Roar Guru
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You have just been humbled 4-0 in a five Test Ashes series. Saved a 5-0 drubbing by unseasonal Sydney rain. An ironic and miserable…
On the first day of Ashes my true love sent to me, Rory bowled around his knees. On the second day of Ashes my…
Let’s get one thing straight. It ain’t coming home. If you’ve never won anything outside of one proper tournament, almost 60 years ago, on…
We are only a few hours away from finding out whether or not Cooper Cronk is set to play in the NRL grand final.…
How did it get to this? Our captain is a broken man. Nobody else can feel his pain, but the harrowing vision was there…
Not everyone likes T20 cricket. Frankly, a lot of people can’t stand it. These people have no vested interest; no agenda, hidden or otherwise.…
Jonathan Trott. Who knows what happened there. Who knows if he needed to go home. Who knows if he just wanted to go home.…
It is grand final week and like every grand final week our thoughts turn to one man: Brian Smith. The great man has spent…
In the interests of transparency, Cricket Australia has steadfastly refused to release details of the players’ homework (apparently the dog ate it), but a…
On Friday, 7th September 2012, we flew into LA. We were due to fly to Boston the next morning. That night, we had a…
The New Zealand Warriors host the Penrith Panthers at Mt Smart Stadium. Join us for live scores and commentary from 12.00pm AEST. Both teams…
The Canberra Raiders host the Newcastle Knights this afternoon, with both sides desperate to keep their finals dream alive. Join us for live scores…
The Manly Sea Eagles will take on the Canterbury Bulldogs at Brookvale Oval tonight, with ex-coach Des Hasler returning to Brookvale for the first…
The Canberra Raiders will host the Gold Coast Titans at Canberra Stadium on Sunday 15 July. Both teams will be desperate for the competition…
The Parramatta Eels take on South Sydney Rabbitohs at ANZ Stadium on Saturday 16 June. Join us for live scores and commentary from 7:30pm…
The New Zealand Warriors take on the Melbourne Storm at Mt Smart Stadium on Sunday 3 June. Join us for live scores and commentary…
St George-Illawarra Dragons meet Parramatta Eels at WIN Jubilee oval tonight with the Dragons looking to avoid a fourth consecutive defeat and needing a…
The date is the fifth of September, 2011. The Wests Tigers are bound for the semi-finals and it is fans' day at Tigers training.…
We have all heard of batsmen who can bowl or bowlers who can bat. Allow me introduce you to a new phenomenon in world…
The Eels are none from four this season. They have scored a grand total of seven tries in those four games. That horror statistic…
Excellent article and tightly written. Some of Ilicic’s moves have to be seen to be believed. I often replay a passage just to see exactly what he did. Too fast for this naked eye.
Josip Ilicic: The most underrated player in world football
For the record, I don’t watch it. I wish I could, but I just can’t.
Like a lot of things, big crowds and/or big TV audiences do not always make something more watchable. I may have watched a total of seven minutes of T20 this season. That’s admittedly more than my 2015 MasterChef minutes but it’s also some way behind my Sheffield Shield minutes.
T20 is Cricket, but not as we know it
I loved the pink ball! Made Test cricket even more exciting. 1-2 per summer would be perfect.
Can live without DRS though.
T20 is Cricket, but not as we know it
There’s no need to worry about the lack of profile of international league when you have a product as popular and as compelling as Origin. Bottom line is that there many more ‘union people’ watching and admiring Origin than ‘league people’ watching Bledisloe Cup matches. Yes I’m generalising, but you get the point.
Where is rugby's great state rivalry?
That’s the pipe dream.
Short-term dilution is likely to morph into medium-term stagnation and long-term oblivion. As league prospers, AFL makes inroads and soccer has a long-awaited resurgence, rugby union is sadly becoming increasingly irrelevant.
Where is rugby's great state rivalry?
Given the choice between Robson who averages 39 in FC cricket and is 23yo and Ed Cowan who averages 39 and is almost 31, I have a fair idea who I’d choose.
..and forget this ‘Australian cricket system’ wiffle. If that system is going to churn out ill-equipped journeymen cricketers, then we need a new system.
Please, Mr. Inverarity, go watch Middlesex and Sam Robson
“two most popular footballing codes”
What about all the Muslims that have played THE most popular code of Football?
All the way with UTK!
That sounds awfully close to Cowan’s own argument. That it’s all about partnerships. Partnerships require both parties to contribute. Hanging around is not contributing. Any top order district cricketer can hang around and not contribute.
Using Ed’s line of argument, then when Warner has a succession of failures and is dropped we should also drop Cowan.
Is this the last chance for Ed Cowan?
He’s like a nighwatchman opening the innings. Nathan Lyon showed in the first Test that he too can hang around. To remind people, Lyon batted at 11.
Is this the last chance for Ed Cowan?
Allow me to explain.
Re the stats, I’m trying to point out how senseless it is to strip out certain innings and draw parallels. I was trying to replicate how absurd the whole analysis is. My analysis is as useful(less) as Red Kev’s. Difference is I think he may be serious. Clearly not everyone picked up on my line of argument.
Second point, by any measure the Indian attack on that tour was pedestrian. It had to do with the pitches they were playing on to a large extent, but regardless, they weren’t half the bowlers they’ve been on the Indian pitches. Let’s also recall that Cowan hardly plundered that attack (some decent batsmen cashed in as you know). Two scores of 70ish in six innings is a less than adequate return; that three of those six were meek lbw dismissals is inexcusable.
Cowan is an incompetent batsman who has somehow managed FIFTEEN more Tests for his country than he deserves.
Hope that’s cleared things up for you.
Crushed, but Australians should ignore the hysteria
Yeah. That’s EXACTLY what I was thinking.
Brisbane Broncos vs Manly Sea Eagles: NRL live scores, blog
And Dud Cowan’s reputation isn’t enhanced by three good innings? Let’s remove his sole 100 (in FIFTEEN Tests), let’s say we remove his other two scores of 68 and 74 (in FIFTEEN Tests) against a pedestrian Indian attack. That leaves him with an average of 24. Only slightly more miserable than 31.96. Any other Australian batsmen with a sequence of 10, 29, 0 ,53, 4, 56, 36, 4, 36, 29, 32, 4, 34 would be dropped in any era of the game. He wouldn’t even make the England teams of the 90s and 00s with a run like that. FIFTEEN Tests?
Plus his innings are rarely chanceless, plus he drops catches, plus he gets run out, plus he’s the wrong side of 30, plus he routinely pads up and gets bowled/LBW (take your pick). Then he tells us all its about partnerships. So as long as Warner scores, Cowan’s in the team or vice versa, Really? Partnerships are important but you BOTH have to contribute regularly.
Like any handy grade cricketer, he is out of his depth in Test cricket.
Crushed, but Australians should ignore the hysteria
100% agree. That said, he’s the worst Test cricketer we’ve produced since Julien Weiner.
Twelve Tests for Ed is twelve too many
Australia vs Sri Lanka SCG Test: cricket live scores, updates (Day 2)
Regardless of when Johnno made his mind up, he is 100% right. If anything, he’s being too kind.
This nonsense about needing him out there for balance is nonsense. Any grade batsmen could do what he’s doing – you know hold up an end for a bit and score no runs. England will be licking their lips if Pulitzer Cowan gets on the boat.
Australia vs Sri Lanka SCG Test: cricket live scores, updates (Day 2)
“Before professionalism in rugby union, boys in the western suburbs especially had no money incentive to play the game.”
I was a boy in the western suburbs before professionalism in rugby union. It certainly wasn’t an issue of money. The fact is boys out there back then had approximately zero interest in rugby union. No affinity with the game whatsoever. Not even on the radar. The world began and ended with Rugby League. Still does for the vast majority of kids in the western suburbs.
I can assure you it wasn’t money that attracted us to Rugby League. It was mostly tries, excitement and end-to-end action. Still is.
Jackson Bird breaks a GPS drought
Geoff
Using your same line of argument, Pulitzer Cowan should be the first one out. He promises a bit, talks about himself a lot and delivers very little. Him being in the team at the expense of a younger and better batsmen is going to cost us in India and England. How many times does he have to score 34 before the selectors work out the team’s better off without him?
And now there’s talk of making him captain if Pup misses Sydney. That’s all we need. A very average player getting even more entrenched in the Test team.
In-form Mitchell Johnson a bad result for Aussies
If he’s only there to take the shine off the ball, there are 100s of better cricketers playing grade cricket around the country who could follow instructions to just bat and bat and not get out. If Ed is one of the top six batsmen in the country, then Australian cricket is in serious trouble. We want the best cricketers in the team. Ed would barely scrape into the top 600.
Warner has the ability to win you games. Ed does not. Ed is there to save games. If you want to take the isolated ‘perfect example’ of the Perth Test second innings as you do below, then your man Ed had two days to bat. That was his job. That is why he is in the team. He screwed up. Perfect example.
He may be a media darling, what with his books and self-promoting articles on cricinfo, but if he can’t do what he is paid to do, then why pick him?
Does the Australian Test team have the right openers?
Do you know how much BA is receiving annually from Ten to broadcast the live Sunday game plus the 930 game on One?
Also, how much did Ten pay for the digital rights last year? Is there any data on the number of subscribers to Ten’s digital offering last year?
NBL beats AFL and NRL to the punch with digital rights
I posted my view the other day in response to another article on this issue. It is copied below for those that missed it.
——
This appears to be a very positive spin on a fairly dire situation. The “All Games Live” headline, while strictly true, is also misleading. A “decision” to retain the digital rights? Bit like a person’s “decision” to breathe oxygen.
Rather than being a sign of a forward-thinking operation, this digital-only model is only happening because BA can only get limited interest from the FTAs or Fox Sports to pay to broadcast basketball games. The TV execs are not mugs. If nobody is interested in the sport they will not pay for the sports’ rights. I seem to recall a few years ago BA (or the equivalent) offered to pay the FTA networks to broadcast their game and still got no takers.
This sort of digital deal should be seen as a nice complement to an FTA deal, not a substitute.
NBL beats AFL and NRL to the punch with digital rights
This appears to be a very positive spin on a fairly dire situation. The “All Games Live” headline, while strictly true, is also misleading. A “decision” to retain the digital rights? Bit like a person’s “decision” to breathe oxygen.
Rather than being a sign of a forward-thinking operation, this digital-only model is only happening because BA can only get limited interest from the FTAs or Fox Sports to pay to broadcast basketball games. The TV execs are not mugs. If nobody is interested in the sport they will not pay for the sports’ rights. I seem to recall a few years ago, BA (or the equivalent) offered to pay the networks to show basketball on TV and still got no takers.
This sort of digital deal should be seen as a nice complement to an FTA deal, not a substitute.
NBL goes it alone for broadcast deal
FULL TIME THOUGHTS: Panthers 18 Warriors 16
An ugly first half was followed by a lacklustre second half. Warriors were pipped in the end in a game that you can guarantee won’t be talked about beyond tomorrow’s papers. Penrith did enough, just enough, to get the points. Coach Cleary will be happy with that but not much else. Walsh and Coote, while far from outstanding, overshadowed the NZ halves pairing. The Panthers pack, a combination of hardened pros, players in their prime years and raw youngsters stood up in the second half and laid the platform for the backs to use the space. That said, the Warriors look a shadow of the 2012 vintage and despite leading for much of the match, rarely looked good. The less said about the game the better. Little wonder these teams are out of finals contention.
That’s it for today’s action from Mt Smart (did he say action?). Hope you enjoyed our live blog and commentary. Be sure to flick over for more live NRL coverage on The Roar this afternoon and again tomorrow night.
New Zealand Warriors vs Penrith Panthers: NRL live scores, blog
Yes, thank you. Realised after that there was a 14th Test vs India (the catch up game from 2021) that is not included in the calcs. England won that too giving them 11 out of 14 or 79% win rate.
Bazball: You can’t fight mean reversion