This series is starting to resemble 2005. Let's remember that Australia completely dominated the first Test four years ago as well, only to be decimated in the second and to go on and lose the series.
After an insipid performance on day 1 (which Brad Haddin remarkably put down to being a good old fashioned dose of stage fright), it was amateur hour all through day 2. We managed to lose five of the top eight batsmen to hook shots. What is this, park cricket ? The offenders were
- Hughes: caught down the leg side after an attempted hook shot. Phil has now been out to a short one the last four innings on this tour. I smell an unravelling here. Still he fell for the short ball trick hook, line and sinker
- Katich: caught hooking with two men back. Unforgivable really. Hook, line and sinker
- North: bottom edged onto his stump hooking. Arrogant. Hook, line and sinker
- Haddin: caught at square leg hooking. Soft. Hook, line and sinker
- Johnson: caught hooking with two men back. Weak. Hook, line and sinker
On top of all of this, the Australia team have created a minor international incident by snubbing the members at Lords and refusing to attend an end of the day function with them. It seems an odd decision to me. We are going so badly, why not spend a night on the drink with a bunch of old blokes in bright ties ? You know Andrew Symonds would have
At least the Duke of Edinburgh is still on form. When presented with Australian coach Tim Nielson during lunch he asked
“Hello, are you the scorer?”
Long may the Duke reign !
Australia are 8/156, well over two hundred runs behind and in huge trouble
The Queen was reported to be surprisingly understanding about subject Peter Siddle's reaction to Australia's performance on Day 2 at Lords
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The day former Australian player of the 80s and 90s Greg Matthews spoke at my high school will be with me always. The year must have been 1988 or 1989. We had a tough Head / Principle at the time, a lady of about 67 who had taken the board of education to court to allow her to keep working. She won, unfortunately for us.
We had all been excited for weeks that Greg (or Mo as he was often known) was coming to address us. We all knew what house he had grown up in, as it was right next to the school, and we all knew that his Mum still lived there. We all mentioned this fact whenever we walked past it (we all walked everywhere in those days) and made sure our parents knew if they drove us past. It seemed everyone's older brother had a story about Mo playing cricket in a cul-de sac with them; most would have been fantasy but maybe, just maybe, one or two were true.
I was especially excited because as I played junior rep cricket for Northern Districts I was totally in awe of Mo. Literally every batting and bowling record for every age group for Northern Districts juniors was held by him, a fact we all marvelled at presentation evening. One year, Mo was scheduled to present the trophies at the Northern Districts presentation. Much to everyone's surprise, his Mum appeared instead. She explained that Greg was ill and in hospital and unable to attend. We were disappointed but understood.
Later, Mrs Matthews was on her feet night handing over the medals to the under 11 winners, when Greg appeared from a side door, straight from his hospital bed and absolutely bright yellow from illness. His Mother's shock turned to pride as she watched him take the stage to fulfill his commitments to the kids. My father and I still talk about this.
That day at high school, Mo took his place on stage and patiently waited his turn. Our excitement built with each passing moment. Finally, the Principle took the microphone and announced him
"Boys and Girls, please welcome Australian cricketer, Greg Matthews"
We applauded loudly but quickly, eager to listen to the great man speak
Mo sauntered over to the lectern. He always sauntered then; still does. He paused for a few seconds to build tension. When he knew his audience was at fever pitch he leant forward, lightly gripped the microphone and very clearly and very confidently said
"Everything you have seen on Television is wrong
Everything your teachers have taught you is wrong
Everything your parents have told you is wrong.
Winning .... Is everything"
Our jaws dropped and our eyes almost popped out of their heads. And then we cheered. We cheered like we had never cheered before and until we thought our throats would crack. The Principle actually stood up, starting walking over to Mo and told him to stop speaking. Mo waved her away and continued
"Its not about how you play the game
Winning isn't one of the things that may happen, it is the only thing"
We erupted again. Mo was now a God in our eyes. If he said anything else, I don't remember it. When he was done, he simply hopped off the stage and walked straight out the front door of the hall and into legend, without even waiting for the assembly to finish.
My Father still remembers me coming home that day and being able to talk of nothing else. None of us could. It isn't often you meet someone in real life and they are actually more impressive than you build them up in your mind to be. That day at my school, Mo was.
Under all the talk of "dude", "radical" and "yeah, yeah", Greg was a tough, tough man. He filled in a vacant opening batsman spot against the West Indies in the era of 4 super fast quicks and continues to play first grade cricket in Sydney at the age of 50, continuing to take wickets including poor Phil Jacques on return from injury earlier in the season. In 2003, aged 43, Greg was still calling for his re-inclusion in the NSW team, describing himself as
"the second-best spinner in NSW behind Stuart MacGill"
He probably was actually.
Its little wonder then that when Nathan Hauritz left the field with the middle finger on his right hand hanging off after dropping Andrew Strauss, Greg had the following to say
"The good news is it's only dislocated, so now it's about swelling and pain. It's up to Haury as to whether he can bowl or not. It didn't look that radical, but I'm not living it. I hope he takes a courage pill and gets out there and has a dip. Busted fingers and hands just come with the territory"
No XBox or Playstation back in the hotel room and nursing of wounds if Greg was associated with the Australian team. Nathan would be given a slap told to get back out there. I concur, there need to be serious penalties for our abysmal performance so far in the second test. Toughen up boys. Walk it off Nathan.
Dr Matthews prescribed a "courage pill" as the solution to Hauritz's dislocated finger
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