Macca

I like Bailey as well and the selectors may decide to go with a more 'seasoned' player or 2 for the Ashes. Our middle order needs to be strengthened so George could fit the bill. You do need a good blend of experience and youth in order to win. Cummins would add a lot if he comes up. That extra pace would be vital and he's certainly got it. Klinger and Rogers have a stack of runs behind them. To wrest the Ashes back from England we'll need to bat big or at least better their batting. I reckon we might take at least 1 batsmen who is not in India to England ... one young batsman or one more seasoned. Or one of each. There is nearly always a surprise selection or 2 - it's almost a tradition! We may also take 6 quick bowlers to fit in with the rotation policy. Alternatively, we could always call up another quick at short notice. Harris and Hilfenhaus could come into the reckoning as well but it's the batting that remains a concern. I'm always reminded that anything can happen in sport. Cricket and the NFL are 2 sports where things can change dramatically in a short space of time. If you've got 2 or 3 players who suddenly excel, it can make a huge difference to a teams performance (imagine if we could add Ablett, Pendlebury and Cotchin to our midfield group right now - leaving off the last 3 players on our list) Whilst I'm not confident about wresting back the Ashes in England, it wouldn't surprise me if we did wrest them back. Fingers crossed on Cummins and Fawad Ahmed, TD ! If we can bowl England out cheaply enough on a consistent basis, then we've definitely got a chance.

The reality is that apart from Clarke, the rest of our batsmen struggle against quality spin bowling. Our performance in India has been poor. Now our blokes have to cope with quality seam bowling on decks that could seam around a bit. Swann and/or Panesar will provide a handful as well. We are going to have to bowl exceptionally well and our batsmen will need to post some big scores in the forthcoming Ashes. Big centuries are required and Cowan, Hughes, Watson and Warner need to start converting their starts. (that's if they all play). We need a no.6 batsman as well. Our batting line-up in England could include 1 or 2 other batsmen not currently in India. If Watson is bowling then he's good value and we will probably need a 5th bowler in England. Henriques' bowling in England could be effective but can he bat in the top 6? He impressed in his debut and he should be given more opportunities. Wade should bat at 7. Smith seems to have come back a better player but it's difficult to judge him on an overall basis. It remains to be seen whether he's improved against quality seam bowling. Khawaja is another player who has a nice technique and just needs some more opportunities. Our side is far from settled and touring the subcontinent hasn't helped things at all. A lot will depend on how the selectors view things. They could wield the axe or they could understand that the tours are vastly different and pick the squad accordingly. England bat a lot better than our blokes and that's where the advantage lies. Plus their spinners are far superior to ours. We can match them in the fast bowling stakes. We need to get a lot better and that can happen. '89 was a great example of how things all came together. Fawad Ahmed could prove to be a factor if he's available and picked. Given that there is usually at least one draw in an Ashes series in England, we'd possibly have to win 3 Tests in England to regain the Ashes. 2 wins might do the trick but then there would have to be 2 draws. Can we stop England from winning more than 1 Test in a 5 Test series in England?

Make that 6 from 7 after today, GTG The Canucks haven't been much better ... losing 6 from 8 until winning their last 2. The Western conference is wide open with a stack of teams still in contention. The Sharks are making hard work of it and Cards team (the Avalanche) are gonna have to go on a sustained run of wins. Anything can happen in this sport and as we well know, a team just has to qualify to have a chance. Be surprised if the Blackhawks and Anaheim don't figure prominently in the playoffs (they'll probably get knocked out in the 1st round now!). The Penguins, Boston and Montreal are travelling nicely as well (in the Eastern conference). The North East is a strong division.

They may as well try and smack a few. Trying to hang around against these 3 spinners on this track ain't gonna work. If we lose 4 - 0, is that the 1st time since 1969/70 in South Africa? We lost 5 - 1 to England in 1978/79 but that was during the WSC years. Bob Willis described our team then as our 3rd eleven! (Lambs to the slaughter was an aptly named book by Graham Yallop) Some of the dismissals today have been embarrassing.

Not a bad squad 'TD'. Possibly find room for a Doolan or a Burns though - maybe both. Might be a surprise pick or 2 - there often is. The squad will no doubt be dubbed "The worst to ever tour". Think I'm right in saying the last time that happened was in 1989. The 2005 squad were favoured to win and the 2009 team had high hopes as well (We'd cleaned up England 5 - 0 in 2006/07) 1989 remains as one of my favourite ever series and the 4 - 0 series win came as a complete surprise. It all came together in the batting. Who knows how this 2013 squad will fare? I'm not confident but you never know. I was of the opinion that Cummins wasn't going to come up for England but would be ecstatic if he was fit and firing for the Ashes. We're quite well off for seamers so that area of our team is probably not the main concern. Let's hope that Fawad Ahmed is ok to go. Our batting is a major worry and it looks like we're in all sorts again in this Test (currently 5 - 118). The wicket is already giving up a fair bit of spin. Ojha and Ashwin are again looking mighty dangerous.

Here's one for the politically minded ...Haven't had a chance to have a look at it yet but have heard some very good reports. It's available on netflix but there may be other sources ... A UK version was made way back in 1990 starring Ian Richardson. Not sure how closely related the 2 shows are but some critics have compared the new version quite favourably. ... House of Cards starring Kevin Spacey

Have only watched four so far ... Alec Baldwin, Michael Richards, Larry David and Ricky Gervais. Found all of them to be very funny. The Michael Richards one was very honest and quite moving. He touches on life after that 'nightclub incident'. The show isn't for everyone but the fans of Seinfeld will probably quite like it. It's tricky finding good new comedy these days. It's there if you look hard enough. I never miss Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show, Real Time With Bill Maher and the 'Tonight' shows are always good for a laugh. Conan, Letterman, Leno, Craig Ferguson and Jimmy Kimmel can all have their moments. Jimmy Fallon is very very talented and his show is good fun. All last week he had Justin Timberlake on and their 'History of Rap 4' was fantastic ... here it is (from last week) .... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8wfWO06yp8

Not sure if anyone has stumbled across "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" yet but it's a must view. I only came across it a couple of days ago and have watched ep4 (Alec Baldwin) and ep9 (Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks). The show stars Jerry Seinfeld and he brings along a "Classic car" for each show. Wonderful comedy ,,, the humour is very quick and slick so it's easily revisited. 10 episodes in the 1st series and each episode goes for between 10 and 20 minutes. Youtube has all of the episodes up. (I believe) Here's the Alec Baldwin bit ... Larry David, Whoopie Goldberg, Michael Richards and Ricky Gervais also feature in the other shows ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1u7A3sEnPY

Here's a bit from Jerry Seinfeld appearing on Jay Leno last week. ... Seinfeld performs stand up on the Leno show

Why not? ... Arthur would consider Hussey

There is a strong chance that Watto will captain the side if Clarke is ruled out of the next Test with a back injury. Pup looked to be batting with fair bit of discomfort today. Regardless of whether Clarke is ruled fit to play, Shane will most likely be in the line-up. ... Howard, Watson to meet in India ... Australian vice-captain Shane Watson's and Cricket Australia high-performance boss Pat Howard have smoked the peace pipe We're now 8 for 143 and heading for another defeat. Most likely a heavy one Edit : Now 8 for 176

Kobe didn't play today. (L.A defeated the Kings) The Lakers are at Phoenix tomorrow then have a 4 day break before they're at home to the Wizards. Kobe had some 'choice' words to say about Dwight and his ability to be able to play with injuries. It was along the lines of "This is L.A and you have to step up" (I'm paraphrasing). Boot on the other foot? (no pun intended) Don't get me wrong, Kobe can say what he likes - he's earn't that right. Just an observation. Wonder if Howard will fire back - me thinks not! ... Kobe Bryant Challenges Dwight Howard to Play Through Injuries

Good thread Rangey The thing I like most is that it focuses in on a group other than one particular player. It has the effect of sharing the blame or giving out accolades across a number of players. We may not all have the same 9 as you but for the sake of argument it's a good concept. We could drag this thread out every now and again for a bit of a report card. A third of the way through the season could be a good time or perhaps after every 6 games. Was thinking about Watts and how best we can use him ... his disposal is top notch and when he wants to, he reads the play very well. It's fairly obvious that the best description for him is the word 'Utility'. As a loose man in the backline, he can be ultra important for us but I'd like to see the coaching dept. use him for all the centre bounces. There are effectively only 6 players going for the ball and often these 6 players are your more skillful types who read the play well. The chances of getting smashed at a centre bounce is a lot less than people may realise. He could drift back as soon as the ball is cleared out of the middle. It also gets him into the cauldron which can have the effect of 'livening' a player up The reason I'm mentioning him is that our clearance work is well below par both with getting the pill and our execution when we do get it. McKenzie should not start in the middle. He should start because he's our best tagger but not for centre bounces. We're effectively one man down when he starts for centre bounces. We need our best clearance players with the most skill in for the centre bounces. McKenzie can tag in all the other areas of the ground and for all the other ball ups and throw ins. He is still a vital part of our set up I believe, as you cannot let the opposition's best on-baller run amuck. So I'd rotate Jones, Watts, Rodan, Blease and Sylvia for centre bounces with Watts being the mainstay. Probably Jones as well but I can't see why we can't use Jones off a wing sometimes (at centre bounces). Viney, Grimes, Trengove, Toumpas and the rest need to get better at their ball winning ability and disposal. In the cases of Viney and Toumpas a lot will depend on how quickly they come on. Viney could easily slot in with the other 5. I'm specifically talking about the centre bounces only - of which there might only be 30 a game.

There's been some real evidence of a more enterprising style in the practice matches (by the way, I refuse to call those games anything but practice games) The switching of play has been pleasing to see and we've generally had a lot more possessions (which indicates we're sharing the ball more) The loss to the GCS was probably a bit disconcerting for some because they are the GCS and we're supposed to beat them. A few things to remember though ... it was a practice match, we were far from full strength and only sent up a bare minimum of players. Also, they might have set themselves to win the game whereas it didn't seem we were that concerned about the result. The GCS will trouble a few sides this year. We did reasonably well against Port, North and the Saints so you'd maybe give our pre-season a 6.5 out of 10. If Clark and Trengove had of played we would be a bit more buoyant. We've got quite a few 'winnable' games in the first 8 rounds of the season. It gets tougher after that but we've been given an opportunity to get some wins on the board. The Coaching staff would have learnt a lot from last year and I'm reasonably confident we'll play a lot more 'corridor' footy. The big issue will continue to be our field kicking to position. Our confidence isn't great either - confidence can take you a long way.

Maybe he's setting himself up to knock up some quick runs to set them a target. Haven't picked anything up from the commentators. Hughes is getting on with it, but he usually bats like that anyway. We would have to get about 200 in tomorrow morning's extended morning session. Big ask. They may end up bowling us out cheap to save us the trouble. Ashwin is looking dangerous and Ojha will be wanting to get amongst it. It could also be that they decided to give Hughes and Smith a good go at it. Or Delhi belly?? Or the Mohali equivalent of Dehli belly ...

What happened to Vettel? Webber missed the start again? What's the go there?

Fair enough, there's possibly a bit in what you're saying. By the way, I have heard that story about the yacht ... I reckon I'd be straight on it. The choice between a smelly, dank, darkened change rooms with some semi warm beer and some pretzels at the SCG, or a fully laid on spread of crayfish, champers and with lots of nice ladies is an easy one in my eyes. Yes James, we'll see you there ... just give us 10 minutes or so !

Why are we so worried about turning the ball over in the spine of the ground? We literally have nothing to lose by going down the middle. If we continue to play that boundary hugging style (predominantly) we will continue to lose games. Unless our skill levels increase by an astronomical rate. What are the chances of that? I saw some strong evidence in the practice games that we're going to be playing a lot more corridor football. Hope the trend continues. Playing the boundary does serve one purpose - it limits the damage. Big deal ! A loss is a loss. Obviously, there are times when moving the ball around the boundary line is the best option but the Collingwood model did this with breakneck speed a lot of the time.(Geelong closed down the Pies boundary line movement in round 8 of 2011) The corridor is quite a large expanse of the ground in actuality. 20 - 25 metres in from the boundary line from the HBF to the HFF/FP is the corridor these days. So it's not as if the middle of the ground is a slim part of the ground - there is quite a lot of room. Our players need to learn how to 'gut run' into space. The coaching dept. need to knock the laziness out of our blokes. I'd rather see the team play a far more enterprising brand of footy. If that means we get towelled up in the process on occasions then so be it. The greatest risk is not taking a risk. "The boundary line is your friend" - not if you're not a highly skilled team. That style makes a poor/average team even worse. We saw the evidence last year. Other clubs last year could read our game plan like a book. We were so predictable. Of course, our players were being taught how to play a far more accountable brand of footy with a large emphasis on defensive skills. The side effect or consequences might have been that our players played a much more inhibited style. Fair enough but this is year 2 now. We need to take the game on with a lot more 'spread', give and go handball, kicking to 'position' and we need to play on at all costs. And that includes using all areas of the ground. What have we got to lose?

We could wait until about a 3rd of the way through the season before making an objective appraisal. We'll have a bit more of an idea after the round 8 clash against the Tigers. A lot is going to depend on Clark, Dawes and our midfield. The team we sent to the Gold Coast was a fair way short of full strength. If you look at the positives of all the practice matches, we ran North close, had one bad quarter against the Saints, beat Port and we had tiring legs against a fresh Richmond outfit. Our Key forwards along with our midfield will be the key to our year. Dawes needs to produce but Dawes may need a fit and firing Clark in the team in order to excel. Sellar is another who probably needs to stand up. Key forwards win you games. As for our midfield, there are a number of our players who have the potential to be good or very good players. A better scenario would see Jones battling 3 or 4 others as our best midfielder. Viney, Grimes, Trengove, Sylvia, Toumpas, Magner, Blease, Jetta and Tapscott should all have a goal of being more effective than Jones. A few of our other new players or lesser lights should have this same ambition.

United 15 clear as City are beaten Looks to be all over now in the title race, although Champions League spots are still up for grabs ... Table Couple of London Derby's tonight with Spurs at home to Fulham (2am) and West Ham taking on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge (3am)

Fair enough. He's a very aggressive player and he batted like he'd done it a hundred times before. I reckon we're going to see more of this same type of player in the future. You'd normally expect a 27 year old with 6000 first class runs behind him to be a bit more circumspect in his 1st Test appearance. It seems that we're seeing more and more new players inclined to play their shots - right from the word go. Might be a different story when Dhawan has to face up to Steyn and co. in South Africa later in the year. He might still bat just as aggressively. That is one of the toughest tour's in World cricket. And the Proteas are flying.

The bit I've highlighted is our major point of difference 'dl' . I've never had a problem with Clarke apart from a few years ago when he went through a bit of a form slump. I have no real issue with him and you might have - that's why we disagree. You may well be right, by the way. Mine is just an opinion. It is however, ok to agree to disagree. We're not privy to the inner sanctum so we can only really make judgements by what we see on the field. I read Clarke's piece in the paper the other day and was impressed. If other, factual information to the contrary comes to hand (with regards to Clarke) then I'm happy to change my mind. I still believe that the suspensions to the 4 players was too heavy handed. From what we can gather, that was more of a coach/player issue. Clarke may have been put into an uncompromising position on that issue, for all we know.

This innings has been quite something ... he has played good proper cricket shots all around the wicket. Fantastic debut !! 173 n.o off 146 balls. And he has already made a bit of name for himself in the IPL. Another example of how the super short version can help the longer version. There will be more like Dhawan. We have already seen 392 runs today with more than half an hour to play.

Well, it was inevitable that the NFL might bring this rule in. It's difficult to imagine the impact such a rule change will bring. There is no doubt the League is peering into the future with regards to concussions, litigation and other related issues ... ... NFL may prevent runners from lowering their heads into tacklers

Well done to Michell Starc. Still a great knock from a number 9. Unlucky not to get a ton but Starc has shown great determination and commitment and we ended up with quite a few bonus runs as a result. Played some nice shots. He's given his Country a real chance. Let's hope he bowls well. Smith looked a lot better as well. He has tightened up his technique. 92 is an excellent return, all things considered. He is possibly only in the team because of the suspensions. Well done to him for grabbing his opportunity. Good footwork and you can see that he has worked really hard on his game. Still looks a good batting track and we're going to have to bowl well to keep them in check. At the beginning of the match we'd probably have taken 408 as a 1st innings total.