***Official*** Australia in South Africa

[Nate]

How is it a choice? I know it's "happy wife, happy life" (trust me, I DO know) but this is his career FFS. *****-whipped IMHO. Dire.

Dreadful form Burgey.

 

[Top_Cat]

How is it a choice? I know it's "happy wife, happy life" (trust me, I DO know) but this is his career FFS. *****-whipped IMHO. Dire.

Mind you, happy he's not there tbh.

AWTA. He's not missing the wedding to go play a spot of cricket with his mates, this is a career-changing decision. I can only think he went that way because he didn't think he was a shoe-in for selection. A wedding can be post-poned and had he been likely to be in the side, I'd say that's exactly what he would have done.

 

[ripper868]

If Australia continues to struggle to put up with a fully fit pace battery, I'd safely predict a whitewash in tests for the South Africans. ODIs might be a bit different though.

Best Prediction ever.

 

[Burgey]

Dreadful form Burgey.

Nath, it's like this. Whether he gets married Saturday, next week, next month or next year - he has the rest of his life with his good lady. The opportunities for him to excel at the highest level in his chosen career are limited (in his case, maybe very limited).

After the farcical ODI series (plural) Australia put up here this Summer, the SA series may have been Voges' best chance ever to cement in the medium to long term a spot in that line up.

Had he done so, the soon-to-be Mrs Voges would have been kept very busy managing the investment property portfolio.

All I'm saying is, as a couple, the sensible decision would have been to try to secure a first XI spot on this tour, at a time where there's patently less certainty in that team than there has been for years.

 

[TT Boy]

Voges could have moved the wedding to the Republic, sure it would mean losing about 200 guests but you kill two birds with one stone and just say to the missus, it’s the honeymoon as well.

 

[TT Boy]

Albie Morkel is almost a dead cert to start in place of his brother on Thursday but the rationale given for why he is in the side is to boost the batting but that isn’t needed, the ability to take 20 wickets and bowl well is what has got South Africa into the mire this series.

Mickey Arthur has said that having Albie around will now mean Bouch can play an innings of substance, not in fear of the tail but his had more then enough opportunities in recent past to knuckle down with a ‘real’ batsman and blown it.

The squad for Cape Town should have been selected after the recent domestic games ended and that would have meant neither Morkel nor Parnell would have got selected and inform seamers, de Wet, Alexander, du Preez, de Villiers would have got the call instead.

Whilst according to Neil Manthrop’s latest piece on SuperSport, Ashwell Prince isn’t on speaking terms with most of the South African squad and that is duly because Amla, AB, Kallis and JP were all asked to open at Cape Town and they all turned it down. Amla despite making 40 odd and likely to be South Africa’s full-time ODI opener soon didn’t want it whilst AB, who started his career as an opener has carte blanche on where he bats and dictates what he wants to do i.e. also not keep. No wonder Prince is pissed.

 

[NUFAN]

Nath, it's like this. Whether he gets married Saturday, next week, next month or next year - he has the rest of his life with his good lady. The opportunities for him to excel at the highest level in his chosen career are limited (in his case, maybe very limited).

After the farcical ODI series (plural) Australia put up here this Summer, the SA series may have been Voges' best chance ever to cement in the medium to long term a spot in that line up.

Had he done so, the soon-to-be Mrs Voges would have been kept very busy managing the investment property portfolio.

All I'm saying is, as a couple, the sensible decision would have been to try to secure a first XI spot on this tour, at a time where there's patently less certainty in that team than there has been for years.

Yeah completely agree with this.

How could you not think to check calendar dates before deciding on the date. Hope North dominates now.

 

[Son Of Coco]

With Khan and Prince in such good form domestically, I fear that this final test is where the South African backlash will come from. Especially with an injection of fresh players.

Doesn't it get you down being so pessimistic all the time?

Who cares anyway? They've lost the series 2-0...they can't win it by winning the last test. I hope we win so it's 3-0, but if we lose then I'm not concerned. It would take a big turnaround from SA in their current form, or a complete drop in effort from Australia.

The way SA have approached their batting so far they'll have to score at least a double each in the first innings to get them to 500.

 

[pup11]

Nath, it's like this. Whether he gets married Saturday, next week, next month or next year - he has the rest of his life with his good lady. The opportunities for him to excel at the highest level in his chosen career are limited (in his case, maybe very limited).

After the farcical ODI series (plural) Australia put up here this Summer, the SA series may have been Voges' best chance ever to cement in the medium to long term a spot in that line up.

Had he done so, the soon-to-be Mrs Voges would have been kept very busy managing the investment property portfolio.

All I'm saying is, as a couple, the sensible decision would have been to try to secure a first XI spot on this tour, at a time where there's patently less certainty in that team than there has been for years.

Yeah, was pretty surprised when I read about this, I don't think Voges should have been in the squad ahead of North in the first place, but nonetheless since he was provided with this chance, he should have grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

I know, wedding is a big thing for every person, but it really didn't make any sense for him to put his international career in jeopardy due to this, if he was an already established international player, then he probably still might have gotten away with this, but at this point of his career, this is pretty silly from him.

Anyways, moving on, it would be interesting to see what the Australian bowling line-up would look like for the 3rd test, the only possible change is probably McGain coming in for McDonald, and AFAIC McGain just has to play in the 3rd test, irrespective of the conditions.

Would look pretty diabolical in the end of the series, if the Aussies don't play any spinner through the series after bringing two of them over, would also be more ideal for McGain to make his debut in a dead-rubber, rather then doing that during the Ashes in England.

 

[four_or_six]

Nath, it's like this. Whether he gets married Saturday, next week, next month or next year - he has the rest of his life with his good lady. The opportunities for him to excel at the highest level in his chosen career are limited (in his case, maybe very limited).

After the farcical ODI series (plural) Australia put up here this Summer, the SA series may have been Voges' best chance ever to cement in the medium to long term a spot in that line up.

Had he done so, the soon-to-be Mrs Voges would have been kept very busy managing the investment property portfolio.

All I'm saying is, as a couple, the sensible decision would have been to try to secure a first XI spot on this tour, at a time where there's patently less certainty in that team than there has been for years.

Perhaps the soon-to-be Mrs Voges has more interesting things to do with her life than to manage her husband's money. Perhaps... shock horror... she has a life of her own. And perhaps her husband has put that first.

 

[Johnners]

Nath, it's like this. Whether he gets married Saturday, next week, next month or next year - he has the rest of his life with his good lady. The opportunities for him to excel at the highest level in his chosen career are limited (in his case, maybe very limited).

After the farcical ODI series (plural) Australia put up here this Summer, the SA series may have been Voges' best chance ever to cement in the medium to long term a spot in that line up.

Had he done so, the soon-to-be Mrs Voges would have been kept very busy managing the investment property portfolio.

All I'm saying is, as a couple, the sensible decision would have been to try to secure a first XI spot on this tour, at a time where there's patently less certainty in that team than there has been for years.

Haha, unless you know them personally, you honestly haven't the slightest Idea what the sensible decision would have been.

 

[Briony]

Albie Morkel is almost a dead cert to start in place of his brother on Thursday but the rationale given for why he is in the side is to boost the batting but that isn’t needed, the ability to take 20 wickets and bowl well is what has got South Africa into the mire this series.

Mickey Arthur has said that having Albie around will now mean Bouch can play an innings of substance, not in fear of the tail but his had more then enough opportunities in recent past to knuckle down with a ‘real’ batsman and blown it.

The squad for Cape Town should have been selected after the recent domestic games ended and that would have meant neither Morkel nor Parnell would have got selected and inform seamers, de Wet, Alexander, du Preez, de Villiers would have got the call instead.

Whilst according to Neil Manthrop’s latest piece on SuperSport, Ashwell Prince isn’t on speaking terms with most of the South African squad and that is duly because Amla, AB, Kallis and JP were all asked to open at Cape Town and they all turned it down. Amla despite making 40 odd and likely to be South Africa’s full-time ODI opener soon didn’t want it whilst AB, who started his career as an opener has carte blanche on where he bats and dictates what he wants to do i.e. also not keep. No wonder Prince is pissed.

But didn't Parnell and Albertus have to bowl on a really flat pitch? According to Prince it was almost impossible to get out if you applied yourself. Judging from the scores in the de Wet match, the pitch was a lot more bowler-friendly. It seems the Cape Town pitch will be reasonably good for batting too so it may help the bowlers who've just had to toil on a road more.

 

[Briony]

And Voges is a fool, it's a lot easier to get married than play for one's country. A third of marriages end in divorce anyway.

 

[four_or_six]

All seems to be getting quite childish in the SA camp. I read that Prince had the captaincy taken away because he said if he was captain, he would decide the batting order. And then he would choose AB to open instead of him because he's done it before!

 

[Burgey]

Perhaps the soon-to-be Mrs Voges has more interesting things to do with her life than to manage her husband's money. Perhaps... shock horror... she has a life of her own. And perhaps her husband has put that first.

Perhaps, shock horror, you'll become mature enough that you'll not mistake someone's disagreeing with a choice made by others as some all encompassing misogyny.

Perhaps, shock horror, a marriage can wait. Perhaps it cannot. It's their choice. Based on what little I've heard, I disagree with it.

If you disagree, fine. But spare me the patronising **** which implies I'm some sort of ***ist arsehole when I've been married 15 years myself and had real world decisions of my own to make with my wife.

 

[TT Boy]

But didn't Parnell and Albertus have to bowl on a really flat pitch? According to Prince it was almost impossible to get out if you applied yourself. Judging from the scores in the de Wet match, the pitch was a lot more bowler-friendly. It seems the Cape Town pitch will be reasonably good for batting too so it may help the bowlers who've just had to toil on a road more.

Yeah but Parnell and Albie have also bowled on other surfaces this year and their performances don’t suggest they should be playing test cricket especially in the case of Albie as a third seamer in a struggling bowling attack. de Wet has only just returned from serious injury but from the reports his pace is back (bowled 140kph+ in the 20/20) and his got the wickets whilst Alexander is the leading wicket-taker domestically. His very raw but not as raw as Parnell and he can swing it back into the left-handers at real pace.

As you say the Cape wicket should be good for batting but it does assist the spinners, Harris (and JP) should get some nice drift and turn from days 3 onwards.

Interesting to see if Aus go for the attacking spinner in McGain or the Harris type bowler in Hauritz. They should go for the former considering the strength of their tail, the performances of their seamers so far and the more then decent job North has been doing. Hauritz really doesn’t offer anything to the side when North is there.

 

[TT Boy]

All seems to be getting quite childish in the SA camp. I read that Prince had the captaincy taken away because he said if he was captain, he would decide the batting order. And then he would choose AB to open instead of him because he's done it before!

Prince is bang on. If he is the captain he should be able to dictate where he bats and who opens. Seems like someone thought Ashwell could be a puppet, his not.

 

[andyc]

Prince is bang on. If he is the captain he should be able to dictate where he bats and who opens. Seems like someone thought Ashwell could be a puppet, his not.

Yeah, good on Prince IMO. Pretty rough to make him open when he clearly doesn't want to do it and there's other players in the team who have experience doing it.

 

[Evermind]

And Voges is a fool, it's a lot easier to get married than play for one's country. A third of marriages end in divorce anyway.

Half of all players end up getting dropped.

Greater chance with the marriage.

 

[Briony]

Half of all players end up getting dropped.

Greater chance with the marriage.

But playing instead of getting married at this particular time gives him the chance to chalk up more games against his name. As it stands he will probably be lucky to be picked again. If his prospective wife really loves him, she'll wait.