PreviewCrick VeneerGabba Gabba Hey What?!?Day OneSorry DayCrises? What Crises?Pepper SprayOn The Wrong TrackDay TwoTit For TaitHawkward SilenceDay Three------------------------------------------------------PREVIEW #Apart from the obvious, what do Paul Reiffel, Merv Hughes, Craig McDermott and Mike Whitney have in common? Hint: It's not umpiring, Test selecting, homemade porn or crap reality TV; as far as I know, anyway. No?  read more »

Graham Thorpe was the best English batsman of his generation, a man whose technique could withstand even the highest quality of bowling. His calm, unflappable temperament was the perfect foil for his ability to work the ball into the gaps. In an era when England were routinely trounced by the Aussies, Thorpe averaged 45 against them, far superior to contemporaries Atherton and Stewart. He is often described as 'England's best batsman of the 1990s'. But that belies the reality. He averaged a shade under 40 in the '90s but a truly exceptional 53 in the 2000s. While some of the explanation for this lies in the easier conditions for batting, the real reason was Thorpe mastered the art of converting.  read more »

I thought about this question after a brief discussion on Uncle J's blog on this particular post . Did, a commenter on the post said "I think the IPL should be renamed the Antipodean Premier League anyways cause it would be twice as $%^ without the backbone provided by the Aussies and Kiwis." And he went on to mention that the Aussies had won 14 MoM awards in 34 games, 4 of the top 10 batsmen were Aussies, as were 2 of the top 10 bowlers. It won't be a surprise if the IPL teams are reliant on Aussies as they are the best cricket players in the world. But are the teams actually reliant on them?  read more »

I have been reporting on the Australians who have taken the IPL by storm. Coaches, assistant coaches, domestic players, strength trainers - you name it and the IPL teams have these Aussies on their pay roll.

One glance at the other 20-20 league and you see that its the Pakistanis who are making the ICL their very own.

The Lahore Badshahs was an all Pakistani outfit that made it to the finals of the ICL Edelweiss 20s Challenge with an unbeaten run of 7 wins. In the finals they were stopped by another Pakistani, Abdul Razzak, who also won the player of the series award.

Lahore Badshahs won a lot of hearts in India and the public back in Pakistan followed them with intent. People around Dubai were also buzzing about how good the Badshahs looked.  read more »

Will history repeat itself in Sydney after the Aussies wallop India in the 1st Test ?

IT is often debated on the Betfair cricket forum how far back in history a punter should look when researching a bet. The answer is simple: trawl through the record books as long as you like until you are satisfied that you have formed an opinion, never the other way round.

One of the most dangerous games a bettor can play is to have an opinion and then conduct a piecemeal stats search for the data which, in his eyes, proves him right.

For example, if you reckon India are capable of a comeback against Australia in their four-Test series, then the 2001 series fits the bill perfectly.

India lost the opening Test in Mumbai of that series by ten wickets but won the final two matches to ensure the contest went down in history as one of the greatest of all time.  read more »

It's the series everyone has been waiting for, India v Australia, me in particular as I'm desperate to see the Aussies challenged for a change. A world no.3 vs no.1 ('Tis a pity that the English, who need the weather gods to save them are at no 2) looks mouthwatering and its definitely India's best chance of pulling off something special. But after looking through the crystal ball I can see only one team winning this. Here's why...

Why Australia will win

I never congratulate Australia for winning, so it seems odd to do it for India. They beat Australia, which should be the aim of any team playing a test. They trained hard, the conditions helped, the injury to Hayden helped, and they out played Australia, this lead to a test win. In order for India to become a great test nation they should have expected to win this test. Not because their fans expected to, but because they put in the hard yards, are a talented group of players and because they should believe in themselves. India has the best record against Australia of any country over the last 15 years. and they were still 2 nil down against this new look, obviously more frail Australian side.  read more »