A fine delivery

	Cricketers may look and sound better on the field than behind a lectern but over the years there have been some cracking cricket speeches by non-professional cricketers © Getty Images

If the cricket isn't very entertaining at least the after-dinner speeches will keep you awake. Michael Fullilove, without punning on his name, writes a piece on best cricket speeches in The Age

As prime minister, Menzies became famous for timing his overseas travel to coincide with important cricket matches. That practice was obvious even in 1938. In his VCA speech, Menzies noted that by some extraordinary circumstance, prime minister Joseph Lyons had asked him to go to Britain that year to confer with ministers "about something or other", and that he had sent word to the conference organisers asking that they keep the full list of the Australian cricket fixtures next to their inkwells

In language that may inspire a few of the current Australian line-up, Denton urged Border not to retire prematurely. "You'll know the right time to get out. There'll be any number of telltale signs. One day, for instance, you'll call for a runner and they'll send out someone with a walking frame. Or maybe one day you'll find yourself prodding the pitch — not to smooth out any bumps, but to look for a nice, soft spot where you can have a nap. Or you may simply find yourself going for a quick two, turning for the second run, and then completely forgetting why it was you were running in the first place."

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