Looks like Dizzy's been to Warnie's School of Spin, but he needs to brush up on his technique. The official line is "A lot of people say his action is dodgy, but he's good to play against." The official line is not "A lot of people say his action is dodgy and he's benefited from politics and rules changes and being a protected player and CricAussie said I better not hurt anyone's feelings or else... but he's good to play against."
Bending law aided Murali: Gillespie
JASON GILLESPIE believes new laws allowing bowlers to bend their elbow 15 degrees have helped Muttiah Muralidaran and Shoaib Akhtar.
In his new autobiography Dizzy, the former Test paceman also claims it was a mistake to tour Zimbabwe in 2004 because of the country's appalling human rights record.
Gillespie, who remains one of 25 players contracted by Cricket Australia, wrote that he means no malice towards Murali or Shoaib "but bowling actions are a fact of life".
"They're tough to judge but you almost feel that the ICC change the rules to keep specific players in the game," Gillespie said.
"Whether we like it or not, there's a hell of a lot of politics in sports such as cricket, and it's one of those issues that won't go away."
Translation: "He chucks, but I'm not allowed to say so."
How about that Shreeediot - good of him to drop Sideshow Roy on 2.
Posted by: Tony T. | 14 October 2007 at 22:41
Roy made a monkey out of him.
Posted by: nick | 14 October 2007 at 23:14
Apparently Dizzy didn't get along with Punter (unsurprising). The surprise is that some of the current squad feel the same way. Thoughts?
Posted by: nick | 14 October 2007 at 23:15
Ponting strikes me as being the sort of really intense sort of guy that just lives for cricket, greyhounds and golf- so he might not be the greatest dinner companion. But that happens in any teams. In the AFL, it's well known that at Adelaide, Andrew McLeod and Tyson Edwards had a longrunning feud. They don't let it affect their play though.
Posted by: Scott Wickstein | 15 October 2007 at 00:10
It's a bit of a long running tradition to become an Australian captain isn't it? Tugger would take a while to get to know, whilst unless your in with Tubby I'd guess that he'd be in the same boat. And Border wasn't known as Captain Grumpy for nothing.
But the buzzword has been about team harmony, and you occasionally get the odd player who hasn't played as many games as you'd think they play because of this. McGill springs to mind immediately.
Posted by: Adsy | 15 October 2007 at 10:47
Great choice of words...
He describes himself as "pretty thick-skinned", which made him perfect as the side's chief niggler in India.
http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/indvaus/content/current/story/315443.html
Posted by: nick | 15 October 2007 at 16:48
McGill is well known prick, and doesn't bother to play nice with selectors either, but the fact is that if it wasn't for a bloke called S. Warne he would have played 100 tests.
Posted by: Yobbo | 15 October 2007 at 16:50
Time to revisit a juicy bit of dish:
Niggler is almost very nearly just about the very worst choice of word.
Going Ape.
Yob, are you related to Stewie MacGill?
Posted by: Tony T. | 15 October 2007 at 17:28