Wrap - 99 Reasons To Worry

1. The story of India has been the appalling selection methods. We chose a team more suited for Lords in the first Test...but the test was being played in India! Dopey. Phil Hughes should never have played in this test. He is a shot duck.

Hughes' tour scores to date: 6, 0, 19, 0, 2 (agg. 27, avg: 5.4).

By comparison:
Nathan Lyon: 3, 11, -, -, 9 no (agg 23, avg 11.5)
Peter Siddle: (19, 2, 0, 4, 0 (agg. 25, avg 5).

David Hussey? A young gun - Joe Burns? Nic Maddinson? Move on. Like the look of this Chad Sayers in South Australia team. Leading Shield wicket taker with 50 wickets!

2ND INNINGS - LATE EXTRA: Warner out in the first over playing his usual reckless rubbish, Cowan is so obsessed with hanging around he is a nuisance and becomes too insular - gone LBW. Then we get the captain...Clarke, hiding down the order....PLEASE! Cometh the hour...where was he? What a joke. He will sacrifice his mates (Smith, Hughes) rather than himself. Gutless really.

2. How about that whole day washed out by rain in India? First time in a million years.

3. Not good to get a golden duck. Worse in a week when you help sack four teammates. What would Martyn, Katich and others think?

4. Must say that the world's most boring cricketer - Ed Cowan - has got an Ashes gig. To date, he has scored 29, 32, 4, 44, 86 (agg. 195, avg: 39). He is tenacious, but scores runs. We'll hang onto that when others do not score anything!

5. The number of stumpings (Cowan, Clarke, Smith) and run outs (Henriques) shows our panic and lack of patience which has brought about our demise. Indian batsmen show self control. Great effort by Starc to get to 99, but his last over was appalling. He lost the plot and lacked poise when it mattered. He exemplified the above point - even if he was a bowler doing the job of batsmen.

Henriques better do something soon. A string of failures and so so bowling. Good mo however. Looks like a 1970's bank manager - or an Underbelly extra.

Xavier Doherty is surely finished. Who wouldn't like facing him? Lyon was loose too. Steve Smith was the worst, but he will be able to tell his grandkids that he once got Tendulkar out!

6. One of the questions you have to keep asking yourself when we are scoring runs in India, is if Cowan, Starc and Smith make scores, how many will the Kohli's, Tendulkar's and Dhoni's get? Just on that, in a country of 1.2 billion people, to be in the top 11 cricketers means you can bat. No shortage of replacements if you don't produce.

7. Michael Cheika. There is something disturbing about his post match manner. To say that the Waratahs have felt the wrath of the public in the past and will again only builds pressure on players. He seems to be anchored in the past, with plenty of excuses - without owning the performances of this year...um...a bit like his players. As a player, moving to the Brumbies suddenly looks a more appealing option. The Reds not much better. Brumbies on fire.

8. Melbourne Storm could probably get a ticket to GF day now. They are so far ahead it is ridiculous. I will say it now, but this silly shoulder charge rule will bring more doubt and contention than the old 'Benefit of The Doubt' rule. Surely if a player shoulder charges the head of an opponent it is a send off. If it simply a body check..play on.

9. Liked the look of the Titans this weekend. Got some big names - Myles, Taylor, Idris, Harrison, Bailey...and plenty of little names...pace out wide. Canberra got a bit of their own back with a mid 30 temp summer game when for the winter they train and play opponents in minus temps. They are a shambles. They seem to manufacture a prize idiot better than anyone else (think Nandruku, Carney, Monaghan, Dugan, Blake - not Chikka - Ferguson). Maybe they are too close to Parliament House.

10. Tassie did well to make the Shield Final. Ponting has 875 runs this year at 87.5. He is a champion. The outcome of the WA v QLD may see Darren Lehman get his Bulls into the third final of all three forms this domestic season. QLD won the Big Bash, ODI comp and now possibly the Shield. His timing could not be better. Micky Arthur can then go home forever. Why do we have a South African in charge? Baffling.

11. Kelly Slater has offered to pay for his own drug tests. A legend competitor. He, Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Bolt, Tiger Woods...they are all under the microscope after the Lance Armstrong fiasco.

12. Is the F1 losing its gloss? Would Australia be any worse off if it vanished? Webber is in a GF for choking with Sam Stosur when on home soil.

13. One to ponder...who is the most injured sportsman in sport today? Willie Tonga? Shane Watson? Berrick Barnes?. Brett Papworth was the king.