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How goes the cricket?


Ron Attwood

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What's really happening with the test match in Adelaide? In the UK, all we're getting in the newspapers and TV, is nonsense that England are giving the Aussies a hard time.  ??? Can't be right, surely.  :-X

I reckon it's because we're having such awful weather here, they're just trying to cheer us up. Yeah, that'll be it.

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Cricket ?  what the hell is that.

It's a game where one man throws a ball at another man, who has to hit it with a fat stick as far as he can. Australia used to be bloody good at it!  ;)

For us that is Baseball. But darn it I am moving to New Zealand this January so no more Baseball for me  :'(

Guess I am going to have to learn about this thing you guys call cricket    :-\

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I say thank god for the re-emergence of the other nations, I turned off for the last couple of years due to the smug superiority of the aussie teams and the utterly predictive results.  It really did get boring, worse even than F1.

I'm also finding it hard to get interested in the game as there is just too much, it's like a broken record now.  When I was growing up cricket occupied about 6 weeks of the year for most of us, with a further couple of months of shield games and some distant coverage of foreign tests.  Now there's about 6 weeks a year when there's NOT some form of test, one days, 20/20 etc and as with most over-hyped saturation coverage, it actually is counter-productive.

Finally, to end this rant, I find today's coverage tedious.  Multiple post mortems on every ball, commentators who choose to contest umpires' decisions with the benefit of slow motion video, and constant inane chatter.  In the old ABC days, if there was nothing happening out there for a minute or two, the commentary would peter out for a while, the camera would focus on a lonely seagull or an interesting spectator, my brain would relax as well, and when the action started it was all fresh again.

So even with the renewed interest in the results, I've given up cricket on TV because I just plain don't like it!

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Well as an Eheem... impartial cricket fan. Australia just got thumped and part of me was waiting for the normal killer punch the Aussies were so good at producing. But it never came. It has been this way for the last year.

Have faith my English cousins, Ashes victory on Australian soil is but one win away and from the display of cricket i have seen in the last two weeks i cannot see Ponting turn this around, his team has no depth, no go to guy and their confidence is shot. The table have turned 180 degrees.

Who now maybe even a miracle might happen and my forever down trodden Black Caps might win a test series against their arch nemisis.

South Africa put my faith back in this great game when they came here and won a series, and now to see England dominate is such a breath of fresh air.

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We need to lose so we have something to whinge about, and besides we revel in being the underdog, it brings out the best in us

That how use Kiwis have survived as a nation. You see what happens if you win all the time is that your fans expect it then don't understand when you start loosing. The way New Zealand sports works is that we hope to win but expect to loose. So when we do win it feels so much better.  Just look at our amazing Soccer World Cup effort. No one expected us to be so competitive. We are the eternal underdog in world sport. Even the All Blacks have only won the Rugby World cup once even though they dominate any other time.

My work mate poo poo me with this attitude saying only winning counts, but i think they are starting to understand why i have longed to see the Aussie cricket team to struggle for so long and why having a dominating team for long periods is not good for the sport.

Its not the winning that counts for me its the fight to try to pull off the impossible.

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Oh no! Don't tell me we're winning because you lot can't be arsed any more.  :-\ Bummer.

Ron... I could say many a thing to that comment... however I shall not cause it might sound like one of your tabloids if I did.

I wonder what tune they are singing to now.

I can see a visa expiration occurring on some English cricketers....

What was more exciting was the punch up that Botham and Chappell had after the game. Had more life in it anyway.

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Fear not my Aussie friends, England has a history of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

But not this time.....please?  ;D

Incidently, I noticed a couple of posts condoning sportsmanship. Can we keep it on topic please....Nationalism.  :D

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I must announce with regret that England did give Australia a very hard time, indeed a salutary whalloping.  I have had to maintain a bright smile and cheerful visage as my Pom friends have paid me back in heaps.

Englishmen you have a right to be cocky, the first two tests have been all yours.  And I see no way that Australia can win even one. Our only hope is flooding rain, which might work for Melbourne but in Perth it has been drought, solidly fine and continuously dry.

And we don't have one decent quick, and no Warnie to bowl into the footmarks as the pitch wears. This series has already cost me a lot of Tettleys and there are more thirsty Poms to come.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Having watched England play for many years, they could easily lose all the remaining tests. Wouldn't surprise me at all ::)

Jeez man you oughta go into the fortune telling business :-)

I think the wicket at the MCG should suit England better but the weather may force a draw in the end.

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The big problem is ... who would replace him? Clarke isn't doing so well himself right now and behind him I don't see a lot of leadership material. Good players, but not captains!

I don't think Ponting needs replacing. We are so quick with the condemnation the moment somebody has a bit of a bad run these days. I blame the media and their ever increasing need to make a sensational story out of everything in order to get our ever more fickle attention!

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To me Ponting looks tired and burn out at the moment. His average for the series is less than most of the bowlers. With a broken finger maybe he needs a "Rest" to revitalise himself. Imagine the boxing day test with The Hussey brothers playing or even Brad Hodge who is a run machine ATM. Both Victorians on their home pitch, look out England !

We might be down, but we're certainly not out !

England looked very brittle on a real wicket in Perth.

Go Aussie !

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I feel for Ponting.  In the old days (>5 years ago!), you would have at least 3 people in the team that were captain material and would be in the media, helping the captain with tactics, etc.  Nowadays, it's just him and he takes it all....  It's a lonely place being the Aussie captain at the moment!!

I fear England will bounce back.  The WACA pitch is so unique which, in my opinion, makes it the hardest for visiting teams.  The MCG to me has lost its on-field character with the boundry ropes in so much, so England will find it much easier to play on...

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I feel for Ponting.  In the old days (>5 years ago!), you would have at least 3 people in the team that were captain material and would be in the media, helping the captain with tactics, etc.  Nowadays, it's just him and he takes it all....  It's a lonely place being the Aussie captain at the moment!!

My thoughts exactly. It must be hard to have had what has been called one of the greatest teams to have ever played the game and to have them all retire out from under you.

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Now, now, my son, be gentle. Speak kindly to us old gentlemen still stuck to this old game of patience, persistence, tea drinking and the glory of a hard fought draw at the end of five days.

Cricket is still much loved by many.  And who would ever want the Poms to beat us at anything.

The Americans converted this slow game into baseball, and do you prefer that?  This was done so they could enjoy their sport and use the rest of the time to save the world.  Which they certainly did twice last century.

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I have just spent a very enjoyable Boxing day watching the cricket.

The answer to the topic question is:

If you are a Pom - excellent :D

If you are an Ozzie - pretty ordinary :(

As a Pommie ex pat, I am now kind of neutral, so that's why I enjoyed it even though my adopted country faired so badly.

Tomorrow is another day and who knows, England might just give it all away again. ;D

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