The tourists face a daunting prospect on a dry pitch, even though they will feel more competent against the turning ball than on previous tripsTrial by spin. That was the likely scenario for the Australian men’s Test team, as posed by Sri Lankan captain Dimuth Karunaratne. Softly spoken and not inclined to swagger, the content of the message rather than the delivery held a challenge for Australia, with the likelihood that Sri Lanka will take four spin options into the first Test at Galle. “Last time we had two fast bowlers, we did not use one,” said Karunaratne, referring to last year’s Test against West Indies when his quicks Suranga Lakmal and Dushantha Chameera bowled 14 overs between them across...
Most of all he was a true allrounder, on and off the field, and leaves behind a legacy of greatnessTo a generation of 21st-century cricket fans, Andrew Symonds was a real-life action hero. He had Superman’s physique, Batman’s mystery, The Hulk’s power and The Flash’s agility. Little wonder cricket-mad kids worshipped him across three decades. With a few swings of his bat, an over of crafty medium pace or off-spin, or a spectacular leap, dive and throw in the field, Symonds could turn a game on its head.He was a gifted athlete, a born entertainer and a reluctant celebrity. Most of all, a true allrounder, on and off the field. The news of his death is tragic. He leaves behind...
He achieved greatness but never pretended to be perfect, and perhaps we all loved him a little bit more because of thatThere is a scene in the 2001 Channel 4 documentary Shane Warne’s English Summer in which the Australian leg-spinner is shown in the Hampshire dressing room a few minutes before play is about to begin, wolfing down an enormous plate of chips. The interviewer suggests that perhaps this is not the nutritional regimen normally associated with the world’s top athletes.“Well,” Warne replies through a mouthful of ketchup and deep-fried matter, “if I don’t have my chips, I’m not happy. And if I’m not happy, I don’t bowl well. A piece of lettuce or fruit doesn’t make you feel good,...
Shane Warne was a great Australian as much as a great Australian cricketer, and a startlingly vivid entityOh, Warnie. What have you got up to now? Death is always shocking; the most shocking of all the everyday things. A day on from the death of Shane Warne, aged 52, there is still a sense of genuine disbelief, a shared bruising that seems to transcend the usual response to the loss of a much-loved sports star.This is still hard to grasp. It feels like an escapade, a twist, another moment in the fond, picaresque story that is the life of Shane. Mainly, though, it just feels a little worse with every passing hour, a death that makes less sense, and seems...
Australia’s great wicketkeeper was warm and generous to 95% of the people he met and ought to have captained his country“Did I sing?” asked Rod Marsh nervously. It was the morning after a memorable evening during the 2013-14 Ashes series and the short answer was: “Yes.”The news of Marsh’s death triggers a treasured memory of one of those supper parties that just took off magically for a few visiting Poms in Perth. It was attended by Western Australian royalty. Dennis Lillee, then the president at the Waca, organised it superbly. Rod Marsh and John Inverarity were there; so too Mike Brearley, and somehow so were my wife and I, which explains something straight away. It was not necessary to be...