The waiting is over
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
Getty Images
Deep in the bowels of the Gabba, the cricketers of England and Australia quietly completed their final preparations. Their waiting was nearly over, the hour of battle was at hand. Surely they felt mixed emotions. What might the next day hold? Triumph or despair?, asks Peter Roebuck in in The Sydney Morning Herald.
Also in The Sydney Morning Herald, Geoffrey Boycott writes that there is no pressure on Andrew Flintoff. He just needs to "needs to bowl well, bat brilliantly and lead superbly".
I love the first morning of the Gabba Test. Especially when it's the first Test. Especially when it's an Ashes Test, says John Harms in The Sydney Morning Herald.
The Gabba was magnificently eccentric in those days. In the old wooden Queenslander that was the Queensland Cricketer's Club, shorts and long socks were de rigueur. The dining room underneath, where the only entree you could get, thanks to ex-wicketkeeper-cum-provedore Lew Cooper, was Moreton Bay bugs. The various stands which were added on bit by bit. The Don Tallon Bar, where you could only get a beer if you looked like Mr Fourex himself. The dog track (need I say more).
George Binoy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo