McCullum's spirit of cricket on display at the Gabba

What weird thinking, Sid.

Wow, he really did get under your skin. Has anyone actually read Brendan's article. It was not holier then thou. He referred to his own regrets when he expressed his opinion. That appeared to be an admission that he did something against the spirit of the game (Murali incident) and he regrets it. In his opinion what Steve Smith did was against the spirit of the game. He is not alone in this. The reaction of Smith and Warner indicate that they also think there is merit in what Baz said. Otherwise why such a reaction. The only reason he got under your skin is also because you thought Baz was right, at least that what it seems like. BTW, the GABBA match was lost because Bredan got his tactics wrong. This uber aggressive cricket does not work very often in a test match. The NZ cricketers should have drawn that match. Even KW was guilty of throwing his wicket by trying a slog sweep when draw was the only possibility for NZ.

You obviously don't watch that closely on foxtel. Milne was reprimanded fairly recently for a code of conduct violation and Southee was fined 30% of his match fee for "conduct contrary to the spirit of the game".

Not him so much as ALL those holier than thou types, Hayley. Aussies just don't like people that are up themselves. Mouths like McCullum's are a dime a dozen. McCullum, however, has only just started playing this new tune. He's like a reformed smoker...but we've all seen him having a puff ot two behind the bike shed. Aussies have always loved blokes like Vettori because he was genuine.

Let's not get into a shouting match. I think these blokes play a bit cleaner than they have in the past -- apart from Starc and Warner. Smith's told Starc to pull his head in and Warner knows he has to keep doing so. But they're not fairy dancing and things can get a bit heated at times, as in any contest. The problem in this series could be the unintentional and unprecedented -- when the bloody pink ball comes into play.

...or even read it if it's not your thing. It is not compulsory, Nick.

I'd suggest you might like to revisit your labelling of others as "plonkers" if you are interested in how your kids turn out. It starts with you. Don't blame others.

We were not taught how to spell or punctuate correctly! Sorry.

At school we were taught the school war cry and encouraged to support our. School first team against our rivals. We were also taught to absolutely respect our rivals. Steve Smith you have a chance as a new skipper to get rid of this bloody arrogance at least for your tenure. Do it. Restore my support of Australian cricket. The Kiwi's have got it write. Sarcastic comments against them are weak.

I don't think NZ have ever claimed to be angels. Unlike the writer of this article I follow NZ cricket closely and watch all their tests on Foxtel. They play aggressive cricket..............but don't resort to the petulant childish displays that we see from people like Brad Haddin and James Faulkner in the World Cup final. Haddin a 37 year old man with children behaving like a spoilt brat schoolboy. I watch cricket from all over the world........the only cricket where there is any bad feeling is when Australia are involved. I applaud the way NZ play cricket and perhaps one day Australia will grow up and play the game like everyone else does.

He gets to the Australian public. Its hilarious.

Did he get to the Baggy Greens? No, of course not. He pretty clearly has gotten to a lot of the fans & media who deep down know that there are a few (and to be fair, less than in recent years) prize tossers in the Aus cricket side. I think McCullum's lecturing is over the top a lot of the time and he should give it a rest but it's pretty funny how salty some Aussies get over it. I imagine the same thing would happen if David Pocock in NZ published a column telling Richie off for cheating, but from this side of the Tasman it's pretty funny. Though I imagine it was pretty funny for you guys watching the Gabba test so fair play...

I didn't realize it was supposed to be comedy Sean, I thought it was an accurate assessment of the game, silly me. one thing for sure though, as I have said elsewhere, St Brendan intends to be Sir Brendan before he's through sucking up to the poms.

Do you mean kids that have a sense of humour?

"you lot" is Australians? Yep, he really seemed to get under the Aussies' skin. That's why they played so poorly, like they did last time he did the same, in the WC final. Imagine if the Aussies had played to their potential, instead of letting McCullum put them off.

Is the Roar the only site in sports comment who likes these lame, vanity projects dressed as comedy? Honestly, it's so weak.

Yawn

nothing wrong with that mate; nothing at all and sometimes I long for the far less complicated days when I wasnt responsible for trying to raise my kid to be a well adjusted functioning member of society. If you take it seriously, its a massive responsibility and its hard because kids are sponges and are exposed to so much these days through technology that inevitably they will come across some plonkers (certainly this is true on youtube). So you hope they get exposed to enough positive role models to offset the plonkers and you work on their skills to enable them to differentiate between the two and make informed decisions about how they will behave themselves.perhaps one day if you do have kids (that you know of) you'll get an inkling of why chucked asked that question. all the best to you Sean.