lolconvicts

bloody sporting miracle to SRI LA. On the upside Doherty was impressive.

I'm starting to get my hopes up for this winter, mustn't.

Every time this ashes comes around I never know how to watch it. I initially watch the first day of the test at midnight, but then I end up trying to go to bed early and get up early. Seems best that way. I just simply can't be up from midnight-8am every night.

I'm usually too soul crushed to continue watching it for long.

(When we tour over there)

I mean after day 3 of the first test when we're getting annihilated, from there on i stick to peeking at occasional updates and shudder.

In perth tests from the old dart start at 5:30pm local. I dont work a 9-5, but if I did that would be freakin sweet...

fwiw im up for avatar bets on the results of each test if anyone from the old dart is...

Australia went down to their seventh successive defeat as Sri Lanka celebrated their first series win down under with a 29-run victory in Sydney.

wtf aussies. sri lanka???

we used to handle these teams no problems

Always nice to see Australia losing, especially at home, but I can't help but feel their current terrible run is somehow going to work badly against England Aus just don't keep losing.

We are getting our runbad out of the way actually.

Anyway, England is playing a practice match vs Western Australia. Started yesterday, finishes on Sunday (3 day match). Im going down on Sunday (I live 10 minutes from the WACA, sick brag). Il post a trip report and if anyone has some choice insults/sledges for the English players they would like me to pass on then dont be afraid to let me know and I will pass it on...

funniest piece of fielding ever? blonde hair idiots

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGR-fMWWtXA

I really hope we get some banter going via twitter.

should be good. tour matches are normally decent because the players and security are more relaxed. you might even see a WA victory tom. Do you have tickets for the test in perth?

i leave on monday for australia. can't wait. can't see anything less than a 5-0 victory to the english. i just hope its my return qantas flight that crashes into the sea rather than the outgoing flight.

Didnt end up going to the tour match. Sitting at home on the couch watching the Australia vs Sri Lanka game, streaming the WSOP FT, and will watch the local soccer later on while drinking beer > tour match.

I have tickets for the second day of the test match (Friday). Id say keep an eye out for the drunk aussie guy abusing the poms, but that dosent give away a heap

good win for england today and australia for that mattter. Both north and cook still very short of runs but heyho. New Zealand real chance of pulling off a great performance and beating india, pretty epic considering new zealand got whitewashed by bangladesh. oh and ill b sure 2 give u some abuse ash

lol pakistan player just not turning up these days, http://www.cricinfo.com/pakistan/con...ry/486103.html

"leaving pakistan cricket because get bad msg fr 1 man fr lose the match in last game."

left on his facebook apparently. lol facebook, lol pakistan

Jesus, why the hell are Pakistan still playing? They probably can't even warm up without trying to fix the number of steps they take or something.

Yeh sick of all the drama surrounding Pakistan. It's a shame because they can be a really good team to watch if it's a day where it's been decided they're meant to win.

Getting ruined by Amla right now though.

In a word, money.

The subcontinent keeps the ICC in the black & it's effectively a block vote. They mess with one, they mess with them all.

I guess but India is where the real money comes from and they went years without playing Pakistan unless they had to for other reasons. I don't know, it's a real risk playing Pakistan at home now given what may happen so they may find themselves playing shorter series at the start and end of summers etc rather than getting top billing. I'm 100% sure England don't want to play them for a while and they wont be alone.

It not the home tours, necessarily, but TV rights to the ICC organised/sanctioned championships. Pakistan can play their 'home' series in the UEA, no problem, but if the fans turn-off the sponsors get nervous and start re-negotiating terms. Plus both Pakistan & India are quick to jump on any perceived bias.

Truthfully, attendance is pretty average from my experience. People talk about how fanatical the fans are, but when England tour it's not uncommon for the Barmy Army to outnumber the locals across the duration of a Test match. ODI is a bit kettle of fish, of course, but if their side doesn't look like winning they'll stay at home with the TV/radio.

Interesting. When I said it was a risk to play Pakistan at home though, I meant to play them as hosts. England had a bad summer despite winning virtually every game, and the attendances at the end were very poor. It's just going to be a tough time for Pakistan not to be marginalised. It doesn't help them that players are more likely to fret about possible "risk" in touring certain places if they just don't fancy it - and England, for instance, would probably be glad never to play Pakistan again.

Shame though, I've always liked watching Pakistan but now it's hard to wonder what's going on that you don't know about. I hope they help themselves and get rid of people like Ijaz Butt and appoint people who are actually competent.

Breaking news guys........ It seems the ICC are actually gonna do something substantial about this whole corruption thing instead of just making the usual meaningless token gesture......

http://www.cricinfo.com/ci-icc/conte...ry/486257.html

Oh wait......

Well if they don't sign, then we know they're trouble!