Alright, cricketing dopers of Australasia - it’s come down to this. Well actually, it’s just another cricket season, but I’ve been having withdrawal symtoms since the Ashes series, and I’m trying to build up in my own mind what looks like it might be a run of the mill season. I’ve been preparing by listening to the Twelfth Man records, walking down the street practising Steve Waugh cover drives and Adam Gilchrist stumpings, and so on.
So folks - any thoughts on the upcoming series? Any New Zealand jokes (or Australian jokes, if you’re a Kiwi)?
Point of order HenrySpencer, surely a thread of this importance belongs in GD, not MPSIMS.
FWIW, the portends are not good if you are looking for a competitive series. The Aussies have comfortably won their recent series with at least 2 of the six batsmen out of form. At the moment they all seem to be in a purple patch.
Bowling is the weakness, too much reliance on McGrath. If the Kiwis knuckle down, they’ll be hard to dislodge. But I can’t see them getting either to runs, or the wickets to win the series.
We don’t get to play our Kiwi friends often enough and it’s just their bad luck to meet one of the toughest teams in world sport twice when they are understrength.
I suspect that we will see Aussies batting for a big first innings followed by three days of interminable “bowled Warnie” from Gilchrist into the stump mike.
BTW Mr Spenser, you are overdue signing in to Dopers Downunder
First: Go to the G’Dope site woolly gave the link to. TheLoadedDog and I had an Aussie/Kiwi joke tourny there just recently. [Caution: don’t go there if you’re disturbed by jokes involving farm animals.]
Second: Australia will defeat NZ easily. Again. That’s a sure bet, folks.
(And yes, last time I looked at my expired passport, I am a Kiwi. With a lousy cricket team.)
The loss of Daniel Vettori for most of the series is a real shame. With him, the latter-day Botham Chris Cairns would have a chance to work his stuff. Without him, they just don’t have the bowling, and that means facing McGrath and Gillespe with 450 against you.
FWIW Ice Wolf, I don’t think the Kiwis have a bad team. Who from the past would you add to their current full strength line-up? Martin Crowe and Hadlee obviously, maybe Turner or John Wright. The current side isn’t bad. It’s just that we’re good.
Back in the late 1970s to early 1980s, yes – you could have asked me to name a make-believe team of Kiwis for cricket, and they’d have thrashed Aussie. And the West Indies. And even, maybe, Britain.
But these days, NZ cricketers are more the “pretty boy” type. They’re average players, up against a team across the ditch which is well-financed, have all the right training facilities, and are still in the old “play the game, sport” mode.
I don’t follow cricket anymore, haven’t for around 15 years. Only thing I’m glad about is (a) they don’t change TV programming anymore so we’re forced to watch 'em lose, and (b) I don’t watch much TV anyway.
Thanks for the reminder, Ice Wolf! In all the confusion that has been my life from about thirty seconds after Loaded Dog invited me, I’d completely forgotten about that place. I’ll check it out now.
Anyway, I hope for a close series, with Australia winning every Test, but by one or two wickets, or ten or twenty runs. I don’t think there’s much chance of that, though, but that’s not going to stop me getting excited about the start of the best season of the year.
