[Frankie]

Originally Posted by ferocious

I’m sure Stuart broads batting career was over once he was found out he didn’t like the short stuff used to be a very handy batsmen

Yes once he got his nose broke his bottle went. Seems to have recovered a bit of form since but not back to what he once was. Pity Brian Close wasn't around to give him some advice. He didnt seem to mind getting hit, never flinched and then just gave the bowler a death stare.

[kuranda_bagman]

I got home from work at 1:00 pm yesterday – read the Saturday paper and settled in to watch the 3rd day of the Australia/India test match from the Adelaide oval with a nice chilled bottle of aussie red.

Bloody hell what an amazing 90 minutes of test cricket unfolded in front of me – 9 wickets fell in 20 overs and India were all out for 36 runs – the forth lowest test match total on record with no player getting into double figures, India’s lowest ever total and the lowest ever total in Adelaide.

Well done to Josh Hazelwood and Pat Cummins taking all nine wickets between them.

[bazzap]

Originally Posted by kuranda_bagman

I got home from work at 1:00 pm yesterday – read the Saturday paper and settled in to watch the 3rd day of the Australia/India test match from the Adelaide oval with a nice chilled bottle of aussie red.

Bloody hell what an amazing 90 minutes of test cricket unfolded in front of me – 9 wickets fell in 20 overs and India were all out for 36 runs – the forth lowest test match total on record with no player getting into double figures, India’s lowest ever total and the lowest ever total in Adelaide.

Well done to Josh Hazelwood and Pat Cummins taking all nine wickets between them.

Nearly as good as beating the Poms


Here's a score you won't see too often in Test cricket







And sadly, one of the last old-style scoreboards at a Test ground in Australia






Hopefully, CV-19 won't interfere with the remaining Tests and we win a couple more. Gotta keep those pesky Kiwis at bay to keep our #1 Test ranking








Oh, and Google found this for me. Now it's not like me to gloat or anything but guess who is the greatest Test cricket team since the rankings system began?









What can I say?

[Frankie]

Well, obviously, as an English gentleman I am going to pick holes in this. Australia first dig all out for 191, 2 batsmen (sorry should be batters these days so as not to upset the split arses) scored 120 of them. FFs thats a truly shit effort.

When chasing next to fuck all Australia lose 2 wickets and one of them a run out!! Over the two innings thats 284 runs for the loss of 12 wickets. Thats piss poor. Fuck me next Ashes series Jimmy Anderson will have to bowl left arm round just to make a game of it.

Bowling stats ignored for obvious reasons.

[bazzap]

Originally Posted by Frankie

Well, obviously, as an English gentleman I am going to pick holes in this. Australia first dig all out for 191, 2 batsmen (sorry should be batters these days so as not to upset the split arses) scored 120 of them. FFs thats a truly shit effort.

When chasing next to fuck all Australia lose 2 wickets and one of them a run out!! Over the two innings thats 284 runs for the loss of 12 wickets. Thats piss poor. Fuck me next Ashes series Jimmy Anderson will have to bowl left arm round just to make a game of it.

Bowling stats ignored for obvious reasons.

Embarrassingly bad batting again on Boxing Day in Melbourne by the Australians. Smith hasn't fired a shot (should be taken out the back and hung, drawn & quartered but that's a separate issue ) When he fails, so does nearly everyone else. How Burns keeps getting picked is beyond me. Wade is not a true Test batsman. Just a journeyman that failed before yet somehow is back in the team. Warner being injured has not helped but he is coming to the end of his Test career anyway. The South African lad keeps on performing. Thank fuck. Numbers 7-11 are cast in stone for the time being but they are not the problem


Plenty of blokes were scoring lots of runs in Sheffield Shield but we don't play that again until February while the cash-cow Big Bash is on. Every day and twice on Sat and Sundays. Admittedly, it is good to watch but nobody gives a fuck who wins. There is no loyalty with these private enterprise branded "teams". It's all about money and TV ratings.


The biggest problem for the Australian Test cricket team is probably the Australian public who support their team. It is the #1 sporting team in the country by a country mile. It is said that the Test cricket captain is 2nd only to the Prime Minister which is probably true. I have no idea who the current deputy prime minister of Australia is but I can always tell you who the current Test team is. People of my generation had it drummed into them. When a Test or Sheffield Shield game was being played, the cricket was being broadcast on the radio whether at home or in the car. I distinctly remember staying up late at night listening to Bobby Simpson scoring 311 at Manchester in 1964. It was the same throughout my working life. If cricket was on the radio, then that was what was heard in the workshops, on the job, in the office and smoko rooms or in the work car especially in the 70s,80s and 90's. It is in our blood.


Australia has won more Tests than any other country. It has the highest winning percentage of Test wins of any country. They are expected to win every time they take the field, especially when playing in Australia. Losing and failure are not tolerated. Draws are seen as a lost opportunity and nothing honourable about them.


The pressure on players to perform is immense. When Pat Cummins gave Cameron Green his Baggy Green cap last week, he simply said "When you wear this cap, you represent 25 million Australians"



Worth a watch








Makes you wonder how they are the #1 Ranked Test Team at the moment. Changes are required if they want to stay there.


JMHO

[ferocious]

Are there restrictions on crowd capacity at MCG ? Sounds like plenty Indians in there as always

[kuranda_bagman]

Well written Baz - Agree 100%
Reg I think they had a 30k cap and yes there were a lot of Indians as they have a huge Indian population in Melbourne.

[bazzap]

Originally Posted by ferocious

Are there restrictions on crowd capacity at MCG ? Sounds like plenty Indians in there as always

In Melbourne, attendance is limited to 30% of a venue's capacity at the moment. So around 30,000 at the MCG


Source

Crowds Return to the MCG





Hard to keep up with all the cricket going on at the moment. Tests in Kiwiland, Australia and in Centurion, South Africa. Plus Big Bash games on every day. And I have all the races on from NZ, Australia and the UK on as well. I live a hectic life



That Test in NZ is being played at Mount Maunganui with only a 10,000 capacity. More like a suburban oval. Looks great. Plenty of people there over the weekend. A decent crowd in at the Gabba last night as well.



On a sadder note, I read that English Test cricketer John Edrich passed away a few days ago. He lived till he was 83 so not a bad innings. He was on three Ashes tours to Australia in the 60s and 70s. He had to face Lillee and Thommo in Australia in 74/75. That would not have been easy especially as he was in his late 30s. The great DK broke two of his ribs.


From CricInfo

John Edrich, the former England batsman who was renowned as one of the world's doughtiest players of fast bowling, has died at the age of 83. He died of natural causes on December 23, at his house in north Scotland.

Edrich played 77 Tests between 1963 and 1976, most often as a fearless left-handed opener, scoring 5138 runs at 43.54, and just shy of 40,000 in a first-class career for Surrey that spanned 23 seasons.

His finest hour arguably came during Ray Illingworth's triumphant Ashes tour of 1970-71, when his haul of 648 runs at 72.00, including two hundreds, were instrumental in England's 2-0 series win. All told, he made 12 Test hundreds and 24 fifties, including a career-best 310 not out against New Zealand at Headingley in 1965.

Edrich's Test career ended where it began, against West Indies at Old Trafford in 1976, when at the age of 39, he and Brian Close stood firm on the third evening as Michael Holding delivered one of the most ferocious spells of fast bowling of all time.

Thirteen years earlier, it had been Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith testing Edrich's mettle at the same venue, while in between whiles he came up against a litany of greats, including South Africa's Peter Pollock, who knocked him cold with a bouncer at Lord's in 1965, and Dennis Lillee, who left him with two broken ribs after pinning him with a bouncer on the 1974-75 tour.

[Frankie]

Originally Posted by bazzap

The biggest problem for the Australian Test cricket team is probably the Australian public who support their team. It is the #1 sporting team in the country by a country mile. It is said that the Test cricket captain is 2nd only to the Prime Minister which is probably true. I have no idea who the current deputy prime minister of Australia is but I can always tell you who the current Test team is. People of my generation had it drummed into them. When a Test or Sheffield Shield game was being played, the cricket was being broadcast on the radio whether at home or in the car. I distinctly remember staying up late at night listening to Bobby Simpson scoring 311 at Manchester in 1964. It was the same throughout my working life. If cricket was on the radio, then that was what was heard in the workshops, on the job, in the office and smoko rooms or in the work car especially in the 70s,80s and 90's. It is in our blood.

Top post Baz. In England it's unlikely you would ever get that level of interest in football let alone cricket. Most cricket here goes largely unnoticed and receives next to no coverage on free view TV. Sky have a complete monopoly on cricket coverage so the free channels mainly ignore it. If you want to watch cricket on TV then you must subscribe to Sky which just about eliminates the casual observer who would probably tune in for a Test Match, if there was going to be a tense finish, but is unaware of such events as its only covered on Sky.

As T20 is not franchised in England the ECB are starting a new competition known as The 100 most of which will, apparently, be on free view. Its purpose is to appeal to a wider audience and was supposed to start in 2020 but Covid stopped that. It will have nothing to do with County Cricket so its purely a franchise competition. That means the Counties will still be involved in 3 competitions the County Championship, 50 over and T20. However the 50 over competition is being watered down and classed as a "Development" competition, supposedly to give younger players more experience, to counteract The 100 becoming the fourth competition of the season. This means that although there will still be International 50 over cricket this will only be played in England by players most of whom will never play International cricket. Looks like the ECB have classed winning the World Cup as a watershed moment and England will never be able to seriously compete for it again. Well the ECB fuck most things up so why stop now.

I remember John Edrich batting for England and Surrey. Sconed by Peter Pollock and cracked ribs by DKL. No helmets or chest guards in those days.

[bazzap]

Bye-bye Joe. Watch out Trav. You might be next