A cow in a tree

 Given that today should have been Day 3 of the surreal Boxing Day Test it only seems right to post a picture of a cow in a tree.

A cow in a tree

There was good piece in the Sunday Times by Alistair Cook about the Test. 


It was pretty much a written version of  some of what he said at the CATO breakfast at the start of Day 2. The article is behind a paywall, so I'll briefly repeat his main points here about the lack of preparation for the tour :-

  • England only played one warm up game among themselves before the first Test, so by the time they got to the first Test in Perth, they weren't match hardened
  • When it came to the day night game in Brisbane, England had players like Jamie Smith, who had never played in a in a pink-ball game of any kind, and yet it had been known for years there was going to be a pink-ball Test
  • England haven't got a fielding coach, and were dropping catches in in the first 3 Tests while Australia were taking worldies (breathtaking catches - ed)
  • There is no wicketkeeping coach either (Brendan McCullum is too busy to do it)
  • The bowling coach, David Saker, only turned up at the start of the tour, and so he doesnt know the bowlers, so making technical adjustments is all about relationships and knowing why a bowler might not be getting things right
  • Batsmen [sic] would benefit from playing more county cricket (see the rant on the blog from yesterday - ed). What you have to do in county cricket is problem-solve and adapt to different conditions and scenarios which is a crucial skill in Test cricket
In spite all of this (Cook writes) England were effectively 100-1 in their second innings at Perth, so this series could easily have been 2-2 going to Sydney.

The apology referred to in the headline of the piece - see screen shot above -  Cook says (tongue in cheek) that after he made 244* in 2017 that they decided to make the pitch more bowler-friendly, because watching him (Cook) bat over two days people decided they didn't want to see anything like it again.
A new style batting helmet for future Tests at the G

I think most folks have been out and about in Melbourne today, so I'll finish with a couple of snaps from my day. The tram network in Melbourne is the largest in the world, which explains why while out and about, we were never 100% sure which way to go...

skyline at the harbour

Sculpture Art

An old tram


















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