To give you a little flavour of something I’m putting together for a series of pieces later, I give you this…..
“Ricky Ponting has urged Australian supporters to provide a “sea of green and gold” for the summer’s Ashes series. Tickets for the 2006-07 international matches go on sale to the Australian Cricket Family on Thursday morning and Cricket Australia is determined that the grounds will not be over-run by England supporters.
“The Australian team can’t wait for this Ashes series to start and having a sea of green and gold supporters in the stand will give us a massive boost,” Ponting said. “Make sure you get in early on June 1 and we’ll see you during the biggest summer of Australian cricket.”
The 128,500 members who registered on the organistation’s website can buy tickets from 9am eastern standard time on Thursday until June 15. Seats will go on general release for overseas supporters and those not in the “family” on June 19. Cricket Australia has predicted all Test grounds will be sold out for the first day and there are hopes of a world-record crowd for Boxing Day at the MCG.
A Cricket Australia spokesman said family members must be Australian residents and provide an Australian postal address to buy tickets. “If these conditions are not met, tickets shall be cancelled,” he said. The first Test starts at Brisbane on November 23.”
You reckoned without one thing the English are world champions at, Ricky old son. Securing tickets when you don’t want us to.
Is this Australian Cricket Family still a thing?
If you have memories of THAT test match, and want them in the piece(s), e-mail me on dmitriold@hotmail.co.uk – I’d love to hear from you. Remember. How Did We Lose In Adelaide?
Being Outside Cricket 
Been around since the last Aussie Ashes. It’s essentially a mailing list.
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It was the spawn of the effing devil in 2006.
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I’ve been a “member” for 7 or 8 years, its an ever so broad church geographically… 😉
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That’s me reminded… will get writing & digging through my pics…
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I’m a member. They supply lots of info by email to me.
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Whenever they use the word “family” I want to throw up. Don’t care if it’s a sporting outfit or a corporate entity. For example ….. “the Disney family”……seriously? A family? I think not.
Try turning up to cricket Australia/England/India and asking for a room for six months with free food. You will quickly discover you are not in their family.
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Definitely the Aussie version wasn’t the “right kind of family”.
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It’s a delicious irony seeing as Strauss is now the ECB & medias blue eyed boy, that he was rejected as captain for the 2007 tour in favour of Flintoff. Never mind the fact that previous fast bowling all rounders didn’t have a very good track record as captain, Freddy was a national hero so got the job.
I well remember the sage of Salford, Bumble on Sky, informing us Flintoff should get the job because …………and I kid you not……that he would get the best out of his mate Harmison. This piece of Ed Smith amateur hour sports phycology is still one of the great classics of English cricket.
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Fragility watch update:
Vic Marks tells us that Rashid is more fragile than Batty. I think Vladimir Putin is more fragile than Batty, so I can’t argue, but that word has reared its ugly head again. How many more times before its dog whistle effect bears fruit?
To be fair to Marks, he offers a valid reason why Rashid could be dropped (as if validity were needed): that a big-spinning track negates the need for a big-spinning leg-spinner. Finger spin can do the trick, says the ex-England finger-spinner, and Rashid could be more effective on a flat pitch.
For myself, I think the balance is right for the moment, as Ansari is the least experienced of the four. I’d prefer 2 spinners turning it away from Bangladesh’s numerous left-handers (More and Batty), and one in, for variety. However, let’s have both Rash and Ansari (SLA, iirc) for India’s mainly right-handed line-up, with Moeen taking precedence as the provider of variation.
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Sorry, Kiran More isn’t in the squad. Moeen Ali is. I have to write his name more often, to educate my spell-checker.
Moeen
Moeen
Moeen…
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It would appear that the continuous use of the word “fragile” is an orchestrated campaign against the spin bowler.
The real question is where this campaign is coming from? Is it coming from the England captain? Or coach? And why do the England high command have to keep leaking against their own players? It is a cowardly practice. If he is fragile, why the f*** is even on the tour?
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I’d be certain it isn’t coming from the coach – I think Bayliss has considerable belief in Rashid.
Rashid’s pursued an art that hardly any Englishman has for half a century. How can that be mentally fragile? If he was fragile he’d have jacked in leg-spin and would have carved out a solid but mediocre career as a middle-order batsman and purveyor of medium-paced dobbers.
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So if not the coach who then? And haven’t we been here before when the coach wants one thing and somebody wants something else.? And isn’t this the same playbook where that someone goes to his friends in the media and whines about it?
I just can’t think who in the squad is so petulant, and with such a sense of entitlement would lower himself to such levels. Quite shocking really.
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Also coming soon…..
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How about ‘Being Inside Cricket: the home of arrogance, condescension, smug self-righteousness, Establishment sycophancy and Cookie-worship’
Or ‘The Pest that wouldn’t go away’
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Strictly speaking, Selvey was responsible for only one of those three epithets. The next two were Hughes and Hopps respectively, I think.
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How about……..
” I’m a lying sack of shit”
Or
” Bullshit incorporated”
Or
” I pretend I know stuff you don’t know”
Or
“The life and times of Alastiar Cook”
Whatever he calls it, I can see it being a giant love in of conventional wisdom. Who will be his first contributors? The Anaylist? Pringle? Ed Smith? Newman? Ollie Holt?
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Was thinking of David Saker’s Thighs (a la Bette Davis Eyes) or Impertinence.
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“Anal Leaks” has an appropriate double meaning for those of us *in the know*.
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I remember the Adelaide test because I watched the first part of it in India when England stormed to a seemingly commanding position and then left there during what would have been the 4th day. Fairly uneventful flat track. Anyway on the 5th day I woke up, having returned from England and predictably jet-lagged I was up at some god forsaken hour and, unable to get back to sleep turned on the game, to find a listless England just trying to keep the ball out. Unlike some folk, I will always hold Paul Collingwood a little bit to account because he just eschewed the idea of rotating the strike and not allowing the Aussie bowlers to simply camp in at one end. Sure he might have had the stodginess not to bother with runs, but so many batsmen need to look at the scoreboard to have any confidence in their game. England at least partially self destructed as a result of this game plan, when even an all-out score of 200 would have likely seen them safe and possibly meant the Aussies having a risky go at an unlikely score and possibly giving them a few nervous moments.
I’m afraid I don’t have the capacity to recall it quite as vividly as you can LCL but here’s my little contribution.
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