Officials are hoping for a positive summer that serves as a full stop to an absurd run of shocking luck for the Australian OpenWhen spruiking a summer starting on Thursday with the heavily promoted United Cup, Tennis Australia opted for a mantra pointing to an optimistic future for the sport. The story, the national federation proclaimed, starts here and over the past week the world’s best players have begun arriving for the country’s annual festival of tennis.While there is no exclamation mark to punctuate the slogan for the 2023 Australian Open, local officials are hoping for a positive summer that serves as a full stop to an absurd run of shocking luck for the tournament. Continue reading...
The tourists’ ineptitude with the bat is in stark contrast to the potency of their bowling although the MCG pitch could help reduce the disparityEverywhere you look there is decay. Things that once worked no longer do as they should. Rare success stories are inflated beyond their merit. Failures are greeted with accepting shrugs. Short term fixes are in short supply. Twist a narrative enough times and any international sports team will neatly embody the country it represents. That is not necessary when analysing the Proteas and their struggles with the bat. If anything, the comparisons with South Africa are a little too on the nose.For the daily electrical blackouts see routine batting collapses. For the failed promises of the...
The everyman quick’s form stacks up but his selection for a home Test in Melbourne against South Africa is also about the vibe he bringsFor the last five years, Australia’s bowling attack has been a given. Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, set and forget. There have been change-ups to cover injury or when a second spinner has been needed in Asia, but there has been no question about the best four options in the country when the time has come to revert. With this stability, the quartet has played 22 Test matches together, a record shared with the West Indies’ 1950s and 60s combination of Garfield Sobers, Lance Gibbs, Charlie Griffith and Wes Hall.The fact that 22...
The actions of those who stormed the pitch were a betrayal of a club that has done much to empower fansAAMI Park was not where the Melbourne Victory managing director, Caroline Carnegie, wanted to be on Sunday morning but, given the events of the previous night, she had little choice. As she made her way into Victory’s offices, the weight of what had transpired in the Melbourne derby was clearly visible in her step.In just over an hour she would somehow attempt to make sense of the indefensible; answering for the Victory fans who had stormed the field and attacked Melbourne City’s goalkeeper, Tom Glover and the referee, Alex King, minutes after they had thrown a flare that injured a...
The fiercely Australian coach is suddenly a free agent with an axe to grind and a World Cup plan – and the Wallabies need a wildcard to win big in 2023In sacking Eddie Jones as head coach nine months out from the World Cup, English rugby may have gift-wrapped an early Christmas present for the woebegone Wallabies in 2023. The fiercely Australian Jones is suddenly a free agent with an axe to grind and a World Cup plan. That makes him a very dangerous adversary to his old masters, and a huge – if slightly volatile – weapon of mass destruction should the men in gold snap him up as a gun-for-hire.Rugby Australia has backed its coach, Dave Rennie, through...