The Ashes: a Test at last

[BagOfCrisps 24]

 Quote:

So.... rugby, then cricket.
Football next maybe?
Unfortunately, I think not.

Yeah right!

[soubriquet 0]

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Originally posted by Dims:


Still England were a better team over the whole series and were worthy winners

It could have gone either way until after tea. Unlike previous series, England didn't buckle when the pressure was on. Australia never gave up, but as Dims writes, England were better over the series.

Australia are going to need to re-build their bowling, and have two years to come up with replacements for McGrath and Warne as well as a couple of seamers. That's tough.

[damian 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by SubZero:
Thank goodness the Chums beat us! Maybe it'll reinvigorate world Cricket once again - it was so boring when Oz kept winning i.e. a 17 year winning streak is ridiculous.

...and maybe it will encourage Australia, a fine little country in its own right, to look beyond the sporting field. The more Australia loses at sport the better as when we win so often we will never change or dare I say it.... grow up. A little more losing at sport will allow a more balanced Australian culture to develop. Try telling an Australian middle aged suburban tv watching male that Australia needs more than sport. Whilst we are winning he will quite understandably end the conversation there and then. Sadly, he will bring up his narrow minded sons in exactly the same manner.

This is a common grudge of mine and I take every opportunity to vent my spleen. Perhaps I should give it a break (no need for an answer to that).

[soubriquet 0]

You might be interested in this, BPC. From The Australian.

 

"FEDERAL Opposition leader Kim Beazley today laid Australia's loss of the Ashes squarely at the feet of Prime Minister John Howard.

In a jocular briefing of the Labor Party caucus, Mr Beazley said that since Mr Howard came to power in 1996, there had been a frittering away of the spirit that had helped Australia win back the Ashes in the late 1980s.

 

Mr Beazley, a minister in the Hawke and Keating Labor governments, said the Ashes series was the pinnacle of international sport for Australia.

 

"You can have your rugby tests, you can have international soccer, but this is what matters and there has been a frittering away of the spirit and he holds that weasel responsible for it," a spokeswoman quoted the Labor leader as saying.

 

"He's lost it for us, we will never forget, it's a crime."

 

Mr Beazley said the Hawke government had helped rebuild Australian cricket, culminating in the 1989 Ashes victory.

 

Expressing outrage at the loss, Mr Beazley said the efforts of the Hawke and Keating governments had been undone in recent years.

 

"The Hawke government in particular had invested in sport, had invested in cricket, it had built the team spirit, it had met with the team, it had the prime minister's 11, it had supported the team with one objective which was ultimately achieved and that was winning the Ashes," he was quoted as saying.

 

"Since 1996 ... there had been a frittering away of that spirit."

[damian 0]

Oh man, thanks Soubi,

 

That country is done for. The would be Prime Minister is coming out with opinions like that. What hope the future. I despair.

 

!!Excuse me women of the world!! Would you mind pulling out your finger and having a crack at running a few more countries rather than leaving it to the men to screw up. Less sport and less war. A better world.

 

On the topic, I am stunned at how collectively happy the Brits are about the win. Trafalgar Square looks like end of the war celebrations. I find it sad and strange that grown men are so excited about a game, but at the same time I find it wonderful to see people so incredible over joyed. For the locals it is kind of like the emotion from Olympic victory celebration that London never had due to the train bombs.

 

My only true complaint with this whole affair is that for the last number of uncountable years I have honestly not known who the captain of the Australian cricket team was. I would hear familiar names of the headline players, but never actively knew who was who. That long lasting streak of bliss full 'ignorance' has been destroyed and my head polluted with useless information. I now have to lie.

[indosnm 0]

I love how Australia embraces it sports.

One day in November a whole country comes to a standstill for a horse race (even kindy kids), when the 1500m is on the Olympics, the footy.

As for the cricket, This is just going to make the boys more competitive and fire them up!

Remember those countless one day matches against the windies, england and even NZ! when matches regularly came down to the last ball... God they were great!

[nzlegend 1]

England in going bonkers judging by the news, they went spastic when they won the WC Rugby, I am scared to imagine what it would be like if they won the Soccer World Cup! (not that it will ever happen! ;-)

[Ocean11 0]

It would be nice to see these people getting all fired up and bringing their analytical prowess to bear on something that matters.

[js 0]

I tend to agree – to a degree – with the over enthusiastic sport supporting nature of Oz, both in an individual and team sense. Admittedly though, there is an undercurrent of moronic fanaticism within all sports (Soccer hooliganism is far less than some other countries).

 

Though in sports defence, the friendly competitive environment that we’re raised in does nurture success in many other endeavours e.g. the sciences, literature, art, international relations, etc.

 

Better to ‘wage war’ on the sports field than have all that pent-up frustration channelled to war mongering and clandestine dealings.

 

(Our Opposition Leader is a three time loser whose rhetorical babble is significantly less entertaining than watching Dubya self implode – so don’t put too much worth in that pathetic attempt at journalism.)

 

All in all, our +20 million inhabitants are a pretty successful lot – good quality of living, etc, and our only true enemies base their hatred on what they themselves haven’t achieved (e.g. Indonesia probably being the main one.).

 

Besides – isn’t this forum dedicated to a sport, an interest, a lifestyle?

[scouser 4]

BPC - you still love "The Palace", don't you?

[damian 0]

Scouse - I do love the Palace, but mainly because I enjoy having a chat with a very humble and decent English guy who is a Palace fan. He enjoys it when I give him a chance to chat about his much loved Crystal Palace and I enjoy the chance to have a chat with him on a non-business basis. He is a lovely fellow and that is the benefit of things such as sport: it lets you interact with people whom you would otherwise have nothing in common with (he and I are chalk and cheese).

 

Suby - snow recreation is more of a lifestyle than a sport. I remember that fight, Plucky and I going at it like a pair of wankers. Sport is ok when in balance with other attributes of national character. I am a little over the top with my 'anti sport' ethos as I am sick and tired of being judged by Australians based on my interest in sport. The conversation stopping look on their suburban media addicted faces is laughable. "bbbbut, but, .....but why don't you like sports???...".

 

With all the party taking place it is kind of funny seeing that poor little trophy being held up. At the risk of sounding like a typical male, it looks rather impotent. Ticker tape parades, red faces of jubilation, soaked with champaign, team captain triumphantly thrusting aloft what amounts to little more than a micro-penis. It makes for an odd picture, a pleasing one in many respects. It contrasts, almost mocks, the stereotypical sporting bravado.

[js 0]

[soubriquet 0]

To quote myself

 

 Quote:

Originally posted by soubriquet:

It is a magnificantly trivial trophy.

[smellyfeet 0]

Well suited to a magnificantly trivial sport.

[tsumoru 0]

I didn't understnad cricket at all before England friend explain it to me, or try to explain! I don't think I even saw it before. Still it is hard to understnad, maybe just I'm not too interested.

[farquah 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by British Potato Council:

With all the party taking place it is kind of funny seeing that poor little trophy being held up. .

Personally really like the Ashes Trophy or more rather the reason for it. It`s supposed to be an urn in which the original ashes of the burned bails were put after Englsnd first lost against Australia, and so the start of "The Ashes".

[soubriquet 0]

"BRITAIN'S tabloids claim to have uncovered England's secret weapon in the Ashes series – a woman who kept Shane Warne up all night during the fourth Test.

Julia Reynolds has told The Sun and Daily Mirror newspapers she left Warne exhausted after an all night sex session the day before he was dismissed for a golden duck in the first innings of the Trent Bridge Test.

 

Australia lost the Test by three wickets as England took its decisive 2-1 series lead.

 

Ms Reynolds says she met the Australian leg spinner at a players' function and he wooed her with his traditional method – raunchy text messages, even during a rain break in the Test.

 

She said after the five hours of passion, Warne was left "red-eyed and knackered" as he went out to bat the next day.

 

"I wasn't that surprised he was out for nought because when he left me he looked pretty exhausted," she told the Mirror.

 

"I guess you could say I've done my bit for England."

 

She went on to say "I had no problems dealing with the Flipper, but then he made one turn sharply and bowled me behind my legs"

[snowbender 3]

Class.