With a slew of injuries to contend with, Graham Arnold’s 26-man World Cup group contains an eclectic mix of players After all the hysteria and innuendo of a transfer deadline day had been poured into a few weeks of World Cup squad speculation, Socceroos coach Graham Arnold finally named his 26-player squad for football’s global showcase on Tuesday. It is a group full of what Arnold called “boxing Kangaroos”.Fresh as this new slogan may be, the motif and messaging represents a continuation of the fighting spirit that has been a hallmark of Arnold’s tenure – not least when qualification for the tournament in Qatar became less certain and backs were against the wall. Continue reading...
The Mariners youngster appears to be in a four-way battle for the final spot in Graham Arnold’s Qatar-bound squadIf Graham Arnold was reaching for the panadol to deal with selection headaches back in September, he might need something a little bit stronger at this point. With Australia’s opening game of the World Cup against France just over two weeks away, deliberation time has run out for the Socceroos boss. There is no more football left to be played and no more opportunities to make cases for selection; 1,153 days after the Socceroos began their journey to Qatar, Arnold will on Tuesday name the 26 players he will take to the biggest sporting event on the planet. But unfortunately for Arnold,...
Win or lose, the match in Paris offers added value for Australia – it is a benchmark before next year’s World CupWhen Australia play France there are always fireworks. The tempo was set in the very first Test in 1928 when French prop Jean Morere headbutted Jim Tancred and was left-hooked by NSW flanker Bluey Greatorex. After their next encounter in 1948, “one hundred infuriated spectators rushed on the field, hit the referee and threw mud at him”. In 1967, captain John Thornett told the referee his side would walk-off “if you don’t stop the Frenchmen kicking us”. In 1997, No 8 Troy Coker was asked why he punched Fabian Pelous. “What are you supposed to do when a guy...
The man behind Cricinfo’s search engine, who has died aged 47, was a one-off who paved the way for today’s data-driven gameTravis Basevi wasn’t the kind of man who sought the limelight. He was happy to just do his thing. And that thing was groundbreaking.Basevi, who died last month at the tragically young age of 47, leaving behind his wife, Jane, and son, Victor, was a genuine one-off, a man who transformed the way people looked at cricket and, by extension, the game itself. Continue reading...
Run rate shapes as kingmaker with the World Cup hosts, along with New Zealand and England, expected to bank final-round winsAnd now, the end is near. And so we face the final curtain. A bit dramatic for the end of the group stages of a Twenty20 World Cup, but soon eight teams out of a dozen will be heading home or to their next assignments, thinking about what might have been and the disappointment of what wasn’t. And in Group 1, at least, the matter of which two teams get to stay a little longer will come down to pure and beautiful arithmetic. Arriving at this tournament, England and Australia would have been worldly enough to know that they couldn’t...