From baggy green to baggy greed

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AUSTRALIAN cricket is facing its worst crisis since the Kim Hughes era 25 years ago amid growing fears the revered baggy green is being compromised by baggy greed. More... Grab for money putting Australian players at breaking point By James Hooper February 01, 2009 AUSTRALIAN cricket is facing its worst crisis since the Kim Hughes era 25 years ago amid growing fears the revered baggy green is being compromised by baggy greed. Players are falling like flies to injury, Australia have lost their No.1 ranking in one-day cricket and are poised to surrender top spot to South Africa this month in Test cricket. In fact, things have become so grim that people are saying Australia will lose the Ashes in England later this year. But amid this horror backdrop and talk that the schedule is undermining our national team, players are still putting their hands out for the millions of dollars on offer in the Indian Premier League. And Cricket Australia is also asking our leading players to front up for an unprecedented number of matches. Fast bowler Mitchell Johnson is the only leading Australian player unavailable for this year's Twenty20 extravaganza. Over the next 13 months, Australia are facing a horror schedule of 23 Tests and a combination of over 50 one-day internationals and Twenty20 fixtures. Even South Africa coach Mickey Arthur has pointed to Australia's taxing schedule as a reason for their demise this summer, with the Australians losing their first Test series at home in 16 years. Arthur thinks it is folly for Australia to now back up for another hectic series of one-day matches against New Zealand, starting in Perth. "I honestly don't know who agreed to that schedule," Arthur said. "It is really, really tough. They're going to be playing some hard cricket, then they get on a plane and come to us. "I would have thought that they would have tried to push for a break, but unfortunately New Zealand are here. "I think it's going to be quite a tough series, New Zealand are fighters. Arthur also acknowledges that it isn't going to get any easier for Ricky Ponting and his team. "They are going to be on the road consistently for such long periods of time now that they're going to have to manage injuries, they're going to have to manage workload hugely," the Proteas coach said. Australia lost the Test series to South Africa 2-1 and the one-day series 4-1 and must regroup for a five-match limited-overs series and a Twenty20 international against New Zealand. Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds, Shane Watson, Phil Jaques and spinning hopeful Bryce McGain have all been sidelined for lengthy periods this summer with injuries, adding to the concerns of burnout. Throw in the retirements of Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Justin Langer, Adam Gilchrist and recently Matthew Hayden and it has taken a massive chunk out of a team considered all but unbeatable a year ago. Former fast bowler Damien Fleming cautioned administrators against over-scheduling matches to the detriment of the game. "A year ago we were saying 'if there's too much cricket, why should you go and play the IPL?'," Fleming said. "But now we know it's this big beast that's making a lot of money it's almost like the IPL should be taken into consideration with the workload. "Hopefully with the advent of Twenty20 cricket some of these 50-over meaningless tournaments will get cancelled. "Things like the Champions Trophy that goes for six weeks, I don't think anyone really values that anymore. "If you could shorten it to a three-week Twenty20 tournament that would probably be a bit smarter. "The boys are getting paid a lot now so they're expected to play a lot, but we don't want to devalue the game as well. "When you look at the number of injuries we've had this summer, it actually devalues the product if the big boys aren't playing." In the next 11 months, Australia are scheduled to play 21 Tests, 45 one-day internationals and up to 10 Twenty20 fixtures, prompting Cricket Australia to explore a rotation policy across the three spheres of the game. There is the South African Test series this month, a Test series against Pakistan and then the Ashes in England in July. Cricket Australia confirmed player welfare was a concern and has been monitoring individuals. One possible solution is to rotate Test players, a prospect never before explored in the 131-year history of the sport. CA said the number of matches being played was further complicated by the postponed tours of Pakistan and the Champions Trophy being rescheduled this year. "James Sutherland has talked about this a lot, most recently in Canberra last Thursday morning," a Cricket Australia spokesman said. "While the players did have quite a break before we started this current phase, now the phase has started it is very busy. "That is a concern. One of the consequences is that we are very concerned about managing player welfare as professionally as we can."

[EnterTheVoid]

Ponting Beta, bolo kya bhat hai! :hysterical: :hysterical: :hysterical: :hysterical: :hysterical: :hysterical: :hysterical: :hysterical: :hysterical:

[Dinx - the Jinx]

Lovely - would like to see Australia losing 20 of those 23 tests and 45 of those 50 limited over contests. At the end of the year, they should be at No.3 or 4 in the rankings in all forms of the cricket...

[Dinx - the Jinx]

You are questioning my ______ again...

[EnterTheVoid]

^^ that f ******* was actually whining about the questionable run - out in the post match interviews, where the batsman got the benefit of the doubt, ..... , yet no noises came when McCullum got a dubious LBW decision thanks to that other cheater Bucknor

[EnterTheVoid]

^^ I must have missed that one Some interesting stats from the match; N.Z. conceded 2 extras as opposed to the 23, yes, 23 given by Australia. The extras were roughly on par with the second highest score in the N.Z. innings Wont it be fun reading the papers tomorrow

[Online]

Please do not write in Hindi again

[EnterTheVoid]

^^ ok

[siddhu]

Lovely - would like to see Australia losing 20 of those 23 tests and 45 of those 50 limited over contests. At the end of the year' date=' they should be at No.3 or 4 in the rankings in all forms of the cricket...[/quote'] They are already at #2 in ODI rankings and the way things are going against NZ, they would be relinquishing the #2 spot to India pretty soon anyway. I think Aus lost something like 7 points in last 4 ODIs. So lets see what NZ does to them... Tests is a different matter. I wish we had a series scheduled with them this year...