Brilliant column, totally spot on
Warne is the Ian Chappell of my generation, someone who sees themselves as the fount of all knowledge and wisdom on cricket, but who seems to base their judgement of players almost totally on personal spite or how much said player fawned over them (or didn;t)
Neither of these two have adequately explained exactly why they don’t like Steve Waugh (and I expect they can’t really explain it), Warne has never explained his dislike of Starc. Has he explained his anti-Gilchrist opinions?
Either way, I see why journos call him, as they know their going to get a well-clicked response, so yes, it is the fault of (a sizeable section of) the public for continuing to idolise someone who was a great player, but a very flawed, totally biased, human

Great reminisce. My first memory of cricket was the next season vs Windies.
This sort of era is gone, never to come back though. No surprises any more, all the players have all played each other in junior tests etc.
A large part of cricket’s problem IMHO is people of our ages wishing the clock could be turned back, but in reality it wasn’t perfect then (as we all learnt 2-3 years later) and it certainly isn;t perfect now.
Cricket needs to work out a way to combine the need for regular product and money, with balancing so many different formats. CA are horrible, but I honestly don’t know if anyone could balance out all the factors they need to weigh up.
Unfortunately First Class cricket is utterly unprofitable and tests increasingly so. We need T20 to be able to pay players and provide career paths – and, let’s be honest, if there’s no BBL, a fair chunk of our players would be lost to the global T20 circuit.

Test careers were ended. Most of them kept playing for their county for years after. David Lloyd played for Lancashire till 1983

It would be harder in a club based team sport, given the frequency of competition, but for an occasional international competition, perhaps not as hard to match. I;d imagine some of the Dutch Women’s Hockey team or the All Blacks might be within striking distance of that average

One thing to consider in this regard is that there is no excuse in the current era of mediocrity. The era in question here often saw the Wallabies hampered by losing great players to League – think of how many on this list are absolute champions in RL, or who became Kangaroos as well: Ray Price would be in everyone’s greats 100 RL players ever, Mike Cleary, Dick Thornett, Phil Hawthorne, John Brass all dual internationals, as were Bob Honan, Geoff Richardson. Fairfax would’ve been but for a broken leg in 75. Add in Jim Lisle, Peter Sullivan, Ken Thornett, Ken Wright etc who also ‘defected’
Same for the previous era discussed with Trevor Allen, Rex Mossop, Arthut of its own accord

Cricket will get the priority given it’s much greater relative international importance and clout.
Imagine the humiliation if we had to bump aside a major international sporting event for the final of a domestic, 1-nation sport competition that most people around the world wouldn’t have heard of? And I say this as an Aussie Rules fan

Here’s your chance to live a more rounded, fulfilling life. If your week revolves around a sports club, that’s a bit sad TBH

Yeah but it’s never been such a part of people’s lives as it has been in the era of multi-channel 24 hour sports TV, social media, streaming etc, then add in all the myriad of chat shows, blogs, sites such as this.
Even when I was a kid (and i’m 50), you only had the odd game on TV, radio commentary, the sports bit at the end of the news, maybe 1 weekend chat/entertainment show per major footy code and the newspaper coverage. There was a lot of time in-between to focus on other interests and (quite frankly) more important things
I hope (but I know it won’t likely happen) that it does give some people at least more sense of perspective about what’s really important
Oh and some old games would be awesome…. Foxtel etc, listen up

Ted McDonald would have to be ahead of Ernie McCormick in the 2nds. Was hugely well regarded in the day, but left to play in England after only 11 tests. Read once that Bradman thought McDonald was the best bowler he faced on his first tour of England. Lancashire won the County Championship 4 times in the 8 seasons he was with them

It was Peter McAlister who Hill fought. They;d been teammates in the 2009 (I think tour of England), but McAlister was disliked by teammates. He was seen as a Board man in the period when tensions were super high as the Board was trying to take control of cricket in Australia.

Strong team. Best looking team too, given Perry’s presence

I was actually trying to say don;t base your judgement on one or two games. The final was poor to a degree, as it was over as a contest pretty early and the Indians didn’t handle the pressure. But it’s pretty insulting to the skill of the likes of Healy, Mooney, Jonassen etc to disparage the sport – “Bowling at 55 km/h means it’s child’s play to advance down the pitch and hit a full toss for 6” – for instance. Is it? Do the guys always plant a spinner for 6 off a free hit? If they don’t, do you also comment on that?
“it was obvious none of the Aussie batsman had ever seen a googly in their lives. It was laughable school girl stuff as they collapsed in heap”. – I was pointing out that they play plenty of leggies, and that I suspect the pressure of the occasion, and the hoo haa before the tournament about setting the record perhaps got to the team in that first game.
My point was, just because someone failed, dropped a catch, misstimed a shot, for certain commentators if it happens in the women’s game, it seems an opportunity not to put it in context, but to imply that they’re all crap.

God i’d forgotten about Cossie. He actually made me feel fit, in comparison. I wasn’t trying to make it an anything in particular, it just seemed a rather unfortunate comment to make about a teenager.
As professionalism takes hold, no doubt fitness standards will improve in other teams, as they already have with the Australians and English

Bill O’Reilly bowled his leg spin at close to medium pace anyway. Far quicker than the usual Warne, Grimmett style leggie, so he was a bit more versatile, wicket-wise. His quick ball – the Irish Special – was apparently very fast and picked up a lot of wickets

Smriti Mandhana has also played WBBL, but neither her or Harmanpreet did last season, as India had international matches on for part of it, and wouldn’t let them play. I’d imagine their Indian contracts are reasonably substantial. But yeah, you’d thinks it’s again only the very top 5 or so that would be in this position.
With South Africa, Marizanne Kapp, Lizelle Lee, Dane Van Niekirk, Mignon du Preez, Chloe Tryon last season played both WBBL & Super League, while Laura Wolvaardt and Sune Luus play in England and have previously played WBBL (and I suspect will both again, as they’re getting older & better). You’d imagine the rest of the regular national squad have some form of central contract, but i don;t know how sizeable that is.

If you actually bothered to watch the WBBL instead of posting thinly disguised sexist ‘critiques’ you’d know that the game is rather awash with leggies, including a few I can think of (Amelia Kerr of NZ, our own Amanda Wellington or Georgia Wareham) who are at least as good as the Indian spinners. So it’s not unfamiliar to them.
Yes the Aussies were poor in the first game (I was there and they actually looked even worse live), but I think they got caught out by the pressure of this dumb ‘setting the record’ marketing campaign for the final – way before actually qualifying for the final, and a bowler who they’d hardly faced before – it has happened in the men’s game too you know, people aren’t always at their best… they seemed noticeably more confident and assured once in the final, and knowing they hadn’t let down everyone hoping for the massive expected crowd.
Maybe try enjoying something and celebrating rather than being a prat. There’s one thing being a critic within the context of the game itself, but this constant ‘they’re not as good as the men’ theme is boring and says more about you than it does about them. Yes they, on average, don’t hit as far or have as much power, and don;t bowl as fast (though if you’d seen the great Cathryn Fitzpatrick in the 90s/early 00s you’d have a slightly different view there) but that doesn’t mitigate the quality of players like Perry, Lanning, Healy, Mooney, Schutt etc over a substantial period of time. I suggest you watch some classic WBBL matches (maybe the 2 semis from the 2018/19 season) and get a better feel for it.

Ash Gardiner might find your offensive non-indigenous cricketers comment rather interesting

Did you say the same about Boonie, Lehmann or Taylor when they were waddling around?

England is fully professional, but only some of the leading players of other teams are – those that play WBBL and Super League in England in addition to their national contracts. So, you’d be looking at 5-6 of NZ and SA teams that are fully professional, less from the others. Not sure about the Indians, as they’ve not always been allowed to play in the major professional domestic tournaments

The numbers are actually down from previous years. And the LNP have conflated offences like idiots starting a BBQ into the amount they’re quoting.
Anyway, what;s your qualifications to give advice on climate? Are you a meteorologist (or any kind of scientist)?

Part of the problem is people (and we all do it) referring to the sport as AFL. It isn’t, the AFL is just a competition and competition governing body

And pertinently, League ATM is not in any particular difficulties in Australia, whereas Union is

On what basis do you say international codes have longer term viability? I think the opposite is actually true. International level sport is actually more of a millstone. It’s sports with strong domestic structures that will thrive – with perhaps occasional international tournaments on top like Basketball, Baseball, Ice Hockey, Rugby League and Football have. The need to have constant internationals to survive – Rugby Union (in the southern hemisphere) and Cricket – is detrimental to the organisation and structure of the game

I think you’ll find the importance if international relevance is somewhat overstated by many. It doesn’t bother the survival of Australian Football, Gaelic Football, American Football, Canadian Football etc
And really the future lies with codes with strong domestic competitions and boutique, occasional international tournaments like Rugby League, Baseball and Ice Hockey have
It’s sports that depend on international like Union, Cricket and Hockey that will struggle going forward as their domestic/international ratio is all wrong leading to scheduling conflicts, and in the case of cricket, the plethora of competing formats

No other sport around the world seems to have issues with “foreign’ coaches. Why is Rugby different? Football, Basketball, Hockey, Cricket, Volleyball, even in its limited world sphere, Rugby League, coaches travel around with no problem at all
This ridiculously out of date xenophobia that infests Rugby needs to change.