On the buses, starring Brad Hogg
Concluding an excellent series on cricket at all levels, from club to country, Peter Hanlon in the Sunday Age spends time behind the scenes with the Australians at the Boxing Day Test.
Brydon Coverdale
25-Feb-2013
Concluding an excellent series on cricket at all levels, from club to country, Peter Hanlon in the Sunday Age spends time behind the scenes with the Australians at the Boxing Day Test.
Departure for the ground is at 9am, half an hour earlier on day one to allow for pre-match services. On overseas tours they have a coach and driver, but in Australia it's rented 12-seater buses, driven by whoever is first to the keys. "Michael Clarke is normally in charge of the first bus," Hussey says. "He's down there a bit earlier, keen to get to the ground and get himself set up.” Brad Hogg, who would not have been out of place in On The Buses, is another keen driver. The journey from hotel to ground is no more than 10 minutes in any city, yet long enough to prompt some slack-jawed gazes when children in car back seats realise who they've pulled up next to at the lights.
In the same paper Darren Berry writes about going back to play a match for his old club in rural Victoria.
In the Sun-Herald Brett Lee chats about the challenges of navigating the current tense situation as an Australian idolised in India. Anthony Sharwood writes in the Sunday Telegraph that the Australians won’t win friends, or fans, simply by being very good.
Keith Stackpole, in his Sunday Herald Sun column tries to restore some sanity to the aftermath of the Sydney Test.
Anyone would think the world's worst cricket controversy took place in Sydney last week, with the coverage it's getting. The SCG Test was a five-day beauty, tarnished by several incidents, which have been blown out of proportion.
Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here