Eng-ger-land…. sigh

“The performance in the Ashes series has been a great disappointment and a number of lessons must be learned. This review will be comprehensive and broad ranging with the clear objective of regaining the Ashes in 2009 and significantly improving England’s results in one-day international cricket in the next four year cycle.”

– ECB chief executive David Collier, 5.1.07

So there you have it. The England and Wales Cricket Board announced yesterday that they will arrange a board meeting to discuss the process for forming the composition of a review team to examine England’s performances over the last few years and [complete this sentence in 25 words or more]. Continue reading “Eng-ger-land…. sigh”

Sydney Day Two: Warne’s 1000th vegetable

You have  to hand it to the Murdoch comic books. One week they are celebrating – in advance – the Lord Of The RingsText Alert’s 700th wicket, the next week they are celebrating his 1000th wicket. With that rarest or rarities, the full page colour liftout commemorative poster.

So what are we celebrating again? Shane Warne’s 1000th international wicket. As in all “full internationals”. Let me explain, by introducing the rickeyre.com vegetable index (More about the fruit index later) Continue reading “Sydney Day Two: Warne’s 1000th vegetable”

Sydney Day One: Con te partiro

Imagine an artist at the canvas on the boundary fence of a packed SCG on the opening day of the New Years Test. Imagine Jack Russell, brush in hand, white floppy hat, characteristic moustache, outlining the curves of Aussie Stadium peeking from behind the Noble Stand, the clock on the Members Stand showing a quarter past four.


A man neatly dressed in a suit appears in the middle of the arena. But it’s not the CEO of one of the myriad of sponsors – not unless he is a classically-trained opera singer. 
Suddenly, the painter’s hat flies away, the moustache curls up, Jack Russell has morphed into Salvador Dali, and the SCG clock melts away. Continue reading “Sydney Day One: Con te partiro”

Climate change explained for cricket tragics

Unfortunately, John Howard was not in the House when Shadow Minister for Environment, Heritage and Water, Anthony Albanese, gave the following solution for reducing greenhouse emissions, speaking in Federal Parliament on Wednesday:

Climate change is real and the threat of dangerous climate change is also real. What Labor would do is cut Australia’s greenhouse pollution by 60 per cent by 2050. We know that, if you have a target, it is like a one-day cricket target: you do not bat out the first 30 overs; you send out Adam Gilchrist to get some runs on the board early because it makes it easy to get to the target later on. That is what the business council’s Global Roundtable on Climate Change has said.