Australian Off Season 2017

[brockley]

No Cookies | Geelong Advertiser
Tim Ludeman moves to Victoria,now thats a surprise.

 

[Gnske]

Should have head to QLD tbh if he wants to continue wicketkeeping. Think Healy's son is the literally the only other wicketkeeper in the state apart from Peirson.

 

[Gnske]

Brett Geeves column: Andrew Symonds Australia v Bangladesh Cardiff | Fox Sports

As we boarded the plane from Brisbane to Darwin, the business class section of the flight was quickly filling with Australian team tracksuits and businessmen and women alike.

Once I had settled into my seat, next to Mike Hussey, I put my glasses on and returned to the book I had been reading at the departure gate.

With that came a raging voice boomed from the back of the business class section: “OI, GREEVES, NICE GLASSES, HAHAHAHAHAHA”, along with a barb questioning my ***uality.

Who was in the wrong here?

 

[Spikey]

Both of them

 

[Red]

Brett Geeves column: Andrew Symonds Australia v Bangladesh Cardiff | Fox Sports



Who was in the wrong here?

I turned around, saw that Roy was completely chuffed with himself and returned serve with a meek offering of my chubby middle finger before diving back into my book content in the knowledge the big fella had taken time out of his day to ensure I was comfortable.

The attention that came from Hussey following this was extreme. His concern that I was offended by Roy’s playful banter seemed a little over the top.

I appreciated the worry, but gave it no further thought until the team manager showed similar concern once we had disembarked via the front stairs.

To be honest, I was more appreciative of the fact that Roy had engaged me with the type of nonsense I would have got from my non-cricketing mates at home.

Whenever I walked into my old football club, I’d be doused in verbal and set alight by ridicule; as would every other person that walked by.

It is a bloke thing.

To me, that was Roy’s way of being nice. And it felt right. And I loved him for it.

You actually have to read the whole article. The section you quoted makes Geeves sound pretty whiny but that's not the case.

 

[Red]

Actually a ripping article. Geez I loved Symonds, and yeh, he should have played a hell of a lot more cricket for Australia and would have had he been managed better.

 

[Gnske]

You actually have to read the whole article. The section you quoted makes Geeves sound pretty whiny but that's not the case.

Roy's statement was the only thing of interest in that quotation

 

[Top_Cat]

Why on Earth is Geeves writing about long dead cricketers? More specifically, why is Geeves writing? Yeah he's playing at self-awareness (I wear my ODI cap out, lololo, etc.) but bleh.

 

[Red]

Really? Thought this was pretty spot on...

Roy fell victim to the game’s professional standards rising to “high performance” levels almost overnight.

Gone were wheelie bins as training aides (wickets with auto wickey) and stretching aides and in came the need to tick all post-match recovery boxes — ice baths, hydrolytes and more stretching — before you could crack open a sponsors product to feel content with your day’s work.

Roy’s entire career: his preparation, his post-match recovery and his personal style had been crafted by the old school. Those old-school Bulls and their hard drinkin’, hard playin’ and easy-winnin’ ways.

The transition into High Performance just wasn’t a natural fit for him through a decade of repetition in another style.

You feel that had CA, or the leadership group, been able to work with him and his need for a different approach, we may have seen more of him in Australian colours.

In my opinion, the big bloke didn’t have a harmful thought in his soul. He was his own man, with an eye to the old-school humour and banter that became irrelevant and outdated when high performance became a thing.

His large frame meant that his abrasive style could often come across as aggressive and inappropriate. Sometimes those guys need the noose released to reach their optimum level.

Sadly, that noose stayed tight until it choked his international career into submission.

A continual management style of ‘conformity over individuality’ means robots will take the game forward.

Not everyone with sporting talent comes from the inner city.

 

[Top_Cat]

Yeah but battling for the soul of Aussie cricket by venerating Symonds and potting Hussey? Of all the guys to go after...

It's not as if Symonds only had trouble when playing for Oz anyway, was a pain in the arse all way from underage rep cricket. He's always had to be 'managed'. The professionalism thing is an absolute furphy, 'specially since a lot of those 'hard drinkin, hard playin, easy winnin' QLD boys he played with were city boys anyway.

 

[Shri]

Didn't he move from the UK?

 

[morgieb]

Didn't he move from the UK?

As a baby. Grew up in rural Queensland.

 

[Red]

Yeah but battling for the soul of Aussie cricket by venerating Symonds and potting Hussey? Of all the guys to go after...

Yeh but he didn't really pot Hussey did he? Just said that he found his concern a bit OTT. Not like Hussey comes out of the article looking ****, just a bit grandmotherly.

 

[quincywagstaff]

Yeah but battling for the soul of Aussie cricket by venerating Symonds and potting Hussey? Of all the guys to go after...

It's not as if Symonds only had trouble when playing for Oz anyway, was a pain in the arse all way from underage rep cricket. He's always had to be 'managed'. The professionalism thing is an absolute furphy, 'specially since a lot of those 'hard drinkin, hard playin, easy winnin' QLD boys he played with were city boys anyway.

Remember around the time of his final incident in 2009 that ended his international career it being commented on a local sports radio station that when they'd contacted him for an interview in the past he'd been the rudest person they'd ever come across.

I don't really buy the view that he could've/should've had a better international career. He was shown a lot of faith as a ODI player until he had his breakthrough in the 2003 WC (and was a superb ODI player for the rest of his career). As a Test player he was given an overly generous run in 2005/06 and did very little; he came good for a 12 month period in the 2007 period but he fell away pretty quickly after that.

 

[quincywagstaff]

And to be sure, he was left out to dry during the 'Monkeygate' saga and it's probably understandable he lost the passion for international cricket from that point onwards. But he could be needlessly petulant and abrasive as well. A classic case was after India won the inaugural T20 WC in 2007 Symonds was moaning that they celebrated too much after the victory!

"Something has been sparked inside of me, watching them carry on over the last few days," Symonds told AAP. "We have had a very successful side and I think watching how we celebrate and how they celebrate, I think we have been pretty humble in the way we have gone about it.
"And personally, I think they have got far too carried away with their celebrations. It has definitely sparked passion inside of us. It has certainly spiced it up as well."

 

[social]

Nocookies | The Australian

Can't imagine that this is great news for CA re BBL tv rights

 

[brockley]

Tweakers descend on NCC for spin week | cricket.com.au
Spinners camp.

 

[brockley]

https://thewest.com.au/sport/cricket/tens-trouble-to-affect-bbl-rights-expert-ng-s-1736865
Ten a worry.

 

[morgieb]

So the BBL is gonna be on Channel 9?

 

[GirtBySea]

Bye bye to FTA coverage of all BBL matches then.