He did take the most wickets in the world in the calender year in test matches. Yeah ricky made the wrong call but we win more than we loose and with the slow changing of the guard we cant always dig ourselves out.

I would like to see hughes in the team and just accept that he will have good and bad days, but really our bowling is not going to get any better overnight.

Would also help if BA had a decent media manager. The guy doing the job at the moment is a straight-up oxygen thief. Has done nothing whatsoever to raise the media profile of the Boomers or Opals (or helped in any way with the NBL, for that matter).

The print and electronic media all publish what sells and unfortunately, Basketball along with several other second rung sports, will always struggle to have similar space with the biggies for that exact reason. It doesn't matter how much a publicity officer sends out media releases, the only way they will get published is if they will create more interest than other stories. Perhaps Basketball needs more sex scandals, booze ridden cruises or general bad boys or girls to catch the media's interest. However, I am sure that all the basketball fraternity does not want the sort of publicity that Carlton and St Kilda have received recently or the regular NRL dickhead player of the week report.

Reminds me of Alan Border and Dean Jones batting in a Test match in Madras.

40+ degree heat, high humidity, Jones well over the century & cramped up dry reaching next to the pitch. Border wanders over to see how he is going.

Jones says to Border "I think I'm done, might have to retire hurt".

Border: "You weak Victorian. I want a tough Australian out here. I want a Queenslander"

Border turns & walks back to his end of the pitch. Jones bats on to make 210 and is put on a saline drip in hospital afterwards. The Australians tie the test.

Do we make them that tough now?

Deano was actually losing control of his bodily functions due to the heat and humidity. At the tea break team mates had to help him to the showers, help him redress and pushed him back out the door after the break. Absolute champion. Love AB's comment as well. lol.

Pretty sure Mitch has led the wicket taking for world cricket for 2 years straight now, so he must hit the pitch sometimes...

Ushiro - you're pretty close to nailing the problems with the media and sports coverage in general.

basketball in oz will always struggle to appeal to media groups for other reasons also.
the lack of a face to the product is a major problem,
most of our stars dont play/stay in our league,and never will.

imagine if the top 20 players in the nrl just dropped out of their league, the attendance would drop even further than what it is already(they would need a sex scandal weekly to stay in the media)

basketball as a mid level sport,that has a clean healthy image where its, players get paid,is sustainable, and is great for kids and families i think it is not far off the mark.

1,500 to 2,000 more punters at each game and problem solved.

GO YOU AUSSIES!!

hmmm, me thinks the term "oops" will be muttered by the OP.

Wonder what the odds of Australia winning this Test Match were yesterday afternoon when the 8th wicket fell?

And did the Pakistani team get on it in time, to take advantage?

Great thread.....pfffff

those odd's woulda = alot of cash... yousef may be a rich man

I would just like to praise Punter's brilliant captaincy by being able to forsee that the Paki's would fall apart on Day 4, and electing to bat first accordingly. He obviously had a game plan, and decided to give them a sniff at victory by tanking the first innings, and then when the second looked like it was going too smoothly, giving up a few more wickets to show that one of our bowlers can hang in there at the crease to grind out enough runs for a win.

At all times I was certain he had a gameplan, and was sticking to it, and that obviously showed in yesterdays conclusion.

Personally I would not be suprised if this comes out as match fixing in years to come. Pakis put some dollars on after day 3 methinks.

DB5

Sad but true that we now think this way. The corruption in the game is just one more reason for the decline in support.

This will either be remembered as one of the greatest comebacks of all time ... or.... one of the biggest fixes of all time.

Wonder which it will be.

Just the shocking field settings in the morning got me thinking. If the skipper wanted to really win, he would have not had everyone on the fence for 10 overs while we knocked up another 100 runs. Add to that 3 drops off Hussey by the one filder...hmmmmm.

Just read this on FoxSports thought some may be interested as Hoops news is pretty quiet at the moment.

Pakistan team management believe players fixed this year's Sydney Test as well as a Twenty20 match, according to evidence given to an inquiry into the failed Australia tour.

There have long been suspicions about the SCG New Year's clash which saw Ricky Ponting's side pull off a remarkable come-from-behind victory.