Little Richard

Has there ever been a social game of cricket between the demonlanders?

Round 1 - pick no.2 Michael Clarke (Aust). Phenomenal year, and he'll keep doing it in India and England I think.

Do we compete with some kind of points system or is it just a drafting game?

Fair enough, some bold calls there though I think

Is that a greatest XI or something along those lines Biff?

Taking Johnson to India, let alone England would be disastrous. Nowhere near reliable enough and never will be; I see him as a stop gap for the time being until some of the others are fit. No idea about Pattinsons injury status but he should be spared the rigors of the subcontinent and saved for England. I'm really looking forward to seeing Bird bowl overseas - I can see him being effective in India and especially England.

Yeah I'm keen, sign me up!

I wouldn't back Watson to reclaim the opening spot and I think Cowan is the kind of guy who needs a bit of time to cement himself (not to mention work out how to form an effective partnership with Warner). There aren't exactly many guys banging down the door for this spot anyway - the only one who comes to mind is Finch and he's doing it in the wrong format of the game.

This is true, it was ugly to watch. They couldn't give him more than a slap on the wrist anyway for fear of damaging the ratings and crowd numbers.

I actually believe Watson's bowling is more valuable than his batting. Hasn't done it with the willow for a while and he is our most reliable bowler barring probably Siddle. Always manages to take a wicket when we need it and is understandably underused due to his body. Fair enough if he is focussing on his batting to try and squeeze out a few more years though.

Stemmed from Samuels grabbing Hussey in the first innings when he was running between wickets. Shane has really lost the plot, though he was really out of it when he was harassing Stuart Carlisle of Zimbabwe on the pitch in 2001, memorable words from Warnie that day.

Nope, forget Hilfy, he is done and the only thing he was good for recently was cheap tail end wickets.

Absolutely agree re Starc but deeluded is on the money imo; he is at the moment immature and undisciplined in his bowling and maybe to a lesser extent his attitude. Obviously you can't expect him to be the ultimate, disciplined professional at the age of 22 but I hope our lack of a real senior mentor figure in the fast bowling group (barring maybe Siddle although he is still young himself) doesn't affect the development of Starc and the other guys like Pattinson and Cummins.

Starc was all over the place, and bowling short balls to the tail was just stupid. He should have kept it full and straight and probably would have cleaned them up much quicker.

This is a good summary and I don't think he will be in the side for much longer because history shows he'll lose the plot again soon enough. He is a handy weapon for the moment though (forgetting the fact we are playing Sri Lanka at home).

Early days but didn't look great this arvo. Lyon has some work to do and I think Clarke should have bowled himself today (and if he doesn't tomorrow that is a big mistake). Pattinson was a bit wayward and Siddle didn't look very threatening. Need a bit of spark tomorrow!

Clark just tweeted that he's meeting Tito Ortiz tomorrow. I personally think Ortiz is a bit of a [censored] but still pretty cool.

There is a chance but it's pretty small. Even with Lyon they'll have three quicks plus Watson who is very capable and not slow by any means as he showed in South Africa. I reckon Lyon will play.

Ahhh that makes sense then

English courts? How does that work then? I thought they had to be tried in Pakistan.

Jeez they are really serious about it, and they've crippled their cricket side for years by doing it. Talk about a hard line government.

Bit off topic but does anyone know the status of Pakistani bowlers Mohammed Asif and Aamer? Really miss watching those guys, especially Asif. Him and Steyn were clearly the best fast bowlers in the world a couple of years ago.

The spot has to be Wade's to lose, can't see how Haddin can justify taking the spot back for a year or whatever (wouldn't be much longer at his age).

Saw Leigh Brown out at the Prince Patrick hotel last night, he walked past and I asked him if I could get a photo with him. He laughed, said nuh and walked off. Shattered.

I think it was Eltham College, don't quote me on that though. It makes sense as he would have been playing against a better standard in the TAC cup than the AGS competition which Marcellin plays in, and they made it compulsory there to prioritise the school over other teams.