Whilst England has served up a bevy of cricketers over the years who have failed miserably at International level, Australia excels at producing players who fail for very different reasons altogether.
Bloody foreigners, eh? Coming over here, retiring from one day cricket to distract everyone from the proper cricket going on. Can’t trust ’em.
Michael Clarke: love him or hate him, at least he doesn’t have a face like a rat. We got two of 51allout’s writers from down under to discuss whether his ex-fiancée was fit, whether Mickey Arthur is the best thing about him and how Pune really don’t need another anchor at the top of an anchor-heavy batting order.
This years Sheffield Shield Final proved to be one of the great games. Unfortunately only the players’ families and friends bothered turning up to watch. And one noisy crow. 51allout investigates the state of play on the Australian domestic scene.
This is more like it: after the depressingly awful Ns and Os, the Ps show plenty of ability and excitement. The depth in batting is incredible, the bowling attack balanced (if a second spinner was required, Monty Panesar could fill in) and Liam Plunkett is left on the sidelines. Hurrah! The high proportion of South Africa-born players is puzzling though.
There were three more games in the never-ending Commonwealth Bank series this week but they were overshadowed by the end of Ricky Ponting’s ODI career. Here’s our thoughts.
There are some things that you can never get tired of: boobs, repeats of ‘Allo ‘Allo! and laughing at the Australian cricket team probably being the three most significant.