Whining Aussies at it again.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24811775-5001505,00.html

LONG-SIMMERING tensions between Australian and English cricketers have boiled over amid complaints by the Australians that the top player in England's blind cricket team has better sight than the English say he has.

The Australian Blind Cricket Council is expected to lodge a complaint about English all-rounder Nathan Foy with the World Blind Cricket Council after the Blind Cricket Ashes series ends in Sydney today.

Foy helped his team to take a two-nil lead in the four-match series when he scored 100 runs in the second game last Sunday. Because he is classified B1, the most serious of three gradings of visual impairment in blind cricket, Foy's score was doubled to 200, giving England 324 runs and a 54-run win over Australia.

Two Australian blind cricketers told The Australian they were gagged from commenting publicly by team manager Graham Coulton because he was concerned that sponsors would be put off by bad publicity. The players, who asked not to be identified, said the team was angry that Australian authorities had refused to lodge a protest against Foy on Sunday.

Sydney magistrate Christine Haskett, whose nephew Mark Haskett is a member of the Australian team, said she watched play as Foy entered and left the field unassisted, threw the ball accurately during fielding and hit the ball repeatedly while batting. "Our concern is that the English side appears to have an unfair advantage," Ms Haskett said.

She said Coulton had assured her and other supporters that a complaint would be lodged after the tour.

"That's not good enough; it should be done immediately," she said.

Coulton told The Australian there was no evidence that Foy had been wrongly graded a B1 player.

"Foy is a good player with tonnes of ability and sometimes the relatives of our players can get a bit emotional," Coulton said.

Coulton said representations to the World Blind Cricket Council were likely to be made after the tour.

Coulton said he had raised the Australians' reservations with English team manager Ian Martin.

Martin said no approaches had been made to him. He added that Foy had been classified as B1 by the World Blind Cricket Council. The grading meant he was essentially sightless.

"At most, a B1 player could pick out shadows," Martin said.

On the Ashes website, Foy says he has scored seven 100s and four 50s in 28 international innings.

"I have exceptional hearing, which allows me to hear the ball bearings inside the ball even in the air sometimes," he says.

"Coupled with quick reactions and an amazing skill to know where I am in the outfield, I have become an accomplished fielder without sight."

Foy lists one of his interests as watching American football.

England won the third match yesterday at Penrith's Howell Oval in Sydney, snaring the Blind Ashes series 3-0, with one match remaining today at Bankstown Oval.

Australian cricket in crisis.

How do you make a venetian blind? Throw acid in his eyes.

Zat wrote:How do you make a venetian blind? Throw acid in his eyes.

Ah! Excellent advice ... the same way you make a Maltese Cross.

With one finger or two?

There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.

He only had 14 degrees of sight.

Wasn't it measured at 14.999999999999999999999999999999999999?

Racist.

Do you see any robes or burning crosses here?

I can't see anything, you insensitive bastard.

That's what you say. I know you're really Nathan Foy and can see more than you say you can.

Did you know: in blind football, the goalkeepers aren't blind.

Must be the easiest gig in the world.

How shit a goalkeeper do you have to be to conclude that the only way you're going to make it in the game is by playing with the disableds?

In some ways it's like the Kevin Pietersen story.

You realise you've just found the perfect vehicle for Mark Bosnich to continue his comeback?

Are the league leaders blind?

They are when they've had a few beers.

Is Mark Bosnich still alive? Last picture I saw of him, he had both the coke-bloats and the coke-sweats. It's only a short hop, skip and a snort to the coke-death.

He's been back in Aus trying for a comeback. Played a few games early in the A League (may have been practice matches, not sure, the A League is hella festive) and turned out for an 'Oceania Allstars' against David Beckham's LA Gloop in NZ a week or two back.

Drugs f*ck you up, kids...

Zat wrote:You realise you've just found the perfect vehicle for Mark Bosnich to continue his comeback?

Blind, not stoned . . .

tac wrote:

Zat wrote:You realise you've just found the perfect vehicle for Mark Bosnich to continue his comeback?

Blind, not stoned . . .

Have enough of either and you're incapacitated either way.

Zat wrote:He's been back in Aus trying for a comeback. Played a few games early in the A League (may have been practice matches, not sure, the A League is hella festive) and turned out for an 'Oceania Allstars' against David Beckham's LA Gloop in NZ a week or two back.

I think he was going to sign with Wellington (last placed in the A-League) ...but the deal fell through because they couldn't guarantee he'd be the starting goal keeper ...