Aussies' day starts with a smile

Comedian Dave Hughes speaks to the Australian team before play on Day 1 of the Boxing Day Ashes Test. Source: Ryan Pierse / Getty Images

DARREN 'Boof' Lehmann is a tough task master as coach of the Australian cricket team.

He demands excellence and commitment and has been known to lock players - even the skipper - out of team meetings if they arrive a minute late.

But he is also a big believer in the players enjoying their cricket.

One of his first initiatives when he took over during this year's tour of England was to bring an esky on to the team bus and pass out a few cleansing beverages.

Another initiative has been to introduce a "joke of the day'' on days one, three and five of Test matches to lighten the mood among the group.

Thus far the task has fallen to players and staffers, but before the first day's play at the MCG, comedian Dave Hughes delivered the punchline to the assembled throng.

Lehmann sent a direct message to Hughes on Christmas Eve to line him up for the gig.

Hughes did not so much tell a joke as go around the group and rib them, in keeping with the "super sprays'' he has delivered to most of the AFL player groups this year.

***

FOR Victorians, watching the Australian cricket team at the MCG invites the obvious questions about their AFL allegiances.

Consider that the London Telegraph's respected cricket writer Scyld Berry believes the MCG is a misnomer and that the stadium should be called the MARG (Melbourne Australian Rules Ground).

There was a time when Australian teams touring during winter would have a team photograph taken with each player wearing an AFL jumper.

Queries about the current squad have revealed that those with the strongest footy links include George Bailey (Carlton), Peter Siddle (North Melbourne), Ryan Harris and Lehmann (Crows), and David Warner (Swans), while Michael Clarke has a passing interest in Sydney.

Mitchell Johnson and Nathan Lyon lead the non-footy brigade, while batting coach Michael DiVenuto (Geelong) and fielding coach Steve Rixon (a former Tigers man who switched to the Swans when they moved to Sydney) are among the most passionate in the support staff.

***

PERHAPS the Ashes cricketer with the closest link to a football code, though, is English all-rounder Ben Stokes.

His father Gerard was a gun New Zealand prop whose career brought Ben to England at the age of 11.

Gerard Stokes is now the coach of the Serbian national rugby league team, the White Eagles, who failed to qualify for this year's World Cup in Britain and Ireland.

***

AN INTERESTED onlooker at Dandenong's Shepley Oval last Saturday was English paceman Tim Bresnan.

He was there to watch his good mate and Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale, who made 44 in the Panthers' one-day Premier cricket loss to Melbourne.

He would also have seen James Pattinson make his return to bowling, the opening bowler taking 2/14 off seven overs.

***

DON'T be surprised if you see Michael Clarke heading to the casino while in Melbourne.

He has now won all four tosses in this series and is on track to become the 12th skipper to win every toss in a five-Test series.

The most recent skipper to achieve the feat was Mark Taylor in the 1998-99 Ashes series, which Australia won 3-1.

Clarke has won 20 of his 33 tosses as captain, including all on the three-Test tour of India earlier this year.

***

CLARKE is not afraid to buck the conventional wisdom, either, and bowl after winning the toss, sending the opposition to the crease four times.

The decision paid dividends against India (won by an innings in Perth) and Sri Lanka (won by five wickets at the SCG), but famously backfired when Australia lost on home soil for the first time in 27 years when it lost by seven runs in Hobart two years ago.

***

THIS IS the first time in a decade that Australia has named the same XI for four consecutive Tests.

The last time it happened was in the summer of 2004-05 against Pakistan.

That team was Langer Hayden, Ponting, Martyn, Lehmann, Clarke, Gilchrist, Warne, Gillespie, Kasprowicz, McGrath.

***

ON THIS DAY - 1995

David Boon scored the last of his 21 Test centuries when he made 110 to put Australia on the road to a score of 6 (dec)/500.

The Aussies then bundled out the Lankans twice to win by 10 wickets.

Boonie would pull on the Baggy Green for the last time in the third and final Test of that series, in Adelaide over the Australia Day weekend.

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Aussies' day starts with a smile

Dengan url

http://olahragasehatiku.blogspot.com/2013/12/aussies-day-starts-with-smile.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Aussies' day starts with a smile

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Aussies' day starts with a smile

sebagai sumbernya