By Jim Morton
November 29th 2009 @ 12:50am
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Tiny Windies teen stands tall as senior players fall
Trinidad teenager Adrian Barath wears braces, stands just at five foot four and looks like he should still be in school.
But the 19-year-old Test debutant stood taller than any of his bigger, more experienced teammates in unleashing a bold 104 as the West Indies went down in a heap at the Gabba.
Barath, first discovered by [...]
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![Rudyard Kipling wrote memorably about ‘the muddied oafs’ of rugby football and the ‘flannelled fools’ of cricket. The cricket part of the description sums up the behaviour of Shane Watson and Sulieman Benn in the Perth Test between Australia and the West Indies.
I have played and watched cricket for more decades than I care [...] Spiro Zavos: Shane Watson and Sulieman Benn are modern ‘flannelled fools’](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/australian-cricket-watson-th.jpg)
![Not since 2005, when the A-League came to life and the Socceroos faced their crucial World Cup qualification playoff, has football in Australia faced as a decisive year as it does in 2010. More important than 2006? Absolutely.
The 2006 World Cup was the icing on the cake of World Cup qualification in 2005.
As long as [...] Adrian Musolino: 2010 critical for perceptions of football in Australia](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/melbourne-heart-th.jpg)
![Troy Taylor was one of the feel-good stories of the draft. Nabbed by Richmond at pick 51, the 188cm teen from the Northern Territory had made it to the AFL despite his troubled past. At the beginning of last year, it would have looked like an impossible dream.
As The Age reported prior to the draft: [...] Michael DiFabrizio: Troy Taylor a work in progress, on and off field](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/troy-taylor-th.jpg)
![With his team 14-6 up after 65 minutes at an ANZ Stadium that was resembling the adjacent Aquatic Centre more and more as the game wore on, it looked for all money that Michael Ennis had secured victory for the Bulldogs.
Four Rabbitohs tried in vain to keep a firm grip on the rain soaked [...] Gabriel Knowles: Rugby league is doing away with the push and shove](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/league-doing-away-ennis-th.jpg)
![D-day looms for New Zealand’s All Whites. They are one game away from World Cup qualification for the first time since 1982, and they face a do or die clash in Wellington on Saturday in a similar scenario to what the Socceroos faced in November 2005.
And like the Socceroos’ playoff qualification, victory for the [...] Adrian Musolino: Australia should back All Whites for World Cup](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/australia-back-all-whites-world-cup-katlego-mashego-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)
![There’s been much debate on David Gallop’s handling of the Sonny Bill Williams affair. And we hear loud rumblings that rugby league is in poor shape in Australia and that change is needed. So I invited Roar editor, Zolton Zavos, to put his thoughts forward on why he thinks Gus Gould might provide the solution, [...] Steve Kaless: Should Gus Gould replace David Gallop?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/gus-gould-th.jpg)
![When I touched base with Sydney FC a short time ago enquiring about the results from Steve Corica’s test yesterday, I wasn’t expecting to hear the news that his career is over.
The confirmation that Corica tore the hamstring off his bone within the first 10 minutes of Sunday night’s big win over the Melbourne Victory [...] Tony Tannous: Corica bows out a winner](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/steve-corica-sydney-crowell-mariners-th.jpg)
![Is it Let’s Bag Jesse Fink Week or something? First there was Les Murray at The World Game gently chiding me for defending Emmanuel Adebayor. Now Davidde Corran at The Roar has let out a very public groan at another one of my impassioned open letters to Pim Verbeek to play Richard Porta.
I’m a sensitive [...] Jesse Fink: Time for some A-League masala](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/gold-coast-expansion-mensink-bleiberg-buckley-th.jpg)
![With England due to face Australia for the 8th time in one-day internationals in the past few weeks – and the 15th time in all cricket in three months – it seems an approapriate time to pour petrol on the fire of debate that is surrounding the 50-over game.
The problem, certainly from where I’m sitting, [...] Alec Swann: One day cricket is a case of familiarity breeding contempt](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/ecb-forces-one-day-cricket-james-hopes-th.jpg)
![We’ve all heard the argument against A-League fixtures clashing with FIFA dates and this weekend is a case in point. The FFA admits they’ll review the situation at season’s end, but with a congested fixture list next season, it’ll be a tough decision.
The 2010-2011 Hyundai A-League campaign will see eleven teams compete for the ‘silver [...] Ben Somerford: 33 or 22 Rounds in A-League Version 6?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/five-reasons-a-league-th.jpg)



