Slitherine

waldo wrote:

nosher wrote:I dont feel sorry for anyone of them.

I hope we do what they would do to us (and have done on a number of occasions) and show them no mercy whatsoever. Anything less than a 3-1 victory would be pointless. It is not enough to accept a 2-2 retention of the ashes after the fine performances our chaps have put in - we have out performed them in this series in every department whilst still playing the game in the spirit that it is meant and long may that continue.

Time to hang up your spikes Mr Ponse-ing. No matter what your stats say you will always be an Aussie Captain that lost three Ashes to England.

Lost to England? I thought the Australians were playing South Africa...

Walter

All of the "South Africans" have at least one English parent or have families of English descent I believe. This makes them perfectly eligible to play for England. I look forward to seeing some Aboriginal chaps wearing the Aussie baggy green caps though I'm not holding my breath.

Not sure what was funnier, Ponting losing his rag or Aussie sour grapes. Though in fairness most Australians I've seen on TV and heard on the radio seem quite sporting about the loss, there's an element among them who love to dish it out but don't seem to like it much when it comes back at them.

2 - 1. England retain the Ashes. Thank you and goodbye Mr Ponting. Actually no, hang on, can we play you every week?

AlanYork wrote: All of the "South Africans" have at least one English parent or have families of English descent I believe. This makes them perfectly eligible to play for England. I look forward to seeing some Aboriginal chaps wearing the Aussie baggy green caps though I'm not holding my breath.

Haven't heard of Jason Gillespie?

Walter

Walter, I do believe that a certain Mr Wessels started the South African but playing for someone else trend. At least D'Olivera, Strauss, Mr P, and Trott did not play for the RSA BEFORE they played for England... Given the current state of Aussie cricket, maybe you should see if Jack Kallis fancies a week at the SCG as he is at least in hs 30s AND still scoring runs... :)

timmy1 wrote:Walter, I do believe that a certain Mr Wessels started the South African but playing for someone else trend. At least D'Olivera, Strauss, Mr P, and Trott did not play for the RSA BEFORE they played for England... Given the current state of Aussie cricket, maybe you should see if Jack Kallis fancies a week at the SCG as he is at least in hs 30s AND still scoring runs...

How could you forget Tony Greig? Wessels didn't play for South Africa first, he played for South Africa after Australia.

Australia would probably take Greig or Wessels at the moment.

Walter

You can add Andy Symonds to that list of Non-Australian Australian internationals along with a few others from times past like Brendon Julian and Dav Whatmore.

It's not as if its a new thing to play non-nationals in a test team.

Well Punter is out of the 5th test and they've given the useless Clarke the job for a while with Usman Khawaja replacing Punter.

Now to see whether they'll pick a real spinner and who will replace Harris.

Waldo

I stand correct on Kepi, you are right.

As for Tony Greig, English cricket in general and me in particular have been trying to forget him for YEARS! Ever since 1976 and the 'I Intend... To Make Them Grovel' quote indeed.

waldo wrote:

AlanYork wrote: All of the "South Africans" have at least one English parent or have families of English descent I believe. This makes them perfectly eligible to play for England. I look forward to seeing some Aboriginal chaps wearing the Aussie baggy green caps though I'm not holding my breath.

Haven't heard of Jason Gillespie?

Walter

That would be the guy who is as much Greek as he is an Aussie?

The point I was making is that it's a bit much complaining that the England team is full of "South Africans" when the Aussie team has historically not exactly been chock full of people who couldn't possibly be more Australian, ie the Aboriginal people.

I don't want to get into an argument with you or cause offence, but with respect, I doubt you would have made that South African comment if you had won.

nikgaukroger wrote:Well Punter is out of the 5th test and they've given the useless Clarke the job for a while with Usman Khawaja replacing Punter.

Now to see whether they'll pick a real spinner and who will replace Harris.

Looks like they've replaced Harris with Doug "the rug" Bollinger - he who provides rough for Swann to bowl into ...

Seen nothing about a spinner so presumably Smith will do that and Beer will carry drinks for the 3rd time.

nikgaukroger wrote: Beer will carry drinks for the 3rd time.

Nominative determinism

AlanYork wrote: That would be the guy who is as much Greek as he is an Aussie?

The point I was making is that it's a bit much complaining that the England team is full of "South Africans" when the Aussie team has historically not exactly been chock full of people who couldn't possibly be more Australian, ie the Aboriginal people.

I don't want to get into an argument with you or cause offence, but with respect, I doubt you would have made that South African comment if you had won.

For the record, my passport tells me I am British and I don't live there but I was born out there. I was just never good enough at cricket to be considered English

Re the Aborigines, the insinuation of racism is a bit lower than a joke about South Africans. Yes they might not play a lot of cricket (and that is not just a problem with them) but if you'd check the Australian rules teams, or the rugby league and rugby union teams, you will find their representation far higher than their percentage (2%) of the population.

Walter

Kepler Wessels played for the convicts back in the early 80s, he was a Saffer.

I recall a show about a team of Australian Aboriginals who toured the UK back in the 80s, when they played in the Channel Islands the immortal John Arlott remarked how they looked like an Australian team intheir baggy green caps, until you saw how polite they were.

waldo wrote:

AlanYork wrote: That would be the guy who is as much Greek as he is an Aussie?

The point I was making is that it's a bit much complaining that the England team is full of "South Africans" when the Aussie team has historically not exactly been chock full of people who couldn't possibly be more Australian, ie the Aboriginal people.

I don't want to get into an argument with you or cause offence, but with respect, I doubt you would have made that South African comment if you had won.

For the record, my passport tells me I am British and I don't live there but I was born out there. I was just never good enough at cricket to be considered English

Re the Aborigines, the insinuation of racism is a bit lower than a joke about South Africans. Yes they might not play a lot of cricket (and that is not just a problem with them) but if you'd check the Australian rules teams, or the rugby league and rugby union teams, you will find their representation far higher than their percentage (2%) of the population.

Walter

There is nothing better than a good aussie whine. After we have put up with it for years (do you really want me to dig out a full list of non-Australians to play for Australia?) then it is nice to see when they are getting a good kicking that they resort to this sort of rubbish to try and deflect from how crap they are at Cricket

Long may it continue.

I'm going to anyway:

Bransby Cooper (born in India, 1 Test for Australia)
Billy Midwinter (born in England, 12 Tests for Australia and England)
Andrew Symonds (born in England, 26 Tests for Australia)
Tom Groube (born in New Zealand, 1 Test for Australia)
Clarrie Grimmett (born in New Zealand, 37 Tests for Australai)
Charles Bannerman (born in England, 3 Tests for Australia)
Tom Horan (born in Ireland, 15 Tests for Australia)
Tom Kendall (born in England, 2 Tests for Australia)
Thomas Kelly (born in Ireland, 2 Tests for Australia)
Percy McDonnell (born in England, 19 Tests for Australia)
Harry Musgrove (born in England, 1 Test for Australia)
Hanson Carter (born in England, 28 Tests for Australia)
Archie Jackson (born in Scotland, 8 Tests for Australia)
Rex Sellers (born in India, 1 Test for Australia)
Tony Dell (born in England, 2 Tests for Australia)
Dav Whatmore (born in Sri Lanka, 7 Tests for Australia)
Brendon Julian (born in New Zealnd, 7 Tests for Australia)
Kepler Wessels (born in South Africa, 24 Tests for Australia)

Scrumpy wrote: they looked like an Australian team intheir baggy green caps, until you saw how polite they were.

Clarrie Grimmett was the real surprise to me, until I discovered that NZ did not play test cricket at that time.

timmy1 wrote:Clarrie Grimmett was the real surprise to me, until I discovered that NZ did not play test cricket at that time.

Even now, it is deemed OK for players of minor nations to move to Test Playing nations, as long as they satisfy residency criteria. Eoin Morgan is a very recent example.

Just goes to show, what goes around, comes around.

You could make a useful XI out of that list of players Dave posted.

Bannerman..... 59.75
Wessels......... 41.00
Jackson......... 47.40
McDonnell (c). 28.78
Carter........... 22.97
Symonds....... 40.61 37.33 (ob)
Horan........... 18.84 13.00 (rm)
Midwinter...... 13.45 25.20 (rm)
Grimmett...... 13.92 24.21 (lbg)
Julian........... 16.00 39.93 (lfm)
Dell............. 5.63 26.66 (lfm)

Not sure who you would chuck behind the timbers, but being Aussies I'm sure they would find a way.


As an aside, did anyone know about the Yabba statue at SCG ? Seems they took out some of the seats and put in a bronze to the most famous barracker of them all.

And the Australians shamefully did. Then whined when others did the same

Scrumpy wrote:You could make a useful XI out of that list of players Dave posted.

Bannerman..... 59.75
Wessels......... 41.00
Jackson......... 47.40
McDonnell (c). 28.78
Carter........... 22.97
Symonds....... 40.61 37.33 (ob)
Horan........... 18.84 13.00 (rm)
Midwinter...... 13.45 25.20 (rm)
Grimmett...... 13.92 24.21 (lbg)
Julian........... 16.00 39.93 (lfm)
Dell............. 5.63 26.66 (lfm)

Not sure who you would chuck behind the timbers, but being Aussies I'm sure they would find a way.


As an aside, did anyone know about the Yabba statue at SCG ? Seems they took out some of the seats and put in a bronze to the most famous barracker of them all.

I thought Wessels kept wicket.

EDIT: But apparently not according to Cricinfo.

EDit #2: Drop Misdwinter and bring in Bransby Cooper and the WK problem is solved.