Australia v Windies - Test series

[wristwatcher]

How is this farce going ahead???

Sportsbet has Australia at $1.01. I have never seen that in a game of cricket.

Some of my fondest childhood memories were the cricket battles between us and the mighty Windies but those wonderful contests and memories are a chance to be horribly tarnished as they send a team that simply won't be competitive.

I feel like we will be doing whatever we can to extend the length of games and won't be surprised if we see a fair bit of rotation. I'm predicting the use of at least 15 players in the series.

It's also pretty farcical if not piss weak to see 6 of their best 12 playing BBL whilst their country is going to languish in an absolute flogging.

[RB]

Generally I believe in picking the best team, but surely this series is a chance to play some younger guys such as Bancroft.

[The Bedge]

Cant imagine crowd numbers will be very strong either.. just a bore-fest this series!

[wristwatcher]

Cant imagine crowd numbers will be very strong either.. just a bore-fest this series!

By the time we bitch slap them in Hobart in less than 4 days by as much as we want too there could be a big loss of interest. Boxing Day should still get a crowd but you would expect a big drop in numbers for the rest. The SCG are notorious for not tolerating sh&it cricket and will probably vote with their feet except maybe on day 3 the pink day.

Another problem is they can't spice the wicket or we could see the test over in 2 and a half days.

[Lightning McQueen]

Cant imagine crowd numbers will be very strong either.. just a bore-fest this series!

By the time we bitch slap them in Hobart in less than 4 days by as much as we want too there could be a big loss of interest. Boxing Day should still get a crowd but you would expect a big drop in numbers for the rest. The SCG are notorious for not tolerating sh&it cricket and will probably vote with their feet except maybe on day 3 the pink day.

Another problem is they can't spice the wicket or we could see the test over in 2 and a half days.

Should've played the shaggers for the last 3 tests.

[The Bedge]

Should just play Australia 'A'

[wristwatcher]

Cant imagine crowd numbers will be very strong either.. just a bore-fest this series!

By the time we bitch slap them in Hobart in less than 4 days by as much as we want too there could be a big loss of interest. Boxing Day should still get a crowd but you would expect a big drop in numbers for the rest. The SCG are notorious for not tolerating sh&it cricket and will probably vote with their feet except maybe on day 3 the pink day.

Another problem is they can't spice the wicket or we could see the test over in 2 and a half days.

Should've played the shaggers for the last 3 tests.

Pakis have earned the right to challenge us here I reckon or South Africa are always good cricket contests. Even the Lankans have a level of consistency that make it a decent contest.

[The Bedge]

Pakis have earned the right to challenge us here I reckon or South Africa are always good cricket contests. Even the Lankans have a level of consistency that make it a decent contest.

Don't think that's how the scheduling works, but would've definitely liked to have had Pakistan here this summer - are they here next summer or is it only England?

[Lightning McQueen]

Pakis have earned the right to challenge us here I reckon or South Africa are always good cricket contests. Even the Lankans have a level of consistency that make it a decent contest.

The Saffers are pissed at us as we never go there for over the new year.

[whufc]

West Indies won't be as bad as some suggest, yes they will probably lose 3-0 but we have seen better sides come here and lose in straight sets.

What they have now is a young side who is looking to thrive in test cricket rather than earn the big t20 dollars

Chris Gayle doesn't want to play test
Sammy is a slave to the money who is only an average test cricketer
Pollard wouldn't make the test side
Dwayne Bravo hasnt done much at test level in a long while

The two Braithwaite boys are stars in the making while Darren Bravo has the game to do really well in oz

[FlyingHigh]

West Indies won't be as bad as some suggest, yes they will probably lose 3-0 but we have seen better sides come here and lose in straight sets.

What they have now is a young side who is looking to thrive in test cricket rather than earn the big t20 dollars

Chris Gayle doesn't want to play test
Sammy is a slave to the money who is only an average test cricketer
Pollard wouldn't make the test side
Dwayne Bravo hasnt done much at test level in a long while

The two Braithwaite boys are stars in the making while Darren Bravo has the game to do really well in oz

Was going to post something similar, though thought Bravo would have been a reasonable inclusion. Gayle is probably getting long in the tooth now anyway, and Sammy is only a Pommie allrounder.

[FlyingHigh]

Pakis have earned the right to challenge us here I reckon or South Africa are always good cricket contests. Even the Lankans have a level of consistency that make it a decent contest.

The Saffers are pissed at us as we never go there for over the new year.

They certainly want a Boxing Day test against us.
Not sure why it should necessarily be such an issue, if it was only once every few years. Believe their holiday period is more December into Christmas, rather than our Christmas into January, so we could appease them and still have our summer of cricket. How good would it be being on holidays, fishing for the day, coming in and watching the cricket with a few beers.

[heater31]

Pakis have earned the right to challenge us here I reckon or South Africa are always good cricket contests. Even the Lankans have a level of consistency that make it a decent contest.

The Saffers are pissed at us as we never go there for over the new year.

They certainly want a Boxing Day test against us.
Not sure why it should necessarily be such an issue, if it was only once every few years. Believe their holiday period is more December into Christmas, rather than our Christmas into January, so we could appease them and still have our summer of cricket. How good would it be being on holidays, fishing for the day, coming in and watching the cricket with a few beers.

It's a case of 70,000 people at the MCG v 10000 in Johannesburg.......you do the math

[robranisgod]

Pakis have earned the right to challenge us here I reckon or South Africa are always good cricket contests. Even the Lankans have a level of consistency that make it a decent contest.

You raise another point. We haven't seen the Sri Lankans play a test in Adelaide in the last 20 years. Thus we have missed one of the all time greats, Sangakarra, who played 134 tests, averaged 57 yet never played a test match in Adelaide.

[Jim05]

Pakis have earned the right to challenge us here I reckon or South Africa are always good cricket contests. Even the Lankans have a level of consistency that make it a decent contest.

The Saffers are pissed at us as we never go there for over the new year.

They certainly want a Boxing Day test against us.
Not sure why it should necessarily be such an issue, if it was only once every few years. Believe their holiday period is more December into Christmas, rather than our Christmas into January, so we could appease them and still have our summer of cricket. How good would it be being on holidays, fishing for the day, coming in and watching the cricket with a few beers.

No way will we ever give up a Boxing Day test especially to that mob.

[Lightning McQueen]

Pakis have earned the right to challenge us here I reckon or South Africa are always good cricket contests. Even the Lankans have a level of consistency that make it a decent contest.

The Saffers are pissed at us as we never go there for over the new year.

They certainly want a Boxing Day test against us.
Not sure why it should necessarily be such an issue, if it was only once every few years. Believe their holiday period is more December into Christmas, rather than our Christmas into January, so we could appease them and still have our summer of cricket. How good would it be being on holidays, fishing for the day, coming in and watching the cricket with a few beers.

It's CA's arrogance, not that I'm complaining though.

[am Bays]

Pakis have earned the right to challenge us here I reckon or South Africa are always good cricket contests. Even the Lankans have a level of consistency that make it a decent contest.

The Saffers are pissed at us as we never go there for over the new year.

They certainly want a Boxing Day test against us.
Not sure why it should necessarily be such an issue, if it was only once every few years. Believe their holiday period is more December into Christmas, rather than our Christmas into January, so we could appease them and still have our summer of cricket. How good would it be being on holidays, fishing for the day, coming in and watching the cricket with a few beers.

It's CA's arrogance, not that I'm complaining though.

It's not CAs arrogance, it's CAs pragmatism and down right common sense.
As Jim said why would you give up our biggest commercial money spinner event in terms of Crowds and Tv ratings for a game at night in South Africa.

I've got no problems with South Africa not comng here for Boxing day matches. I'd rather watch someone else than give up our Boxing Day test match here in Oz

[Lightning McQueen]

It's not CAs arrogance, it's CAs pragmatism and down right common sense.
As Jim said why would you give up our biggest commercial money spinner event in terms of Crowds and Tv ratings for a game at night in South Africa.

I've got no problems with South Africa not comng here for Boxing day matches. I'd rather watch someone else than give up our Boxing Day test match here in Oz

Beg to differ, we have not bent in the 30 odd years that I've been watching cricket yet we expect the Saffers to change their regime to suit our schedule.
Like I said before, it doesn't affect my time in the house so I'm not complaining, the game is bigger than the attendance levels IMO and we'd still be able fit a 5 test series or two sets of 3 in even if we lost the arse end of December and the first half of January.
We get it better than any other cricket playing nation, our players never spend Christmas off-shore and we have the luxury each year of waking up the day after Christmas a bit blurry eyed ready to feed off left-overs for the day and get stuck into the piss that we didn't drink the day before or crack one of them bottles open that we received as a present while we watch day one of the BDT.

This is Australia, the lucky country.

[am Bays]

It's not CAs arrogance, it's CAs pragmatism and down right common sense.
As Jim said why would you give up our biggest commercial money spinner event in terms of Crowds and Tv ratings for a game at night in South Africa.

I've got no problems with South Africa not comng here for Boxing day matches. I'd rather watch someone else than give up our Boxing Day test match here in Oz

Beg to differ, we have not bent in the 30 odd years that I've been watching cricket yet we expect the Saffers to change their regime to suit our schedule.
Like I said before, it doesn't affect my time in the house so I'm not complaining, the game is bigger than the attendance levels IMO and we'd still be able fit a 5 test series or two sets of 3 in even if we lost the arse end of December and the first half of January.
We get it better than any other cricket playing nation, our players never spend Christmas off-shore and we have the luxury each year of waking up the day after Christmas a bit blurry eyed ready to feed off left-overs for the day and get stuck into the piss that we didn't drink the day before or crack one of them bottles open that we received as a present while we watch day one of the BDT.

This is Australia, the lucky country.

Who says we (CA) are expecting them to come for our Boxing day tests in the future??

We used to and would like them too but no longer expect them too after about four years ago CSA said we aren't coming and if you don't come to us. It's my understanding CA have gone OK, we'll get others. We can bank on India and England for two out of every four yeas so we just get SL, Pakistan or WI to come the other years.

CA aren't going to jeopardise their commercial agreements with Channel Nine and also the money spinner that is a test crowd that on day one beats the aggregate crowd for any other test match played around the world at that time!!!

Oh for the days when we last had one day games in at MCG on Boxing day and who went to the Christmas test agaisnt the Pakis at Adelaide oval in 1976....

[Lightning McQueen]

Who says we (CA) are expecting them to come for our Boxing day tests in the future??

We used to and would like them too but no longer expect them too after about four years ago CSA said we aren't coming and if you don't come to us. It's my understanding CA have gone OK, we'll get others. We can bank on India and England for two out of every four yeas so we just get SL, Pakistan or WI to come the other years.

CA aren't going to jeopardise their commercial agreements with Channel Nine and also the money spinner that is a test crowd that on day one beats the aggregate crowd for any other test match played around the world at that time!!!

Oh for the days when we last had one day games in at MCG on Boxing day and who went to the Christmas test agaisnt the Pakis at Adelaide oval in 1976....

OK, a bit of a technicality then, we WONT go over there for a BDT at their request.
Money is bigger than the game.