Brilliant!

Thanks to Andrew from "Beer and Sport", in the comments of this post for pointing this image out...

Dizzy new heights...

While pretty much everyone was calling for his head during the great Ashes debacle of 2005, being dropped from the Aussie team may just have been life changing for Jason Gillespie.

He has just scored his 3rd first class century - all of which have come in the past 18 months.

Now everyone knows making runs is more fun than taking wickets right?  Dizzy must be loving this...

IPL - I don't get it...

I was astounded to read just how many Australian players have signed for the Indian Premier League's Twenty20 tournament, due to take place in April next years. 15!

I don't understand what their commitment will be though. If they are unavailable for their assigned team - as this article points out, the Aussies will be in the West Indies then anyway - I guess they just don't play, just like local domestic cricket.  That being the case, and assuming these Twenty20 competitions will be at least an annual event, then I suppose it's a pretty good superannuation policy for the like of Ponting and Gilchrist anyway.

Who's the man?

Australia's first post-Ashes-apocalypse, Test Match, after the retirement of Warne, McGrath and Langer, that distant day at the SCG is less than two weeks away. The search for replacements began in earnest I guess, with the opening of the Australian Domestic season a week or so back.

Selectors will no doubt have had their preferences pre-picked, most of them briefed on what was expected. The bowling scenario is some-what predictable I feel, with Stuart Clarke already being primsed to take the McGrath role (unlikely to be quite that successful I suppose but the signs have been good) Brett Lee more than ready to step up to number one strike bowler, (again plenty of question marks on whether he can emulate the success of recent years but surely he's the one for the job) and even Stuart MacGill, if he can just keep his mouth shut, one would expect would have to be given a brief taste of the number one spinner's spot, until a longer term solution can be found - if indeed, one can be found...

But Langer's opening spot? Who's the man for that? If I'm right, and the position was indeed still up for grabs going into this week, you feel a couple of guys have done themselves some real damage. Hodge has shown yet again, that come that one big moment, that time when the pressure is on and he needs to play thr big innings, it's just not there. 2 and 0 in a match against WA where admittedly many struggled, is going to do his cause much damage.

Phil Jacques too - although I'd love to see him get his chance, as he's probably been unlucky not to already have a place, especially in the ODI's - has missed out, relatively speaking, in a game which saw runs aplenty.

So who is the other candidate - Mike Hussey? Well he too missed out in WA's first innings against Victoria, but made ammends with 59 in the second innings. He' s my pick - a proven performer, clearly up to the job, he's an opener from way back, and it makes way for blooding someone else, down the order - but can Australia afford to lose him down there? What we need, is two Husseys - hang on a minute?

Catching up...

Wow, a huge month in sport for those living in my part of the world, but nothing to do with Cricket. After 44 years, the Geelong Football Club has finally won, the AFL Premiership - something I thought I may never see, and something the town has celebrated long and hard. This is a cricket blog of course, so I'm not going to spend too long on this, but suffice to say, to date, watching this years AFL football, culminating with Geelong's record breaking Grand Final win, is probably the highlight of my "sport spectating" life.
Back to cricket, and we're getting set for the new cricket season here in Aus.

Personally, I've just undertaken to manage the junior "Milo Cricket" group at my club. (Kids 5 to 8 years old, Friday nights - great fun!) - who knows, I may even make a run to two??

But more importantly back to cricket.

We have a Test series going on in Pakistan...South Africa look set to take that out, 2 nil, then there's 3 ODIs to play. Jaques Kallis showing he's still got plenty to offer, with twin tons in the first test.

England have just taken out the ODI series in Sri Lanka ahead of a Test series there.

And of course we can't forget Australia v India. Quite a bit of hostility, fueled by the always agressive Aussies, and one Sreenath, seemingly with a death wish (seeing as though he's about to tour here), keeping things interesting in the ODI series in India and in so doing setting up a cracker of a return bout this Aussie summer, with the Indians on their way here. Australia lead the 7 game series 2 - 1, (with one "no-result").

Anyway, I've added little in the way of news, and a lot in the way of noise to the blog-o-sphere with this post, but follow some of these links for the real stories...especially the AFL links...Go Cats!!!

The History of Cricket

Here's another cricket blog I just discovered (a link from comments below). Some lengthy posts but clearly well informed...