We need to lose the Crud!

Ok. England just played some marvellous cricket there! Particularly good stuff from Andrew Flintoff and Andrew Strauss. However, Australia have some changes that need to be made. Firstly, get a proper wicketkeeper! We currently have a keeper who is a batsmen who can sort of keep. Wrong selection! We need a decent keeper! Haddin is a good batsman but a dud keeper.

Problem two: Mitchell Johnson. Not so long ago he was a world beater with his bowling. Recently he's been a pie chucker. I assume this to be an aberration as he has been so good in the last 12 months! I'd persevere with Mitch and expect him to sort out his action problems soon. At least he hasn't lost his batting form. Perhaps too much expectatation had been applied to Mitch to lead our bowling attack. Hilfenhaus has been excellent in the Ashes. Siddle has been good in patches but too inconsistent. This has been more costly than usual due to Mitch's excessively wayward bowling. We need another bowler who can be guaranteed to tie the batsmen up and apply pressure. We have one and his name is Stuart Clark. He must be picked for the next test, possibly at the expense of Peter Siddle.

Cut The Crap on Best Aussie XIs

Now some decisions are hard to make, but some are just absurd! Ian Healy, Rod Marsh, Don Tallon, Bert Oldfield - they are the great keepers that Australia has had. Adam Gilchrist is NOT in the same class! It's true his batting was outstanding but that's not what the role of the keeper is. It is to keep wickets!!! If you've got a strong batting lineup, that extra batting strength is even more uneccessary.

I find the bowlers the hardest to choose.

Shortlist:

Bowlers:

Spinners - O'Reilly, Grimmett, Warne. Pacemen - Lindwall, K.Miller (AR), Lillee, Thomson, McGrath. How do you leave any of those bowlers out?

Batsmen:

Openers - Morris, Ponsford, Simpson, Hayden
Middle-Order - Bradman, G.Chappell, Ponting, Border

I'm confident with the first seven. Not at all confident about the bowlers. You could use any of those shortlisted there. Anyhow bugger popular opinion. I'm going to go with what feels right. Lillee and Thommo! and O"Reilly and Grimmett! Warnie can lug the drinks to lose a bit of excess fat.


Morris
Ponsford
Bradman (c)
Ponting
G.Chappell
K.Miller
Healy
Lillee
O'Reilly
Grimmett
Thomson

First Ashes Test Roundup

Well... that was an exciting match! England just managed to hang on in the end, but Australia certainly gained bragging rights after that performance. England's bowling was severely lacking. They surely must bring in Steve Harmison for the next test, a bowler that Australia fears and who has had great success against Australia. What about the strong spin attack that England supposedly had? Swann and Panesar took 2 wickets between them. On the other side, Nathan Hauritz did a fine job and took 6 wickets for the match. A good performance by Australia all around. A bit less rain, and the game would've been ours.

Real Minimum Wage Cut

I think this is a disgrace! We are going through a global economic downturn with rising unemployment. However, that does not make it alright to cut the real minimum wage. It will lower the standard of living for those on the minimum wage. A lower than normal increase in the nominal wage would've been perfectly understandable in the current economic environment. I would have thought an increase inline with inflation (resulting in a frozen real minimum wage) would've been reasonable and affordable.

Australian Cricket Team

YES! It's time for The ASHES! Australia have just lost their in-form, fast, reversing swinging bowler Brett Lee due to a abdominal muscle injury. That is a major blow to Australia's chances in my opinion. He is easily the best reverse swing bowler that Australia has. Lee's reaction was: "I'm gutted!"

Based on the squad in England, I'd now choose this side for Australia:

Hughes
Katich
Ponting
Hussey
Clarke
North
Haddin
Johnson
Hauritz
Clark
Siddle

The only selection which could be debatable is Hauritz, but with Lee out and no one else demanding selection, that would seem to me to be the best balanced side that we have available.

Turnbull's Debt Truck

Onya Malcolm. Love the stunt. I'm sure it will help the Liberals as many in the general population don't like the sound of the debt that is being racked up by the Federal Government.

Funny yet Ironic

Interesting comparison by 'Albo'.