Thank God that's over!
The most pointless of all international cricket events is over for Australia. Now the boys can concentrate on real cricket rather than wasting time and energy on an exercise in futility. I love Pakistan's captain, Younis, who has said before their 'do or die' game against giant killers, the Netherregions, that if Pakistan went out it's no big deal as 20/20 is just fun cricket: not real international cricket. Good on you mate.
Congrats to Sri Lanka who deserve some silverware in light of recent events. Sangakkara will be a superb captain for them and hopefully will oversee some better test results too.
You are a joke, England. But then so is 20/20 so maybe you were just having a laugh.
Can someone confirm that SBS has the rights to the Ashes telecast? I haven't heard or read this other than a mate telling me.
Sorry Lefty I have already seen the ads for Foxtels coverage of The Ashes. There is no way my missus will let me get Foxtel to watch the cricket so I am thinking of asking Stoph if I can move in with him for the series....
ReplyDeleteI agree the quick exit out of the T20 World Cup is the best possibe result and we can put away the pyjamas and concentrate on the game they play in heaven. The short game is just a distraction and no indication of form.
yep! even though i say any cricket is better than none... this is the best result for Aus.
ReplyDeleteinjury recovery, rest, strategey...whatever, just that much better than letting the test/t20 players get run down.
no foxtel here NL! same thing from my boss too. best course is to try some free internet sites, thats what i did with India last year.
sorry about not getting back about a hit, i got tonsillitis that week and have had a shite run since with the kids too.
is this fucking working?
ReplyDeletegood i am back. aussies are 2020 loosers hey? how can the expect to win when their best 2020 players are "retired" and earning millions for playing 6 weeks per year, they leave out the next best lot of 2020 cricketers out of the team and one of them plays for the fucking dutch;and they pick a guy who is a has been and proves them that(the selectors are fuckwits and gullible);and letting this said dick head to destabilise the team (all for the good of an ashes campaign). what if the poms got their shit together?....any one for World Cup football?
ReplyDeleteand yes the ashes are on sbs, les murray will be a ripper giving us postcards of "the cultural significance" of english grass growing just between the each spanish/french tit and over grown muff movie. bring it on!
ReplyDeleteI could have sworn I saw the Foxtel ads promising every ball of every test in the Ashes.
ReplyDeleteAre they on both?
i've seen the ads, I don't have foxripoff, I am a wog, I watch sbs and I don't like les murray.
ReplyDeleteAh another predictable, sore Australian response to a rubbish performance.
ReplyDeleteRather than it being a futile tournament have you perhaps considered that Australia are just rubbish? 5 T20 losses in a row boys.
Below are the highest ranked Aussies in T20
ReplyDeleteHayden 51.76
Simonds 41.86
Hodge 38.25
Warner 28.79
Ponting 28.64
D. Hussey 27.83
Gilchrist 27.36
Hodge, ripped off.....could have had a holiday in England
Confirming that the Ashes series will be live on SBS 1
ReplyDeleteFair call Mark but I would be saying the same things if we won. Actually I don't care if we win 50 over world cups. The Ashes (or any test series) are another matter altogether. The thing with 20/20 is the small difference between a poor and good performance. One over can make such a difference which is far less likely to be the case in a test. I appreciate that this fact is part of what people enjoy about 20/20 which I have no problem with. A game that is only about sixes and yorkers is not cricket to me.
ReplyDeleteAnother follower, awesome Mark. I think if you scroll through some of the recent talk of T20 you will notice a theme of dislike on this blog. On the face of things it looks like a cop out from Aussie supporters because we lost but with the recent England/Netherlands result on top of the Aussie straight sets exit it kind of dilutes the importance of the T20 World Cup in both teams thinking.
ReplyDeleteAlso, no wonder Gayle has made outrageous remarks considering WI are better at 20/20 than any other format. I still back Younis for saying that's it's a hit and giggle version.
ReplyDeleteInteresting views I must say. Do you think the players feel the same about Twenty20?
ReplyDeleteWould you be able to email me when you get the chance by the way? There is something I would like to run by you.
Thanks a lot,
Thomas
hi Thomas, thanks for commenting.
ReplyDeletei think at the moment the players (probably) think, "we will do our best for national pride in a WC contest. do my best for a $ in an IPL contest, and see where this madness goes."
I'm sure we will see over time both a generational thing where some "youg-guns" are solely focused on the short form, and some "old sticks in the mud" only valueing test.
many more players i'm sure would feel more dedicated to test if they really believed the selection process (and retainment of a position) was a fair thing. But clearly, here in australia it is not.
old guard non performers can't get out of the side, 1st class dominators can't get in and an old boy/school tie/nsw dominance (even with hughes as a selector- you sell out merv!) prevails.
i have major pc problems at the moment and have no personal email, but am happy to be contacted through verismo@live.com if you want to go through anything.
all the best
stoph
well said NL.
ReplyDeletethanks for commenting Mark; it is true that we are not particularly "on board" with t20 here. i like ALL forms of the game, but as it has been said, when a 20 over innings can be one or lost in an over...well it takes a lot of the finess and tactics that make test so great, out of it. don't you think?
and i agree, the aussies are just crap at this format.
do you think Lefty that Younis' views have been affected by his summer over here? ie he is a "half a year aussie" and couldn't be funked with t20!
ReplyDeleteregardless, i appreciate his values.
could it be that australia will be the last bastion of tradition after so readily accepting odi thanks to kerry? it would be ironic but maybe numbers at tests already support this! (except for numbers in blighty during ashes series)
down the wicket
Gab, what is wrong with Les?
ReplyDeletei didn't know sbs had "overgrown muff movies"! maybe i'm missing the images whilst reading the subtitles... lucky spanish speaking bastard!
hola pajero!
Friday nights on SBS amigo, how do you think my youngest was made up? les murray???
ReplyDeleteLes is ok I guess, he is just an old wog with an unrecognisable accent.Ole!
I don't know about you guys but it matters not to me which commentator is spewing out the latest homogeneous crap on the ball by ball coverage. My life is consumed with the cricket. Technique, timing, placement. These things and these things harden me.
ReplyDeleteStoph, I reckon Younis' comments are just a flippant but honest appraisal. It may be different if Pakistani players were making $ from IPL!
ReplyDeleteOne of the tricky things with cricket is everything has to have some international element to it - like a world cup. If 20/20 was just a league based competition I wouldn't have such a problem with it. But because nations compete it's time that could be spent playing test cricket. Obviously test world cups are trickier but the futures program covers that to some degree.