Is this professional cricket or not? How the **** does water get under the covers - they probably have 3 covers covering that pitch - the hessian, the small strip over on top of that and then the wicket block cover. Amatuer hour!

What's the rain forecast like for the rest of the day?

The new stadium will be the Perth test venue from now on.
The WACA will remain as a sporting arena though.
They can't really reform the ground as it's like most of the English test venues as in it has grown gradually with various stands having been built at different times.
To properly refurb it they may as well tear it down and start again.

I've been there a few times when visiting family in Perth and it's a real shame. No more Fremantle Doctor..

The new stadium is cracking though. 60,000 seats (3 times the capacity of the WACA) and will also host the AFL teams. Also, with it being at Burswood, it's better for access and has the Crown casino and hotel on the doorstep

Yeah good for the hopman cup too that it is so close to the cricket now

Perth radar for anyone interested

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR703.loop.shtml

Meant to be clearing this afternoon (Perth time)

i'll give this a go.

Bairstow is being gently moved up the order because of the pressure of being WK and top-order batsman. If you want Bairstow captain you need to bring in a keeper - which is possible, but that means pushing out a batsman. But - right now - it's really hard to evaluate the England batting line up - so who do you get rid of?

Turn that around: who has ever been WK/captain and batted 6 or higher?

If the series is 5-0 then probably Cook has 4 more failures. Then ??? .. another batting change .. but for who??

I don't think anyone really thinks Ballance is the answer to anything

Did they knock down the old Burswood dome then?
It's been 3 or 4 years since I was last in Perth.

Keeping Bairstow as WK and finding a new opener who can captain is what we need. Cook batting 3 might help him to extend his career a bit as it did for Vaughan.

If Bairstow is the only option as captain, give Buttler the gloves.

I'm trying to find - for bundy - the Woodehouse story with the girl who almost waters the wicket overnight online, but to no effect. help?

@Pete - ty

Why is that? Isn't this just the local wind?

Alec Stewart opened.

The new stadium is a high complete bowl. There's nowhere for the wind to get in.

Alec Stewart wasn't a good captain though.
Opening, keeping and captaining was too much to do at once. There was nobody else around good enough to keep wicket once Jack Russell stopped.
They gave Steve Rhodes a go but it never worked. Never understood why Colin Metson didn't get a go though.

Gilchrist could bat 6, keep and be a good captain.

I'm not sure that's quite right - the trade off between Stewart's batting and keeping was believed in.

How about Woakes for captain?

sucks. maybe the aussies will open some of the doors when they need some help?

Stokes?

The old WACA will probably become the back-up ground for the Optus Stadium (the new stadium) for early in the season when they are still shifting the ground from being used as an AFL ground to cricket with the drop in wicket.

It might get use at the end of the season when the ground curators need extra time to replace the wicket with turf for the start of the AFL season (which they will probably do because it is going to get a bit of work out during the AFL season as it is home to two teams).

I'm sure that the money that the Western Australian Cricket Association will get in addition to what it would usually make from hosting games at the WACA ground (and they will make plenty with those BBL, and international one dayers and T20 cricket be sure to sell out the new ground) will go into making sure that the wicket at the WACA ground that will always be there will still be of a pretty good standard.

Yeah, but Gilchrist is one of the greatest cricketers of all time.

Not for the 51 tests when he didn't keep, it wasn't...

You got to love Root for prolonging this (that is, the delay for the start) for as long as he can get - I bet when the umpires were throwing around when lunch should be that Root would have jumped at it being 12pm rather than a start being 12pm and lunch at 1pm.

~~~yes/no ... extreme outlier, at least, even if only one of the greatest as the hybrid wk-bat

Ok - not checking, but weren't most of those before he saw that being a keeper would enable him to keep being a test player?

I would probably count Dhoni as well as a pretty decent captain that batted 5 or 6 and kept. That being said, I'm not convinced Bairstow is a leader and they might need to stick with the status quo until someone else really puts up their hand (which may be Stokes in 18 months time - the sort of next Freddie Flintoff style of captain).

Stokes would be another Flintoff. Bloody disaster.

If Vince comes good then he's the obvious alternative. He's captain at Hampshire.
It's a big if though.

I was reading his stats earlier today - got to Australia with an average of 32 for county cricket this last summer of yours. Is this right?