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November 11th 2009 @ 2:43am
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More debutants after Johnson, Watson head home
Australia are set to field two or even three debutants in the final limited overs match against India in Mumbai on Wednesday after Mitchell Johnson and Shane Watson were allowed to return home early.
NSW quick Burt Cockley and Victorian allrounder Andrew McDonald will play their first limited overs matches for Australia, while young spinner Jon [...]
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![If you can’t beat them, join them. So let’s have a Rugby Union Queensland Vs NSW State of Origin series. The notion was floated by John Connolly in his review of the upcoming Super 14 Waratahs-Reds match at the Sydney Football Stadium.
My original reaction that that Connolly was an old Queensland warhorse who was missing the [...] Spiro Zavos: Let’s have a Rugby Union State of Origin](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/union-state-of-origin-beale-horwill-th.jpg)
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He did not set the field on fire as he scored only 15 runs but managed [...] Kersi Meher-Homji: Sachin Tendulkar: the greatest of them all](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/sachin-tendulkar-greatest-th.jpg)
![I can’t pretend to have known much about Robert Enke, the German footballer who threw himself in front of a train this week, but I was more than familiar with the emotional architecture of his story, having written a piece on depression among sportspeople a few years ago for Inside Sport magazine.
In the sporting world, [...] Jesse Fink: The tragic fate of Germany’s Robert Enke](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/the-tragic-fate-robert-enke-th.jpg)
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Indeed, these [...] Ben Somerford: Now we know our World Cup opponents, let’s prepare](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/harry-kewell-th.jpg)
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On top of this comes the news that, at least until the present series concludes, Australia has (deservedly) slipped to third [...] Greg Russell: Decline of Australian cricket due to many factors](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/decline-oz-cricket-andrew-symonds-th.jpg)
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What the disappointing drop in crowd numbers highlights is [...] Adrian Musolino: Accepting some home truths about A-League crowds](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/which-chants-acceptable-th.jpg)
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When they arrive at the grounds, they can buy a plastic bucket [...] Geoff Lawson: Twenty20 has set the cricket world alight](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/twenty20-west-indies-th.jpg)
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Osborne, spying a monster crowd for his team’s season opener against the well supported Dragons, has made [...] Steve Kaless: Eels’ Homebush gambit positive move for NRL](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/bulldogs-eels-th.jpg)
![A recent story in the Sydney Morning Herald referred to a new development in cricket bats, with about a quarter of the back of it flattened and rolled so that a batsman, especially in Twenty-20 cricket, could use both sides of it as a switch hitter.
If the development is a success, it will represent the [...] Spiro Zavos: Double-bladed bats have the wood on tradition](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/double-handed-bats.jpg)
![Late last week, the South Dragons pulled out of the 2009/10 basketball season. A few days later, the Melbourne Tigers joined them. By that point, it seemed like finally someone in the sport had the foresight to say enough is enough. Pity it didn’t last.
Now Basketball Australia is forging ahead with the teams that didn’t [...] Michael DiFabrizio: Forget the bandaids, the NBL needs genuine reform](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/forget-bandaids-nbl-dragons-th.jpg)
![I never used to like our national anthem. There was always something so bland about it, even when the best singers tried to put a unique rendition together.
But when the Australian national anthem was belted out via Sydney’s Olympic stadium PA in November, 2005, 80,000 fans changed my opinion of Advance Australia Fair.
I’d never [...] Benjamin Conkey: My favourite sporting anthems](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/sporting-anthems-socceroos-greece-th.jpg)



