Wrap - Indian IPL Cash Tap

1. ODI Cricket. We were toweled up, but how infrequent are the games.... this can't help. In the old days they played four a week! We just might become world beaters in T20 now the BBL is set in stone. The scheduling needs some work however. Surely the BBL can have its best players for those finals! Expect us to fade fast in all ODI comps. We play our domestic ODI comp in October and have been outplayed. Stoinis is a great bat, but his bowling is ho hum really, regardless of pace. Maxwell continues to disappoint when the pressure is on.

Aaron Finch too has so much talent, but unless he gets fitter, he will only ever be a T20 player at best. A liability in the field and forever injured.

2. U/19 leg spinner Lloyd Pope - 'Popey' . Talk of the next Warnie...Please, we have been waiting for the next Sterlo... Bradman... they never come. A talented kid who did well in one game and may have a good future ahead. Full stop. Maybe he is just a kid playing a game he loves.

A great U/19 effort by Australia against England. Better than a few of our main Australian players who it must be said have struggled. Smith and Warner in particular. Time for others to step up. Cameron White is surely gone. I don't think we have enough batsmen. We are one short. We also need a more aggressive approach where the skipper supports the spinner more. Smith has been terribly defensive. Zampa is used as a stock bowler, not a wicket taker. That is a huge problem. Tim Paine is also not the ODI answer. He cannot hit the ball off the square under pressure.

3. IPL Auction. A foot in the IPL door and then a decent performance or two in the IPL will make you a multi-millionaire these days. Look at Coulter-Nile and Tye. Billy Stanlake has gotten $200K...he could surprise. While their country is in abject poverty, cricket remains a goldmine. Lynn, Starc, Finch, Stoinis, Maxwell are all continued millionaires...even Shane Watson ($800K if you don't mind). Great to see AJ Tye and D'Arcy Short clean up too. Compare the cash to EPL and Spanish/ Italian league soccer players...ashtray change.

4. ATP Tennis. As mentioned a couple of weeks back, the ATP Tennis money grab worldwide is at the expense of players. The season has one month's off season lay off. Nadal got cut short, but blaming the schedule is silly given he made the final last year. No wonder tanking and match fixing is rife however. So many games and do they all matter with a new tournament to get to tomorrow? The heat is something else on that court (that Korean player's blister was awful!) but Federer gets a lot of night games because he is a TV favourite. This is a massive help to your longevity through the tournament.

5. The Australian Open Tennis Final. Federer was absolutely brilliant in the first and third sets. Awesome big time player. Cilic is tidy as a player and is at the peak of his powers. Sadly he had to play against Federer who is the best ever and more than likely to win. 20 Grand Slams will never be broken in our life times. He was never losing to Cilic.

6. BBL. The spate of poor catching in the Big Bash is a worry. My theory is that these players rarely if ever play under lights. That and they are not geared liked they used to be in this part of the game. Easier to get money from ramp shots and reverse sweeps.  We saw a bit of it in the Australian team as well. Not to worry, Brad Haddin, our fielding coach, will fix it all. Bob Simpson, for all his faults, brought Australian cricket to a new level with his focus on it - and Buchanan through the US fielding coach, Mike Young.

7. Rugby Sevens. Men and Women teams both win! Such a better product. It might take over the main 15 a side game! The crowds were pretty solid too. A strong win by the Australian team. Good to see an ex Oakhill College lad win the Man of the Final - Lachlan Anderson.

8. Darts, F1 and Boxing. A big worldwide push to eliminate 'walk on' girls from these events is gathering power. Maybe they should allow women to participate in these sports to enhance them. Women's darts - why not? The women's Rugby 7s is a fantastic level of sport. More entertaining than the blokes for large chunks of time. The Australian women's team smashed them this weekend.