The Cricket Thread

[GOLDIE]

warney only needs one wicket atthe mcg for 700 go warney.

Ian

[RHR]

you stupid poms....

could only hold on to the earn for 15months...

I sence another 16 year domination once again

[Lord Cyric]

It's good to be an aussie in pommie land today!

What's even more interesting is that the Managing Director of HP UK is also an Aussie!

[Skooby]

To be fair, England lost some valuable players to injury before the first game. Had they've played it could've been a totally different ball game especially with Freddy and Pieterson playing so well.

Kinda disappointed that the Melbourne match is a dead rubber now. The only good thing to come from it will be Warney' 700th wicket in front of his home crowd. The roar from the G will be unbelievable when he gets the wicket.

Bring on the limited over matches now

Edited 18/12/06 03:36 PM by Skooby

[Cro]

Little Billy is an English lad from Lancashire

Billy was at school this morning, and the teacher asked all the children what their fathers did for a living.

All the typical answers came out, fireman, policeman, salesman, chippy, plumber etc, but Billy was being uncharacteristically quiet and so the teacher asked him about his father.

"My father is an exotic dancer in a gay club, and takes off all his clothes in front of other men. Sometimes if the offer is really good, he'll go out with a man, rent a cheap hotel room and sleep with him."

The teacher quickly took little Billy aside to ask him if it was really true.

"No!" said Billy, "He actually plays cricket for England but I was just too embarrassed to say."

[Kimberley Scott]

Fat Tony is actually the motivational speaker for the England side when they are in Australia. True story.

Scotty

[aniken]

Surprised that Lumpy hasn't commented on Australia's great Ashes victory. Oh, that's right, he can't...

[aniken]

And speaking of things to comment on, Shane Warne is due to announce his retirement from international cricket tomorrow. Will play out the rest of the series, hopefully gaining his 700th wicket in his home test, and a few more in Sydney.

[Kimberley Scott]

McGrath to play on for another three years. Get that into you Lumpytits.

Scotty

[Kimberley Scott]

I wish what I said above was true, but not to be, all hail a champion.

McGrath hailed a true professional

8:01 PM December 23

Cricket Australia boss James Sutherland and captain Ricky Ponting have led tributes to Glenn McGrath, who is retiring from all forms of cricket after next year's World Cup in the West Indies.

Sutherland admits the exit of McGrath will leave a hugh hole in Australian cricket.

He said McGrath, with more Test wickets than any other fast bowler, has achieved the feat of being a consistent match-winner in both forms of cricket for 13 years.

"Let's be absolutely clear, we're talking about 555 Test wickets here, and that is a statistic of champion status," he said in a statement.

"They say bowlers win matches - they must have been thinking of players like Glenn McGrath when they said that.

"His remorseless accuracy and forensic probing of the slightest weakness in a batsman's technique is legendary.

"A true professional, he has presented himself in peak condition to open the bowling for his country over 13 years.

"His will power, mental determination and absolute belief in himself and his team-mates, has been complemented by a consistency of performance that you only get from champion sportspeople."

Former Australian paceman Geoff Lawson said McGrath had all the attributes that make a great fast bowler.

"He always had that mental toughness, so the combination of the two, the physique and technique, along with the mental toughness, that's what makes champions and he certainly was that," he said.

End of an era

Both Ponting and opening batsman Matthew Hayden said McGrath's retirement marked the end of an era in Australian cricket following Shane Warne's announcement he was quitting as well.

"We're going to be losing two of the all-time greats in a pretty short period of time," Ponting told reporters in Mebourne.

"It's sad, but we've now got to push on in the next few weeks.

"We've known for a long time that these two weren't going to go on forever... so as much as it's a sad time, it's an exciting time too because a lot of younger players will get their opportunities."

Hayden added:

"Each have displayed exactly what Australian cricket expects of its athletes - both have had amazing tenacity and longevity in the game," he said.

All-rounder Andrew Symonds said he had mixed emotions about the announcements.

"I'm heartbroken to be perfectly honest, I don't want either of them to retire," he said.

"But it's going to be a spectacle seeing how people respond to two of our best-ever players leaving the game."

Edited 23/12/06 10:04 AM by Kimberley Scott