Trott quits the tour!

It's not like Lord's, back in the day.

Ben Dorries, The Courier Mail wrote:Michael Clarke's captaincy and batting in first Test show he's now a true leader
November 26, 2013 12:00AM

FROM Pup to attack dog ... it was fabulous to see Michael Clarke finally show some bite.

One of the criticisms of the Test skipper has always been that he is too manufactured and fans don't get to see the real bloke who was raised in working-class western Sydney. Despite his huge weight of Test runs, he has often appeared to be more style than substance and fans have seen right through that.

While Aussies embraced the story of the streetfighter from Launceston Ricky Ponting, they could never get a handle on Clarke who once signed a $1.25 million deal with Dunlop-Slazenger even before he played a Test. There were the tattoos, the model girlfriends, the bleached hair and the diamond earrings. But no-one really knew what Clarke stood for, so it was hard to warm to him.

By telling pale-faced and smarmy Pom Jimmy Anderson to "get ready for a broken f**king arm" during the dramatic closing stages of the Gabba Test, Clarke finally stands for something.

With every hot-blooded gesture, you could almost feel thousands of sports lovers suddenly discovering new warmth for Clarke. It did what 25 Test centuries couldn't ... it won him widespread acceptance from the Australian public.

After losing three Ashes series in a row, Clarke should be applauded for standing up for his team and going chest to chest with the Poms.

There was talk of a line in the sand moment when four Australian players were sacked in India earlier this year ... but Clarke's fiery confrontation was probably the real line in the sand moment for Australian cricket. (...)

Sand? SAND??? Wait till they get to broken f**king Perth!!!

rofl at Mudge...on a day of bad news Henry can always be relied on

PeterCS wrote:

Ben Dorries, The Courier Mail wrote:Michael Clarke's captaincy and batting in first Test show he's now a true leader
November 26, 2013 12:00AM

FROM Pup to attack dog ... it was fabulous to see Michael Clarke finally show some bite.

One of the criticisms of the Test skipper has always been that he is too manufactured and fans don't get to see the real bloke who was raised in working-class western Sydney. Despite his huge weight of Test runs, he has often appeared to be more style than substance and fans have seen right through that.

While Aussies embraced the story of the streetfighter from Launceston Ricky Ponting, they could never get a handle on Clarke who once signed a $1.25 million deal with Dunlop-Slazenger even before he played a Test. There were the tattoos, the model girlfriends, the bleached hair and the diamond earrings. But no-one really knew what Clarke stood for, so it was hard to warm to him.

By telling pale-faced and smarmy Pom Jimmy Anderson to "get ready for a broken f**king arm" during the dramatic closing stages of the Gabba Test, Clarke finally stands for something.

With every hot-blooded gesture, you could almost feel thousands of sports lovers suddenly discovering new warmth for Clarke. It did what 25 Test centuries couldn't ... it won him widespread acceptance from the Australian public.

After losing three Ashes series in a row, Clarke should be applauded for standing up for his team and going chest to chest with the Poms.

There was talk of a line in the sand moment when four Australian players were sacked in India earlier this year ... but Clarke's fiery confrontation was probably the real line in the sand moment for Australian cricket. (...)

Sand? SAND??? Wait till they get to broken f**king Perth!!!

FMD ,,,that article is atrocious

it is the C-M mate

It's been interesting listening to Paris's commbox revelations about the levels of stress he used to suffer leading into games and waiting to bat. It has lead to the likes of the Nob also opening up about pressures of being a Test cricketer and the massive highs and lows they suffer.

When all's said and done, they are mere hooman beans afterall, so it's not surprising that some break under such strain.

I guess that they don't make 'em all as tough as AB, Bacchus, Freddie Trueman and Ray Illingworth.

G.Wood wrote:Harmy's Revelatation

"'I can remember sleepless nights in hotel rooms where I would be in tears"

That's a normal night in Ippy for you isn't it?

There's nothing normal about a night in Ippy - altough you are right about the plenty of tears

embee wrote:

PeterCS wrote:

Ben Dorries, The Courier Mail wrote:Michael Clarke's captaincy and batting in first Test show he's now a true leader
November 26, 2013 12:00AM

FROM Pup to attack dog ... it was fabulous to see Michael Clarke finally show some bite.

One of the criticisms of the Test skipper has always been that he is too manufactured and fans don't get to see the real bloke who was raised in working-class western Sydney. Despite his huge weight of Test runs, he has often appeared to be more style than substance and fans have seen right through that.

While Aussies embraced the story of the streetfighter from Launceston Ricky Ponting, they could never get a handle on Clarke who once signed a $1.25 million deal with Dunlop-Slazenger even before he played a Test. There were the tattoos, the model girlfriends, the bleached hair and the diamond earrings. But no-one really knew what Clarke stood for, so it was hard to warm to him.

By telling pale-faced and smarmy Pom Jimmy Anderson to "get ready for a broken f**king arm" during the dramatic closing stages of the Gabba Test, Clarke finally stands for something.

With every hot-blooded gesture, you could almost feel thousands of sports lovers suddenly discovering new warmth for Clarke. It did what 25 Test centuries couldn't ... it won him widespread acceptance from the Australian public.

After losing three Ashes series in a row, Clarke should be applauded for standing up for his team and going chest to chest with the Poms.

There was talk of a line in the sand moment when four Australian players were sacked in India earlier this year ... but Clarke's fiery confrontation was probably the real line in the sand moment for Australian cricket. (...)

Sand? SAND??? Wait till they get to broken f**king Perth!!!

FMD ,,,that article is atrocious

Agreed.

So Michael Clarke is a bit of a foul-mouthed bogan. That’s less of a hindrance to being an Australian test cricketer than it is a minimum selection criteria. The problem with Clark’s attempted intimidation of England tail ender James Anderson wasn’t the foul language in which it was couched, but the absence of any real sense of intimidation.
When you tell a bloke to get ready for a broken arm, best not to do so in a wavering falsetto before hurrying off in case the umpire catches you. Merv Hughes never trilled at anyone in that fashion. A rare threat from Merv would come rumbling down the pitch at you like an avalanche of bass guitars, with Merv then standing his ground to make sure you knew you were good and threatened, or possibly because Merv sometimes forgot things and had to be reminded to go back to his mark and bowl another ball.
However, a threat on which you can’t deliver isn’t a threat, it’s an invitation to be laughed at or even worse, to be pitied. Telling a bloke to "get ready for a broken f---in' arm" betrays a sensibility more at home punching on in the carpark behind Red Rooster after a disappointing pub crawl than it does striding onto the cricket field at the highest level.
This isn't because the cricket field is an arcadian playground where gentlemen would never think to insult each other like common footballers, but because more is demanded of cricketers than we might expect of a neanderthal forward pack. After all, they’ve got hours of standing around out there to come up with something better than "get ready for a f---in' broken arm".
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Does Anderson not have a girlfriend or wife whose honour could be impugned? Some amusing physical peculiarity which could be mocked in a satisfying fashion? Was Clarke so bereft of wit that he couldn’t even match Freddy Trueman's telling an Aussie batsman of the 1960s not to bother closing the gate behind him as he walked out to the wicket, because "you won't be out there long enough". Or Rod Marsh welcoming Ian Botham to bat with the good natured inquiry, "How’s your wife and my kids?"
Even the immortal Merv could summon up a measure of wry sagacity when the need arose. Having been told by Javed Miandad that he looked like a fat bus conductor, the Victorian fastman duly knocked him over and grinned "Tickets please," on his way past the retreating Pakistani. Having been upbraided by the regal Sir Vivian Richards for continuously glaring at him – "This is my island, my culture. Don't you be staring at me. In my culture we just bowl" – Hughes refused to respond at all, until he’d finally sent Sir Viv on his way at which point he informed him, "In my culture we just say f--- off.”
In both of those last cases of course, the crucial point was that Hughes said nothing until he’d proven himself through direct action. Only then did he have something to say and it wasn’t a stupidly empty school yard threat.
Cricket is not rugby league or union. It’s not a contest of formalised violence, or at least not exclusively. Sledging isn’t a modern invention, nor is it only practised by Australians. But we have the worst reputation for it and the tattooed bogan in charge of our team didn’t improve on that reputation at all in Brisbane.


Read more: http://www.watoday.com.au/comment/blogs/blunt-instrument/pity-clarkes-sledge-which-misses-the-mark-20131125-2y5z7.html#ixzz2lihdrqPv

Logical article.

taipan wrote:Logical article.

Apart from commending Hughes on the Viv incident. To me send offs have always been pretty weak because the batsman has no recourse. Not to mention pointless if the the point of sledging (as is often used as justification) is to upset the batsman and then get his wicket.

embee wrote:In both of those last cases of course, the crucial point was that Hughes said nothing until he’d proven himself through direct action. Only then did he have something to say and it wasn’t a stupidly empty school yard threat.

Perzackerly the point made by AB on the Teev last night and by Tubby during the kerfuffle.

G.Wood wrote:

taipan wrote:Logical article.

Apart from commending Hughes on the Viv incident.  To me send offs have always been pretty weak because the batsman has no recourse.  Not to mention pointless if the the point of sledging (as is often used as justification) is to upset the batsman and then get his wicket.

Merv upset him with his glaring to the point of getting a lesson on island culture ...showing Viv some Footscray culture was a victory dance

Merv would never get Viv out on talent ...and a lot of bowlers lost their talent at the sight of Viv

Took nearly 2.5 days for 'how's your wife and my kids' and the Merv the tram conductor story to come out - which beat the prev ABC/C4/FB record by at least 2.2.days. Doubtless the Viv hits (your choice of at least 6 bowlers) for six after copping a bit of lip, then 'you're the smartarse who knows so much what it looks like -go fetch it!' can't be far behind.

Right now, a bore-off between the mock-outraged hand-wringers and the cricket's-tough-and-so-am-I ex-player commentariat would be an absolute photo finish.

Or Rod Marsh welcoming Ian Botham to bat with the good natured inquiry, "How’s your wife and my kids?"

Wasn't Beefy's response:

"Wife is good, the kids are ugly. "

retarded

I reckon I saw the same sledge in a movie with John Candy playing a baseball catcher

JGK wrote:

Or Rod Marsh welcoming Ian Botham to bat with the good natured inquiry, "How’s your wife and my kids?"

Wasn't Beefy's response:

"Wife is good, the kids are ugly. "

Was bit of a selective quote.

So...does Anderson get the 'sook of the summer' award yet?

Threatens to punch Baileys head in & them goes crying to the umpires when Pup offers him a broken arm in retaliation. Jeez...what a soft c0ck.

It's hard to see any England tailender getting a driveable delivery for the rest of the summer.

JGK wrote:It's hard to see any England tailender getting a driveable delivery for the rest of the summer.

Ditto Warner

Basil wrote:

JGK wrote:It's hard to see any England tailender getting a driveable delivery for the rest of the summer.

Ditto Warner

At the pace the Englanders are bowling, i don't think that will be a problem.