Left field

To spin or not to spin? Australia’s crucial Ashes question

Australia captain Ricky Ponting will be praying that the rumours of a sideways turning Cardiff wicket prove to be complete fallacy when the Ashes series begins on Wednesday.

Ponting’s team have been bereft of a front-line spinner since the retirement of the mercurial Shane Warne in 2007 and Stuart McGill shortly after.

Australia has selected just one “attacking” spinner in the tour party, 27-year-old Nathan Hauritz. But “Ritzy” has yet to shine, taking just 2 wickets in the 59 overs he has bowled on tour so far, at a cost of 260 runs.

That could see Ponting select a four-pronged pace attack for the first test on a pitch not conducive to fast bowling, and with Brett Lee unavailable through injury.

Australia are the Ashes favourites but losing Lee is a blow

England’s cricketers face a monumental task if they are to regain the Ashes they surrendered so meekly in 2006/07. Forget 2005 for a moment and take a longer-term view. Since the turn of the 20th Century, England have managed just 17 victories in Ashes series, compared to Australia’s 30, as they have regularly been confounded technically and mentally.

A 2-0 series win over the West Indies at the start of the summer buoyed England’s confidence but looks can be deceiving. The fact is, England have failed to beat a leading Test playing nation home or away since Pakistan in 2006.

Graceful Vaughan lays down bat for a new generation

Mark Meadows

Jun 30, 2009 10:53 UTC

Former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan has confirmed the recent rumours and announced his immediate retirement from all cricket.

The move follows the 34-year-old’s failure to be called up for a training squad ahead of the home Ashes series with Australia.

Is Italy’s rugby trip south the ultimate tour too far?

The ‘tour too far’ cliché is often wheeled out by rugby pundits when an outgunned northern hemisphere side travels south to take on Tri-Nations powers.

But it seems especially appropriate this year after the International Rugby Board (IRB) cooked up the ultimate mismatched series by handing Italy tests against Australia in Canberra and Melbourne on June 13 and 20 and a meeting with New Zealand in Christchurch on June 27.

Will Symonds ever play for Australia again?

Mark Meadows

Jun 4, 2009 13:28 UTC

Australia all-rounder Andrew Symonds is being sent home from the World Twenty20 tournament in England for disciplinary reasons, Cricket Australia (CA) has said.

CA chief executive James Sutherland told a hastily-arranged news conference in Melbourne broadcast on national television that Symonds had been ordered home for alcohol related issues.

Dokic is not done yet

If anyone deserves to make a successful comeback to top flight tennis it is Jelena Dokic.

When most players want a second bite of the cherry, it is because they enjoyed their careers so much the first time round and realised how much they missed it when they began to pursue other interests. If in doubt ask Martina Navratilova, (a blink and you’ll miss it singles return in 2004), Martina Hingis or even Kim Clijsters (who has had enough of changing nappies, perhaps).

Australia look good but Symonds omission could weigh

In an earlier post, Julian Linden argued that Australia’s cricketers have all the firepower needed to retain the Ashes in England despite some relatively new faces in the squad.

Here Ed Osmond takes a different view, wondering if the absence of Andrew Symonds and Australia’s lack of spin options may help the English.

England cannot underestimate Australia’s new mix

The selection of Australia’s Ashes squad has compounded England’s worst fears. This is a team more than capable of successfully defending the little urn.

There may be no Shane Warne, Adam Gilchirst or Glenn McGrath in the lineup but what the squad lacks in star quality it makes up for in depth.

Where cricket is concerned, more does not mean better

Bright spring sunshine hit Lord’s on Saturday but with England’s first Test against West Indies having finished inside three days there was no one there to enjoy it.

Instead, the England and Wales Cricket Board were left gloomily counting the lost gate receipts for the final two days of the earliest Test yet staged in England.

No Aussie World Cup bid, good news for Asia?

Great news that Australia will not be bidding for the 2015 and 2019 rugby World Cups.

Not because Australia wouldn’t do as fantastic a job as it did in 2003 but because it increases the chance that Japan might finally get the nod to host the tournament in Asia for the first time.