What say the aussies about the (in)experience of their bowlers in India?

Enigma, read what I said right after the bit that you quoted and you'll find the answer to your own post. And there's a difference with preparing pitches that suit the home side's strengths and (under)preparing dust bowls that are almost dangerous to bat on and that finish the game in under 3 days because the Indians got thumped previously. Ring a bell?

Tuesday, I was only looking at the series [i]a priori[/i]. You are of course correct that the Indians are perfectly capable of doctoring pitches if they need to, and I don't think they are the only ones. And "people" are not picking McLaren to go there, only Karma is and his selections change every 10 seconds. McLaren should get a run at #8 in an ODI series but there's no need for him in the test squad just yet. We need Andrew Hall though, he would replace Ntini well. Perhaps Zondeki at long last? I also think Gibbs is past it.. Boucher is a better bat and a better team man. So 1. Smith (c) 2. McKenzie 3. Amla 4. Kallis 5. Prince 6. AB de Villiers 7. Boucher (wk) 8. Botha 9. Hall 10. Morkel 11. Steyn. Okay, I give in about Harris, and I think Boucher should be given the chance to retire. He hasn't warranted dropping him at all. Might I remind you not too long ago he helped Smith seal the test series when batsmen were falling like flies all around him? Oh, and for the ODI team, I think we need to have a look at Kuhn as keeper.

NeilB, you are quite right about the phenomenal depth in the team (even if Aussie A were made to follow on against India A in a 3 day match a few dayas ago).. but you simply cannot compare Hayden and Jaques, or Casson and Warne. Of their bowlers, Clark is 18 tests old and has never bowled in the subcontinent (except for 1 test against Bangladesh where he bowled 29 overs and picked up 1 wicket), Johnson is 9 tests old and has never bowled outside the Windies or Australia, and even Brett Lee has never played in the subcontinent barring 1 test in Sri Lanka and 2 in Bangladesh, where he averaged 56 and 91 respectively. Add to this the rookie Casson and the lack of a true all rounder (although Clarke as a bowler is extremely underrated in my opinion0), and you can see the Aussies struggling to bowl the Indians out (especially as the Indians still have statistically the best middle order in the world along with 2 in form openers). But then all we had was an ageing Ntini. It will be close, so don't count your chickens before they hatch.

At least Pom is good at insults, OzUkChild.

And Tuesday puts her nose in front in the race for the prat award.. keep going Tuesday, you might just win it! Oh, and Pom, we agree once more ;p I'm mighty proud of my team, they lived up to the (high) standards I had and I'm very happy. I'm going to enjoy Ind-Aus, Aus-SA and Ind-Eng, too. My predictions (hold on to your seats, I'm always right!) : Aus will struggle in India with Casson as their spinner, and if Symonds and Hayden don't play they will have even more problems. Johnson will be rather ineffective. The dangermen for the Aussies will be Clark, Clarke and Hussey. I wonder if Ponting's trouble against Singh will continue. On a flat track, it will be a draw. On a dust bowl India will win. On a (more or less) green top, Aus have the advantage even though India's quicks are in good form. Bangalore is flat, Mohali is a turner traditionally, and Delhi and Nagpur are great pitches which offer assistance to seamers then spinners. Therefore, to my mind, India have the advantage going into the series, and Aus will have to work long and hard to get more than a drawn series out of it.

Oh and kudos to Smith for stating the bleedin' obvious.

Looking at England's summer report cards you would have thought that they'd won everything and that they were all great players. I'm still giggling.

OzUkMan, you are in the mix with Tuesday in the competition for this forum's biggest prat, and are leading quite comfortably at the moment. 1/ When you say "Which leads me to my next point the Bangers and Zimb cannot seriously retain test match status", you are obviously oblivious to the fact that Zim does not have test status, 2/ India and Sri Lanka (and arguably WI pre-KP.. they are definately on the up) have superior test teams to England, and India will challenge the under-strength Aussies later this year (the A-sides have it Australia A trail by 170 odd with 2 wickets remaining) 3/ Your argument that the subcontinent does not "want" test cricket is just plain old fashioned stupid. Ask Pom what the atmosphere was like when he was watching SL - Eng, and you'll see the interest India-Aus gets later. Idiot.

Visit australia! Come see a big rock and tiny penguins! No thanks lol

I get it Ed mybad.

Ed - in your article, it's a bit harsh to call Puttick and JP Duminy average, looking at their inexperience. And lol @ KP, he wants 13 players on the field. Harmison, Freddie, Jones, Broad, Anderson, Siders and Monty makes for a few too many bowlers and we haven't even talked about Hoggard yet.

Today, look at the non-white cricketers in the Proteas' squad : Amla has proven himself, Prince certainely has, malgre (it's french, get over it) his doubters, Ntini doesn't need any backing up, Duminy has awesome first class stats, so does Zondeki and despite what you may say about Philander, he averages 26 with the bat and 22 with the ball in First class cricket. The only one to my mind that may be called a quota is Peterson, but even he has decent FC stats (av 35 with the ball isn't great but for a Saffer left arm spinner he'll take it). I think something else to take into account is the fact that the standard of county cricket is most likely higher than our own domestic stuff. Very few kolpak's have actually stated their intent on playing for England compared to the amount of kolpaks there is, so all is not lost. Look at all the Kolpaks in the SA A sides and Emerging players sides. Regardless, the whole Kolpak thing will be moot soon thanks to the EU courts.

"'Okes, at the break-down, ask and you will receive. And if you don't receive immediately you must ask harder. Bakkies usually asks head-first. That works too.'" That made my day.

I agree wholeheartedly and 100% with Pom. And Penny, stop making a fool of yourself.

Delcricket, that pitch was the flattest I've seen in a long long while, and Sri Lanka went on to post 750 or there abouts. My grandma could get a century on such a pitch.

Ha Penny it's easy to get you going isn't it ; ). As for NeilB, well, you would be right if we had been losing like heck just before.. but the fact of the matter is we haven't lost a test series in a long while now. Surely the coach and the players had a hand in that somewhere. We will challenge the aussies. Anyway BigSteve brings up a valid point about England.. where were all these supporters just after their test loss? Now all of a sudden England are the best in the world and they gonna win the ashes.. and then Pom says SA supporters are fickle. If we were, we wouldn't still be talking after being beaten by an inferior team at our game. Unless I'm very much mistaken, the great Aussies also have lost ODI series' after winning the test series, and that more than once. I'll take the test series win in England no matter what happened after, and I think Pom would too. We haven't suddenly become a bad team, and England have a helluva lot to prove, although Fred back is a good start, and the Stanford millions is a great incentive. Just ask Steve Harmison.. hypocrite.

Tuesday, we will never be a sporting power again? That's why we just beat England 2-1 in their back yard, something the Aussies failed to do last time you were there. Sheesh people calm down, so we lost a few ODIs to a good side. You people have short term memory. I say let Arthur build on what he started.

Tuesday, I don't care. We'll let the cricket do the talking in December. I think we can give you lot a run for your money. If you win, so be it. I think our boys have a real chance. Anyway, Pom, after all your comments about people not getting jokes, you find yourself in that same embarassing situation. Anyway I've watched Malan and McLaren and neither are that good. McLaren is a decent allrounder but Albie and certainely Parnelle show more promise. As for Malan, well, he's 20 and he certainely looks like staying in England (born there after all), but so far he's only shown that he can play hit-and-giggle cricket. To say he's our best young batsman is a bit too much, when we have guys like Duminy. Ah well, Tuesday demonstrates once more her ignorance.

I wonder if Kallis really did knick that. Anyhow, Pom, you are obviously not very observant, as my continuing presence here shows that despite what I may say about my teams, I still follow them and encourage them. I haven't "turned my back" on anyone. But I guess I have come to not expect much from you in the way of intelligent and informed banter. Oh, and as I always arrive on the last train, I think it's fair to say that Fred is back. Man of the series so far by a country mile.

Excellent fielding that. I hope we can mount a serious challenge, I'd like to see what KP does under pressure.

I like Tuesday.. when we lose we're the worst in the world, we choke, we this and we that (cf last India test), and when we win, barely anything. Anyway, I don't care about the cricket at the moment, rugby is where it's at. We couldn't continue losing in both sports, that wouldn't be like us. 53 - 8.. that must hurt. Revenge for the 48-0 or whatever a couple of years back when Jaco VDW still thought he could play rugby. Binkaf, don't read too much into this. England have a good ODI side that is in form, SA have a good ODI side that isn't in form. It's just one of those things, the victory was deserved and that's it. We were outclassed. I do, however, think that 1/ the tour was a success after the test triumph and 2/ KPs talent as captain cannot be judged based on this. Sure, the confidence players have been given a boost (Harmison is more interested in Stamford millions to be honest, and it's almost shameful lol.. whichever quick gets dropped for Harmison is going to hate it), but everything is easy when you're winning. How KP performs under fire will be what tells us what is going on.

Woohoo, Boks 12 Aus 3.. come on Bokke, win this last one for me. I'd rather see the Blacks take the 3 nations lol. Australia sux!

I dunno what new era Arthur went on about earlier but if he is dumb enough to drop Kallis then we deserve to be pummelled. If dropped, I think Kallis will most likely retire, and we will be left with a gaping hole in our top order (let's face it, when you think about the batsman the most likely to score a century in our top 6, you'd have to say Kallis). My team to face the poms : 1. Heino Kuhn 2. Amla 3. Kallis (c) 4. Dane Vilas 5. JP Duminy 6. AB de Villiers (wk) 7. W Parnelle 8. A Morkel 9. J Botha 10. M Morkel 11. Dale Steyn. Kuhn can whack it but will struggle against express pace of Harmison, Vilas will manage, and I think Parnelle will bring that element of nagging accuracy to the game forcing the batsmen to go after Steyn and Morkel.

Good thing this Parnell bloke is still looking good. We need an allrounder with nagging accuracy and a handy bat in our ODI squad.. remind you of anyone? I reckon we should just go home now and not come out until Australia lol.. losing to England the way we did was embarrassing. I've been looking for possible plusses for this ODI series and so far all I can find is that in the next 2 games the youngsters will get their chance. Oh, and Albie Morkel is looking better and better.

Bleh.

Kallis and Amla at the crease. They will probably bat for the draw. Only 40-odd overs, after all.

KP has won it for sure for his team.. hell, he's even got Matt Prior playing cricket shots! (lol @ the commentator on sky) KP absolutely outplayed us in the first 25 overs by inspiring Matt Prior and whatshisface to bat well, and then decided that he didn't even need to bat himself as his inspiration was enough. He was right : Fred batted like a man possessed! (sic). I must say, I agree with the arrogant one, he's an idiot. It's the pressure that will make or break him as an England captain.

Sorry Binkaf if I make another "logicless" excuse to deny KP a "well deserved credit", but in the final test there was no opposition and KP had an influence only in the first ODI. He will be a good skipper if he maintains confidence, but then it's easy to be a skipper when winning against a team underperforming with injury problems accross the board. KP under pressure will probably either make him a great England captain, or it will break him and send the England team into chaos.

To the "concerned fan" from the mailbox : 1/ Amla has the best reflexes in the SA team behind only AB and possibly Prince (watch him at short leg).. he just scores too damn slow for ODI cricket 2/ Kluesner apparently never really fit in in the Proteas set up 3/ All those players you mentioned, with a select few exceptions, have been tried an tested at ODI/test level and have failed. The exceptions are Pollock (they were talking about dropping him due to his loss of pace, although I think he would still bowl better than Ntini or Nel), Hall (retired after his non-inclusion in the T20 W/C), and Kluesner. Oh, and "we are all going to hell in a handcart" made me giggle all by myself in the office. Stares abound.

Bleh, Smith needs to rest because we have no chance against the Aussies without him. It will be 1. Gibbs 2. Kallis 3. Amla 4. AB 5. Duminy 6. Boucher 7. Albie 8. Botha 9. Nel 10. Steyn 11. Ntini.. That makes for light batting, especially considering Amla's inexperience, even at FC level. Ouch.

Smith out, Kallis will probably open (JP perhaps?) and Philander will come back in. That makes for one heck of a light batting order. It will take some phenomenal stuff from the saffers and/or a poor game from the Poms to win this from here. SA sport is in a rut at the mo', between injuries (loads of our top players in cricket and rugby) and bad performances (first time nilled at home in 80 years or so). Let's all go home.

Fancy that, Dave Tickner is making sense again. That coupled with England thumping SA in an ODI by 10 wickets means that tomorrow night we will be seeing pigs fly. Get your binoculars, Tuesday, you won't want to miss this! All that's missing now is for Robin Peterson to be called up in the place of Ntini and to take 7 wickets in the next ODI, with Nel the allrounder smashing a century. I do hope that the saffers wake up and try to lift their game.. being tired after the test series is nonsense, as only Smith, Kallis, AB, Ntini a,d Boucher played all the games. We have half a new team! Stop with the excuses, produce the goods.

Thanks Tuesday. Warnapurna, 0 runs, 18 balls in the powerplays. Wow, even Vaughan would be proud of that. Good bowling from the Indian quicks though.. where is Ishant by the way? Injured?

Impressive stuff from Sri Lanka. Good use of bowlers, and good bowling.

Tuesday, shut up, you have no credibility. I have been looking at your older posts, and they are frought (is that even a word?) with inconsistency and plain old biased garbage. I guess we'll excuse you the bias, being an Aussie and all, but some things you say, such as Amla should replace Smith as captain and then proceed to say JP Duminy should get in the team instead of Amla, prove that 1/ you have no clue what you are talking about or 2/ you change your mind to suit circumstances enough. It's easy to predict the Saffers losing because you predict it every time. We happen to have won alot more than lost recently so your predictions keep going down the drain (I have India 1-1 and England 2-1 right so far).. and then you really think people take you seriously?

Steyn was defending 83.. even Walsh wouldn't have managed to defend 83. Steyn took 7 in his last test and hasn't shown much of anything at ODI level.. it will come, though. Giving him something to bowl at might help.

They will always say what they want, but SA lost yesterday, and lost well, because we got all out for 83. In the other ODI, KP's 90 set up the win and in the last test he scored the highest score in the game, and that is leading from the front. In this ODI, the bowlers bowled international-level line and length, and our batsmen played schoolboy shots. There is no inspiration involved. KP is a great player and his confidence seeps in the team, but to credit him with the win when the batsmen are throwing their bats at everything.. everytime we got something resembling a decent ball we feathered it. It was one of those days.. no need to call for anyone's head etc etc. If SA can come back it will show the character we have, and if we can't (which I can perfectly understand at this point), well, credit to the poms who will have outplayed us. I seem to remember a 5-0 drubbing in Australia and then the Aussies losing the CB series to the Poms. Sh*t happens. Oh, and lol @ Pom re JP.

Dear Ed, I am fluent in French et je pourrais traduire les blagues dans l'article mais je vais laisser les autres les d¿uvrir. Anything else?

Ross Hastie's work is genius, and his French is remarkably spot on too. Thumbs up.

Sigh. Oh, and no one cares about the Olympics. Anyone saying they do are either oversatisfied Australians or are lying to look good.

LOL @ C365 for that quote. Let me guess, is a certain daft Englishman with no knowledge of cricket and an uncurable and irrational hate for leg byes writing the headlines now?

One of those days when everything goes wrong. SA batted badly and got bowled at well by Broad and Flintoff. Well done Poms.. let's see how we can bounce back.

Pom, Duminy has a First Class average of 53. England would kill for a 24 year old with such an average. Anyhow, what is going on at Notts is rather ridiculous.. good bowling and bad batting makes 77/9. Somehow we manage to do this sometimes. Ah well, one of those off days.

Broad is on fire and I am once more among you. SA sport is having me depressed at the mo' so I try not to watch too much of it, but I guess I resist rugby better than cricket. De Villiers isn't a bad coach, he just has the wrong idea. What we need to know is whether he's willing to learn. If so, keep him. If not, get Meyer back. As for SA Quota selections in cricket, I guess more recently we've had just plain old bad selections. All countries have them. Look at England and Pattinson, WI and their spinners (or lack thereof), etc. Saying a player is a quota selection without basis in fact shows the mentality currently prevalent in SA sport alas, because it is perfectly feasable, if not likely, that these selections are due to incompetent fools selecting, especially now that Smith and Arthur have very little say in their team, which is pure folly. I for one was for the axing of Prince prior to the England series because he was more or less a dead weight. Then he scored runs and proved me wrong, and I apologised and ate my pie. It has nothing to do with colour of skin. Amla has proven his ability since his first trip to England and he has matured nicely. SA fans want their players to be scoring hundreds and taking 5 fors immediately, like Smith and Steyn. When that doesn't happen they forget that not everyone is as good as they are at first, but with work and diligence, as Prince and Amla and many others have shown, you gain experience and BMT and you become a match winner. If SA win this from 26/3, we'd be more than lucky. Well done Broad, it seems you can bowl after all. Sometimes.

I wonder why David Sales has never gotten a chance in an England shirt? I watched him hit 200+ against Lancashire I think it was, and I remember wondering why isn't this bloke playing for England? Stylish, can hit hard and is in good form. Decent average too.

"He will eventually retire perhaps as the greatest cricketer ever behind Bradman." Well, if we ever had any doubts about Tuesday's infatuation with KP, they have now been put to rest. My guess is that she is a groupie that was refused by Smith and his team and got onto the England bus somehow. I thought you were starting to come out of it after the England tour, but I guess I'll have to continue not taking you seriously. Anyway, Penny, I'm not here to get reactions out of people, I'm here to discuss cricket =) Either prove me wrong or give me arguments à la Tuesday so I can laugh at you. RE Tendulkar, I don't honestly know. I think he could continue scoring well until 45, but I also think that it is time for the Indians to bring in new blood in tests, starting with Yuvraj. Lose Dravid first, then Ganguly, then Tendulkar. VVS will always be my second favourite non-SA player. As for Hayden vs Sehwag, well, I've never liked Sehwag because he can produce a double or triple ton on his day, but that happens once ever 10 tests. Hayden is a helluva lot more consistent. We'll have to wait for Hayden to return to see his current form.

Penny, I agree with you. Clarke is severely underrated, and his worth will only become apparent when Ponting retires and there is a bigger hole in the Aussie middle order. One thing similar about Clarke and Kallis is that both of them are accomplished batsmen, and both of them cannot seem to transform good hundreds into huge hundreds. But Clarke is still young(ish, for an Aussie). 1.Smith 2. Hayden 3. Sangakkara 4. Jayawardene (c) 5. Clarke 6. Chanderpaul 7. De Villiers would be a good lineup, although Clarke isn't quite ready for the fifth bowler tag, I feel. I would go with 1. Smith (c) 2.Hayden 3.Sangakkara 4. Kallis 5. Clarke 6. Chanders 7. De Villiers. You lose on the captaincy but you gain a useful partnership breaker, a second spinner, and I feel a better batsman on tougher tracks.

Tuesday, as a cricket fan, I don't give a donkey's rear end who's body is better, or who has the better woman (Smith has gone on record as saying that he doesn't want a woman because they interfere with his cricket, fancy that.), or who earns more. It is not relevant! The facts were laid bare in a fair manner by Pom. I would say KP has the superior batting ability and the capability of destroying an attack completely, whereas Smith is definately the one I would put my house on to survive 60 overs under pressure. Who is a better leader remains to be seen.. I don't think KP will do a bad job, he has the right idea in giving confidence to Harmison and Fred.

Dear Pom, we agree. KP does have one advantage though : on his day, he can turn a test match completely around, with lots of runs at a high strike rate, and that also demoralises an opposing attack. Smith can do that, but rarely does so in Test cricket. I can only dream of a top 6 that reads Smith, Mac, Amla, Kallis, KP, De Villiers (which would only work if either Smith or KP deflate their head). Anyhow, Penny, how come I get lambasted for bias wheras dear Oz admits to bias and nothing comes of it? Double standards much? Kallis is by far the greatest all-rounder of his generation and is up there in the top 10 (or even 5) of all time. We all agreed upon that some time ago. Ponting is an excellent batsman, but in a team that has Smith, Hayden, Sangakkara, Jayawardene, Chanderpaul and AB de Villiers in it would generally have more need of an all rounder, don't you think? Only 4 bowlers is tough for an attack.. even the Aussies use Clarke (underrated in the extreme) and Symonds (rather overrated). The direct confrontation would be between Jayawardene and Ponting, but I feel that Jayawardene is the superior captain. Oh, and there are 2 Aussies in my team, Hayden and Clark.

Ikid, Lee and Morkel aren't the same kind of bowler. Lee is short(er), fast, can reverse it and will always take a few wickets without blasting sides out of the water. Morkel is tall, lanky, and has a proven ability to take batsmen apart, especially with extra bounce. In my mind, in the bowling stakes, it would be Lee vs Steyn and Morkel vs Clark/Harmison/Fred, form permitting for all 6. It is worth noting that Clark and Lee are almost 33 and 32 respectively. The difference between Lee and Steyn is that Steyn has a proven ability to completely destroy opposing line-ups : Steyn has 8 5-fors and 2 10-fors in 25 games, whereas Lee has 9 5-fors from 65 tests. Steyn is also much younger, at 25. Steyn is however the inferior batsman by far, but with such a top 6 that is hardly a requirement. In the tall fast bowler stakes, Harmison on form can do damage, of course, but he has been on form very few times in his career. Morkel is as yet unproven, and Fred will never be a true flat out bowler because he has his batting to work on. To me, the best in the world (by far) at the moment is Clark.. I haven't seen him bowl badly yet in his 18 tests, and he is the closest thing to a McGrath currently playing in the world. His only problem is that he is 32, almost 10 years older than Morkel.

Careful, MasterG, you only have one aussie in your team. Prepare to get lambasted. Anyhow, your team is exactly like mine except you have KP in instead of Kallis and Jayawardene instead of Sangakkara. Well, I agree with you about Jayawardene the keeper, but I think with batsmen like Chanderpaul, Jayawardene, Sehwag and Smith, you can afford to have one batsman rediscovering his form, all the while acting as a fifth bowler. Kallis got Collinwood (x2), Flintoff, Bell, Cook, KP (x2), Ambrose (x2) and Anderson. Not bad for a fifth bowler, huh? I would prefer squad balance to have one genuine allrounder. The only other option was Fred, and Fred's batting is even worse.

Based on the fact that that Kallis had one bad series with the bat (in 10 years) and now Ponting is suddenly better? Not to mention his 10 wickets, of which one was a tail-ender. These things win series.. it's not my fault all the Aussies are unhappy because the last time they won a series in England it was in 2001. As for the money debate, quite frankly, no one cares. And Smith will be remembered as a great captain by anyone not presenting the usual Aussie bias, just like Jayawardene will be, and just like Ponting will be. KP will be remembered chiefly as a greedy sob. Oh, and my stats on Smith's and KP's win/loss/draw ratio are correct. Not talking about captaincy, because KP is just starting. It's just obvious who's in the better team. I'm going to enjoy Aus vs SA.

Smith's stats : Played 70, Won 36, Lost 19, Drawn 16. KP's stats : Played 43, won 14, lost 15, drawn 14. Tuesday?

MasterG has a good point : if the world ended today, Smith will be remembered as SA's most successful captain, who lead with his heart and his soul and wasn't a bad bat. KP will be remembered as a South African who was greedy and sought his fortune elsewhere, eventually getting into and captaining England because no one else was capable of doing the job. I know which situation I would prefer. Anyway, Penny, Flintoff, England captain? Ha! I think even your deluded self would agree with me that Nasser Hussein and MP Prawn were England captains. Andrew "Pedalo" Flintoff was a joke of a captain. I digress. I would pick Kallis over Ponting in my team based on 2 facts : 1. he would probably get into most sides on his bowling alone and 2. his last lean period was 10 years or so ago, just like Ponting. As batsmen, they are similar, have similar stats and similar records. Ponting is (was) a captain, and Kallis will never be. But Jayawardene and even Smith are better captains than Ponting is so those services are not needed. Kallis has the advantage of being a world class bowler in his own right. Prove me wrong : give me one good reason to pick Ponting over Kallis. Kallis has had one bad series, and you want to leave him out. Weren't you the one criticizing the Indians and us South Africans for this mentality? Pot? Kettle?

The crime Smith has to live with? You mean butchering England captains into submission? Yeah, I would have trouble sleeping at night too. Let's hope he doesn't do it to Aussie captains, otherwise we're going have to lock him up for being too damn good.

Tuesday, weren't you saying the exact same thing about Smith before the England series? What happened, hmm? He started the turn-around at Lords' with Mac and then won the series-clincher. Can't argue with that. Let's just wait and see what happens, shall we? You also stated previously : "I wonder if Captain Lard is jealous of KP because of his much extra earning power representing a much more efficient and wealthy country. KP is laughing all the way to the bank!!!" And after I disproved your bollocks about earning power with the back up of someone who has lived in both countries (take a bow, Pom), you suddenly talk about travel? Where I come from, buying power has the most effect on someone at home, even an international cricketer =)

Indeed, my memory was bad for the India series. But funny how Penny conveniently forgets the bowling. My stats are good for the last 12 months, stretching back to August 2007. If you can include Hayden's runs against the Indians, I can include Kallis' runs against the Pakistanis, the New Zealanders, the Indians and the West Indians. Who was Wisden Cricketer of the Year? Ponting had 2 decent innings so far this year, 140 on a flat track in Adelaide where there were 4 centuries in 2 innings and 1300+ runs, and 158 against the Windies in the first test against the bowling might of Powell, Edwards, Bravo and a 1 cap spinner ; Ponting's next highest score is 60 something. Let's compare, shall we? In the same time period, Kallis has 6 centuries and averages 57.86. Not to mention the bowling ; he averages 27.3, which is less than a run above Clark's average. Australia would kill for a Kallis, and as for my team, a straight pick between Kallis and Ponting, Kallis would get the nod based on those stats. The 5 South Africans in my team are all worthy of their spot. Do you challenge Smith's spot, after what he just did to the English? AB de Villiers, 217* after the Indians scored 76? Then the 174 in England? Not to mention his fielding. Morkel? Who would replace him? Harmison? lol.. Steyn, 86 wickets @ 18, 6 5-fors. Replace him for Lee? Lee has 9 5-fors in his CAREER, which is 65 odd tests, whereas Steyn is on 25 odd. The Kallis bit we've already been through. 1. Smith 2. Hayden 3. Sangakkara (w) 4. Jayawardene (c) 5. Kallis 6. Chanderpaul 7. AB De Villiers 8. Morkel 9. Clark 10. Steyn 11. Mendis. Anyone else want to argue with my team?!

Max, you are quite right. However, I was merely useing it as an example to contradict Tuesday's bollocks, and as she had no answer for it I will assume that it was sufficient. You can go into the economics and/or politics of people hiring "manservants" as they would be called in England on another forum if you so wish. // @ ArrogantOz, we all know about the Aussie bias but how can you presume to be picking a team based on recent events and then pick Hayden (when was the last time he played a test?) and leave out the victorious Smith? You blab alot about the unfair treatment of Punter, and then you do the same with Smith! As for your team, I would go 1. Smith 2. Sehwag 3. Sangakkara (w) 4. Jayawardene (c, season avg 75) 5. Kallis (it was either Kallis or Ponting, and they both had dissapointing previous series. Only difference is that Kallis topped the bowling charts with 10 wickets at under 30s, and only 1 of them a tail ender.. and on top of that Kallis has a better season average (57.8) this year!) 6. Chanderpaul (season avg 98.00) 7. AB De Villiers (season avg 57) 8. Morkel 9. Clark 10. Steyn (No Lee? Steyn is Lee², don't need the same bowler twice. Lee is at his apogee, Steyn is still rising and is arguably the better bowler already, as number of 5-fors attests.) and 11. For now, Mendis. I do think that once people start to pick him he will panic more and his average will increase, but based on what I've seen, SL have an able successor to Murali. 12th man : Lee. Voilà! Also tempted to include McKenzie (since recall : 10 matches, 960 runs @ 64.00), Murali (for Morkel ; the 2 spinners backed up by Steyn and Clark would be crazy, depending on the surface), KP (season avg 45), Sarwan (avg 58.8), Symonds (77) and Misbah (78). You could also give the gloves to AB and play Ponting (avg 48) or Sangakkara without the gloves. Messy, messy.

Well, considering that I was talking about Smith and KP, it was only right of me to talk about the priveledged class.

Calling Ponting "Captain Drunk" has about as much basis in fact as calling Graeme Smith "Captain Lard". Only difference is, Smith is on the rise while Ponting won't last much longer. Ideally, Ponting will quit after losing back-to-back series' with Smith's South Africa this summer. Smith has deposed of 2 England captains already, why not an Aussie one? Remember my prophetic powers! I don't often get things wrong =P

"I wonder if Captain Lard is jealous of KP because of his much extra earning power representing a much more efficient and wealthy country." Another failure by Tuesday! In fact, due to the huge difference in cost of living, Smith's standard of living would be higher than KP's. As I'm sure dear Pom would confirm, less buys more in SA, where maids and gardners are ridiculously cheap to hire, for example. You just can't compare.. I would choose SA over England in terms of standard of living any day of the week, and I haven't even started on the weather yet. =)

Lol @ Dhoni's comments about Mendis. "Even Murali some seven-eight years back was really difficult." Now Murali has 750+ test wickets. You people think Mendis' uprising will last? If it does, the two will be tough to stop anywhere, even at Lords'.

"Or, rather, something vaguely resembling our game, but with all the subtlety and interest drained out of it." Alan Tyers hits the proverbial nail on the head. Cricket at the Olympics is not a good idea due to the simple fact that China will send a team of 20 young'uns to Australia, breed them into 7 foot fast bowlers and 7 foot smashers, and then complete the travesty of our sport by winning gold medal. T20 at the Olympics. My word.

Angelina, the Indian team had lots of fresh faces today and lost by 8 wickets. Anyway, the captaincy debate about Punter is rather a moot point as all through his captaincy carreer things have been pretty simple : the batting order sets itself, and the bowling does too. When in doubt, McGrath and Warne. He has shown cracks now that these two are gone, such as the usage of Johnson when it was obvious that he was out of knick, as well as the whole McGill fiasco. His captaincy will be tested more and more.. there are only 2 test captains today who have shown the resilience and intelligence required : DPMD Jayawardene and GC Smith. Jayawardene has shown time and time again the nous required to manage a team, and Smith has buried 2 English captains so far and leads a team that gels perfectly, as shown by their record over the past year. Oh, and Mendis is fantastically tough to pick. The look on Yuvraj's face was priceless ; it was a look that said that he had no clue what the ball just did. It reminded me somewhat heavily of a certain Prawn swishing at thin air to Dale Steyn!

I'm with arrogantoz no this one 100%. I agree with all what you say, except that I feel that the Vanuatu under 14s have a better chance at the T10 tournament for the Olympics.

Lol thanks Penny =P

I'm back folks! What did I miss? All I had on my camping trip in Southwest France was the Daily Mail which proclaimed that England's the best team ever after beating us, that KP will win the Ashes and absolutely nothing on SA. Talk about partisan journalism! Anyway, I take back my statements on KP being captain, I think he will be a decent captian if he can maintain confidence levels in his more prone charges, most notably his quicks. Who talked here first about Harmison returning? And about not dropping Ntini or Boucher? And for the Saffers winning 2-1? I think I'll take a bow =) I shall be called the new prophet, because the other one really isn't very good at prophetising =P It's good to be back. What are you lot debating about now?

Exactly. Freddie here in England is treated like god in cricket circles. These Britons are crazy.

Ryan Sidebottom is a cert and, if there is any justice, will soon be made Prime Minister and Knighted. .. lol good call

Amen.

Well, for keepers I rate McCullum high and Dhoni higher than AB at the moment.. but I think AB needs a few years at the top to settle in before he can start producing the goods. He'll never be a Boucher behind the stumps, but he'll be adequate and he is a great batsman. Remind you of anyone?

Interesting reading, good call guys

Boycott to mate with Kallis.. lol

Good writing.

And I'd like to know why Mr Tickner is obsessed with Jesse Ryder.. and to think I thought the 'unkle' was a clever and witty reference to the band Unkle when you were talking about the Arctic Monkeys. Disillusionment.

Not bad, Mr Tickner. But what happened to all those comments about antipodean spies and whatnot? No more predictions? Aww, come on, you had me waiting!

LOL I knew there had to be a comment about Ryder in here somewhere. What does old Tickner think now about him, and the Black Cap's inability to win?

Personally, first up I think that transformation at national level is a bit silly if you don't start at the bottom, getting everyone (blacks, whites, yellows, greens, ..) playing the sport they love with equal opportunities or as close as you can get to them. Then you will see a gradual, "natural" transformation. South Africa is 80% black. If you start at grass roots level, more and more black players will come through the system as they have been doing so now without help from corrupt and power hungry politicians : Ntini, Gibbs, Adams, Amla, Prince.. would you consider these players to be "quota" players? If I was black/yellow/green playing in SA today, I would be downright ASHAMED to be considered as a quota player. You're there not because of ability, you're there because you're black/yellow/green. I'll take the example of France's football team : out of a squad of 17, 13 are black. France is 90% white. Okay, you get the backdrop of apartheid and racism.. but we can't keep using that as an excuse. The best players in a country should represent that country, whether they be black, white, yellow or green. I do not care. If we had a world cup-winning squad in which there was no white player, it would be perfectly fine with me, as long as the Protea for cricket and the Springbok for rugby is flying high. I am proud of the rainbow nation.. I am not proud of the policies of politicians wanting to install nominal quotas at the highest level.. they break more players than they make. Would you fancy being called a quota player?

Someone send this to Tickner so he can see how it's done please.. good article, especially the immortal KP bit.

Great article, well thought out, interesting viewpoints, funny remarks. Not. So much for blogging. I guess the standard of C365 in general is so high that when you see something of this sort, you can't help but compare.

Australia would have been 136 for 7 with Brett Lee as their only recognised batsman left in the first innings had Bucknor or Benson brought their hearing aides (I forget which.. but then again they both had shockers.). Then they would have lost a few more extra wickets in their second innings, and India's top order would have been allowed to bat. But then again, they wouldn't have needed to. 180 would have been a good score for Australia in their 1st innings, India 532. That's a 352 deficit. Ponting got an extra couple of runs and so did a few others, but never mind. 401 in the second innings would have left India with a mere 49 to get, and this with an entire top order at their disposal! Wow! Ponting would not have declared, but he would have still lost comfortably. What happened to neutrality in journalism?

"South Africa, with one world-class batsman and no world-class bowlers are not among them. " Is Tuesday writing articles for C365 now as well?