One of the more unusual highlights of the test summer has been MJ Clarke getting hit in the Jatz for the second year running at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Copped one in the golden bollocks from The Mighty Gul, after being touched up by Jacques Kallis in a similar fashion this time last year!
As Skull was moved to comment on the radio "there'll be no hoisting the spinnaker in Bondi tonight"
Blame it on the pitch, the ball, the weather conditions, unsuitable bat, sub-standard protector, whatever you like; everyone else is making all kinds of excuses for all manner of things under the sun.
It's been a very interesting summer for Clarkey given that he has been intensely involved with the philosophical question of the importance of being Micheal Clarke, while plotting to pinch the captaincy.
Easy to forget that Pup was topping the averages after the West Indies series, when no one could make a ton.
He can't make a ton.
Just intent on doing the Vice-Captain thing; a measured innings, build a knock, be responsible in the match context.
Perhaps that's just not his go - perghaps he should return to his swashbuckling ways?
After all, the cracking cover drive, the pinging off cut, and the classic leg side play to work the ones and twos and rotate the strike, are all as good as ever.
When was the last time the bloke hit a six?
Still, he's been a busy boy off the field, given that he has been consulting lawyers, arranging for someone to "borrow" the Aston, and generally sorting out the Bride to Be.
On the field, and in the dressing shed, his move on the skippership has been subtle.
Sensibly, Pup didn't talk to the press at all from the start of the Perth test clean through to Sydney, and his only public leadership move was to send Uncle Horrie in as nightwatchman in Melbourne.
A masterstroke that went a long way to winning the match, after it allowed for an unusual early declaration.
The first time he appeared in the media in a long time was before the toss was made at the SCG, when he was asked on radio interview what he might do if he were captain, and if there was any thought in the rooms about the possiblity of inserting the Paki's under leaden skies on a Sydney greentop.
Reply?
"to be honest, I haven't spoken with Ricky"
The failure of Cricket Australia to institute a Royal Commission to make a wide ranging inquiry into the Ashes loss has come home to roost in Sydney, with Pakistan completing the jihad and vapourising the odd Australian test career into the bargain [Which Way's North springs to mind].
The blindness of those who should know better continues to astound [the awarding of the mickey-mouse McGilvray medal to cry-baby Johnson for single-handedly losing the Ashes during some kind of argument with his mother over a girl, will take some beating as the best joke of 2010].
The miserable failure of the selectors to accept any culpability, and the point blank refusal of the captain to take any responsibility for the Ashes fiasco [the real reason why PJ Hughes was shamefully dropped in England was simply that Punter had a role as a tour selector, and Ponting just
can't stand the young kiddie -- unlike the skipper, Hughes twitters, he's got a Facebook page etc etc -- and as we all know, the sun shines out of Watson's arse 24 hours a day], all means MJ Clarke need do nothing more than bide his time.
Ponting has lost form & confidence after Kemar Roach bought home the stark reality that his ageing eyes and reflexes can no longer adequately pick up the really fast short ball, he's always suffered from poor judgement [you only have to go back to Edgbaston, for gawd's sake] and making rubbish decisions in the field [you only have to go back to letting India off a very sharp hook in Nagpur].
Ponting says he wants to lead the side on the 2013 Ashes tour, well, let's be frank, he's got more chance of making the 2012 London Olympics.
A loss at Bellerive, and he'll be lucky to get out of Hobart alive.
