Hobbits's

Love it! We've had enough of badwill. It's been holding us back.

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I think everyone will get value with their picks. Had we gone Parish with first pick the consensus may have been accusing Dees of playing at safe. At the end of the day the Dees went best available in their mind, so did Dons. The safe and speculative innuendo is just that.

nothing like applying the blowtorch and being frank in assessment. out with the cotton wool and pampering; in with the harder edge.

nice backtrack.

all with just one wicket in hand.

marcus north ?

not a good start for austraila in hobart against pommies ! hughes - 2 causght khawaja - 13 caught behind ferguson - 8 caught behind watson out for 6 against tassie in sydney/

ranked 5th the aussies. time for a change or two. IN: Smith OUT: NORTH top order should remain the same for ashes - katich,watson,ponting, clarke & Mr.cricket. then this can be looked at afterwards. smith should be given a go for north who bats well once a series when the pressure is off. aussies could go in with two spinners depending on the wicket, but gives chance for smith to come in as a bat that can bowl a bit too. would make more runs in one innings than north in three.

as t_u said he is a pretty good bat and a pretty handy no.6 imo. I would rate s.smith's bowling ahead of c.white -easy. S.Smith for me even if he is from nsw.

in the press lately, it has been reported Arsene wenger may double the offer to Fulham for Schwarzer. Seven million ?

one of the commentators said in the fifth set something along the lines of..."his last break point was two and a half hours ago..." truly amazing. edit: fixed

you reckon that is a lookalike wj?

Selectors would have had the blinkers off during the clarke-bingle drama. white may have been in the back of their minds for the Test team if things continued on their course off-field. Clarke's personal decision may have now put the selectors minds to rest re: captaincy. White might well have to take a back seat regarding future test selection.

Finch is a gun for the vics, Rogers needs to pull his finger out, he hasn't scored many runs of late. there is also Wade who can score abit. McDonald is the X factor who the vics rely on for key wickets, mcGain needs to bowl some tidy spells. QLD will be no pushover by any stretch. should go the distance and be very close.

m.clarke quitting the NZ tour. it is hard to forsee with regards to the captaincy post-Ponting. If anything, it will be even harder if this Bingle-Fev-Markson-Clarke fiasco continues for sometime. Of course assuming this is the reason, pup left his teammates on the eve of a match- in the middle of a series levelled at 1-1 in a best of 5.

no, I wouldn't either. But he has to come under some consideration soon. Comparing him to Bollinger & Johnson....those two have taken far more wickets. Hilfenhaus was in terrific form pre-injury and can swing it, Siddle appears more "straight up & down" and at times I feel bowls too short.

what about P.Siddle ? he has not taken many wickets this summer. close enough is not good enough. the question remains though, is there anyone knocking to replace him ?

We're not gutter crawlers at Chelsea. We have the best footballers in the land.