The Ashes 2017/2018

[Dogwatcher]

I'd prefer neither the hands, or the sprinkler dance.

[Dogwatcher]

And, I reckon the GOAT maybe should have stopped antagonising Jimmy Anderson when the match was in its death throes.

[Magellan]

Looks pretty tacky, more appropriate for a T10 match.

[am Bays]

They had different hands made up for the different scorelines

http://www.news.com.au/sport/cricket/the-ashes/fans-hit-out-at-crass-podium-for-ashes-trophy-presentation-for-australias-40-win/news-story/dcd321b9b9be62954924dacfecc710b7

Would you prefer our blokes carry on like a bunch of Pelican's and perform a sprinkler dance?

That was a playing group thing and no i wouldn't like it and didn't like it when England did it either. However on field I'm prepared to let more go due to the emotions in the heat of battle.

This is straight from the CA marketing department so it has been planned and approved by someone within CA. The administration of our sport should be better than that.

[whufc]

They had different hands made up for the different scorelines

http://www.news.com.au/sport/cricket/the-ashes/fans-hit-out-at-crass-podium-for-ashes-trophy-presentation-for-australias-40-win/news-story/dcd321b9b9be62954924dacfecc710b7

Would you prefer our blokes carry on like a bunch of Pelican's and perform a sprinkler dance?

That was a playing group thing and no i wouldn't like it and didn't like it when England did it either. However on field I'm prepared to let more go due to the emotions in the heat of battle.

This is straight from the CA marketing department so it has been planned and approved by someone within CA. The administration of our sport should be better than that.

Couldn't agree more

Watch now what the ECB come up with when they flog us over there

[Magellan]

They had different hands made up for the different scorelines

http://www.news.com.au/sport/cricket/the-ashes/fans-hit-out-at-crass-podium-for-ashes-trophy-presentation-for-australias-40-win/news-story/dcd321b9b9be62954924dacfecc710b7

Would you prefer our blokes carry on like a bunch of Pelican's and perform a sprinkler dance?

That was a playing group thing and no i wouldn't like it and didn't like it when England did it either. However on field I'm prepared to let more go due to the emotions in the heat of battle.

This is straight from the CA marketing department so it has been planned and approved by someone within CA. The administration of our sport should be better than that.

Couldn't agree more

Watch now what the ECB come up with when they flog us over there

A paper-mache King Arthur beating the crap out of a cardboard cut-out of Ned Kelly.

[Corona Man]

Ned Kelly has a lot to answer for..... he was the first bloke to wear a bucket on his head..... now look at us.

[Magellan]

Ned Kelly has a lot to answer for..... he was the first bloke to wear a bucket on his head..... now look at us.

If only he had the initiative to protect the IP in his bucket-head idea, rather than have it appropriated and exploited by a racist from the deep south in a white suit.

[Brodlach]

Meh, people need to always have something to whinge about

[Jim05]

And, I reckon the GOAT maybe should have stopped antagonising Jimmy Anderson when the match was in its death throes.

Good on him, Jimmy gave plenty of gob when they won over there.

[amber_fluid]

And, I reckon the GOAT maybe should have stopped antagonising Jimmy Anderson when the match was in its death throes.

Good on him, Jimmy gave plenty of gob when they won over there.

True but just coz Anderson is a f*ckwit doesn't mean Lyon needs to be as well.

[tigerpie]

Will this XI get an Order of Australia?
Please, the poms know how to gloat. We won, they lost, take whats coming.

[Booney]

I thought 2017 was the international year of taking offence to everything. **** it, does this mean that is still going?

[Booney]

And, I reckon the GOAT maybe should have stopped antagonising Jimmy Anderson when the match was in its death throes.

Must we call him GOAT? He isn't, by the way.

[Dogwatcher]

And, I reckon the GOAT maybe should have stopped antagonising Jimmy Anderson when the match was in its death throes.

Must we call him GOAT? He isn't, by the way.

Which Australian offie has taken more wickets?

But, hey, if you're taking offence.....

[Booney]

And, I reckon the GOAT maybe should have stopped antagonising Jimmy Anderson when the match was in its death throes.

Must we call him GOAT? He isn't, by the way.

Which Australian offie has taken more wickets?

But, hey, if you're taking offence.....

I knew someone would....I'm not offended by it, I think it's incorrect.

I just figure Murali is the greatest offie of all time ( regardless of how we see his action - illegal for mine but I don't make/change the rules ) and Warne is the greatest Australian bowler/spinner of all time so to call Lyon "GOAT" is not really accurate.

I guess he's GAOSOAT ( Greatest Australian Off Spinner Of All Time ) though.

[Lightning McQueen]

And, I reckon the GOAT maybe should have stopped antagonising Jimmy Anderson when the match was in its death throes.

Must we call him GOAT? He isn't, by the way.

Which Australian offie has taken more wickets?

But, hey, if you're taking offence.....

I knew someone would....I'm not offended by it, I think it's incorrect.

I just figure Murali is the greatest offie of all time ( regardless of how we see his action - illegal for mine but I don't make/change the rules ) and Warne is the greatest Australian bowler/spinner of all time so to call Lyon "GOAT" is not really accurate.

I guess he's GAOSOAT ( Greatest Australian Off Spinner Of All Time ) though.

Didn't he open for Sri Lanka?

[tigerpie]

Sorry to any offence taking ****wits, Murali threw it all day, everyday.
So Gary the goat it is.

[Lightning McQueen]

Genuine LOL

Forgotten paceman Peter Siddle says Australia need a strategic overhaul if they want to end 18 years of Ashes misery in England, and he believes he's the man to help them do it. The summer's one-sided Ashes battle hadn't even grinded to its inevitable conclusion before attention had turned to how Australia's victorious side, so dominant at home, could retain the urn abroad for the first time in a generation.

Before the series was over, Shane Warne and Stuart Broad had already toed the nationalistic line in their early predictions for the 2019 series, where Steve Smith's men will seek to be the first Australians since Steve Waugh's 2001 tourists to win the Ashes in the UK. "It is a very different style of cricket in England," Broad warned his opponents in a column for The Daily Mail, published during the Sydney Test. "And it rewards different attributes." Attributes, based on the contrasting performances of the respective fast-bowling attacks in the series just gone, that Broad believes give his side the upper hand. "Take, for example, a lot of the wickets Pat Cummins has been getting," he continued. "They have virtually all been bouncers, whereas if you bowl that in England, you will get smashed."

While Australia's triumphant quicks will undoubtedly find their crash-and-bash tactics far less effective during the return bout in 18 months, Siddle believes he possesses the attributes Broad speaks about and is adamant he can help his country end their winless Ashes streak on the road. Even though he's played just one Test in the past two years. As Australia's fast men secured the final wicket in Sydney and a 4-0 series triumph, Siddle was in the middle of a personal reinvention, his transformation from a naggingly accurate long-form bowler to frugal T20 run-saver happening so quickly it surprised even him. Siddle's starring role in Adelaide's KFC BBL title run has opened up the possibility of him joining the domestic T20 circuit as his career winds down, but his immediate focus remains adding to a Test record that currently stands at 211 wickets from 62 matches.

A desire to win back his Test spot has been a familiar refrain for Siddle in recent years as he's battled a crippling back problem and a perception that, with Australia's pace resources seemingly well-stocked, his best days are behind him. The fact he recently celebrated his 33rd birthday while the current crop of superstar twenty-somethings, labelled "one of the best all-round attacks I've seen for many a day" by Dennis Lillee late last year, have only just started to realise their immense potential has only added to a popular belief that Siddle has moved into the category of 'ex-Test cricketer'. But when it comes to winning in England, Siddle insists he remains a valuable asset.

"You've just got to take a look at the teams that have done well over there and they're not the teams that bowl fast," Siddle tells cricket.com.au. "I think our thinking over previous tours probably hasn't been in the right direction. There's a reason why Broad and (Jimmy) Anderson have unbelievable records in England, and they don't bowl fast. They're a perfect example. "I sort of see myself as similar to those guys. I can play my role and I think my record over there speaks for itself. The conditions that get rolled out over there suit me. "I've had a lot of success over there and I've spent plenty of time over there." The numbers support Siddle's claim that he's far more familiar with playing in England than any of his pace contemporaries. The right-armer has played 34 first-class matches in the UK, more than Starc, Hazlewood, Cummins and James Pattinson have managed between them. Swing/seam bowlers Jackson Bird (18 games) and Chadd Sayers (two) can't match Siddle's English experience, either. The Victorian will add to his tally when he returns to England later this year to play the start of the season with defending champions Essex, his third county side after stints with Lancashire and Nottinghamshire that have fitted in around Ashes tours in 2009, 2013 and 2015. With more than 100 wickets in England over the course of a decade, including three failed Ashes campaigns, Siddle knows what works and what doesn't in the UK as much as anyone in the Australian set-up.

And his former bowling mentor at domestic level could help open the door to a fourth Ashes series abroad. Australia's assistant coach David Saker, the wholehearted Victoria and Tasmania quick of the late 1990s, rose to prominence as a fast-bowling coach when he helped guide England to the world No.1 Test ranking during a five-year tenure that included Ashes victories in 2010-11 and 2013 (as well as a 0-5 defeat in 2013-14). Under Saker's tutelage, Anderson and Broad established themselves as some of the best fast bowlers in the world, and a support cast of Steven Finn, Tim Bresnan and Chris Tremlett helped England lose just five of 33 Tests at home during his time in charge. The 51-year-old's presence in the Australian side now is a fascinating contrast to their unsuccessful Ashes tour of 2015, when the then coach of Victoria was a public critic of the national team's tactics, particularly their under-utilisation of Siddle.

"The Australians made a big mistake," Saker said at the time after his bowler played only the fifth Test, when the urn was already lost. "And they would be the first to put their hands up. "They mightn't say it publicly but not to play him in the earlier Tests, especially in those conditions, they won't make that mistake again." Any bad blood from the public disagreement between head coach Darren Lehmann and Saker in the months following that series, which centred on the use of Bushrangers quicks Siddle and Pattinson, was put to bed in July the next year when Saker was appointed the national team's fast bowling coach, working under Lehmann. And it will be from within the Australian camp, rather than outside looking in, that Saker can help to shift Australia's thinking. At least that's what Siddle hopes he will do.

"Obviously 'Sakes' is in and around Australian cricket now and hopefully his mentoring and his chats with people does link the conditions with the type of attack and balance of an attack that they want," he says. "Even myself, having played in a couple of failed series over there, you realise that maybe our approach hasn't been 100 per cent spot on (in the past). "We've got a lot more information. And people have spent a lot more time over there now, from right up top, and they know it a lot better. "And I think you'll probably see a lot more balanced side tour over there next time than what has previously."

The lure of easing into retirement via the lucrative T20 circuit could be tempting for an ageing, injury-ravaged quick who is rightfully proud of being one of just 16 Australians to have taken 200 Test wickets. And Siddle admits his surprise BBL heroics have given him a chance for greater longevity in the game, saying "it's only been in the last month that I thought that could be an opportunity". But he insists it's the prospect of pulling on the Baggy Green again, rather than T20 riches, that gets him out of bed in the morning. "Leading into this year, if I didn't have the goal of playing Test cricket or I didn't think I could, I probably wouldn't be playing," he says. "I've still got that dream." Whether that dream leads to a fourth Ashes tour, which would put him ahead of Aussie pace luminaries like Lillee, Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie, remains to be seen. As Siddle himself says: "You never know. Whether it happens or not is not really up to me".

Shit, I started reading that on Sunday.