The Cricket thread

[Marmite the Dog]

Yes, just like they got hold of the Paki's and Curry Munchers.

I thought we were the curry munchers?

[MeMock]

^ We don't usually get the chance to bat as far down as no.9 against Bangladesh in test match cricket.

He was the night watchman - batting at number 3.

[kingwilly]

Australia wins by an innings and 80 runs. Good rear guard action from Rafique, who played brilliantly for his 65 runs, which included 6 sixes. Bangladesh did well in the second innings, but it was not enough. Warne picking up 5 wickets and MacGill picking up 4 wickets. Gillespie played wonderfully well to get a double hundred, a test match he will not forget.

Australia wins the 2-Test series 2-0. Now for the presentations, MacGill gets an award for the highest wicket taker of the series, 16 wickets. Nafees gets an award for the highest run getter of the series, 250 runs. Valuable player for Bangladesh is Rafique. Man of the match is Gillespie, he is also the man of the series, for his double hundred and 8 wickets for the series.

fantastic stuff - i think they'll have to select Dizzy for the Ashes now!

[Marmite the Dog]

i think they'll have to select Dizzy for the Ashes now!

Good. Let's hope he bottles it again.

[MeMock]

No chance Marmers - he has lost the mullet and is a new man.

[ozman]

I thought we were the curry munchers?

Yes, sorry, have your guys actually got any true Poms in the side?

[kingwilly]

No chance Marmers - he has lost the mullet and is a new man.

That's right some told him to get a haircut and a real job and he gone done both !

Dizzy the new all-rounder!

[Butch]

The mullet is in a placky bag apparently...he may have to auction it off some day.

[Marmite the Dog]

I thought we were the curry munchers?

Yes, sorry, have your guys actually got any true Poms in the side?

Do white South Africans count?

Actually, I was referring to curry being a favourite of 'true Poms'.

[MeMock]

DHAKA, April 12 AAP - Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist's plugging of sponsors near stump microphones was a deliberate ploy to have broadcasters turn down the volume of mikes.
A number of Australia's senior players were understood to have agreed to the prank as a one-off on the second day of the first Test against Bangladesh to hit broadcasters in the hip pocket.
Television executives would not take kindly to any free on-air advertising and it is a clever tactic of Gilchrist to name team sponsors.
He was overhead saying "Get one for the boys at Travelex" or "Phone home on 3
Mobile" during play.
But the most clearly audible plug was after Andrew Symonds, nicknamed Roy, fired in a throw.
"That's the one, Roy," Gilchrist enthused, before adding: "Plenty of energy ... from a ... Milo energy bar."
A Cricket Australia spokesman said the players had concerns over the volume of stump mikes.
"It is the second Test in a row that (Australian) team manager Steve Bernard has requested the ICC match referee to ensure that the international protocol of stump mikes are turned down when the ball is dead and only turned back up when the bowler is at his run-up," he said.
"(ICC match referee) Chris Broad asked twice when we were back in South Africa to have the mikes turned down, and it is our understanding the sound technicians are now enforcing the protocol.
"The central issue isn't in any way about sponsors, it is about the international protocol being enforced by broadcasters," a spokesman said.

[Polpot]

No chance Marmers - he has lost the mullet and is a new man.

That's right some told him to get a haircut and a real job and he gone done both !

Dizzy the new all-rounder!

he has done a lot of work this past summer, and couldn't be overlooked, the 201 is icing on the cake

[happynz]

Meanwhile...

Stephan Fleming has bagged a double century (263 I think) and the Blackcaps number 9 James Franklin is on 93 at stumps on the second day of the South Africa New Zealand test in Capetown.
Woohoo, go the Blackcaps.

[Butch]

I had to laugh at the NZ team name for the Badminton at the Commonwealth Games...you guessed it...The Black Cocks.

[Rigger]

I had to laugh at the NZ team name for the Badminton at the Commonwealth Games...you guessed it...The Black Cocks.

I bet you were behind them all the way hey butch up in the grand stand yelling come on black cocks. Black cocks are the best

[happynz]

I had to laugh at the NZ team name for the Badminton at the Commonwealth Games...you guessed it...The Black Cocks.

The word here is that they, the NZ badminton team, have made an absolute packet on the t-shirts they sold at the Commonwealth Games.

[Little Chuchok]

I had to laugh at the NZ team name for the Badminton at the Commonwealth Games...you guessed it...The Black Cocks.

I bet you were behind them all the way hey butch up in the grand stand yelling come on black cocks. Black cocks are the best

A few years ago, a talk-back radio station was asking people to call in and name the NZ Womans Hockey Team.They were evetually called the Black sticks.

I was driving in my car with a mouth full of water when some bugger rang up and said "black cracks"..lost the water and almost shat my trou..

[Marmite the Dog]

An interesting article on Yahoo! Sport today...

England chase elusive dream of greatness

Tue 09 May, 2:08 AM




LONDON (Reuters) - In retrospect, regime change in any arena can be simple. The trick is to secure permanence.
England's 2-1 Ashes triumph over Australia last year after 16 desolate years was a deserved conclusion to a series already acclaimed as the greatest in test cricket history.
Yet once the afterglow had faded the Herculean task facing Michael Vaughan's men was unmistakable.
If England are to prove they are a great side, rather than a team capable of isolated great performances, they must beat the Australians on their home grounds in the Ashes rematch this year.
Since toppling West Indies in the Caribbean 11 years ago, Australia have become the world number one in both the long and short versions of the game. Their words and deeds since England captain Vaughan trumped his counterpart Ricky Ponting indicate clearly that they believe 2005 was a mistake which will be corrected on home turf.
Ponting has led the way with eight centuries in crushing series victories over South Africa (twice) and West Indies and the message from the antipodes has been unmistakable.
"The Australian side is an amazing side," opener Matthew Hayden told this month's Wisden Cricketer magazine. "England are a very good side but Australia are better."
England start their home season against Sri Lanka at Lord's on Thursday without Vaughan, who is recovering from another injury to his troubled right knee. After a three-test series they then meet Pakistan over four tests.
BIGGER CHALLENGE
Pakistan, a team often less than the sum of their parts, apart from the brief era when Imran Khan led them with a blend of personal inspiration and autocratic hauteur, are the bigger challenge.
They showed, though, in their 2-0 series win over England late last year that they are now the most naturally gifted side in world cricket with explosive batsmen backed up by genuine pace and dangerous wrist spin. They will provide just the opposition England need before they cross the equator to a land thirsting for revenge.
First England have to deal with Sri Lanka, a side in transition further handicapped by touring during the English spring when the trees are heavy with blossom and the green pitches are the antithesis of the dust bowls they exploit at home.
The immediate post-Ashes results during England's off-season trips to Pakistan and India will hardly have Ponting and his men staring gloomily into their lager.
After they were beaten by Pakistan, England trailed India 1-0 before a makeshift side levelled the series in Mumbai. The latter result is the reason for English optimism after ending the winter 1-3 behind their sub-continental opponents.
England would have retained an unchanged side for the first time in 120 years against Australia had not Simon Jones limped off in the fourth test at Trent Bridge with an ankle injury.
A subsequent operation kept the Welsh fast bowler out of both tours. By the business end of the India tour he had been joined by Ashes stalwarts Vaughan, fast bowler Steve Harmison and left-arm spinner Ashley Giles who had suffered various injuries while Marcus Trescothick had flown home for unspecified personal reasons.
Flintoff, elevated to the captaincy, took his new responsibilities in his giant stride, showing the capacity to lift his team mates with sound if conventional leadership while maintaining his status as the world's best all-rounder.
GENUINE MERIT
England levelled the series in the final test and looked back with satisfaction on the performance of several new boys who showed sceptical outsiders, not only based in Australia, that the old country was now producing a stream of cricketers possessing genuine merit.
Alastair Cook, who will bat in the problematic number three position at Lord's, scored a century in his maiden test and when he pulled out of the Mumbai match Owais Shah confounded those who thought he had frittered away his abundant talent with a confident and composed half-century.
Of equal significance was the performance of Monty Panesaar, the first Sikh to represent England. Making his debut in the spiritual home of spin bowling, Panesaar replicated the control of Giles while demonstrating the ability to defeat the best by dismissing the great Sachin Tendulkar and the accomplished Rahul Dravid with teasing flight and sharp spin.
England's belief that they could beat Australia last year was based in part on an adaptation of the ancient boxing adage that, other things being equal, a good young fighter will beat a good old fighter.
The months since the Ashes victory have only strengthened that conviction.
In the second test against India, England fielded a side whose 11 members were all under 30 for the first time since 1960. Against South Africa, the only man in the Australia side under 30 was Brett Lee, who turned 29 last November.
In addition, Australia have reverted to players who failed to sparkle in England, notably Jason Gillespie whose remarkable double century as a night-watchman against Bangladesh cannot obscure the lack of snap and devil in his bowling last year.
The key for England, as Vaughan and coach Duncan Fletcher acknowledge, is making sure that their best XI report for duty at the Gabba on November 23 fit and ready for the ultimate cricketing challenge.

If England show guts and go with some of the new boys, it could be a really interesting Ashes series. I'm quite excited actually.

[Butch]

Me too. I hope to go to the Perth test for a few days...


The English bowlng coach from the last series [an Aussie of course] has taken a job back in Oz and he reckons the bowlers will still do lots of damage here during their tour. It's the batsmen that may have problems. He knows all their ins and outs too.

[Wally Dorian Raffles]

He knows all their ins and outs too.

This is from an inside source, is it??


...sorry butch, ....I couldn't help myself...........with you being a poof and everything

[Butch]

Thanks Wal...


dd, could we have a poove emoticon please?

[Marmite the Dog]

Will this do?

[Butch]

I might just send those beers now...

[Marmite the Dog]

About bladdy time too!