1. Great win in the T20 World Cup Final. Warner, Marsh the heroes...Zampa too. Yet we never see Zampa in Tests? A week later and no one quite remembers a ball bowled in anger! Langer can breathe again... sort of...
2. Tim Paine. I have always worried about Tim Paine. His batting was never as great as they said, his glovework solid (fastest ever gloveman to 150 dismissals - 33 test innings) yet his comments behind the stumps v Pant and the babysitting were a nonsense - and other sledging. You will recall he first led us to a 5-0 ODI drubbing v England in 2018, lost to Pakistan in the UAE and then there was the Ashes disaster with Ben Stokes beating us (but we retained the Ashes in England with a hollow 2-2 result) and then India trouncing us in Brisbane last summer and he dropped catches off Lyon when we seemingly could not lose! We were unstable. Perhaps Tim Paine may have been too, but to send that stuff right before his international cricket comeback seems most odd.
A sad and very public end, but can someone explain why Paine is still with the team? So he will be keeper, but not skipper? Surely we learned something from the days with Gatting-Atherton-Stewart-Gooch that if the captain falls... get rid of them. No suspension? This will end poor old Justin Langer as well (like Darren Lehmann with Steve Smith-Dave Warner).
Alex Carey needs to come in straight away, or the Queensland keeper bat, Jimmy Peirson. He can play too. Move on. Can you imagine the sledging when he comes out to bat? It could derail the whole summer as he drops catches and reacts to the inevitable pressure. You can't promote a new broom and keep the old one in the cupboard.
The tears from Australian captains over the years have been interesting. Graham Yallop, Kim Hughes, Steve Smith... The Border-Taylor-Waugh era set a very high standard! Maybe the need to cut a few more out of Cricket Australia management is required too as the media go after the cover up? The hall of mirrors beckons.
As nice a fellow as he is, I am not sure Pat Cummins is the man. Going back to Steve Smith may be a problem too. What of Nathan Lyon?
Interestingly Ian Chappell captained Australia 30 times (15 wins, 5 losses and 10 draws - 50% win and 16% loss record) ...Paine captained Australia 23 times (11 wins, 8 losses, 4 draws - 47.82% win and 34.78% loss record). Paine's losing percentage is the worst since Kim Hughes and Graham Yallop. Oh and Shane Watson who has a 100% loss record after one test and one loss in India.
3. Parramatta Recruitment. Gutherson saw the writing on the wall. Sign moderately or be left out in the cold. He has lost pace and is on the decline sadly. Mahoney is worth pursuing and so is Junior Paulo. There seems to be some hard line club stances here, but still no premiership likely until they bring through a crop of youngsters together. That is the key. Build a culture and look after them as a group of talent.
Nikore is no great loss with his ill discipline and I wonder if Papali'i will produce in that notorious footballing graveyard of the Wests Tigers. A good pick up with the Tigers however, who have Luciano and Garner as well on their edges. Josh Hodgson talk has simmered since. Their problem is in their halves and centres. Getting Brooks to Newcastle could assist. The composure of Sheens and Benji will help too. No more Foxtel documentaries either...
4. Bulldogs Kennell Resort. The Bulldogs are writing their own salary cap cheques now. They have bought some players! Clearly they had a lot of overpaid blokes. The Kikau photo was ordinary. Why would you take that photo a year out? Joe the cameraman lives on.
5. Sheffield Shield - NSW. Their bowling stocks are woefully thin. Chris Tremain is past it, but getting wickets again. The batting is not so great either. Where is Moises? No shield for them this year. Kurtis Patterson can hardly hit the ball off the square at present, yet has played for Australia. That is a sad decline. Daniel Hughes remains the only bright hope.
Is cricket in NSW declining and dying amidst changing expectations from parents, wives, partners, spouses, families? Can the time be justified as it once was in a different era?
6. F1 - Hamilton (Mercedes), Verstaffen (Red Bull). Claim and counter claim... cheating and appeals... After a while this stuff bores everyone to death. Bottom line? Hamilton needs to catch Verstaffen and is behind by 14 points with three races to go. A win is worth 25 points, but second (18), then third..15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2... Pretty hard to peg back once you are behind someone who has talent. Nothing a crash and a DNF can't fix I guess.
7. Socceroos. A draw v lowly China almost spells the end of their World Cup qualification campaign. They are in deep trouble. They have stuttered v the Saudis, Japan and now China. They need bigger guns. Maybe Tim Tszyu and his family play football too? He can beat the best of the Japanese and their iron will.
8. Chinese Tennis. Horrific story re Peng Shuai, but hardly surprising after what has been seen with their swimmer, Sun Yang, as well. Hopefully she is OK, but dodgy emails and fake announcements are hard to cop. Imagine if we had the same in our sports? So many complaints about all sorts of matters and administrators (thinking recently: hockey, football, women's rugby league, etc)...for the understandable serious matters through to the disgruntled player, we'd have nowhere to put them all.
Peter Nevill (100+ Shield appearances for NSW) was refreshing in not blaming anyone for his axing from the Australian cricket team. Not chirpy enough? Please... maybe he was what we needed all along.
9. Racism - Yorkshire Cricket. A huge story in England at present centres on the alleged comments by cricketers like Gary Ballance, Michael Vaughan, Matthew Hoggard...against English born Pakistani cricketer Azeem Rafiq and other Pakistani cricketers. The racist term 'Paki' is at the heart of it as are other arrogant comments. Parliamentary inquiries, sponsors leaving, denials, counter claims, etc. Vaughan is very outspoken on a number of issues and matters in cricket, but he has gone quieter too. Damage control big time here. Rafiq himself is grappling with his own anti-Semitic comments and comments to others that are surfacing now. A mess.
Interestingly, the only shining light is Jason Gillespie who it was stated ended the racial comments and tensions in his short reign as coach at the Yorkshire Cricket Club. Bravo to him.
10. ManU. They are in disarray, losing to Watford of all teams overnight. They have to cut their manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (and probably have by the time you read this), even though there are no real options out there. He has all the big names, but few big results.
11. Wallabies. A 0-3 European Tour, but to be fair they have looked better under Dave Rennie. What about the refereeing? Incredibly bad. Can anyone explain the deliberate knock down of a pass as foul play? Please. What a joke. But a loss and the pathetic nature of world rugby lives on. Hopeless referees getting in the way of great players. We put up with it annually in all tests in Australia. Interested to see Will Skelton and Slipper back. Like a scene from the Blues Brothers...Beale, Cooper has been there too... maybe there is longer term hope and a bit more spirit that it appeared.
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