India vs Australia: One Day Series Preview

India are hosting Australia for a seven-match ODI series, which normally would have been hyped for weeks (if not months) in advance, but the Ashes (and its attendent ODIs) blurred into the Champions Trophy which blurred into the Twenty20 Champions League which only finished yesterday, so it’s almost as if the series has crept up [...]

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Australia vs NSW?

Four months after Australia’s poor showing at the World Twenty20, a number of the players involved in the Aussie set-up have managed to claim an international Twenty20 trophy by other means, with Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Nathan Hauritz, Philip Hughes, David Warner and Simon Katich all involved in New South Wales’ victory over Trinidad & [...]

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Twenty20 Champions League Preview: Part One

Club cricket takes a new turn this week with the inaugural Twenty20 Champions League. Here’s a brief run-down of the sides involved: The Cape Cobras, although without the injured Graeme Smith, will still have plenty of firepower with JP Duminy and Herschelle Gibbs the main threats. The lack of access to the large pool of [...]

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Champions Trophy: Group A Preview

The second most prestigious tournament in everyone’s third-favourite format of the game is nearly here. Can you contain yourself? Here are the Group A runners and riders: Australia will no doubt have had a confidence boost from driving a steamroller over England over the latter part of the summer, but doubts remain over how they [...]

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Lee and Johnson: what might have been?

Mitchell Johnson, after a disappointing Ashes series (even allowing for his fine showing at Headingley), is showing English crowds what he’s capable of. After taking a wicket with his only ball of the rain-curtailed Twenty20 series, he was at it again at The Oval, taking 3 for 2 from his 7 overs as Australia won [...]

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England vs Australia: One Day Series Preview

England go into the One Day series against Australia still riding relatively high on the euphoria of Ashes victory, althouhg their confidence must surely have taken a serious knock following their close escape in Ireland and their awful start to a rain-interrupted innings in Manchester on Sunday. The prospect of 7 ODI matches without KP [...]

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Weekend Youtube: Brett Lee Sings

Rain breaks have a habit of throwing up oddities, and yesterday’s washout at Edgbaston has enabled me to discover the below. I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing or not – the first is a video of Brett Lee singing the Backstreet Boys’ ‘I Want it That Way’ to Shane Watson (himself a keen [...]

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Australia’s Selection Decisions

After that all that talk about Phil Hughes not being under pressure evaporated in a single tweet on Thursday morning, and Shane Watson made his case as a makeshift opener, the pressure is starting to build on Mike Hussey, not least because of this shocking leave yesterday. As has been mentioned on numerous occasions by [...]

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Mitchell Johnson’s Ashes So Far

Mitchell Johnson isn’t having the Ashes tour he was supposed to. His form is erratic, his mum and his girlfriend are complaining about each other in the press and the same papers are calling for him to be dropped. English conditions are being blamed by some, his mum is being blamed by others, but whatever [...]

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Brett Lee’s injury opens things up

Brett Lee is injured, and may yet miss the whole (or at least the bulk) of the Ashes series. For English fans, the temptation to make a comparison with Glenn McGrath’s injury in 2005 is almost irresistable, but Lee in 2009 is not quite the frightening prospect that McGrath was four years ago – Mitchell [...]

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Lee swings back into form

Brett Lee seems to have secured his place in the Australian side for the First Test at Cardiff with a five-wicket haul against the England Lions. Lee’s wickets included those of Joe Denly and Stephen Moore (who made 120). England’s batsmen take note – Lee looks like he is getting back to his most dangerous.

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Australia’s Ashes Attack

Australia begin their Ashes warm-up in earnest tomorrow with a tour match against Sussex, and all eyes will be on the bowlers as the Aussies try to determine what their strongest attack is. Of the five pace bowlers in the squad, only Mitchell Johnson can feel confident of his place in the side for the [...]

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