“Has Shane Warne been replaced by a bowling machine?” askes the headline on the BBC News website. Only if the bowling machine eats a shit load of pies.

Link to the article the headline is referring to.

Tags : Shane Warne, BBC

BBC News recently ran an article about cricket becoming more popular in America. It showed a picture of Ricky Pontings dad George Bush attempting to play the game. He looks like he doesn’t know what he’s doing. No change there, then.

According to the BBC piece, Atlanta is rapidly becoming the home of cricket in America. This will please my English friend Stocksie, a former Iver Heath player, who moved out to the land of opportunity a few years ago. When he first moved over there and lived in New York, he started playing for a team of West Indian ex-pats who had formed a league. Work commitments meant that he moved to Atlanta last year and had to stop playing so he’ll be chuffed to be able to get a local game.

Whilst traversing t’internet this evening I found a pant pissingly funny piece on the Fox Sports website that I thought I would share with you. The section below is taken from a Fox Sports article entitled Top 10 intimidating teams. Enjoy.

7. 1979 West Indies

Cricket, an unlikely sport for intimidation, but the Windies were a lethal bunch when they claimed the World Cup in 1979. Carried by their impressive arsenal of bowlers (pitchers) the West Indian squad was led by the 6-foot-8 Joel Garner and 6-foot-6 Colin Croft — aces who could blaze through any line up with relative ease.

These two used their immense height to their advantage by bowling at the heads of shorter opposing batsmen, with the goal of inducing the batsman to shield himself with his bat and pop the ball up for an easy out. If the bowler happened to hit the batsman in the head, well … that’s a risk they were willing to take.

Add the prolific batsman Viv Richards, who would either hit the ball out of bounds or send a screaming line drive at a fielder’s head, and this was a squad that eliminated the “gentle” from the Gentleman’s Game.

Fear factor: Opposing batsmen would openly discuss how impossible it was to hit against Garner — describing it as trying to hit a ball “delivered from the clouds.” I guess that means Garner was pretty tall?

Tags : Cricket, Ricky Ponting, George Bush, Clueless Fuckwit, Atlanta, Iver Heath, New York, Fox Sports, West Indies

Still no official word at the moment about the future of Darrell Hair. All we know is that he won’t be taking part in the ICC Champions Trophy although the exact reasons for that are still being argued by the various sides.

Hair has a contract with the ICC until March of next year and has publicly said that he want’s to continue umpiring. Let’s face it, though, the chances are that when his contract expires he won’t be offered another one.

So what can the affable Aussie do next? Well he could earn a few quid on the after dinner circuit. Perhaps he could sit down and write his memoirs. However I get the feeling that he’ll stay true to his Aussie spirit and follow the well trodden career path of thousands of his fellow countrymen.

Tags : Darrell Hair, Cricket, Australians, Earls Court