Cricket, lovely cricket

[Monty]

Jesus Adam,

Small things seem to amuse you a lot mate. Bet you spend hours looking at your crotch and laughing.

You're not as baffled as Kaitich is, who for some bizarre reason feels he is test standard. We found him out years ago. Infact your top order are our bitches now, the team is wanting. Michael Clarke, Captain.....ha ha ha haaaa, says it all. He shouldn't even be in the team.....that's your Captain, oh **** that must be depressing.

I warned you about this years ago yet either ignrnace (oop, a missed letter....I'll wait whilst the hysterics subside), or false bravado turned your head from the facts. And the facts are England are a far better test team than Australia, far better in all departments.

Good luck for 2013, you'll need 2 years to get a competitive team. Hope you do, for your sake....you must be sick of my gloating by now. Even I'm getting bored.

No, actually I'm not.

Monty

[Adam Went]

Monty:

Its a shame, they deserve our pity more than ridicule Steven. I mean, Adams post about hat tricks shows the crickting intellect of the Australian cricket fan.

LMAO!!!

Monty, my dear friend, what you fail to remember is that we haven't played a single test match for well over a year now - much more than that actually, I think. So the state of our Test team last time we played as opposed to now has of course changed significantly.

Though I will confess myself to be more than a little baffled at Simon Katich being dropped from our test squad.

Steven:

Becoming used to constant and humiliating failures by sports teams must be a genetic throwback from my Pommy ancestors then, eh?

I'll gladly look forward to decking myself out in the green and gold and meeting you two gents right in the middle of the Barmy Army squad at one of the Tests in 2013.....we'll see who has the last laugh then.

Cheers,
Adam.

[Steven Russell]

Yes indeed, Monty. A rather poor riposte from Adam, I agree, but perhaps admirable in a way. Sticking to his guns in the face of the facts, I mean. Still, it was a bit spooky that he knew about my strict bathing regime - like Queen Victoria: once a year whether I need it or not.

Any test match hat-trick is worthy of celebration, even one against inferior opposition like, say, Australia.

I did feel a bit sorry for Harbhajan Singh (massive edge but given out lbw) but at the same time, I'm very glad it happened. India needs to get into line with the rest of the world with regard to DRS and that decision might help convince them that their current stance is ridiculous.

Best wishes,
Steve.

[Monty]

Australia are now well within the second tier of test cricket, the most superior form of the game. We proved that with our numerous innings wins over them last winter. Superior v inferior, men against boys.

Its a shame, they deserve our pity more than ridicule Steven. I mean, Adams post about hat tricks shows the crickting intellect of the Australian cricket fan.

Send our regards to New Zealand Adam, we have bigger and better issues to address than the sorry state of Aussie test cricket, if you can call it that.

Monty

[Adam Went]

Steven:

Despite your best efforts at comedy, the facts speak for themselves. Certain events involving English cricket have both amused and bemused me of late. For instance, the carry on over Stuart Broad's hat trick - a fine achievement, to be sure, but considering that the hat trick consisted of MS Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh and Praveen Kumar, hardly anything to write home about, surely? I'd be more impressed if he got rid of Laxman, Dravid and Tendulkar in successive deliveries - shouldn't be an overly difficult feat given that all 3 of them are on the wrong side of 35 now, but it hasn't happened and won't happen, because you and I both know, Steven, that deep down, Stuart Broad, like the rest of his team, is a useless hack. And, oh, what was that, Grandpa Dravid has scored two tons in two matches against you? Wow....

Was also amused by the recent release of the public's choice for the best all time International XI. Four Australian players. How many Poms, Steven? And then the icing on the cake was Boycott coming out and having a whinge about it...LOL.

Time for you to go off and have your annual bath and wash that sand out of your eyes, methinks.

Cheers,
Adam.

P.S. Haven't forgotten GSTQ.....new computer very soon, won't be far away at all. Fine tuning the voice already.

[Steven Russell]

Steven:

Have caught bits and pieces of the Eng VS SL series but not enough to gain an opinion on. I did hear a replay of a rather humorous conversation between Jonathan Agnew and Michael Vaughan regarding bat rubbers though. That was gold.

As for England, I remain confident that this is simply a flash in the pan at the moment and it'll not be long before they return to wallow in their own shitness, preferably in the 2013 Ashes.....and also hoping for a Sanath Jayasuriya ton in the first ODI.

Cheers,
Adam.

Oh dear, Adam. After having beaten Sri Lanka and now being 2-0 up against India, England are within a sniff of being officially the best test team in the world. The other contenders are India and South Africa. Not Australia you will notice. If you must talk of shitness, you might wish to consider your own team as worthy of that label. And don't you dare start banging on about Lilian Thomson - I'm talking about now! How do you like them apples, koala-shagger?

Best wishes,
Steve.

PS You still owe us God Save the Queen, you marsupial lover.

[Adam Went]

Steven:

Have caught bits and pieces of the Eng VS SL series but not enough to gain an opinion on. I did hear a replay of a rather humorous conversation between Jonathan Agnew and Michael Vaughan regarding bat rubbers though. That was gold.

As for England, I remain confident that this is simply a flash in the pan at the moment and it'll not be long before they return to wallow in their own shitness, preferably in the 2013 Ashes.....and also hoping for a Sanath Jayasuriya ton in the first ODI.

Cheers,
Adam.

[Steven Russell]

Hello, Adam.
As you know, I'm not all that bothered about winning ODIs and T20s - compared to test matches - although I do enjoy watching them. Sri Lanka should prove more difficult over the shorter game. As for Jayasuria, I hope he does well too, but not well enough to win the game obviously.

By the way, just watched Fire in Babylon on bluray. If you haven't seen it yet, I'd urge you to do so; fascinating stuff. And terrifying in places - especially the stuff from the pre-helmet days! I've been re-reading a lot of Bodyline lately and watching Holding et al got me wondering about how Bodyline compared with the Windies' attack in their heyday, in terms of danger and intimidation especially. I suppose, given the quality and extent of the film and photo records from the 30s, we'll never know.

Best wishes,
Steve.

PS England's progress is real. Do not doubt it.
Note: This post is a reply to the succeeding one. No idea why it ended up higher on the page.

[Steven Russell]

England continue to progress

Sri Lanka, bedevilled by retirements and injuries, have proved no match for England and we should have won the series by this time tomorrow. Suddenly, England's stated aim to be the number one test team doesn't sound so much like pie in the sky. The current team are continuing to improve and look pretty strong at the moment.

Just for Adam, here are a few words from a great England skipper of the past.

Best wishes,
Steve.

[Adam Went]

R.I.P. Terry Jenner, former Australian cricketer and mentor to Shane Warne, who passed away yesterday from heart failure at the age of 66.

Cheers,
Adam.

[Adam Went]

Hi Steven and all,

Strauss retired from ODI cricket I presume? Hadn't heard anything about it. Fine batsman no doubt, but in all honesty, if you compare him to some of the other opening ODI batsman around the world, he's not that great - especially in terms of strike rate.

Saw a bit of English county cricket the other day on TV, see Marcus Stresscothick is still playing - any chance of a recall?

Cheers,
Adam.

[Steven Russell]

Three Captains for England.

So now England have nearly as many captains as Star Trek. I wish Strauss hadn't given up the 50 over game as he is still one of our best players. I also feel that the appointment of Cook is tantamount to an admission by the selectors that he should not have been omitted from the World Cup.

And Broad as T20 skipper? Hmm...

Best wishes,
Steve.

[Adam Went]

Steven:

Agree with you about Watson, never really rated him up until a couple of years ago - the beauty of it is that he opens the batting in all forms of cricket now, can bowl swingers at 140 km/h and is a good slips fieldsman as well. The ideal cricketer, and now our vice-captain as well. Let's hope he carries on with it - he made another quickfire 70 odd yesterday as we made a clean sweep of the series against Bangladesh 3-0. Thankfully.

As for the hair, Richie is eternally cool, so it could well be the case! Fashion these days seems to be a bit of a mish-mash of everything from the last few decades though.....like the newest gaming console, it's ridiculous to even try and keep up with it.

Cheers,
Adam.

[Steven Russell]

Well done, Shane Watson. When he first started, I thought he was a bits-and-pieces merchant like our own Luke Wright. He has proved me wrong big time and must be one of the biggest (and only) reasons for Aussies to be optimistic about the future.

I'm happy to report that ITV4's coverage of the IPL is much better this year as the annoying Mandira Bedi has been replaced by an absolute goddess. I'm ashamed to say that I don't know what this lady is called but she must be one of the most beautiful women of all time! Plus, she seems knowledgeable about cricket (especially the IPL) and is a far better presenter than Matt Smith whose services I notice were not required today. And today is a double-header! Long may that continue; Smith is lousy. I've decided to support Mumbai Indians for now but I'm a fair weather supporter as far as IPL is concerned and may switch allegiance later.

On an unrelated topic, has anyone else noticed that trendy young teenage males have begun adopting a sort of Richie Benaud hairstyle?

Best wishes,
Steve.

[Adam Went]

Last night, Shane Watson played the innings of a lifetime and broke a world record along the way - he scored 185 not out off 96 balls against Bangladesh, smashing 15 fours and, the record 15 sixes along the way.

I was fortunate enough to catch some of this innings and it was just pure brilliance.....if only we had performed like that in the World Cup.

Cheers,
Adam.