1. Pat Cummins. So it is clear why Cummins has not been himself and has been yielding to the hair brained ideas of Ronnie McDonald, Tony Dodemaide and George Bailey. This combination will go down as some of our worst in time. Panicked and rushed calls and crazy tactics, including sweep mania. We could lose 4-0 in this series and miss the World Test Championship. To be honest, do we deserve inclusion? Some of the recent selection oddities:
- Pick Agar in Sydney and then don't play him in India.
- Pick Renshaw and play him in Sydney and in India. COVID fiasco.
- Go to North Sydney Oval for your prep - not to India. On the back of one of the wettest Sydney summers on record. Go figure.
- Don't pick World Test Batsman No. 4, Travis Head for the first test. Outrageous.
- Transport Kuhneman across as our 'saviour' (please). If he came on in B10 you would be happy.
- Tell us Kuhneman looked great in the nets. Who doesn't?
- Pick ill and injured blokes. Hazelwood should never have gone. Starc and Green stayed at home.
- Cummins not bowling aggressively or with short pitch stuff, yet we have blokes hit and injured (he has been shy at times, but gathers confidence with 8-9-10-11 at the crease).
- It has been busy at the travel agent - Hazelwood, Warner, Cummins, Agar, Green, Starc, Kuhneman, Morris, Swepson... all back and forth for various reasons at various times. Not great for team culture and common purpose. No such luxury with distance in the Ashes.
- Not one batsman added to a squad in all that time. Just a procession of mediocre spinners. Yet our batting has been horrible.
One shining light - Murphy, but I worry about him against England and other teams. He could go for a ride in Bazball.
The NSW Shield team is always the benchmark of Australian cricket depth. Not one of the current crop of batsmen deserves to be in the Australian team (outside squad incumbents Starc, Lyon, Hazelwood, Cummins, Warner). NSW are doing dreadfully in season 2022-2023.
2. India Aftermath. The fluffy end of the feather duster has no doubt been used on the team by McDonald and they are all none the wiser. If Australia lose 4-0 and miss the World Test Championship, there will be big changes. What a spoiled lot represent the nation. So sad to see Allan Border's reaction to it all. He was more devastated than the current players and coaches!
I must say that in the SCG Test, I could not believe how many coaches, adviser, technicians and hangers on there were around that Australian Men's Cricket Team. Incredible. Like a second XI plus. Net value?
3. Australian Womens Cricket. Amazing how these girls repeatedly dominate world cricket. Incredible really and not a peep of arrogance, hoopla... Prime TV would have a more popular series if they followed this team. Their T20 World Cup games and approach have been outstanding. A 12.00am midnight kick off is poor viewing time, but it will be an upset if they don't make it yet another title. The intriguing thing is South Africa made the final. They have never managed to achieve that in men's cricket.
4. England Cricket. Their domination continues under Stokes and Brendan McCullum. Attacking cricket at the right time. It has been a while since England carried that ethos in any of their play. This Harry Brook gets after it. He is averaging 90+ in his early days. He needs to be ruffled. He loves lunging on the front foot. Four tons in record time (3 v Pakistan, 1 v NZ). He has played South Africa, Pakistan and New Zealand so far. Sterner tests await. However he does have the most runs ever by a batsman after nine test innings.
5. Arsenal v Man City. The new Norwegian striker, Erling Haaland has now scored the most goals ever for Man City in a season (27), yet the typical English nonsense abounds questioning if he has actually been a problem for Man City this season! There will be a few more managers around the place looking for that problem if he was ever cut free. Leeds have bounced back under their new manager and Everton lost dreadfully at home... Even West Ham had a win! (David Moyes is on the nose there).
The race to relegation is a lot tighter this season... week by week. Ange Postocoglou could get a coaching gig in the EPL sooner rather than later. 30 points typically sees you safe:
6. A-League. It would be great to have someone come out to play in the league that the fans could get excited about. Melbourne City are miles in front this year (37 points) and Sydney FC (24) are continuing to struggle. This is not acceptable to the bosses and Steve Corica may find this out soon... but please not Dwight Yorke. They tell me Ed Sheeran draws a big crowd and may be available.
7. NBL Final. Sydney Kings v the NZ Breakers. A best of FIVE games series starting this week (3 March). Eeking every last cent out of the public US style.
8. Rugby League. Let's look at the pre-season injury toll. These are just the high profile, longer term ones. Are they unlucky, under prepared or sacrificed for no net gain in meaningless competitions for $100K? Or is it just the way the sport rolls?
- Dean Ieremia
- Justin Olam
- Shaun Lane
- Josh Schuster
- Taylan May
- Tevita Pangai-Junior
- Edrick Lee
- Xavier Savage.
9. NRL - AFL. Always a great time of year when the twin footy seasons get underway. Summer ends this week, so we are warming up for the winter sport! As always the AFL dilly dally around for a few weeks, starting on 16 March. The NRL kicks off next Thursday 2 March 2023.
10. Anamoe. What a tremendous horse, ridden by JMac of course. Great turn of speed and too strong once again in the Chipping Norton Stakes on Saturday. It has now won 8 Group 1 races (only Octagonal with 10 and Lohnro with 11 have won more). He is the seventh horse in Australian turf history to win at least $11 million. He is the Godolphin stables most successful horse ever... no breeding talk yet thankfully. Really like Alligator Blood too. Crushed I Am Thunderstruck again!
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