Monday, August 24, 2009

Congratulations England on the cricket

Just a very brief note tonight.

Few outside the old British Empire and Commonwealth can understand cricket. It is a unique and arcane English sport. Congratulations to England and blow you.!

Mind you, I do not support the blind nationalism that seems to be a feature of modern Australia. Having deliberately dropped our past roots, we now have to rely on what I sometimes think of as jingoism to keep the place together! 

That said, to lose to England is a blow.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now Jim, calm yourself please.

We did not ‘lose to England’; we were, in fact, a most creditable second.

For your international readers, you should point out that this is a contest fought over the burnt remains of the very tools of the game.

Accept this fact, and you are on your way to understanding the pure logic of cricket.

kvd

Jim Belshaw said...

I am, I think, reassured that we came second! I doubt that international visitors except Ramana would understand.

vijayanand said...

Shane Warne – The best bowler Australia has ever produced has opened up his mind to the media. He exposed his discontent regarding umpires. According to the ace spinner barring a few exceptions like Simon Tauter and ASAP Rauf other umpires went awry in terms of performance .Expressing disappointment that the standard of umpiring has deteriorated to the worst extent in the past twenty years of time he opined that though umpiring was a hard job, the performances of the umpires in the Ashes series had been consistently so ordinary. As far as Warne is concerned umpire Billy Bowden whom he expected to deliver correct judgments was also not consistent in performing his duty.
The spinner repents that there are too many instances of such bad judgments, which is increasingly becoming a cause of concern. He directly made a mention of names of umpires Daryl Harper and Billy Bowden, accusing them to be adamant in not confessing their wrong judgments. He also tried to strengthen his claim by mentioning that several players were not having a good opinion about those umpires in their minds. Warne insisted that the umpires should maintain a friendly attitude towards the players by shedding their high-handed attitude Warne also expressed his view repetitively that fifty over match should be withdrawn once for all as if such a change is brought about it would enable the players to spend more time with their families and relieve them from exhaustion.

vijayanand said...

Younis khan, the incumbent skipper of Pakistan cricket team , has proclaimed that outwitting India will be his top priority in the Champions Trophy, when the two sides confront on September 26 in Centurion. Earlier team mate spinner Umar Gul also expressed the same. Sunday, and underline Pakistan’s poor record against India in ICC events.
The fact that Pakistan lost two times to India, in 2007 when the twenty-twenty tournaments were introduced had offended the feelings of his teammates, said Younis. Regarding team India as a highly talented one-day side, he said his teammates were looking forward to a vengeance. A long gap has been left since the last victory of Pakistan over India in the 2004 Champions Trophy. Relations between the two countries have been strained after the terror attacks in Mumbai last November, and this tension reflected in cricket too as both the teams have not played withy each other for an year.

Jim Belshaw said...

VN, I see that you are a real cricket fanatic. In a post I wrote at the time, I said that the first thing that India and Pakistan should do was have an invitation cricket match to prove that cricket was above Mumbai.

India and Pakistan. Australia and England in the cricket, Australian and New Zealand in Rugby and just about anything else. To my mind, cricket provides a formalised way for playing out rivalries!

But, VN, you also know more about cricket than i do!

vijayanand said...

Soured bats for Dravid On seeing the above title do not think that Soured Gangly has given up his decision to quit from all the versions of the game of cricket and is back in the scene. E mean to say that Soured, nicknamed as ‘Dada’ by the fans has hailed the decision of the selection committee to bring back Rahall David and thereby proving that only form was the problem associated with senior players and age had nothing to do with performance. Sourav expressed hope that the right hander would fare well in the upcoming tri-series. For the past one year Rahu l Dravid – ‘ The wall’ had been away from the one day format of the game. Sourav tried to strengthen his contention by citing the inclusion of Nehra as another example. Sourav’s statement assumes significance in this scenario as we find the three batsmen Laxman, Dravid and Sachin who are at mid thirties of age, delivering a consistent good performance.
Five players who were part of the squad that defeated West Indies in the latter’s soil failed to earn a place in the newly announced squad. Dines kart hick was lucky to be included as the last man replacing the recovering Sehwag. The same squad will be retained for both the traceries (in which Srilanka and Newzealand are other participants) and the following Champions trophy to take place in South Africa. Suresh Raina- A player who had established his capability many a time missed out previous tournaments due to a broken thumb has recovered completely. He is back in the squad. Selectors have shown mercy on the other player Yusuf pathan.

Legal Eagle said...

Yes, it stings to lose (and to lose the first Ashes match at Lord's too). But the Poms simply deserved to win; we didn't play well enough.

And it's boring if we win all the time (although I think my father would disagree - he goes into a decline when Australia loses the cricket...)

Jim Belshaw said...

Vn, do you have a blog? I clicked through to your profile, but no blog is listed. I stand a bit in awe of your cricket knowledge.

LE, I am with you!