Let's start with one Pom down - Again

The Ashes are back, some light (currently Nottinghamshire) sunshine in a particularly cold Melbourne winter, and the inimitable Blowers & co of TMS on the radio.  But that's all that's the same as 2009.

We've got one Pommie wicket (Cooked the Cookie... a valuable one, but all the early wickets are) but it has to be said that all the smart money's on England, and the team, which is strong, is unusually surrounded by a resurgent British sporting context with well deserved victories an a remarkable array of international sports, a state of affairs I can't remember having a precedent in decades.  It may have started with London (and Britain's) magnificent hosting of the most recent Olympics, something the UK should really take great credit for.

First drinks, but we don't get the Shipping Forecast. No "... Malin, Hebredies..."

In 2009 I asked ' The tough question is, as ever, whether I can find someone to venture five quid on England.' Delighted to get a $10 onto Australia with our best new Australian from Essex, Sally.  I reckon she's got a good chance at my cash, but as well as Australian victory, I'd mostly like a close, great series.

There's a new round of missing faces, and the picture below is now definitely regarded as 'history' by the commentators.


It's nice to realise you can remember some of the best cricket in its history. Will this be another great series?  The great thing about the ashes is you never really know.

So let's hop back to 2009.  "We have five Tests of five days in Wales and England to look forward to. And in the fine tradition of the game, anything might happen, and much of it probably will. It is certain that it will, however, finish in my old home ground of Surrey's Oval. Among other games I recall seeing Australia give away the last Test to England after a victorious series, and being there as Black Sarf London demonstrated the stupidity of Tebbet's Cricket Test as they celebrated the Windies' Blackwash - one of the nosiest and most intense days I can remember, including fast-jet time...

The Windies in their pomp were something to see, a machine which still echoes to today, but impressive as Big Bird was, there's nothing like the Ashes, right down to one of the most quixotic trophies - that actually isn't."

Remember, there's other sport stuff, and then there's The Ashes.

James

This post might not make sense if you don't speak cricket. A more comprehensible intro here from the BBC.

England Retain the Ashes

The MCG at lunch, day three, with the kids on the field.

Well, yesterday was a painful day. After the 'series of a lifetime' England win in 2005, where both teams delivered the most exciting sport you can imagine, followed by a five-nil whitewash of the tourists when England came to Australia in 2007, and an average series, rightfully won by England in 2009, the improvement in England's cricket and the remarkable collapse of Australia's team was made stark, with Australia's one win of the series (with one to play) being liked by a commentator to a 'dead cat bounce'. As that win was essentially down to a remarkable one-off bowling performance by Mitchell Johnson, ironically backed up by a high score with the bat as well, it rather obscured the rest of the team's poor performance.

Excepting house-hero Hussey, Australia's batsmen have consistently failed, and again it was ironic that Victorian Siddle managed a test-high score with the bat in a sinking cause this morning, scoring 40 with Brad Haddin to stave off certain defeat for an hour more.

The post-mortems have started, and there will be a major reconstruction of the Australian team in the near future. One simple fact stands out to me (and not widely remarked elsewhere) is that Australia needs more than one bowler to be able to take a swag of wickets a game, and when that same man is significant among your high scorers, then the others need to do more than just turn up.

Australia's captain Ponting has not been a favourite here, and his disgraceful argument with the umpires and England batsman on day two is symptomatic of his buckling under pressure, again. Another point not widely made is that he is now neither in batting form nor fit to act as a behavioural example for the current Australia team, or that which must be under rebuild very soon. Inheriting Waugh's world beating team and tough attitude, after the retirement of a suite of greats, Ricky has shown he can neither perform with the bat nor develop a new team from a cauldron of opponent's pressure in the way that Alan Border did, and set that 70s Australia team on the road to greatness.

England's performance was almost flawless - but more importantly showed batting in depth, and not only did their first 'set' of bowlers deliver, the three brought in after changes were as effective as their predecessors. Fielding and morale stayed high, and England looked a strong team, rarely being knocked, even at the WACA loss.

Sadly supporters on both sides resorted to boos at disfavoured players at times, and on the third day the booing of Ricky Ponting as he walked out was thankfully surpassed by a more appropriate clapping and cheers. Generally the crowds were well behaved, and England's Barmy Army provide entertainment to everyone except the most one-eyed Aussie supporter. Billy Cooper's trumpet is now an enjoyable game fixture. Both of us were frankly surprised by the number of England supporters, which, given the distance and cost (some questions over monopolistic practices for the tickets they were able to buy didn't sound very hospitable when we heard about them) shows a dedication to their team that's laudable. As one England supporter in front of us responded to a boorish Aussie behind us, they've had to put up with Australia for twenty years, and I agree the England fans and team have every right to make hay and celebrate - they earned it.

It's called 'test' cricket as it is a pressure game, testing as it gets, and class, and performance will overcome temporary form and however much luck you can get. After the 25 possible days play is up, the best team stands clear. Both statistically and in evident attitude, the gulf between the teams is huge - no great comfort to an Australia supporter that it looks like a reversal of the team's roles around the 2000 period.


We took our two English guests to the G yesterday, and for their first day of real test cricket they couldn't have had a much better one - painful though it was for us! That was a pleasure - as well as the fact that some of the young lads playing at lunch (top) will perhaps be in a future Australian slide the equal of the Invincibles and Waugh's men. Oh, and that Australia still has the greater number of Ashes wins, series wins, retentions, period of ownership, and, of course, the first series win which started it all.

But we must finish with due credit to a perfect team performance by Strauss' England squad. The best team won.

James

One - One and Two to Play

And this* may be the only space left at the G on Boxing Day if predictions turn out. A history in pictures here, and a summary of the history and atmosphere here.

James

*Taken in December 2008 at the South Africa Test.

Waugh on Cricket

Sadly we aren't allowed TMS here in Australia, ABC's Grandstand having exclusive rights - ironic, as several of the commentators swap seats from one box to the other. (Still, TMS are welcome to keep Boycott.) Cricket wouldn't be worth it without the radio.

At home, a couple of days ago we had a Canadian visitor who was somewhat puzzled by the method of following the game as well as being puzzled (of course) by the game itself. Like the unique nature of the twenty-five day test of quality, having a TV on and mute while listening to the radio is probably not seen in many other sports.

If you want a man to bat for your life...

TMS's Aggers, guesting on Grandstand mentioned he'd interviewed Steve Waugh over on 'the other channel' and after a bit of online searching, this is one we can listen to. As ever, two top cricket analysts make a great interview. Lots of ground covered, and it's here.

Meanwhile today retired Australia opener Matthew Hayden stopped by the ABC commentary box and impressed us, sandwiched between two more regular commentators. I doubt you'd get the average soccer player discussing his chickens, best farm manure, and how to produce a fruit reduction for your Christmas ham and offering the recipe over the airwaves in between the more normal sporting recollections. However remembering listening to the cricket with ABC while a kid on the back of his dad's tractor is just as expected.

Oh, the test match? What a day's cricket! What it's all about. As Vic Marks of The Guardian said:

This has been a proper Test match, the best of the series by far. There were times during the first two matches when it was possible to wander off around the back of the stands for a pie (in Brisbane) or a Pimms (in Adelaide) in the knowledge that nothing of great significance would be missed. In Perth it has been foolhardy to take the eyes away from the action for a minute.

He added:

Mike Hussey, yet again, was the rock for Australia. He hit his second century of the series in front of an adoring crowd on his own turf. He now has 517 runs in the series at an average of 103 and here England probably only dismissed him because he was stranded with the last man again.

If England win from here, the remaining batsmen will deserve soup-plate gold medals, not just OBEs. That said, it looks like we'll be going to the G on the Boxing Day Test with a live, and exciting series. What more could you ask for for Christmas?

James

Single left-hander...

Hussey is probably the only Australian player who has done his job in the three tests. ABC.

I hadn't written about the Ashes tests since the last post, because in the words of a great Australian captain, "There are two teams out there, one is playing cricket. The other is making no attempt to do so."

Sadly the issue was that Australia's team were simply not up to the level of Ashes test cricket.

Conversely, England's players were clearly a team, all credit to them - they have played well as a team, and looked solid, not missing chances, rebuilding after knocks and being top class batting, bowling and fielding. Good cricket depends on both teams finding form, and playing well, together, and Australia were certainly - to be as kind as possible - out of form. They were a sad shadow of the team of Waugh's era. The fielding was poor, and the batting from the dedicated batsmen for the most part a disgrace. But after a couple of sparky individual performances up to yesterday - including another solid batting performance by Hussey and Haddin, and a remarkable high score with the bat by fast bowler Mitchell Johnson, today saw the contest really come to life with two teams fighting on form. Tellingly it was a dedicated fast bowler that high-scored for Australia yesterday, and it's ironic that the same chap was responsible for knocking over most of England's team today in one of the tightest, most effective single bowler efforts I've seen. When you're hot...

Mitchell Johnson (and that tattoo) celebrate another England wicket.

As another great Australian bowler, Terry Alderman, now summarising for the ABC's Grandstand commentary said: "Single-handedly Mitchell Johnson has got Australia back in the game." I'll just mention Mitch is a left-hander.

An 18 minutes ABC highlights summary here.

Obviously I'm glad Australia's back in the game, and serious, but better still for everyone is that as I write tonight, this game (and the series) is now really in the balance, and we've seen (and hopefully will see) some really good cricket by both sides, which is what it should be about. Serious questions remain. Ponting's poor scores with the bat mean (were he not captain) he'd almost certainly be out, but Clarke, the deputy, is fairing little better and no obvious other successor. A sad reflection on the previous solid succession planning Australia developed through the 1990s and early 21st century. Another pressing question is what was Johnson thinking with that tattoo. No, really, no.

Strauss' men can, on their performance to date, be proud of being one of the best England teams to tour Australia for a long time; let's hope they keep it up. But let's also hope that Australia do so as well, and give us a series to rival the 2005 Ashes.

Here's to a good contest!

Old white-nose is back

ONE week ago Michael Hussey was one of about 20 people in the country who believed he should be in the Test side. Yesterday he convinced the other 22 million with one of his most sparkling innings in years. Hussey single-handedly pulled Australia back from the brink with an unbeaten 81 before day two was abandoned early due to bad light.
Jamie Pandaram, The Age.

The following morning, Hussy brought up his 100. But that was just a start...

Yet again our favourite batsman pulls runs from the hat, including a special 'taking it to England' six.

Mostly Hussey scored off the back foot. He will look at the scoreboard and feel proud. The English will study the charts and realise they bowled too short. Hussey moved past 50 and on towards his hundred. He deserves a lot of credit. In the crisis of his career and at a critical time for his team, he dared to attack.
Peter Roebuck, The Age.

Hussey, however, displayed the raw hunger of a man who might have been dropped had he not produced a timely century for Western Australia while young pretenders Callum Ferguson and Usman Khawaja failed for Australia A in England's final warm-up match.

The 35-year-old's desire, plus his well-known determination and vast experience, turned him into a rock-solid force in the final session.
Oliver Brett, BBC.

Numbers for Ashes

As anyone who knows me knows, I'm not a one for numbers as a rule. However today's first day of the Ashes has been a good statement of intent for Australia, and some of the numbers tell a lot of the story.

As in the previous post, 1 wicket on the 3rd ball for 0 runs was a good start for Australia, and given it was their captain, tough on England.

Summariser Kerry O'Keefe (left) laughs with Englishman Johnathan Agnew ('Aggers') and the ABC scorer. ABC Grandstand.

By the day's end Mitchell Johnson's 0 wickets for 66 and England's reasonable morning session had been wiped from the memory by a stunning performance of Australia's newest great fast bowler, Peter Siddle. Returning with his first match in the team after being sidelined with stress fractures to his back, his 26th birthday today proved to be the kind of day few could hope for. A Sixfer for 54 runs isn't anything to sneeze at, but in the middle of it was a hat trick of carefully crafted cunning wickets, a trio of England players who didn't know what hit them.

Siddle is only the 11th Australian to take a hat trick at this level (the last being another Victorian bowling great; the inestimable Shane Warne) and the first person to do it at Brisbane's Gabba. Whatever Siddle's career holds from here, his achievements today have put him in an exclusive group of record-setting bowlers. As well as the aforementioned Warne, by returning after back injury more cunning and fiery, he joins another great Australian bowling hero, Dennis Lillee.

Xavier Doherty's two late wickets on debut (or dayboo, as it's pronounced here) likewise were eclipsed, despite their merit. A tough day for England, ending as depressingly as it started with Australia's unthreatened openers putting on 25 runs after the Aussie bowlers had dispatched the entire England side for 260.

It's early days (1/25th in!) but Australia are going to be pleased, and England looking to damage control on day 2. One other overshadowed achievement was England batsman Ian Bell's well crafted 76 while at the other end his team mates fell like ducklings to a fox.

Honours on day 1 don't reflect how a series turns out, but it was certainly a hard fought and terrific day's cricket. Any other sport's both briefer, and well...

The ABC commentary box webcam awaits the takes of tomorrow at the end of day one. ABC Grandstand.

... just isn't cricket.

James

One for None

Ball three, England's Captain, Andrew Strauss out, caught for a duck by Hussey, bowled Hilfenhaus, 25 days to go...

The Ashes are on.

Mr Cricket's back.

To the rescue . . . Mike Hussey scored his 11th Test century. Photo: Dallas Kilponen. The Age.

M. E. K. Hussey comes through with a terrific and concentrated 134 not out, remarkably supported for the latter half by Aussie bowler and part time wombatsman Peter Siddle, and taking away what should've been Pakistan's wrap up in the morning session. With two wickets to get the Pakistanis let Hussey and Siddle take their run chase from a straightforward 80 to a more challenging 176, putting Australia back in the game in Sydney at the SCG.

Husseyyyy!

'Mr Cricket' - a nickname given due to his encyclopaedic knowledge of the game - is a Laing favourite after a good game at the pastoral Bellerive Oval in Tasmania where a group of small Hobartian boys hung over the fence soliciting autographs from the hero. One tyke was feeling under pressure: "Hussey! My mum says I've got to go soon..."


One wonders what Yabba a pre-war fixture at the SCG (seen here in a fine example of public sculpture) would've said...

And it's getting better - stunning catches by Hadden, Hussey and a caught, bowled and blooded Hauritz.

Test cricket, there's nothing like it.

4:20AM, Monday

Day 21 - Empty Beds
Originally uploaded by Ciaran McGuiggan

I wake up and my husband isn't there.

In fact, his side of the bed hasn't been slept in at all. My heavens, what has happened to him?!

>faint sound of Test Match Special floats in from the livingroom<

Ah, cricket season. England must be holding out for a draw.

ZzzZzzzzz.

Now everyone, back to sleep until Thursday, when we do it all over again...

Alphabet stew

Because of the AFL, the ABC isn't relaying TMS from the BBC, and the BBC's WWW broadcast has presumably gone US as a result of all of AUS logging on.

So we fall back on the TV commentary which is on SBS and frankly like listening to paint dry.

Having to listen to three ex-England captains is like waiting for the Shakespeare from the monkeys with typewriters except less insightful, less amusing and less intelligent.




Ah, TMS is back. That's the closest I want to get to Cold Turkey.

Let's start with one Pom down

The Ashes are back, a small ray of (currently Welsh) sunshine in a particularly cold Melbourne winter, and the inimitable Blowers of TMS on the radio.

Another lovely gift is a Pommie wicket (lovely take, Husseyyy....) after the bad news of the loss of Brett Lee to injury for at least the first two Tests and and England winning the toss.

And the English batsmen aren't looking comfortable, which is as it should be.

The tough question is, as ever, whether I can find someone to venture five quid on England.

While an Aussie series win is what's wanted, with luck we should also see a good contest with England giving the impression of being together facing Australia, and the apparently endless juggernaut of the Australian cricket machine needing a good rebuild and new workers in the engine-room and steering. There are some missing faces.

As well as incredible cricketers Gilchrist and Warne no longer being in the team, there must be a nod to the loss of one of humanities greatest statisticians, (the entirely humourless) Bearded Wonder, absent for the first time from a TMS Ashes team due to an untimely death in January 2009.

We have five Tests of five days in Wales and England to look forward to. And in the fine tradition of the game, anything might happen, and much of it probably will. It is certain that it will, however, finish in my old home ground of Surrey's Oval. Among other games I recall seeing Australia give away the last Test to England after a victorious series, and being there as Black Sarf London demonstrated the stupidity of Tebbet's Cricket Test as they celebrated the Windies' Blackwash - one of the nosiest and most intense days I can remember, including fast-jet time...

The Windies in their pomp were something to see, a machine which still echoes to today, but impressive as Big Bird was, there's nothing like the Ashes, right down to one of the most quixotic trophies - that actually isn't.

James

This post might not make sense if you don't speak cricket. A more comprehensible intro here from the BBC.

It's not about sport, it's more important than that.

The story of Australia's worst civil disaster - one to be measured in terms of warzones - has too many stories and aspects to cover in any meaningfully right now. It's touched all Australians, I think, in ways we'd never have realised. Everyone knows someone - and it's the main topic of conversation.

It might be a one-night wonder on the news there, but overseas reaction has been heartening. Practical help too - US and Kiwi firefighters are on their way. Thanks mates. A worthwhile ANZUS treat.

The usual interstate bickering and rivalry has been put aside when it counts, and Victorian firefighters have been relieved at the fronts by their fellow men and women from NSW, SA, ACT and elsewhere, so they can catch a break. Many haven't slept for days. Many won't be able to sleep easy for a long time - if ever.

Now more than ever I'm afraid a head of state who is on the other side of the just world isn't enough. Nothing against the British royal family, but the Governor General, our first woman in the role, Quentin Brice, is the woman on the spot, and making the difference by being there.

There's been a hundred stories - tragic, sad, amazing, all scary, but what caught me today was the arrival of the Australian cricket team and Shane Warne in the rescue centres. Cricket is Australia's sport, they are the national team, whatever any other sports might like to say, and while the cricketers are all too human, to use a metaphor from the other bat and ball sport, they stepped up to the plate. Just hearing a mum and kid getting Ponting's signature made it obvious it was the best thing that happened to them for a long time.

Warne was a genius sportsman with feet so clayey he could make a pottery, but he's still a hero to many kids.

From The Age:

Shane Warne sees one of his deliveries dispatched.

It wasn't till the game of bush cricket started that he managed to really crack the ice. A skateboard was the wicket and a cardboard box the stumps. He bowled, an effortless graceful curve, while a determined small boy with a tight face and a bat waited. Every now and again one managed to thwack the ball. "Run run run!" Warnie would yell. While the batter kicked up a cloud of brown dust racing to the wicket, fellow bowler Garry Lyon yelled to the crowd, "We need some fielders over there!" One fielder came to grief after colliding with the towbar of a parked car. He picked himself up and kept right on running.

For the next batter, a small boy who doubled over in his hapless effort to intersect with the ball, Warne had a diagnosis: "Head before wicket!"

To another, who failed time after time to come within cooee, "You took it well though, champ, well done."

Warne wouldn't have known it, but one of the little boys there to see him had just lost his best friend. Another had lost his home and the rest of his street. The lucky parents there had cameras to capture their child's moment with their hero. The unlucky ones had the clothes they were standing in.

Warnie may just have played the innings of his life for his native Victoria, and the score doesn't matter at all.

James

Messing about at the cricket

Australia weren't the only ones messing about rather than taking it seriously today at the MCG.There were a couple in front of the scoreboard, playing bat & ball. Probably did better than some of the batsmen.

And then there was time for a moment of reflection in a corporate box. I was outside, of course.

James

Cricket - here and there, always surprising

Well, that was a stunning finish. There have been a few times I've barracked for the team playing Australia, and I'm not ashamed to say this was one of them - and South Africa deserved to win.

The picture I'd like to show is RSA batsman Jacques Kallis sharing a wry smile with Australian paceman Brett Lee after Kallis was beaten by a ball that skidded through after hitting a bit of rough. Both could see the funny side of the luck of the ball there, it missing Kallis' wicket by a whisker, and that's one reason I'm a cricket fan. But I can't. Cricket Australia are in dispute with Reuters and AP over rights.
In 2005, Lee triumphed over Kallis. At the WACA this game, Kallis laughed long. (BBC)

Kallis, Smith and AB de Villiers showed why the South Africans are known as tough and hard with some gritty batting, under pressure. And the fact that a Muslim (Hashim Amla - with the most amazing beard) and a black South African, Jean-Paul Duminy (on debut, or as the ABC have it; 'dayboo') were two other key players in this session is a measure of the miracle that is the modern South Africa - a country where the weight of history should have forced a racial bloodbath.

But for those in the frozen North, you don't need to miss out on the cricket experience. Let me introduce my discovery for today, Ice Cricket!

In the winter of 1879:

The Fens were sometimes deliberately flooded to allow skating, and Charles Pigg, a student at Peterhouse, challenged Bob Carpenter, a first-class cricketer with Cambridgeshire, to raise a side to play on a 20-acre site.

As expected, all players used skates. Cambridge Town batted first, closing the first two-hour day on 193 for 9. The following day, Wednesday, Carpenter and Dan Hayward added a further 132 in 70 minutes, the innings eventually totalling 326. Hayward's dismissal came about when he lost his footing, fell over and was bowled.

By the time the University batted the ice was rutted and worn, and while fielding continued to be a virtual lottery, batting became even harder. Despite this, they reached 61 for 1 by the end of the day. They extended this to 274 for 4 by the end of the third day and the captains agreed to settle on a draw.

"Fielding was delightful, and the chasing of the ball into space when it eluded you was most exhilarating," recalled Charles Boucher, whose full toss had dismissed Hayward, in a letter to the Times in 1929. "Only lob bowling was allowed and umpires were most severe on no-balls."

Then in London:

The most unusual contest took place on the ice in Windsor Park on January 9, 1879 under the light of the full moon.
...several hundred spectators turned out to watch a Mr Gage's side score 17 for 8 to defeat a team raised by Mr Bowditch. "The game caused no end of amusement owing to the difficulties encountered by the players while bowling, batting and fielding," reported Wisden, perhaps slightly unfairly.

Thanks to that numbers repository, Cricinfo. And it's not just a historical anachronism; today you too can place Ice Cricket in Estonia, as offered here...

Now perhaps Australia could meet Canada on an 'even' white, fast pitch. Spikes swapped for skates? The term 'shirtfront' could take on a new resonance, and which set of skills of two of the world's greatest sportsmen count - those of Don Bradman or those of Wayne Gretzky?

That looks like a very fast outfield to me, and we'll take our drinks HOT.

James

The Gardening & Cricket connection

One of the penalties of being a gardener (I suspect - I'm no gardener) is being unable just to relax in the garden. As Bev gets the garden sorted, while I enjoy the drinks, cherries, Bev-made shortbread (not pictured, burp) and the cricket on the radio, courtesy the ABC, 'Straya and Seth Efrika.


This picture shows where I'm enjoying my cricket. Like gardening, cricket's best, I think, as a great spectator sport. ABC Grandstand have just closed a competition 'Where are you listening to the cricket?' The winners were in a great pic.


More here.

And like the commentator and ex-Aussie opener Justin Langer, I look forward to seeing the first full blood Aborigine taking a five-for in the baggy green.In the shorter term, I'm looking forward to a Melbourne cricket ritual of a day at the G for the Boxing Day test. We'll be there with three Poms and a Tassie, and here's to a good fight from the South Africans.

While I'm missing many of my Aussie cricket greats who've just retired (there's only one of each Gilchrist, McGrath and Warne) Lee's still there at top form (and we can't forget 'Husseey!'..) two guys are making their mark - Mitchell Johnson, a new Western Australian hero and Brad Hadden. And Mitchell's a left-hander, picked as a 16 year old as a 'Once in a lifetime bowler' by my boyhood hero Dennis Lillee. Neat.

Mitchell Johnson is congratulated by team-mates after claiming the wicket of Hashim Amla during the second day of the first Test between Australia and South Africa at the WACA Ground in Perth on December 18, 2008. (Tony McDonough)

There's other sports, and then there's the Ashes. Until they're on again, the South Africans are a good filler. I'm always going to be here for the bowlers, and Johnson looks like one who is going to be worth watching.

It's pretty good really.

James