Did you see the news? Iran has agreed to curb it’s nuclear programme if sanctions on the country are relaxed a bit. Of course, the Israelis are saying it’s a big mistake, but you can’t have everything I suppose. It’s surely got to be good news for the region (and the world).
Talking of the Middle East, I saw a good film called Syriana the other day. George Clooney was in it. The film is about the influence of big oil companies on global events – although Clooney was playing an undercover CIA operative. I forget exactly why the US intelligence services were involved, but hey ho.
Talking of the word ‘ho’, did you know that Christmas is only about four weeks away now? Wow. It comes around so quickly every year. I really like Christmas – who doesn’t eh – but I’ve got to admit that xmas carols get right up my nose. I’m just so tired of them. Maybe it’s because I had to play them all the time at school (I was in the school band).
Talking of bands, did you see the Rolling Stones play at Glastonbury this year? Some of the newspaper headlines were really harsh I thought. One of the tabloids called their performance ‘The Night of the Living Dead’. Ouch! Personally, I think The Stones were brilliant. For Mick Jagger to be strutting his stuff, showing off his ribs, at his age is a great effort.
Talking of ribs, does anyone actually know why BBQ spare ribs count as a Chinese dish? I’m pretty sure BBQ sauce is an American invention. And why are they called ‘spare ribs’? What’s so ‘spare’ about them? Maybe they’re just leftover ribs that American food chains don’t want.
Talking of ‘not wanting’ things, does anyone actually want to talk about the cricket?
James Morgan
You lot are lucky. You could sleep. I was at the ground. If you want to know what he’ll is like, let me know and I’ll tell you about my day.
Hell. Stupid iPhone
Never fear, Johnson will revert to uselessness soon.
Next match more than likely. He’s poo at Adelaide.
If we stop talking cricket every time England lose, this blog will have a very short life span. So here’s a theory……..
After they lost the 1986/87 Ashes series, Alan Border put on his copy of Alice Cooper’s Greatest Hits, listened to “No More Mr Nice Guy” and the rest, as they say, is history. I suspect that sometime during the last series Clarke, Lehmann and the omnipresent Shane Warne reached the same conclusion ie it’s time for Australia to rediscover their inner mongrel. All 3 have played in Australian teams that were both talented and aggressive to the point that their sportsmanship was questioned even by some of their own supporters. They were also teams that made it to number 1 in the world. These 3 have decided that Australia need to play aggressive cricket both on and off the field. As a result there has been a constant barrage of attacks against the English team on the field, in the written media and in the safety of the Channel 9 commentary box.
When asked by a co-commentator about his non-stop (and increasingly tedious) sledging of Alastair Cook, Warne replied “when someone asks my opinion, I give an honest answer.” That would be fair enough if it was even remotely true. Firstly, no one asked him. Much like the way his hero Ian Chappell used the media to belittle Kim Hughes in the hope that Rod Marsh would get the Australian captaincy, Warne is using the media to attack Cooke in order to support his mate Clarke (and of course to continue his lifelong love affair with tormenting the English). This is not a new tactic for Warne who has previously used the media to attack other players such as Murali’s bowling action. Secondly, when I think of Warne (and I try not to), the word “honest” does not spring to mind but rather I think of a convicted drug cheat who took money from Indian book makers. (Sorry Shane but I find it hard to believe that you took your mom’s diuretic so you would look thinner on TV rather than to dilute your urine to mask whatever you were taking to aid you’re recovery from a shoulder injury.) My point, and for once I have one, is that sledging Cooke and his team is a legitimate tactic so why pretend it is anything other than what it is. Could it be that even Channel 9 are a bit embarrassed at how partisan their coverage is? Just kidding – if Australia keeps on winning, it will just get worse.
Warne is certainly an interesting phenomenon to consider. Even though he tormented my team for, what, fifteen years, I couldn’t help but admire and even like him. He had a force in him which was simply irresistible. It was easy to put his team-mates’ dislike of him down to envy. Even in a team of legends he was the brightest star in the sky.
Since he’s retired, however, it’s become obvious that the reason his team-mates hated him is because he’s a grade A gobshite.
Steve Waugh was once pressed in to giving his side of their largely one-sided feud. Warne always thought he should have been made captain and never let Waugh forget it, trying to undermine him at every turn (he’s still doing it now, sticking the knife in to Steve every chance he gets). Waugh said he was basically like a child, always needing to be the centre of attention, always needing approval and applause, hating it if anyone else was getting the limelight.
He can’t seem to cope with retirement, always trying to wedge himself in to a story where he doesn’t belong. He had a brief period when he began commentating where he showed what he could have become – the best observer of the game in the modern era. His analysis was brilliant and he was never afraid to say what he thought.
He just couldn’t help himself though. He couldn’t help himself from being a shameless barracker, claiming to be impartial whilst shilling for the Aussies, sledging from the commentary box. Now he drips with the awful hypocrisy of his era and his team.
He destroys his legacy a little more every time he opens his mouth. People too young to have grown up with Warne the player will only ever know him as a loudmouth gobshite with a facelift and a wig.
Never meet your heroes.
Completely agree with the you. The day Australia lost it’s edge was the day they beat India in Sydney in 2008. It was a thrilling game. Australia were down and almost out when a final session collapse from the Indians saw them snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It was just like England in Adelaide circa 2006.
The Indian team, as usual, had a hissy fit when they lost and accused the Australians of cheating (again as usual when they lose) and Anil Kumble referenced the Bodyline series in his post match press conference.
I try never to speak ill of the dead but this was further whipped up by that first class pratt, Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald who accused the Australian team of reacting to their win “like a pack of wild dogs”
In the subsequent media frenzy the Australians came over all contrite, apologised and declared that they would mend their ways. The result was a team that instantly became afraid to win in case they were accused of being unsporting.
This, coincidentally, happened at almost the same time that Andy Flower arrived in England and started to teach the England side that winning is nothing to be ashamed of. Since then the behaviour of England in victory has been almost precisely the same as the pre 2008 Australians. Just look at Broads “win at any cost” comments before the current tour. They have in effect been out Aussie-ing the Aussies.
The result being, as I am constantly reminded by my English friends, that Australia has won 2 tests from the last 15 against the old enemy. An almost perfect mirror image of the 15 previous tests.
I’d say that Lehman and co have done exactly as you say and more power to them too. Now we are hopefully getting back to the natural order of things. England providing the best and most loyal supporters in the world watching the ritual humiliation of their team on a regular basis and keeping a stiff upper lip throughout. God is in his Heaven and all is right with the world.