Cricket

Pretty concerning. But it doesn’t have a lot to do with the captain with the amount of players used. Perhaps more to do with the selectors and coaching. It was interesting a few tests back Michael Clarke as talking about over training and how the Australian team needs to stop training as much as they do and allow their players to be fresh, and this was before the 2 they lost. There is something not so right about the Australian cricket team at the moment but the scary thing is there isn’t a lot of players in the waiting. I just wonder about Glenn Maxwell. I know he is a one day/2 over specialist but could he adapt his game to be a Test player as well?

I love tradition but the twilight matches are just incredible. What a different atmosphere. 30,000 supporters on day 1. Fantastic for the sport.

And that the pink ball seems to make it a more even contest between bat and ball.

9/259 dec from SAF batting first I think will be very competitive.
AUS will have to bat well to get a 1st innings lead.

Odd with Warner not opening - he had spent too long off the field getting treatment for an injured shoulder when SAF were 9 down, they declared and Warner then found out he couldn’t open!

Though AUS did well to survive to stumps at 0/14, scoring was slow as it took 12 overs.

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Matt Renshaw was impressive tonight- no silly wafts outside the off stump, just tough old school test match batsmanship. That’s what we need more of, in an era where most of Renshaw’s peers have the attention span of a gnat.

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Shaping to be a cracking test match in my opinion. The test could well finish like last year’s Day Nighter where Australia won by 3 wickets in a thrilling finish.

Well it’s pleasantly surprising to see Australia actually turn up for the Adelaide day-night last Test in this series. Seems like the team overhaul has worked early on in this one. Will be interesting to see how they go with the bat later on today as the bowlers have played their part (apart from the leaking of a few boundaries late in the innings).

Renshaw looks like a great inclusion into the lineup (should’ve made these changes before the Hobart Test while the series was still alive to be honest). No wonder why Rod Marsh walked out earlier this week.

My family has talked about it a bit over the years, it’s a shame how cricket never became a sport in the United States (still seen by the world as the #1 country/economy) :frowning:

At least India (~2 billion people) love the sport & of course England where it started, etc.

I too am surprised. Its obviously a very commonwealth game though isn’t it?

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I would love to see the ICC do a best of the South V the best of the North series. 1 Test, 1 20/20 and 1 One Day. Would be great to see the best of cricket all playing together.

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The big three are so entrenched there it’s impossible to make headway. Soccer/football had hoped to do it off the back of 94 but it’s still only made small steps forward.

Cricket will only ever catch on with ex-pats there, and that goes for rugby, rugby league too.

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Hence why the Australian Open is a BIG coup for Australian Sport!

(i.e.)
Tennis is a major sport in the US and worldwide, also having their own Grand Slam.

Now I see why Sydney want the tournament so much :wink:

I’m not overly sure I get the correlation?

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Melbourne.

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So basically an India vs South Africa series with some token selections (maybe a couple of England players and a Pakistani for the North, Perhaps an Aussie and a Kiwi to satisfy the South) to make up the numbers. Don’t really think interest would be that strong for it anyway, even an Asian XI (IND, PAK, SL, BAN) vs the Rest would be a little yawn inducing.

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Ah.

I would be interested. If you look at the player rankings its not as 1 sided as you think. Infact there isnt a lot of Indian and South African players in thr top 10 at all. Just because a side doesnt play well doesnt mean they dont have some of the best talent. Pakistan are number 1 in the world in tests but dont feature too many players.

Last time this happened was 2004/05 in a charity match for the Asian Tsunami. It was a success.

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A South best of team would probably be:

Steve Smith (AUS)
Kane Williamson (NZ)
Hamshim Amla (SA)
Ab De Villiers (SA)
David Warner (AUS)
Faf Du Plessis (SA)
Q De Kock (SA) WK
Mitchell Starc (AUS)
Vernon Philander (SA)
Josh Hazelwood (AUS)
Dale Steyn (SA)

A North would be
Joe Root (ENG)
Alastair Cook (ENG)
Virat Kohli (IND)
Yonus Khan (PAK)
Cheteshwar Pujara (IND)
Ajinkya Rahane (IND)
Jonny Bairstow (ENG) WK
Ben Stokes (ENG)
Ravichandran Ashwin (IND)
Rangana Herath (SL)
James Anderson (ENG)

Arguably other names could be on there but it is not as one sided as many think it would be. I would love to watch that.

Sorry, I was trying to make the point that Australia’s doesn’t play/have many sporting events that the US is interested in.

Hence why I said the Australian Open (tennis)?

They also had the ICC Super Series in 2005 which flopped. Sport thrives (mostly but not always) on rivalries (Ashes, Aus v India) and people having some blood in it (having your city or country represented). No one cares or is passionate about which hemisphere they come from. I’m not sure what a North v South match adds.

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