Loyal Supporters,
What a relief.
After The Mess in Marvelous Melbourne, my bloke becomes 43rd Captain of Straya.
And not before time.
For gawd's sake.
They didn't give him the captaincy of the Under-19's for nothing, and they knew then that he was already interested in girls.
That was ten years ago, so nothing's changed.
Born leader.
Soon after his first class debut, saw him a Sheffield Shield match at Newcastle No. 1 Ground batting with Mark Waugh when he launched a mighty fine on-drive off some hapless spinner that was still on the up as it cleared the ground's perimeter fence, bounced a few times across the netball courts, and ended up in Mullet Creek.
Lost ball.
Sold on MJ Clarke then and there.
He's currently averaging 21.4 since moving from No.5 to No.4 in the batting order, so must try harder.
Will he bat at 3 in Sydney, or leave it up to Mr Cricket, with the Token Muzzie at 5?
You have to worry about RT Ponting, at his age.
The Board now has a full seven months to give him the tap on the shoulder before the next test in Colombo or Kandy.
There can be no other course of action after losing the Ashes, not once, not twice, but thrice.
Giving the bloke another game on that track record would be difficult to justify.
Having lost all public confidence, it appears highly likely that there will be no dignified farewell match for the Punter.
Even from an ardent critic, have to say that that'd be a pity, but sometimes when the constellations collide you have no say in it.
Cricket is a hard game; the fools purportedly in charge of the caper can be even harder..."thanks for all the fish Ricky, now here's you pension".
Pup only needs to tonk a very large backs-to-the-wall ton in Sydney to silence the critics and seal the deal.
Just treat the bowling with the utmost of contempt and play all the trademark shots off the front foot, and jam the four inches of bat up the Pommy runter, for good measure.
A couple into the top deck of the MA Noble Stand off Swann would be a nice touch.
Can't be too much to ask, surely?
