Which is about $360 AU for one day at the Test.


I just checked my old WACA membership costs. I was a Country member as I lived more than 100ks away from Perth. Country membership is now $340 AU a year. For that, you get a ticket to the Perth Test for 5 days and all the Perth Scorchers Big Bash games at the new Optus stadium. Also, any Australian men's ODI or T20 games played in Perth. All Australian women's games played at the WACA plus any domestic Western Australian Men's games (Sheffield Shield and One Dayers) played at the WACA. The Optus Stadium is over the river from the WACA.


Not a bad deal but better back in the 90s when we got all Australian men's internationals plus WA men's games plus AFL & NRL games. Plus there was a proper Member's stand. I let my membership lapse after 26 years when I retired to Thailand.


Interestingly, back in the 80s when I joined the WACA you had to know someone to be recommended for membership. The local Newman Cricket Association president was a mate. These days it is open to anyone.


The last time I was there was in Nov 2013 with Fozzie and his young bloke on their "Abbo Bashing Tour". It was a practice game for the Poms against a hastily put-together WA B side. Some of those blokes are in the current Ashes squads


















Jimmy not looking too impressed








Reg's mate was there too








:toot:

Bazza's Rant


If Australia plays Warner again, they are fucked. The loss of Lyon is an irreplaceable loss for them so down to 10 men already. 9 if they play Warner.


I thought Boland would have played better than he has. Bazz is wrong again. So back to Cummins. Starc and Hazelwood. They couldn't win in 2019 so probably won't this time. Starc & Hazelwood couldn't win in 2015 either. Starc can throw in 2013 as well. Don't know what the alternative bowlers are.


My plan

Leave my man Mitch Marsh in. Bring back Green. Two allrounders. So 3 quicks and 2 fast-mediums. Sack Warner and rest Murphy. Open with Harris. He is next to useless but hopefully better than Warner. Head and Smith are the spin options.

Bazz's Team

The Paki
Harris
The Saffa
Smith
Head
My man Mitch
Green
Carey
Starc
Cummins
Hazelwood

Wish we had some hard bastards like Border & Waugh S.


A shining light though for the Aussies. The Poms have brought back our secret weapon. One Jimmy Anderson. He hasn't played in a winning Ashes team since the 3rd Test at Birmingham in 2015. By my reckoning anyway.


Go, Jimmy. He'll probably be the man of the match now


I fear the worst


dancing

Keep Warner in for me (probably get a score now)
We should’ve played foakes as WK from start better keeper than Bairstow and been scoring well for Surrey as he has when in the test team stinks of jobs for the boys
Ok I’m biased but we should be ahead in this series on dropped catches alone add in no balls and missed stumpings it’s difficult to see us getting the ashes back at this point couple bad rain days and it’s over

We are all biased mate. We can't help ourselves though that said most people are critical of their own sporting teams too. I guess we expect 100% performance in every game. We expect hundreds from batsmen and 5 fors from bowlers every time they go out to play. Not even Don Bradman or Shane Warne could do that and in more recent times, Ben Stokes. Not even he can perform miracles every day.


I do agree with you that the luck has gone Australia's way so far but to counter that a little bit, England has won every toss. Actually, Cummins has lost every toss as usually the visiting captain calls.


I shouldn't whinge too much as we are still in front and history shows that is so hard to win Ashes series away from home. Still, if England wins the last two Tests, these blokes will go down in cricket history as the only Australian Test team to lose an Ashes series after being 2 nil up. Feeling any pressure boys? :baseballbat:



Just read the Cricket Australia website and I nearly got my wish as Boland and Murphy are out with Green & Hazelwood are back in. The bastards still picked Warner though :angry2:



Still, we live in hope. I look for omens so how is this one?


Green has never played in a losing Test team in England.


dancing

I think the whole country agrees with you, me included, that Bairstow should not be behind the stumps. He's taken an excellent catch this Test at OT but that doesn't make up for all the other bollocks he has dropped. Foakes is a way better keeper and a good bat, granted not as good a bat as Bairstow, but he's no mug. Bairstow looks overweight, and very stiff. I've noticed that he struggles to take balls that bounce in from of him. His legs are rigidly straight and he can only bend his back to attempt to get down and gather the ball rather than bending his legs at the knees and getting down low. Probably hasn't fully recovered from his horrendous injuries.

Excellent deal that Baz. I know if your a member of the MCC then tickets are cheaper, assuming you don't want to wear a shirt, tie and a pair of strides just to watch a game of cricket sat in the pavilion, and sit in the stands instead. Of course becoming a member of the MCC is not that simple and the waiting list is very long. Unless you fancy taking the fast track route which costs about £45,000.

We're doomed unless my two Western Australian boys bat for the next two days and save the world :lol3:


We are going to Pattaya at the end of the month. Around the same time as England will be handed the replica Urn. No mucking about. Straight to the top of the Markland where all one's problems can be sorted out



:bouncy:




Anyway, I'm off to watch the more important cricket. Major League Cricket. Texas Super Kings are up against the Seattle Orcas.

No more of that old-fashioned 5-day stuff. This is the future. They are creating legends here!!

24/7/365 T20 is on the way



dancing

I think the rain will save you Bazza

Would have fancied Englands chances more if the Aussies had been 6 down at the close. Just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.

Well hopefully a combination of this MLC and the Caribbean Premier League will attract all the top class mercenaries and totally fuck up the ECB's 100 competition.

Well that was a bit of shitty end to the test even though it was forecast
Hopefully we can square the series at the oval

A View on the Ashes from the Other Side



I write this a few hours before the first ball is bowled in the 5th Test at The Oval.


The first three Tests and honours were probably in favour of the Poms. Stating the obvious, Australia had a 2-1 lead at the end of them. The results could have gone either way in all three games. There has been endless commentary and comments on tv, in print, and on social media. Everybody in the world seems to have had an opinion.


Then came Old Trafford. England played really great. Australia, especially the bowlers (looking at you, Patrick) did not do too well. Australia rarely performs this badly but makes a habit of it at least once on overseas tours especially on Ashes tours to England (Trent Bridge 2015), tours to South Africa (Cape Town 2011 always come to mind), and even worse, on tours of India. Too many to mention there.




Did England play that well or did Australia make them look good? I think the Poms capitalised on a woeful Australian performance and were robbed by the rain. My feelings when hearing of the game being washed out and declared a draw? Sheer bloody relief. Probably the same as 99% of Australian cricket supporters. I can sleep soundly again.



So on to The Oval. If the Aussies play that badly again, they will get cleaned up. Hopefully, the thought of winning the series inspires them to perform better than at Manchester. Fingers crossed.


A couple of negatives for the Aussies in Cameron Green & Scotty Boland. Both underperformed in the Ashes Test so far. The positive is my man, Mitch Marsh. Never thought he would play Test cricket again.



The one thing that gets on my goat though is this continual mantra from the England camp about being better people and not worrying if you win or lose.



From the BBC website


This is England's first draw in 17 Tests under Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum - a period in which they have thrilled crowds by embracing an ultra-aggressive style. It denies them the chance to become the first England team to come from 2-0 down to win the Ashes at The Oval next week but Stokes repeated his desire to play in a manner that brings more fans into the sport.


"As much as I would love to be an Ashes-winning captain, I want this team to be a legacy team," he said.

"This 18 months will go down in history as one of the most exciting and proactive teams to go out there and represent England.

"We want to leave the Test-match summer with a win.

"But the reward for your work isn't what you get, it's what you become. We've become a team that have been so unbelievably well followed and we will live long in the memories of those who have watched us."





Harry Brook


As thoughts turn to the start of the final Test this Thursday, there is a degree of sadness this was not the winner-takes-all showdown it could have been. For Brook, however, even if England cannot make it 2-2, he believes they can be proud of how they have approached this Ashes series - even if it finishes 3-1 to Australia.

"That's the whole mantra, we're trying to excite people watching, we're trying to enjoy ourselves and we're trying to bring new crowds to the game and get Test cricket alive again. I think we've already done it this series. Whichever way the result goes this week, yeah, I think we've had a good series."



So losing a Test or worse, a series is not really a bad thing. If an Australian Test player would have said what Harry did, he would be frog-marched out the door and out of the team, never to return. To Australia, winning is everything. It is the only thing.


It is a game. The idea is to win. Not just participate and feel good about yourself. Geezus



England has been playing great cricket over the last 12 months. They earnt all the admiration that they are getting.


Just keep doing that and leave "the mantra” rubbish behind



:toot:

Baz I think that soft shite sort of talk just reflects mainstream Society in the UK. Nearly everything is done on a touchy feely basis with the belief that a hug will cure anything. Can't verbally criticise anybody as that would be classed as bullying, things would be even worse if the person complaining was of ethnic origins or a member of the LGBTQ community or whatever it's fuckin called. Basically England have blown the Ashes because they've followed this pathetic mantra and not dropped players, but instead have allowed them to struggle on and hopefully come back into form. I sometimes wonder if Stokes thinks he has to become a Modern Man now to atone for past misdemeanours.

I was watching BBC Breakfast this morning and the leading story was that Englands women football team might reach the last 16 of the World Cup. Unlikely the mens football would get the same billing but the women's football is classed as highly important. Ashes are way down the list, lucky if their given a mention on BBC.

We're doomed. No hope of chasing 400-odd in the last innings of the last Test of the series. This mob is not the 1948 Invincibles at Leeds. We need a miracle but I think we used our quota up in the 4th innings at Edgbaston


For many players here, this will be their last Ashes Test in the UK. Both teams will look completely different in four years' time. Lots of much-needed new blood in the Aussie team hopefully which will include young Murphy



The best thing? No more fucking Warner & Smith



:yay:

I’m not hearing much about bowlers coming through for England

I thought the same about Australia but maybe not as bad as we think


I read the cricket part of an Australian website called The Roar. People submit articles and lots more punters comment on those articles.


This one came out today



Why Australia need to start regenerating ageing Test team now before it’s too late



Some decent comments like this one on a positive note





Followed by the negative stuff. This one on Test cricket in general being a light of other days



Oh dear

And the same fella said this about Australian sport which is quite true






:ohno:

Meanwhile, back at The Oval, the Aussies have made a decent start to their innings. Our first 100+ opening stand since 2015 which shows how hard it is to win Ashes series away from home.


98 overs today assuming the weather is ok. So all set up for a fitting finish to the series. I still reckon Australia will struggle as usually not easy batting on 5th-day wickets. That said, England's bowlers are all getting on a bit so may struggle as well at the end of a long series played in a compressed time period.


Let's see what happens


:MyEmoticons-com__sm

Well that was a great win by England at the Oval, should have won the Ashes really but squandered it away especially at Lords. Thing is chances like that in an Ashes series don't come along that often. Very frustrating.

On another board that I am a member of a poster neatly summed up the difference between the 100 competition and the County set up.

One set up develops the players, maintains the grounds, and plays from April to September all across the country, and is the platform for the international teams which generates the money that keeps the sport afloat.

The other doesn't develop a single player of its own and just steals them from the other. Robs half the country of first class cricket in the height of summer, and sucks tens of millions of pounds out of the sport.

Whichever you prefer.

An excellent summary IMO.

I wrote that back in January this year. My man, Aaron Hardie, along with a couple of others, is about to play his first game for Australia tonight Thai time. Not Test cricket but a T20 in South Africa.


Gotta start somewhere.



From Cricinfo



A new-look Australian T20 side with many of the regulars either rested or injured.

Mitch Marsh is the captain!!

About time. Australia has finally started picking new players. Hopefully, they will perform on the bigger stage



:toot:

Gus Atkinson who made his T20 debut for England tonight looks like he could have something about him. Assuming he can stay injury free and is not coached into dropping his speed.

Was listening to talkSPORT radio the other day they were talking to Stuart Broad and mentioned this statistic on his retirement
Last ball faced= hit for 6
Last ball bowled = wicket

Wonder if anyone else has something similar

Australia is fucked for this World Cup IMHO. Too many old players like Warner, Maxwell, Stoinis & Smith, too many are inconsistent Maxwell, Mitch Marsh, Stoinis, too many are out of form Green & Zampa, and only one recognised spinner when playing in India. Madness


By next year there will be a whole lot of limited-over players retiring or getting tapped so there will be a whole new crew replacing them. Not ideal


Hopefully, I am wrong and they start winning again,

Nahh ..... won't happen

Oh and that goes for the Test side as well


:sad:



Not just me saying that



From the Roar


The link is HERE



The future looks bleak



:crying:

You’s got a bit of a kicking earlier today

Yay!!! We won a game

I had lunch with Flacky yesterday. His first words were "Don't mention the cricket" :haha:

Both the 2015 and 2019 World Cup winners look like they are struggling to win the 2023 edition

But you never know

:please:

Aye both Australia and England have been lacklustre. Nice to see both Afghanistan and Holland causing upsets. Just Afghanistan did it against the wrong team. India would have been much more preferable.

After that defeat against SA today England haven't been lacklustre they've been fuckin shite. Time for a clear out.

Lucky that the last pair put on 70 odd to add a bit of respectability to the scoreline. It was good to watch even though the game was over by then. It was better than watching QPR who were 0-2 down in the first 15 minutes :thumbdown:


Don't like to say it, but with England 9th on the table at the moment, they need to virtually win every game now to qualify (an uneducated guess). QPR, on the other hand, is doomed. "League One, Here We Come" is their new catchcry.


Australia is doing slightly better though the two openers scored most of the runs against Pakistan. Zampa is bowling better as well. We live in hope though we still have to play those giant-killers, the Dutchies, and the Taliban.


:toot:

Did the ECB just award contracts (some multi-year) to just about all of the current DOI team? 800,000 pounds a year plus?


:26_8_11:




Sorry, could not help myself




:snigger:

You know it makes sense, or at least it does to the fuckwits at the ECB. Clear out required so they extend contracts instead.

Stating the bloody obvious I know but it is the same question that everybody is asking.


How can England's team with so many world-class limited-over cricket players be performing so badly? Not just a couple of them but probably the whole team is playing sub-par cricket, especially by their lofty standards of the last 6-7 years. Nobody stays at the top forever but this is a monumental failure. From World Cup champions in T20 a year ago to running 10th (out of 10) two-thirds of the way through the current WC.


Reading many comments on the usual platforms (BBC website, Facebook etc), The Hundred seems to get the blame for everything whenever England lose a game in any format. Is that really the reason? Other causes to blame seem to be the ECB, the player contracts, the coaching staff, too much emphasis on women's cricket, players being too old, etc etc.


Surely, as an aside, it can't be playing in India being an issue these days, could it? All international cricketers play everywhere these days. I remember Shane Warne complaining that there were no baked beans available about 25 years ago. Dean Jones was physically ill in 1986 in the Madras tied test when Border told him he could not come off



Source The Disintegrating Hero


Why can't Australian cricket have hard bastards like Border, Ian Chappell, Steve Waugh as captains anymore? These days we get pampering pretty boys and cry babies as our Test cricket captains FFS!!!


My personal favourite was in the 50s & 60s when hundreds of Indians in the crowd would hold mirrors and direct light into the opposing batsman's eyes as the bowler let the ball go. :haha:



I digress (as usual). I hope this ODI form loss does not carry over to the English Test team as they have been the in-form team for the last 18 months. An Indian 5 Test tour starting in January will be their next challenge. That will be interesting to watch. Following that, the Poms play Tests against the West Indies and Sri Lanka in the 2024 English summer. Those should be near walkovers. Interspersed with that is a load of T20 and ODI international games plus all the T20 leagues.


While I am dribbling on, the Australian Test summer starts in December with Tests against Pakistan and the West Indies at home followed by two Tests against the Kiwis in NZ. No more Tests after that until the end of 2024. At the moment anyway.


It will be nearly 24/7 live cricket again over the New Year/January/February period plus in April/May the cricket world stops for the IPL.




Getting a bit much for this old fella




:notsmiling:

The BIG ONE is on Saturday. I don't care where India & South Africa are on the table or how well they are playing. The main game is on tomorrow.

The Empire :26_8_11: vs The Colony :ausflag:

Positions on the table mean sweet FA


England not playing well and is virtually out of it against Australia trying to stay in contention. My man, Mitch Marsh, is out due to"a family issue" which usually means someone is shagging his missus :haha: I shouldn't joke as it probably is something serious. Maxwell is also out so there is a couple of blows to the Aussies. I see my other man, Aaron Hardie, mentioned as a replacement for mighty Mitch if needed. Where is Cameron Green then? He must be totally out of form or something. :dunno:


Anyway, Joey thinks England will win.



From Cricinfo


And this




Looking forward to it. As per usual, I shall have a lottery ticket on the result of the game with Adam.


Despite all the big races on in Australia and especially the Melbourne Cup next Tuesday, that is about the limit of my gambling these days. New phones, laptops, and especially gold (as usual) are quite pricey these days



:goldtooth:

I blame The 100 as well, basically because I don't fuckin like it. I couldn't care less if KP Crisps XI beat the Tudor Crisps XI because it means absolutely fuck all. What The 100 has completely fucked is 50 overs cricket played by the Counties. The 50 overs Counties comp is now seen as a "development competition" by the ECB as the Counties agreed to release their first choice players to The 100. This was on the basis that each of the 18 Counties gets about £1.2m per season in compensation or, more realistically put, bribe money. Don't think the bribe money is factored into The 100 P+L Accounts though.

When this was first proposed the initial reaction was England, ironically just after winning the World Cup, would become shite at 50 overs cricket. Which is exactly what has happened. The counter argument is that other countries play little or no 50 overs domestic First Class cricket. Well I couldn't care less about that as my only concern is England and they are now shite at 50 overs cricket, as was predicted.

Who wrote the above? :stupid2:


Old Bazz got it wrong again :oops:


Always good to beat India though. This one is extra special obviously as India was supposed to win. Over one billion Indians will be in mourning today and during their Diwali Festival to boot.











Can only bask in the glory for a few days though as Australia starts a T20 series against India on Thursday, four days after a World Cup final. That series finishes on Dec 3rd then the Australian International summer starts with a three-Test series against Pakistan followed by two Tests against the Windies. Hopefully Australia bloods some new players


And, of course, the bloody Big Bash on the domestic front :bigfinger


Plus I see we have ANOTHER T20 World Cup next year in the USA & West Indies for the whole of June right in the middle of the English cricket season. No international cricket in England until July.


Also, Zimbabwe is listed to come to England for Test cricket in 2025. The last time Zimbabwe played Australia in a Test series was in 2003 in Australia. They got absolutely hammered, nobody went to watch it and we have never played them in Test cricket since




:hyper2:

Bowlers won it for you Bazza bogging them down after the first power play
Was quite funny listening to the silence of 92,000 Indians

Quite enjoyed watching India lose at home. To say their supporters are biased is a massive understatement, good watching them having to eat shit. Thought the competition went on too long, or maybe it was just because England were shite.

Actually, all World Cups are played in a 45-day window. It is just the structure that changes. I quite like the 10-team competition as every team plays every other team at least once. The same as in 2019. Teams like the Netherlands get to play at least 9 games. The Netherlands played 3 games in 2007 (16 teams) and 6 games in 2011 (14 teams)


The next WC is increased to 14 teams probably to accommodate Zimbabwe & Namibia as alongside South Africa, they are the home teams. So probably 2 groups of 7 teams. The top 2 teams in each group go through to the semi-finals. There are no quarterfinals according to Stephan Shemilt in his article on the BBC website on the 20th of November.



More games for TV networks to show.

I guess some people just can't get enough.





Personally, I don't watch much live cricket these days especially Australia when Smith & Warner are playing. If I want, I have "catch-up" with my IPTV provider. The Sky Sports UK version works quite well here



:toot:

Was wondering if you were smiling at that LBW Smith was out to in in the WC Final Baz? If he referred it he would have been N.O. Bit of poetic justice.

Good onya Mitch!! Mitch Johnson rips into David Warner, one of the greatest wankers that has ever worn the Baggy Green


From "The West Australian" today which is unfortunately behind a paywall


This from the Cricinfo website




Some fan responses are here. As you expect from a Western Australian newspaper, there is no love for Warner, especially after what happened to Justin Langer



Fans Pile into David Warner


"Thank you Mitch! I may partly change my opinion of DW if he ever apologises to Cam Bancroft - but until then he will never rate. It will be fitting if Cam replaces DW as opener as he deserves,” Robyn C said.

Matthew W added: “Warner gets to choose his send-off because he holds the bowlers, including Pat Cummins, to ransom. There is no way the bowlers didn’t know what was going on with the sandpaper on the ball. He will probably release the tell-all book down the road anyway when the money starts running out. He definitely does not deserve to be in the team on form.”


“Absolutely agree with the article. The arrogance of the guy. All he has waffled on about lately is his retirement and how much he is looking forward to his on air TV role. The guy cannot put a decent sentence together without reverting back to himself. I certainly won’t be listening to the guy,” John T wrote.

Christine C labelled Warner “a cheat” and said he “should never have played for Australia again”.





Music to my ears

dancing

I don't think Warner realises that all he will really be remembered for is Sandpapergate. No matter what his career stats are they will be completely eclipsed by his role in Sandpapergate. For some strange reason he seems to think that's all forgotten about now. The rare few times I've seen him on TV he comes across as a thick, arrogant cunt. Which is what he is.