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TOUGH NUTS
Andrew Ramsey’s preview of the First Test between Australia and Bagladesh:
In what can only be described as the equivalent of smashing a betel nut with a brick, Australia is considering unleashing a five-man bowling attack against minnow Bangladesh when the first Test begins on Sunday.
Some betel nut. Despite that five-man attack, Bangladesh has torn 144 runs off Australia before lunch on the first day for the loss of just one wicket. Shane Warne is 0/38 after six overs.
UPDATE. Will Swanton in the Sun-Herald (not online):
The doddles against Bangladesh will last about two days each and probably involve only one hit each for the Australians. Runs will flow freely. Taking the new ball for Bangladesh will be some bloke who goes by the name of Shahadat Hossain. It may as well be the Blue Wiggle ... any batsman who doesn’t average 100 against that mob shouldn’t be let back in the country.
Imagine the media outrage if an Australian cricketer said anything like that.
UPDATE II. Score with 40 overs remaining: 1/237. Some bloke who goes by the name of Shahriar Nafees is 120 not out. Warne 0/84 (off 13 overs).
UPDATE III. Warne has his century. Bangladesh 2/265.
UPDATE IV. Mohammad Ashraful takes seven runs off a Warne over, 16 off MacGill, then is out to Gillespie; 29 from 28 deliveries.
UPDATE V. Bangladesh 4/300 off 69.1 overs.
I misread his name as ‘Alan Ramsey’ -
Was going to make a joke about ‘Al’ not knowing his arse from a hole in the ground -
Now I cant :(Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2006 04 09 at 02:57 AM • permalinkBBB V BBB - I misread his name as ‘Alan Ramsey’ - ditto.
But contrary to your intimation, that doesn’t alter the fact that Alan Ramsay doesn’t know his arse from a hole in the ground.
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 04 09 at 03:16 AM • permalinkwhen will these media clowns learn to stop over estimating our increasingly mediocre cricket team???
the players themselves are slowly learning to keep their traps shut after numerous recent examples when thy couldn’t back up all their tripe with actual performances on the field (ala glen mcgrath’s 5-0 whitewash prediction for the last Ashes series) and instead they come off looking like clowns…
its obviously taking others a bit longer to realise that practically anything can happen these days with some very average batting and bowling performances becoming par for the course…
Useful performance by the Bangladeshis.
Now, bravely trying to extract something “positive” (to use the modern cliche) from this ordinary Aussie performance : Just imagine how voluminously the Seth Efrikens will be spewing now….
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 04 09 at 05:30 AM • permalinkIt may as well be the Blue Wiggle
Actually my brother was bowled out this season by Greg Page the Yellow Wiggle. No joke.
Apparently he’s a fairly brisk pace bowler.
Posted by bad templar on 2006 04 09 at 06:11 AM • permalinkI can hear the grinding of teeth in Serf Effrica from here. (several thousand kilometres, thankfully)
Four terms as PM for JWH, Saffas ground into the dirt, does the gloating ever end?
I LOVE this country.
Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2006 04 09 at 08:12 AM • permalinkBangladesh 4/300 on 69.1 overs.
Yeah, but what’s the score?
Er…stump-toothed Yank monoculturalist rube wants to know.
Posted by Vanguard of the Commentariat on 2006 04 09 at 10:42 AM • permalinkwhen will these media clowns learn to stop over estimating our increasingly mediocre cricket team???
Come on Casanova. Australia is Australia. They are still the champs and how many times they have to prove it? Shouldn’t you be giving some credit to Bangladesh for not spoiling the game as one-sided? There are 4 more days you know.
And many are not aware that Bangladesh’s cricket structure is being developed according to a plan. This plan was envisaged by Eddie Barlow, the South African cricketing Guru, who was the coach and the development manager of Bangladesh Cricket team. Sadly, Eddie had to go out of the scene because of health conditions and he is no more.
No other nation than Australia came forward to lend a hand towards Bangladesh. Australian Cricket Board had signed a MOU with the Bangladesh Cricket Board under which lots of things are happening in Bangladesh. There are under 13, under 15, under 17 & under 19 development squads. Many grounds are being developed with Australians help and guidance. Bangladesh had the privilege of having some good Australian coaches at these levels and now the Bangladesh senior team is guided by the charismatic Dav Whatmore, who is also an Australian. BM has rightly said that Bangladesh’s driving force is the popularity of the game. MPs stopped a parliament session in the middle of a hot debate to watch the one-day victory over Sri-Lanka in last tour.
Well if you give Bangladesh some credit, a portion of the credit also goes eventually to Australia, that they have done a fine job. And as a Bangladeshi I thank Australia for that.
Rezwan
Australia’s assistance was always conditional on your guys not beating us.
Please tell them to ease up a bit.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 04 09 at 06:57 PM • permalinkGood on ya Murph. 300 runs! Ya know, better pitching and defense would take care of some of that…
Posted by Vanguard of the Commentariat on 2006 04 09 at 09:12 PM • permalinkNo-one but Warnie does the rooting in cricket, #22. Try “barracking”.
Go the deshies! My gut tells me desh will be all out for 450, that Australia will then bat and declare at 2/650, and desh will collapse in the 2nd dig and go down by an innings.
Posted by Bearded Mullah on 2006 04 09 at 11:42 PM • permalinkoh please, not that juvenile “rooting”/“barracking” routine!!!! :o)
and while good on the deshi’s for this current effort, i think some of Australia’s stars are getting past their prime, and the expectation we’ve had that they will walk into any series and wipe the floor with the opponents is getting to be a thing of the past…
a majority of the team is over 30 and getting into their mid-30’s… some of the recent batting performances in SAF from the likes of Gillie and Symonds was pathetic… some of the recent bowling efforts from our backups for McGrath have been lamentable, including that hopeless loss in that highest scoring one dayer which we shouldn’t have lost…
and in the recent Pura Cup final Qld declared at 6-900 against the Vic’s, which tells me no current Vic bowler aught to be considered for international duties for a very long time….
we may still have the edge here at home in the conditions we like, but i think our away form has dropped a bit, and i see us probably continuing to slip in the future…
the days of the bragging and spouting off probably need to stop, especially against some of the better test teams as we don’t have the same collection of easy beats we have been thrashing for the last decade and which has probably made us look better than we were, and not really prepared us for when we do come up against stiff competition and don’t get the walk overs we are accustomed too…
from now on think we aught to do more of our talking after we have secured the results, rather than potentially making us look like fools by predicting all sorts of thrashings that increasingly may not occur… the current group are starting to get beyond their prime and i think the back ups aren’t necessarily that impressive….
well in the highest scoring one dayer in history a couple of months ago, over 850 runs were scored in about 7 hours…
unfortunately that match, one of the greatest or at least most memorable in history, would have to be one that our bowlers let slip in a performance that you would dignify by describing as average to mediocre…
They whupped us in Old Blighty just before the Ashes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a happier bunch of cricketers in my life.
Call me un-Austrlaian, but it brought a tear to me eye, it did!
On’ya Deshies! This is a two test series, right?
Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 04 10 at 02:50 AM • permalinkWell on that Ashes tour i think we went over with a few players heads wedged firmly up their posteriors… out on drinking binges before games, warney producing another of his increasingly common team disrupting off field issues, everyone predicting 4-0 and 5-0 thrashings….
just thought it would fall into our hands as it had done in previous years…. right from the start of that tour things started to go pathetically down hill, with calls of she’ll be alright when we get to the one dayers, or once we get to the tests things’ll be right…
that dismal tour really should have been the wake up call that there a few things rotten in our Aussie team, but i’m not sure Buchanan or the coaches or administrators have gotten the message even yet…
and coming back to whup easy beats New Zealand made everything seem ok rather than perhaps taking the good hard look at players attitudes and performances that was perhaps warranted…
Bearded Mullah: “Go the deshies! My gut tells me desh will be all out for 450, that Australia will then bat and declare at 2/650, and desh will collapse in the 2nd dig and go down by an innings.”
I never thought I’d have to say it, but it looks like Australia is more likely to lose by an innings than win at all.
maybe its the wake up call we need???
i don’t think purging the team is the answer, as i’m not sure we have anything just at the moment to fill their places with…
but putting a damn good enema through the team after a slap in the face like this could prove useful…
and after that first innings bowling effort, u can see obviously why warney gets first pick and mcgill struggles to get in the team…. poor mcgill, having warney who will get picked first on reputation alone, which probably goes for a few of the old timers in this team….
If Australia has to follow on and go on to lose, will this be the greatest ever sporting embarrassment in our history?
Will we have to go to Canberra, chanting “Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi” and burn down the Bangladeshi Embassy? (assuming they have one).
Will our culture and civilization as we know it come to an inglorious end?
I fear it will, therefore I will stock up on beer.
Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2006 04 10 at 10:43 AM • permalinkSome day I’ll know what the hell you’re talking about in these cricket posts. (This post is about cricket, right?)
Posted by tim maguire on 2006 04 10 at 11:21 AM • permalinkThe greatest ever sporting embarrassment in our history?
Hmmm
At the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games Australia won NO gold medals and only one silver medal.
The only silver medal was won by the Men’s Hockey team who beat Pakistan in the semi-final (regarded as the strongest opponents). The Australians went into the final as strong favourites against a much weaker side on form. It was meant to be a formality. The Australians were defeated 1-0.
By New Zealand.
Rezwan
Australian cricket is in need of help. Can Bangladesh provide assistance?
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 04 10 at 06:23 PM • permalinkAgreed it’s great for the game, beardy…
Actually the whole history of cricket has been one where newer nations have been able to stick it to their colonial or better resourced masters, and perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by the emergence of the Bangladeshis.
It was more fun when we were the upstarts, though.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 04 10 at 10:57 PM • permalinkMargos,
One game doesn’t nullify Australia’s lifetime of achievement. Its only a game. Gilly showed Australia’s class while Rafique checked the rest in the first innings. This only shows that Bangladesh is on the way up and Australia just having one bad match.
While I am enjoying this play, I know that the dream can anytime shatter as it will just take a couple of sessions to turn things around. There are still 2 more days left.
Something to all those who have called for Bangladesh’s expulsion from the test arena: It takes generations, not just some years to graduate into a test class side. And that graduation is in no way possible without regular test cricket against test class sides.
I hope Bangladesh will graduate to a competitive team in some years more. But you have to give her space as she will have mostly bad days and some good days.
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You only need go to Bangladesh to see that it’s just a matter of time before they have a strong team. Kids play in the street, office workers all talk about the game, and the national players are stars. Another few years and they’ll have a good one-day team and be registering occassional test wins.
Zimbabwe is a different case. If predict the Zims will be out of test cricket for many years to come.