(34) Every so often, bring on a guest with views more extreme than your own to make yourself seem like a “moderate” or even an “independent.”
And, of course, having him thrown out of the Australian team and all.
O’Reilly’s great advantage was, of course, that he was missing the final knuckle of one of the fingers on his spinning hand, so he could impart a lot more tweak than an ordinary bowler, especially when bowling at close to medium pace. This is probably what beajerry was getting so cranky about.
But I’m pretty sure he never claimed to be a medium-pacer. He always admitted he was spinning.
Is that a fact? Not to dispute the word of an expert, but while I knew “Dainty” Ironmonger was shy a finger-joint, I didn’t know O’Reilly (or should it be “O’Reilley”? I misremember) was as well. As to the bad blood between him and Bradman, it doesn’t altogether surprise me, but I should think each of them knew enough about the game to be perfectly well aware that the other was a fantastic cricketer.
Of course Bradman’s come in for his share of stick too - most noticeably, I guess, for his reluctance to give of his best on a sticky - but O’Reilly (I’ll stick with that spelling for now) paid him a wry compliment once when he said “No-one ever came to watch me bowl; they came to see that so-and-so make hundreds off me”. Mind you, I strongly doubt that his actual words, Aussie to Aussie, would have been “so-and-so” 
I spent years thinking what a shame it was that I’d missed bowlers like O’Reilly and Mailey (who used to give it a massive tweak by all accounts) back in the bad old days of the Seventies and Eighties when it was all seam-up and four-man pace attacks trudging back to the marks at the speed of a constipated snail, so seeing Warney come along was a big relief. It’s just a pity he’s not English, speaking from a purely selfish POV - but I hope this latest hoo-hah isn’t a finisher for him, 'cos old Fred “I do not understand what is going on out there” Trueman was saying, right back in Shane’s early days, that he was going to take five 'undred Test wickets, and I’d like to see him do it. Too bad the lad’s a bit of a bungalow 
Also too bad we can’t crank one out - Salisbury never produced the Test goods, Schofield’s yet to prove himself, and we’ve no-one else even on the horizon I can see. I guess English conditions, or the whole set-up over here, must not be conducive. And thinking back, I can’t remember any English leggie making a massive impact since old Doug Wright. Of course, we had B J T Bosanquet in the first place. Typical England, invent a great idea and then let some other country carry it on and get the benefit. We never learn.
All the best from Up Over!
Has O’Reily admitted that he was full of it over the boycott thing?
Here’s his quotes:
"So I’m calling for all responsible Americans to fight back and punish Pepsi for using a man who degrades women, who encourages substance abuse, and does all the things that hurt particularly the poor in our society.
“I’m calling for all Americans to say, Hey, Pepsi, I’m not drinking your stuff. You want to hang around with Ludacris, you do that, I’m not hanging around with you.”
—Bill O’Reilly, Aug. 27, 2002.
Because of pressure by Factor viewers, Pepsi-Cola late today capitulated. Ludacris has been fired.—Bill O’Reilly, Aug. 28, 2002.
Then, after ranting about the people trying to get Limbuagh off the air by boycotting his sponsors… someone called O’Reilly on the inconsistency, saying that O’Reily had himself “tacitly” called for a boycott. O’Reily’s reaction?
I never do anything tacitly. I do things directly. I simply said I wasn’t going to drink Pepsi while that guy was on their payroll. No boycott was ever mentioned by me.—Bill O’Reilly, Feb. 4, 2003.
I think Warney’s 1-day career is over. The single diuretic pill has grown, to be either a series of pills, or a deliberate masking of steroid use to recover from his shoulder injury.
It remains to be seen whether the inevitable 2-year ban means the end of his Test career as well…
BTW Bill O’Reilly became the resident crotchetty cricket journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald in his later years; he saw Warne’s early (non-spectactular) first class games and gave him huge wraps - said he would be the Next Big Thing of Spindom. How right he was.
If I were in Warne’s shoes (and I’m not: I can’t turn it half as far as he can, or land a leggie within five yards of where I want it, and as for a convincing Bosie or a flipper, forget it) I’d think very hard about coming back in order to rack up the 500, even if it’s less of a landmark since Courtney Walsh got there first and Murali’s bound to, for all Darryl Hair can say
Another shame is that old S F Barnes (and we’re going back a hundred years here) is committed to just the written word and a few still photos. Apparently he used to roll 'em over at a phenomenal rate.
Mailey became a journo, and later a butcher. He had a sign in his window that said “I used to bowl tripe; then I wrote it; now I sell it”. Top man!
Keep in mind that the modern spinners like Warney have never had the advantage of playing on an uncovered sticky, but of course the old-timers never had to try to turn the ball off three centimetres of mud on the closing day of a wet test.
I don’t think Warne will be able to come back if he’s sent down for two years. It’ll be a ban from all forms of the game and that’s just too long away in the modern era.
Mommy!
Cricket fans are in my room!!