Good luck Binga

Watching the last Test match against South Africa made me think... Brett Lee and Stuart Clark will have their work cut out for them getting back into this team.

Brett Lee has different ideas.

"I'm not embarrassed to say that I expect to lead the pace attack and take that brand new ball again for Australia," Lee told Cricinfo.

Sounds a bit too big for his boots. Like someone else we just managed to get rid of. It would be different if Australia had lost the first two Tests. But we didn't. Should a winning formula be changed? I don't think so. Does Mitchell Johnson secretly want to punch him? Perhaps.

Also, er, I bet Matt Hayden's feeling a bit small. Because if he had gone when he was supposed to (as decreed by me), well, let's just say there might not have been so much losing going on during the summer, eh?

Allan Border Medal 2009

Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting have tied to win the Allan Border Medal.

I can't believe that.

Actually I can.

Australian cricket has made so many poor choices over the last few months that nothing surprises me anymore.

It should have been Mitch. And not just because he looks good in boardies.

Nathan Bracken was the One Day player and Michael Clarke the Test player.

I want to know who Brett Lee turned up with. It was not me.

But Ponting? Ponting? He has lead us to so many critical defeats, he is jumping ship, he isn't accountable, he's not the Punter he used to be, and the clock is definitely ticking for him.

He should not have accepted it. He should have said "no way man, this isn't cool, I don't deserve this, I've played like shit." Don't encourage the man's mediocrity.

Who's living in the past? Oh, we are.

And Rianna Ponting is too, it would seem. She turned up in a toga.

Thanks to Moses for keeping me posted.

A fracture in the plan

Graeme Smith is injured and this may just save Australia.

Though at 1-125, maybe it won't.

I would probably prefer that this didn't happen. If we're going to win I would rather it was against a team of 11, not 10.

If we're going to lose, the same thing applies.

But then, if we win, I'll take what I can get. At this point it seems pretty even. The Saffers looked shaky but settled in pretty well, and are one down, well two if you count Smith.

The bookies have a draw as the favoured outcome, but the odds on Australia winning are shorter than SA.

Also, Brett Lee had ankle surgery today.

Maybe the pair can share a hospital room.

Now, with a fractured fifth metatarsal, Smith's out for six weeks.

I bet he's wishing he didn't play in this match. What's that about the best laid plans?


Also, thanks to David for his live blogging, which was highly entertaining, though a shame we didn't get to hear about Smith's injury from his point of view.

Turning the screws

I am so impressed that Brett Lee batted today.

Ok. So he scored 8. But still, 8 more than I'd expected, seeing as I didn't think he would bat.

I tried to find a photo of him batting so I could add the caption "I'm in tremendous pain but I can't move my face", but there are none.

I guess he wasn't in for long enough.

So Australia is 7/185 at lunch on day four. A similar position to South Africa in the first innings, except I can't see us batting the day out. It did seem like we were scoring runs quite quickly, but in a 'shit let's get a move on' as opposed to 'yay let's play a Twenty20'. Which was nice. Makes it seem like we're still trying to win. Just a shame about the 7-for bit.

I'm still trying to work out whether the scales are tipped in the direction of Australia being crap or South Africa being outstanding.

It's like trying to pick between Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. It's always one til I see the other.

I don't think this will be a draw, South Africa will win this.

And probably Sydney too.

And the right to gloat for a while yet.

And England will get their hopes up.

And become a little complacent.

At least Ponting's still out there.

(Did you notice that I didn't mention a certain opening batsman? It's like he's gone already.)

Binga, bad to worse

Brett Lee has buggered his foot and is about to make a statement about his immediate playing future.

Sounds ominous.

Will he retire?

Nah.

Watch this space...

Update
Wow, the Channel 9 team like to outdo themselves from time to time. Like promising me a live press conference with Brett Lee and then spending too long talking to Jiminy about his ice bath so they have to cut the program, because damn we can't miss Fishing Australia, can we?

Feckers.

Inadequate solutions to monumental problems

Australia has never won a three-match series after losing the first match.

This means nothing to me - Australia has enough talented cricketers to win this series. But changes have to be made. The current side is dogged by out of form players who are being carried along by that hope that they will re-live former glory. They won't.

And this 'carrying' policy, new to us, will fail. It may cost us our number one ranking. It may cost us the Ashes.

Yes I'm still reeling.

What I want to know is why...

Why Matthew Hayden is still playing and will be allowed to continue until he's ready to go.

Why, as Moses has pointed out, it has escaped our captain's notice that the 56 runs scored between him, Hussey and Hayden, in the entire match, was unacceptable.

Why Brett Lee would be selected if his personal problems clouded his ability to play to form.

Why blaming the pitch is acceptable.

Why Michael Hussey didn't play better at his home ground.

Why it just looked far too easy for South Africa.

This isn't a difficult problem to solve, but it requires some leadership, and I'm thinking that's our biggest problem at the moment.

So what have the powers that be done to address this worsening crisis (that's right, I called it a worsening crisis)? They've dropped Jason Krezja. And what do you know, replaced him with Nathan Hauritz, who meets the primary selection criteria of being from New South Wales.

So now I'm also wondering why the leadership hasn't been fired for being spineless and out of touch. Someone take a stand!

By the way, good work SA. You outplayed us and deserved the win.

There you go, Ricky. I could say it.

Justin's going

He was going to be part of the last post, but he deserves one of his own.

Justin Langer announced his retirement today. I really like JL, he's a tough cookie, a champion, and a nice bloke.

He got concussion to mark his 100 test match at the Wanderers, and although he retired hurt, he and Ricky Ponting almost fell out because he wanted to bat at the end of the innings if it was needed, and Ricky told him he would declare the innings and forfeit the match before he let him go back on field.
In reply, Justin apparently said he would never speak to him again if he forfeited. Lucky it didn't come to that. Someone, if my memory serves me correctly it was Brett Lee, scored the winning runs.

Anyway, Justin debuted for the Warriors in 91, so I must have met him, I'm sure I did way back, but my mum says I didn't. At least 14 years ago though, my brother though was loitering about the nets when he was training one day, and JL gave him the ball he'd been using. Which I still have. Treasure!

Justin Langer, I salute you!

EDIT: And no comments about the photo, it was the concussion!

Photo: Alexander Joe

Classic cracking captions

"Getting ripped off... under paid... getting sold... second hand... that's how it goes... betraying your homeland..." Michael Hussey and Nathan Bracken thought they were at the unveiling of the Bon Scott statue in Fremantle.

"Yeah go jump Ishant, I'm worth $440,000 more than you, which is what Ricky is worth, and enough to buy Miss Field a house."

You'll have to come up with your own caption for this one I'm afraid, everytime I look at it I become mysteriously distracted. Something along the "no hands!" lines would be appropriate I think.

Brett, Shane and... Dave

"Brett Lee?!" a friend of mine once said rather incredulously, "he looks like Dave the cricket!"

And I realised that she had a point.