartedly with the assessment

A team featuring an Oxford graduate, a farm boy from Dungog, and an artistic wicketkeeper. And Shane Warne

It's important to attend a game or two for the sake of your health and happiness. Get to it