Cricket, lovely cricket

[Adam Went]

Martin:

Wow...well all credit to your batsmen but what was going on with the fielding effort? Allowing the Netherlands to post nearly 300? Mind you, good for the Netherlands, it's great to see a "minnow" nation putting in a strong contest and especially to see Ryan Ten Doeschate play a fantastic knock - he was one of Tasmania's two international players in our domestic season just gone (Rana Naved of Pakistan being the other) and is very talented.

Zimbabwe opened with a pace bowler but they had 3 frontline spinners against us as well, Ray Price is quite good....

Cheers,
Adam.

[martin wilson]

Hi all
Sorry,for some reason I totally forgot they had to be fictional.I could go with Tom Brown of Schooldays fame, and Freddy Brown,in the squad for the Bodyline tour,not sure he played though.
I read that the Aussies started slowly but as I didnt see it I dont know what the pitch and bowling was like,didnt they start with a spinner?
We need KP in the one day form that got him into the test side in the first place, something like 3 centuries in the preceding tournament?, I cant help thinking this could go badly wrong, Prior is batting at 6,and its probably just me but I dont think he is consistent enoughm,or I should say I am never 100%confident he is going to do it.
I got my 3 picks for irritarting gits XI from All Out Cricket, who feature anti heroes of cricket, I restricted my choices to those who genuinely got on my pip,and in Graeme Smiths' case even manage to irriate Richie Benaud as well.
All the best.

[Adam Went]

A rather unconvincing win against Zimbabwe last night. Good innings from Watson but the rest of the top order looked as if they thought we were playing a Test match....Zimbabwe actually have a pretty solid bowling attack.

Cheers,
Adam.

[Steven Russell]

I've been musing on this on and off for two days now,and so far all I've come up with is Sheryl (Martin) Crow,and that misses off the e.
Time to cheat I think and look through Wiki's list of England cricketers.
Cant we have a irritating gits XI instead?, I have already got Chris Lewis,Dominic Cork and Graeme Smith.

I think Sheryl Crow(e) might be a real person. Although come to think of it..

Shane (James) Bond would qualify.

Irritating gits might be a better idea. Graeme Smith definitely! How about Hansie Cronje as skipper? Strauss and Collingwood have both taken on an irritating trait much beloved of Aussie cricketers: that of beginning the answer to a tricky question with "Look" or, even worse, "Aw, look". I feel we should forgive them this minor aberration, though, as they have both just returned from a ridiculously long sojourn down under.

Nasser Hussein has no such excuse. "The Strausses, the Pietersens, the Priors" etc. etc. Very annoying unless he knows about secret family members locked in attics.

Best wishes,
Steve.

[martin wilson]

I notice that the Aussies have picked two detective sidekicks in their team i.e. Watson and Hastings. There is Percy Holmes of course but can anyone come up with a viable fictional characters XI? (Robertson Glasgow / Robinson Crusoe does not count). Percy Jeeves does, though.

Best wishes,
Steve.

I've been musing on this on and off for two days now,and so far all I've come up with is Sheryl (Martin) Crow,and that misses off the e.
Time to cheat I think and look through Wiki's list of England cricketers.
Cant we have a irritating gits XI instead?, I have already got Chris Lewis,Dominic Cork and Graeme Smith.

[Adam Went]

Phil:

Well thank you for your confidence....I think India is the team we would dislike facing the most if it came down to the final.

Martin:

I am and always will be a champion of the underdog, so I was hoping Canada and Kenya would go well in their respective matches but, sadly, they didn't.

Sanath Jayasuriya is in his 40's now but I think Sri Lanka should have included him, it was he and his opening partner in Romesh Kaluwithurana that basically won them the WC in 1996 by revolutionising the powerplay overs. Very useful spinner as well.

Glad you are now on board with the Tigers. As long as you never, ever support the Collingwood Magpies, we'll get along just fine.

Cheers,
Adam.

[Steven Russell]

I notice that the Aussies have picked two detective sidekicks in their team i.e. Watson and Hastings. There is Percy Holmes of course but can anyone come up with a viable fictional characters XI? (Robertson Glasgow / Robinson Crusoe does not count). Percy Jeeves does, though.

Best wishes,
Steve.

[martin wilson]

Hi all
I think the Aussie cricket team are a bit like the Germans in football,you never write them off,so like Phil I have got a feeling they are going to do well.
India 370/4,yeah but its only Bangladesh he said with utterly unfounded arrogance.
All I know about Sri Lanka is that Muli retired.
Its no good,I will have to get some pennies from somwhere.
Is it Ian Blair that Boris sacked? I think its him who went on a lecture tour where he revealed that the ripper is Aaron Kosminski and accuses ripperologists of covering it up in order to make a fortune selling books and what have you.
I didnt know you guys were minted,please send me some shekels,as I need to get Sky and I am right out of jam and spanners.
Richmond Tigers,oh yeah.all day long the greatest Aussie Rules team in history,way better than the er,Melbourne Monkeys or the Perth Porcupines.
All the best.

[Phil Carter]

Hello Adam,

Strange perhaps, but I have a feeling the Aussies will go the the way to the final.. and it depends on who they face if they win or not.

best wishes

Phil

[Adam Went]

Martin:

Hey, if Mark Waugh says you are ordinary, then plainly Mark Waugh must be right. A man of his class can't be wrong, you know.

So I see Virender Sehwag made 175 in an India total of 370/4 against Bangladesh. Uh-huh. Glad India aren't in our group, Martin....good luck!

Do you reckon Sri Lanka will recall Jayasuriya?

AFL is fantastic (see the "Aussie Rules Football" thread in Pub Talk), and since you know nothing about it, i'm going to recruit you as a supporter of the Richmond Tigers, alright?

Cheers,
Adam.

[martin wilson]

Hi all
Those two little pals of mine,
Ramhadin and Valentine.
Great stuff, 151? another Calypso Collapso!.
I also watched 'Whispering Death' Micheal Holding bowling to our Geoffrey, odd to see him groping around, I suppose it shows you how quick Holding was.
Yup,it all kicks off tonight, we are getting highlights on BBC2.
I'll probably catch it if I'm up as its on at midnight, hopefully they might do the same thing as with Match of the day and repeat it on Sunday morning.
The bookies have India & Sri Lanka down as favourites, Aussies 11/2 and England 7/1 might be worth a flutter on our teams.
Mark Waugh has got the dig in early, we are 'ordinary' according to him, how much does he weigh? about 12 stone? I reckon 11 stone of it is mouth.
45 matches in total, its taking all of March and the beginning of April, perhaps too much of a good thing?
I didnt know that about Beefy and Warney,that pair are cut from the same cloth I reckon, Warney's hair loss replacement ads are by some comfortable distance the worst ever made in the history of advertising and if there are any erm, senior gentleman like me reading this,they will remember Beefy dressed up as Rambo back in the 80's, probably the most embarrased I have ever been for a sportsman,with the possible exception of Dazzler Gough on Strictly Come Dancing.
AFl is Auussie rules football?, a sport of which I know virtually nothing other than a 'screwie' is kicking the ball so that it spins, and I also remember a brilliant film called 'The Club', with an hysterical scene where the star player is telling a director about his family relationships, to put it nicely.
All the best.

[Adam Went]

Martin:

Was Langer playing in the IPL? Didn't know that, always thought he was more of a Test specialist...only ever played a handful of ODI's for us. He's our batting coach these days, so probably has a bit to answer for after the Ashes performance, to be honest....

Warney and Beefy must have come very, very close to facing each other at international level - Beefy retired around '92? And Warney debuted around '92? I reckon it's great seeing the old players still out having a go, they do it with AFL footballers once every year for charity over here in the EJ Whitten Legends Game......remember hearing once that Bradman played an exhibition match once when he was in his 60's and was still smacking bowlers all over the show.

Yup it was Boony known as the "keg on legs".

Meanwhile, WC Starts tonight....hope Bangladesh demolish India.

Cheers,
Adam.

[Steven Russell]

Just for fun, here's a link to the reason why this thread is called Cricket, Lovely Cricket:

http:www.youtube.com/watch?v=06P0RdZyjT4

Although the song is about England getting hammered, it's a lovely bit of history both musically and in a cricketing sense. Although he made his England debut the year before, the recently deceased Trevor Bailey did not play in this match. Enjoy.

Best wishes,
Steve.

[martin wilson]

Hi Adam
Last I heard, Hayden,Langer and Gilchrist were playing in the IPL,although that was 2009,as Hayden did a few stints as a commentator on TMS.
I think there might have been a bit of a fuss going on because of the IPL,as Hayden was very much in 'lets all play nicely together' mode.
Maybe it was Freddie's knee, and the concern over centrally contracted players making big bucks in the IPL and getting injured.
As I say,I dont keep up with that side of the game, I heard a couple of English players didnt attract any bids in the auction, was Collingwood one of them? dont know, but I thought it odd bearing in mind we are the T20 world champs.
Beefy and Warney in their pomp,that would be the DB's, Beefy is only good for flogging shredded wheat now, although it would be great to see him fight Ian Chappel. (I believe the car park incident was round 2 between that pair)
If there's a heaven,perhaps I will get to see Warney v Beefy at their best,although I have to say I'm a bit worried about your all time XI,that no.3 of yours, Bradmore? Batman?,looks a bit useful.
Was it Boon who attempted Marsh's lager record on the flight over here? I remember him as a typical Aussie scrapper rather than any glorious strokeplay, good player though.
I wonder if there are any 6 nations matches on over the weekend? England have started playing attacking rugby,so being typically English I dont like change and I am nervous and afraid.
I much prefer the old stick it up your jumper rugby,get penalties and let Wilko kick teams to death.
All the best.

[Adam Went]

Martin:

That's why I am such a fan of ODI cricket - T20 is almost too short, Tests are almost too long, so ODI cricket strikes something of a perfect balance. It's just long enough to still be a test of skill, but short enough to be continually entertaining.

T20 cricket is good for the minnow countries though, because any team can win - as you say, it's really whoever bashes it the most wins the game - so it provides an opportunity for developing nations who wouldn't normally stand a chance against any of the major international teams.

Actually, i'd like to see more "legends" matches being played, even if only for charity.....I remember watching one a couple of years back where David Boon opened the batting, and smashed the first ball he faced through cover for a boundary - got there in about 0.02 seconds. Just think of it, Martin.....Warney bowling to Beefy? Eh?

Sister Hyde:

You were very lucky to have spent time in Melbourne - home of the greatest sporting venue in the world, the MCG.

Cheers,
Adam.