Episode 179 - Another Failed Campaign

The 2024 T20 World Cup has thrown up a whole bunch of surprises, there have been upsets, cinderella stories and favourites thrown to the wayside. Who will emerge victorious as we head into the semi finals Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode Transcript

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(01:23):
Cup special episode of two Slips inthe Galley. I'm joined by Aaron here
this afternoon. How are you mate, I'm very well, fans mate,
sitt in Hitler mening. Another disappointingpromise so much and delivered so little from
the Aussies and the World Cup.Well, in fairness, we haven't had
a World Cup in a while wherewe have promised so much. It's always
we've gone in with that expectation thatonly we go again. But the Aussies

(01:47):
for the early part of the tournamentlooked the goods. They were second on
net run rate in terms of thequalifiers for the Super eight. But yeah,
just couldn't get the job done atat the point end of the tournament
to get us through to the semifinals, which is something that we predicted heading
into the World Cup. So we'regoing to have a bit of a look

(02:07):
at the World Cup in its entiretyheading into the semifinals, So the pool
stages and some quite shocking developments thathappened through the pool stages, obviously what's
happened in the Super eights, andthen our bit of a preview about how
we think the World Cup is goingto go. Well, we actually have
a considerable amount to talk about.Really, when you think about how this

(02:29):
World Cup has panned out so far, there's ten some extraordinary results. Really.
Probably one of the best things that'shappened has been the emergence of the
USA playing some very very good cricket. Admittedly that it's not very USA sounding
team for most of it, butthey're all American citizens, they're all qualified

(02:52):
to play there, so that youcan only wear the jump that you're allowed
to wear. I thought they werevery impressive. Obviously have had some very
very good coaching from a very verygood coach in Stuart Law. So yeah,
that's been probably the highlight for meso far. And there's been the

(03:13):
gap. The gap between the establishednations and the associate Nations has significantly narrowed
from where it was even twelve monthsago. I think the more that these
guys are playing against the top,the top level teams, the better they
are getting. Yeah, it's beenquite a World Cup, if not disappointing
for US Australian fans. So we'lldelve into the nitty gritty of that right

(03:37):
after this. Here we go RyanHarris. He's crashed into the stoves may
mean we've lost their first weeket withthe first qualities. So we're up to
the semi final stage and it's setthe four teams that have made it through,

(03:58):
three really big names that you expectat the beginning of the tournament to
be there, which was India,England and South Africa, and then in
quite startling fashion, Afghanistan continuing theircinderella story of making it through to the
World Cup semi finals. They've defendedyou would say, under pass scores twice

(04:20):
in a row to make sure theymanaged to get through. So that's the
semi finals setup, which has beenyou know, it's been a tournament of
massive story lines like that, andI think we'll probably go back to the
very first game, which I didlike the way that the ICC sort of
dressed this up a little bit.They've put it in Dallas Grand Prairie Stadium

(04:42):
for the first game and they didsort of really steer into that skid of
the oldest cricket rivalry, despite thefact that it's not technically a rivalry when
you really consider how cricket has evolved. But the first official international match before
the first Test match between Australia andEngland was actually USA and Canada playing a
game. So there were the associatenations that started off World Cup. Bold

(05:04):
choice to start a World Cup offwith two associates playing, and obviously a
bold choice that started off in Americawhere there's not a you know, an
Entrench cricket crowd. You would havethought, maybe, you know, you
would have looked at starting maybe inIndia Pakistan sort of game to really get
the crowds in the in the gate. But I enjoyed it. It was

(05:24):
actually a very very entertaining game inUSA, taking that with a brilliant run
chase from Aaron Jones. I thinkit was a ninety in that one ninety
four, I think it was.And some of the hitting, I mean,
granted, it's a small ground andhe did have an advantage of hitting
to even a shorter side on ashort round at times, but some of

(05:48):
those balls that he hit, theywent out of that park. That's six
anywhere. You're hitting a ball outof a cricket stadium, it's six anywhere.
And what really impressed me about himas a full blooded, you know,
United States player technically, I knowhe's from Jamaica and all that sort

(06:09):
of stuff was how cool he was, his cricket sense and how we just
continued to paste that Canada had thesort of we're not sort of under a
lot of pressure. But it wascertainly it was the balance in that run
chase was it could have gone eitherway. It needed a smart Innings to
make sure that at the end ofthe day, it was a Smartenings with

(06:30):
plenty of power that sort of maybemade it a little more one sided on
the scorecard than it would have seen. But it was precarious when he came
to the crease and he needed todo a good job to make sure that
the USA got home, and thatset them up for what you would say,
I would say it was the firstabsolute Titanic upset. Probably the biggest
upset I would say T twenty WorldCup history. I'm willing to go on

(06:54):
that far from that branch. That'sthe biggest upset in World Cup T twenty
World Cup history, which was theUSA beating Pakistan in a super over and
deserve to beat them, deserve tobeat them moment of Pakistan. I think
when we're going to look back onthis tournament, you know they're going to
be at the bottom of or thetop of the list of the ultimate failures.

(07:16):
I think with the players that they'vegot the exposure to teen twenty,
that they've got, their performances totallyunacceptable at this level. And I don't
know where they go from here becausethey're a team full of talent and yet
again they're floundering in the wilderness.But yeah, I thought that the USA
out smarter than to be quiet honest, and when the prep, when push

(07:38):
come to sharp that that final over, Yeah they couldn't get it done.
Well done, Well done to theUSA. And look what we're really hoping
from here. Segueing into one ofour little favorite subjects, which is Major
League cricket, we hope, hopethat this will take some momentum in We're
going to have a cast of stellarcast in that tournament this year. We're

(08:00):
going to cover that in a podcast. In not long it has been,
it's been. There are some hugenames and big Aussie names in there now
that there's no clashes with the Ashes. Some just massive, massive names that
are jumping into this. So we'lldelve into the Major League cricket. So
hopefully this exposure to cricket will helpthat I found a follower, a writer

(08:22):
on x or Twitter, depending onwhat you still call it. Il SOO
call it Twitter. Who found aninterview with this guy who was, you
know, the typical southern American withhis long blonde, curly hair, and
he rocked up in overalls and stuff. Knew nothing about cricket. He turned
up to the game that they gotwashed out of, which inevitably was the

(08:45):
game that meant that they were goingto get through. They managed to get
the points out of that, sotwo wins and a draw got them through
the other round. So he heardthat they beaten Pakistan the other day and
they were here now in Florida,so he had to make the way and
to his quote, was to supportthe boys. And there he was,
photo of him, all this glory. Everything he was dressed was like American

(09:07):
flag. His overalls were American flag, his hat was American flag. He
was there, you know, noshirt underneath his overalls, holding a beer,
having the time of his life.And I'm like, that is just
solid gold exposure. That's what youwant. You want, you want some
bloke that is couldn't care less aboutcricket, going out of his way to
see what was going on. That'sthat's perfect exposure for for the masses in

(09:31):
the United States, and I hopethat there's plenty more of that guy going,
well, did you know so theAmericans did pretty good. We've actually
got our own tournament and get thatguy, you know, jumping in and
having following his the you know,his local And this is We've spoken about
this in depth on previous podcast.This is a royal opportunity here. I

(09:52):
mean whether the quality of the cricketin this tournament thus far I don't think
has reached this quite the standards ofother is T twenty tournaments, basically to
do with factors not so much incontrol of the players, but as from
a marketing exercise, a promotional exercisefor the game in America. I've seen

(10:16):
it. It's been on CNN,it's been on Fox, It's been on
every major news network that's showing highlights. You can tell some of the people
reporting on this have no idea aboutcredit. The way that they talk about
this, like the way they readthe stats out is certainly indicative of you
don't know what you're talking about.You've got an auder. But the fact

(10:37):
that it is becoming mainstream, itis being discussed in and like Americans,
Americans take the U out of theword color because they are so anti British.
So Americans will just will not followsports that American out of spite.
They could be phenomenal sports, butthey've got baseball, they've got hockey,
they've got basketball, they've got gridiron. They're always going to be what

(11:01):
Americans follow. Soccer is so globalthat it made its way in there,
so cricket needs to be a littlerealistic about the goals at setting. But
the fact that you're getting any headwayinto a crowd where they are just passionately
not going to support things that aren'tAmerican, and you're eating into that,
not only through the expat demographic,but you know, red blooded Americans are

(11:24):
coming down taken interest in me.He got Billy Bob buying his son a
cricket bat instead of a baseball.But hopefully in twenty years and this is
where the seeds would all get seen. So yeah, for me, the
Americans have been probably the highlight.And I think that we talk about this
is all round, but from someof the associate nations as well, I

(11:46):
mean, I don't think any ofit. Probably Oman would be the one
that would look at what they howthey went and got walk. You know,
we really need to be doing alittle bit better. But you know,
pretty much everybody else had their moments. Just what I just circling back
just briefly to the United States.So they had two players in the leading

(12:07):
run scorers, the top fifteen leadingrun scorers. So Aaron Jones, obviously,
off the back of that big ninety, finished up with one hundred and
sixty runs for the tournament. Andthey only played the six games, mind
you, whereas everyone else has playedeight or not. Everyone else except for
two players sorry one two players whichwas Shama and Pant, everyone else ahead

(12:28):
of Aaron Jones has played seven games. And then you've got andre Gal Ghost.
Sorry I'm probably pronounced that incorrectly.He's the fifth leading run score with
two hundred and nineteen runs at fortythree two fifty striking one hundred and fifty.
So there's some quality there. Likethey've they've done really good. I
think where we probably before we gotoo much further, so just sticking with

(12:50):
the pool games. One obviously talkabout New York. New York was was
not a great exhibition, which isreally really disappointing considering where it is in
the world, Like, you've gothow many million people in the world in
New York, you know, soisn't it just a total spilled catch?
It really was that the facilities thereweren't appropriate for World Cup play. The

(13:16):
fact that there was just so manyjust painfully low scores. But you know,
that's that's what you get with puttinga to like I like the steps
of putting the tournament in there.Hopefully in twenty twenty eight when there's the
Olympic Games being held, I believethat's being held. They'll be in for
the Olympics in America, I'm prettysure. So hopefully they're not going to

(13:39):
play everything in Los Angeles. I'llspread it out a bit, so hopefully
then by the time you get that, you've got some more more appropriate pictures
and facilities there. But that wasa real big down or in one of
the biggest cities in the world,the cricket there was just poor. I
would have thought that as the organizingand I have no doubt that, you

(14:01):
know, they made absolutely every effortto each eye and cross every te they
dropped the ball with New York.And that's the only way that you can
put it because the massive buzz thatyou would have got out of high scoring
games in New York where maybe inthat situation where we're doing a two hundred

(14:26):
and twenty wicket because Americans and particularlyNew york Is with their baseball heritage,
you know, you've got the Yankees, You've got the Mets there, they'd
love to see the ball flying outof the park. There was our chance.
Plus, you had the high EastAsian South Asian demographic there as well
within the population and a massive populationin the surrounding areas really should have been

(14:50):
putting on really really fast, excitinggames of cricket in New York. That
should have been the aim from thevery very start, even and you're looking
at who's going to play where you'regoing, right, we want to have
maybe India Pakistan, and we wantto have the West Indies versus somebody else
who's going to come out and scoresome runs to really get the crowd into

(15:11):
it. That was a chance tosell our product in one of the biggest
markets in the world. We've gotthe ball. The pictures in the West
Indies have left a lot to bedesired as well, which we knew they
were going to be slower and lowerthan you would expect in Australia or the
ipl Wickets or even places like Englandor South Africa, but it seems to
be a little bit too far onthe low and slow side. And they're
obviously a nation that's had cricket picturesaround forever. So while you know,

(15:35):
it is disappointing that New York beingin such and it's more to do with
the location rather than like if thatwas just in the middle of the sticks
in like you know, mid WestAmerica, you'd be like, eh that
it was just like it's New York. It's New York and you and that's
the best that we could we couldget. It was just just seems such
a missed opportunity. It's a massivemissed opportunity, and I think I think

(15:58):
it probably cost them means dollars tobe quite honest, I really do.
I think. You know, particularlyyou had your first game there and you've
got say a two ten versus aone ninety five game, it goes right
down on the last day over orsomething. There's a little bit of you
know, some Indians or whatever involvedin that game. The buzz would go
out, that really really would,but that's what it is. But so

(16:21):
yeah, overall, I think it'sbeen it's been positive. I think that,
you know, the caliber of cricketsbeing there. I do think that
teams like Ugandra and Papa New Guineaprobably weren't World Cup quality. Now,
look, they were getting me thatthat m moleves a lot. You would
have liked to see them at leastbe a little closer. Essentially, it
just became, you know, theybecame road like speed humps to get high

(16:45):
net run rates for the big teamsroad kill. That's why I kind of
singled out Oman as the real disappointmentfor me, because they have much more
of a cricketing heritage, and inthe World Cup that we won over in
the UAE, they were very competitiveat points and evidently the pitchers had a
lot to do with that as well. When you're playing on slow, low
pitches and things like that, itcan really expose if there's a talent gap

(17:11):
there. So moving through, Iwant to spend the next little bit talking
about the Assies. So I thinkwe've covered the World Cup. There was
a great spectacle. We've played gamesin the West Indies which were great for
them. It's great for the economyover there to get some cricket and they
played excellent. They led, Theywere the best team in the pool stages.
They went through with eight points inthe highest net run rate. We

(17:33):
went through with eight points in thesecond highest net run rate. So the
West Indies absolutely were on fire.I couldn't quite get it done unfortunately in
the Super eight stages, but theyreally showed that there is that there's talent
there in the white ball game still, they just need to unlock that.
Going to the Australians, obviously wewere quite scathing of the Aussies ahead of

(17:59):
this this World Cup. We didn'tthink that the team that we had on
paper was realistically good enounced to win, and we felt that it was probably
an idea with a brand new captain. If you're going to send a team
that isn't going to win, youmight as well send a team, a
young team that isn't going to winand really start molding that around. Mitchell
Marsh's the new captain. On theface of at the beginning, there was

(18:22):
a lot of positive feelings. Imean, Warner wasn't the Warner of old,
but he was solid, he wasdoing his job. There was batting
around him, allowing guys like TravisHead to really tee off. I think
overall we did enough to win gamesand win them well. We bowled relatively
well. Stark was a bit disappointing, but so found himself in and out
of games. Hazelwood was brilliant,Cummins was brilliant, Zampa was brilliant.

(18:48):
Stowiness the guy that we called outas being you know it's time to put
up or shut up. He's gottena go when you should not. Magnificent.
One of the best batters that wehad in the whole World Cup.
I thinkge like ten with the ball, was taking wickets in the middle overs,
doing a brilliant job. Maxwell wasa big disappointment for this World Cup.
Never really got going. Nearly stoleat the game against Afghanistan, which

(19:12):
would have got us through to thesemifinals. Have you got that? But
just he didn't fire Matthew Wade.It boggles my mind that Matthew Wade wasn't
the reserve. Why would we havenot played Josh English, who has been
absolutely murdering it all around the worldfor the last twelve eighty months in both
white ball forms he's on the bench. I can see we're stilly and is

(19:33):
playing well. That Green is goingto be on the bench. That's fine.
I didn't mind where they've played Agar. I think that they played him
on wickets where they felt that spinwas going to be more effective, and
overall didn't do a bad job.But what really upsets me is the skill
that has set us apart since themid nineties is the one that really let
us down, and that is ourfielding. We were atrocious in the field.

(20:00):
We had a catch percentage of seventypercent, which was ten percent worse
than the next worst Super eighteen.We fielding and then not being able to
bat with any sort of consistency againstspin on the slow wicket is what cost
us as World Cup. Afghanistan setus a reasonably mech total. They played

(20:23):
very very well, but you wouldexpect it the Aussies to chase down a
total like that and just never managedto get our ings going, dropped way
too many catches, like missed waytoo many balls on the boundary that it
was just it was infuriating. Thewatch that was I'm really struggling and I've

(20:44):
got two decades on you, soI've been watching it a long time.
This this level of fielding that we'veseen from this Australian team in this World
Cup was very reminiscent of the levelof fielding pre Bobby Simpson in the nineteen
eighties from all of our cricket okay, appalling no reliability with catchers, poor

(21:06):
ground fielding, poor situational awareness inthe field of what's going on. And
it was really really disappointing for meto see that the guy who really needed
to be leading the standard in thefield, and we're talking about the wicket
keeper, he should never have beenin that squad to start with. I

(21:29):
you know, I wouldn't have takenhim to start with. I'm pretty sure
we touched on that there's better optionsfor me with the bats and as a
wicket keeper. I mean he Ithink he's he missed a very very key
stumping in out of Afghanistan and hegave away over froze, he let through
buys that he probably in reflection,he stopped that nine times out of ten

(21:51):
in his career, but on thebig stage and I thought at there were
times where he lost his call thiswith the fielding team in the way he
was talking to some of the infieldersand stuff like that as well. Yeah,
Matthew Wade was very disappointing to me, and he is the leader of
the of what goes on in thefield. He sets the standard and his

(22:15):
standard was very, very poor.Probably the only guy who when you've seen
guys like Maxwell make mistakes. Maxwellone of the best fielders in the world,
but you just can't. It's inexplicable. One of the best fielders ever
like they have ever played. Hewould be in that discussion, he's not.
He'd be a top twenty fielder that'sever played the game, no argument

(22:38):
from me about that. I mean, I've seen him do some absolutely amazing
things in the field making mistakes.Ashton Agar, who has always held himself
as being a really good player inthe field, he had an awful game
against Afghanistan. Field ran like ranpass the ball twice and cost us eight
runs. You know, put downlike it was I say difficult. He

(22:59):
did have to and chase it thoughit was in the air a long time
and I'm sure it was blustery,but just got nowhere near at the end,
which would have been a key catchas well. Like he was just
having a rough old time for AshtonWell, I asked made him that if
you warner, what would have beena double hat trick for Pat Cummins.
So we would have had a hattrick in the last game against Bangladesh and
then a double hat trick in thenext game, which would have been I'm

(23:22):
sure that's never been achieved. Hattrick in a double hat trick in consecutive
game. How many double hat trickshave you seen in your life. I've
seen one and that was Malinga No. Two. Then I forgot about Malinga's
one. It's Curtis Camper's in thelast World Cup for Ireland. I've seen
three in fifty odd years. Okay, so mate, the double hat tricks

(23:44):
and the fact that he dropped thatcatch you're sitting on the back of the
bus, Davy for that one,sitting on the back of the bus,
he's walking behind it. I wasappalling. So yeah, look, number
one thing at the end of theday is we just were not good enough
again in the moments that mattered.We Now, really this has to be

(24:06):
the que surely, mister Bailey andyour fellow wise men who get paid an
exorbitant amount of money to make reallysilly decisions. You need to start making
some smart ones. This T twentyteam. Look, I feel a bit
sorry for Mitch Marsh. We didn'tsee anywhere near the best of Mitch Marsh
in this. Mitch Marsh will bevery keen to go on play some more

(24:29):
cricket really soon. This is thelike, this is has the bubble burst
moment because and I'm not going tolay it on too thick, because Marsh
has been very good for Robert Marshtechnically speaking, hasn't improved a great deal.
It has just been confidence to backthe skills that he's already got.
He hasn't suddenly turned into an excellentbatsman. He still goes with very very

(24:52):
hard hands. He still hits itin very rudimentary areas. You know,
it's drives. You know it's eitherstraight or it's short and it's going to
square leg or it's going in thev sort of thing. Like. He
hasn't suddenly just gone away and massivelyimproved, massively overhauled his game. It's
been his mindset and the confidence tobe able to pull off the skills that

(25:15):
he knows that he can do.He's one of the hardest hitters of a
cricket ball there is. If yougive him a ball that he can he
can hit, he is hitting ithard and that's and that was what has
changed for Marsh. Yeah, there'sbeen improvements. He's improved his shot selection,
he's improved his game awareness, he'simproved his defense. But fundamentally speaking,
he's the same player that we didn'tlike all those years ago. But

(25:37):
now it's just the switch has beenflipped and he's come out with the freedom
to just go you know what,that's in my arc. I'm going after
it And you know the basball guysfrom England say, you know what a
weight off that shoulders is is beingable to play with the freedom to just
go after the ball. And that'sMarsh's natural game. So you know it's

(25:59):
for me it has this bubble burstlike you know, he's in his early
thirties. You know his game isvery much based on hitting the ball hard.
Is he sort of going to bea flat track sort of batsman or
does he have the ability to workout how to be effective on slow wickets
or is it just you know,sometimes the baat you just don't have luck.
So I think Marsh is going tobe keen to very much to get

(26:19):
back and I think he'll be playing. He's playing in the Major League cricket,
very keen to get back out inthe middle as soon as possible and
get some runs under his belt,just to keep that churning along. We're
not having to steal on that.I have no doubt he's gone into the
tournament underdone. I mean, Ithink he's under a bit of an injury
cloud. It made it pretty clearhe wasn't going to be doing an awful

(26:40):
lot of bowling. To me,you know, when you have the two
strings to your bow, to saythat you can't do one, that's an
injury cloud. You're basically not fitenough to perform all of the designated duties
according to your skill set. Ipersonally think he was probably a little bit
unlucky. Times he did come outand play in a way that he didn't

(27:04):
come out and do anything that youwouldn't expect him to do it. I
just didn't come off so tacnically.I thought he was pretty good. I
mean, I think he's still awork in progress with the captaincy. Clearly
we need to be overhaul in thisteam. But I'm prepared to sit here
now. I think marsh has enoughcredits in the bank from what he's done

(27:26):
over the last two years or soto say I am going to you know,
I will lead the team to thenext TEA twenty World Cup. Yeah,
he absolutely should be the captain headinginto the next star and be given
the opportunity to build a newish team. I would really like it when we
go to the next World Cup ifthe captain's the oldest player. Yeah,

(27:47):
that's what I would really love tosee. And unfortunately that says, well,
we won't be seeing Josh Hayes,we won't be seeing Mitch Starr.
I think, well, that wasone of my next points. So moving
out of this, I think realisticallyStowliness probably should be done. Not that
he played badly, but he's justin that position where he's going to be

(28:07):
too old come the next tournament.He doesn't have a central he doesn't have
a central contract diver. He's madeit clear that he wants to go and
pursue other options. Cool, you'vegot the money to do it. Off
your game storyness is out, Warneris out. He's retiring as a good
We'll have touched on that in alittle bit, I would say, as
good as he's been, that's probablytime to say goodbye to Mitchell Stark.

(28:29):
And I love Mitchell Stark is andhe has done whatever has been required to
be fit, be ready, beavailable for Australia, and he's turned down
massive IPL deals things like that.But again, is he going to be
in our best eleven heading into aWorld Cup in two years time? He
didn't have a good tournament here,so to be fair, he didn't have

(28:52):
a great IPL in the in theat the start of it. He got
better as they went along and hewas lethal towards the end. He is
always going to be that guy who'sgoing to go for a few because he's
the way he gets you out ishe wants to smash the stumps down.
Essentially, you analyze his bowl andhe's looking to hit the stumps. You've
got to be paid for his firstview overs to be expensive because he's going

(29:15):
to throw it up there. Andin the two twenty game, you really,
particularly two furthers out, you justround the bat. As long as
it's not going to hit the stumps, you're pretty well safe to play any
type of shot that you want,So he's always going to be vulnerable to
that. And from my personal pointof view, he's given us such amazing
service over such a long period oftime. Now I almost get the fell

(29:40):
and he might be somewhere in theback of his mind saying it's time for
me and missus Hurley that maybe makesome babies or you know, rain back
my commitments. Yeah, and youknow, I could see him maybe playing
around for another couple of months.Maybe that's what Australia wanted to not just
have a sort of a smoother transition. But I could see him not making

(30:00):
it for the next World Cup.I can see Hazeward being there because I
think he's a bowl that's going toage well and there's always you can always
do something with a guy that's reallygoing to control the run rate. Yeah,
so that his accuracy is just superbAnd like, the thing is what
I find fascinating with guys like Haeswoodand that they are quite a unique breed,
very much in the mcgram mold.You know when the ball's going to

(30:22):
land, good luck, good luckin it, you know, And that
skill set in itself is so isso precious to any any competitive team where
it doesn't matter. I'm just goingto bowl it there and you know where
it's coming. And the thing thatHazelwood has developed, which has really been
the key to his turnaround and hisprominence as a white ball bowler, is

(30:45):
that he doesn't get scared off hisgood ball. If he's bowling good balls
that are beating the batsman and thenthe batsman suddenly does something a bit out
of the ordinary and hits that forfour or six, he goes all right,
a bold three of them, twoof them a beating him, all
ends up the third one. He'sdone something pretty spectacular to make something out
of it. He doesn't get scaredoff. He might not go back to

(31:07):
it the very next ball, buthe doesn't put it away. He knows
that he's good ball, you know, even if that in that sense two
thirds of the time, that goodball is getting me a result, and
he backs his skills to go allright, maybe maybe just a touch shorter,
maybe a touch fuller. He's gotthat. He doesn't get scared off
his length, which is I thinkis the thing that has affected bowlers like
Hazelwood that aren't quite of his qualitythat end up being that good line on

(31:30):
lenks Test match bowler that sort ofget blasted out. Hazelwood's good enough to
back his skills, whereas some bowlersaren't quite as good as he might go
O in work, I need tonow go on bowl big white Yorkers or
bang it in short which just aren'tthere go and that's what ends up getting
them blasted out of the attack.Hazelwood has had that ability to hold tight,
so I think he could hang aroundfor one more go around. I'm

(31:53):
not going to be super upset ifhe's not, because I do think we
need to have an infusion of youth. But I can see Cummins and hazel
would still be in around the teamobviously. So we've got Storiness making way
way making way, Warner making wayand Starky for sure I would think wouldn't
be there. And that would bringthrough your next crop of players coming in.

(32:14):
Who I look. You look aroundthe ranks in Australia and they may
be there's probably some guys who aregoing to be lacking experience, but I
mean we've got guys like Joy Richardsonand that who are going to hopefully we
get back to being something near theirbest. We've got a very strong pace
contingent in this country at this pointin time. I'm more concerned Spencer Johnson

(32:36):
Nathan Ellis like, there's there's youknow, two years from now they're going
to be two years better, Sothere's not there's not a great concern to
me. In the bowling stocks,we really have been shown up that it's
Zampa or no Zampa or nobody.Mate. As far as taking a decent
spinner to these things, Maxwell didn'tget the job done. Agar was poor.

(32:59):
I mean, Agar was very disappointingto me. I know he hasn't
knowed much cricket, but yeah,I don't think he was Paul. I
think he was ineffectual. Would probablyhe didn't do a lot wrong, but
he didn't do a lot as well. He did a lot wrong in the
field, but in terms of hisprimary skill set that he was there for,
which was the bowl, you know, he didn't go from the room
in the runs and that's always beenpart of Ashton Agar's go is that he

(33:20):
you know, he's a player thatreally drives the run rate up, which
I still think mostly he did,but he just obviously lacked penetration, didn't
take any wickets and didn't do itcontribute anything with the bat. But I
think, yeah, that agar isyou know, he's in that bracket too.
I mean, what's he's no longera young you know, a young
fellow. You're going to be lookingat some other people. You know,
You've got Tandy Sanger who's around thetrap. So I think he's a guy

(33:43):
that you could certainly be looking at. Possibly he probably plateaued a little bit
last year, but I would certainlylike to see Todd Murphy still in the
mix. Nafe the goat. He'snot going to play any any white ball
cricket austraight. I did see himplaying a couple of white ball games over
in England and he's just doing thegoat things. People want to get down

(34:05):
and we can and slug him andhe has them stumped, balls them or
whatever it happens. We especially gettinga bit more of a go even though
that means he's got to leave Sydneyto where he could maybe be that first
choice bowler. And really if youand Australia actually going to you know,
maybe not dropping Zampa, which isnot what I mean, but maybe future

(34:27):
proofing a little bit, whereas restingZamper for some throwaway T twenty or one
day inter nationals to get some oftheir younger spinner's a little bit more white
ball experience, which I know they'vedone reasonable in the past, you know
TENV saying has got a bit ofa go and things like that. So
really making use of trying to findthat we've got two years between. I
mean, and we really need tobe format centric in the way that we're

(34:50):
going about picking our teams and whowe're looking to be in the teams.
Are we going to have guys whoare going to cover all three formats these
days? I'd I don't necessarily thinkthe cricket's automatically going that way. I
really see a specialization, particularly withthe T twenties. You can have T
twenty specialist good players will play fiftyover cricket and the real good players will

(35:13):
play the three formats obviously, Butyeah, look, I think we really
need to be looking at guys whoplay T twenty cricket. One guy who
we haven't touched on, who I'vealways been had a bit of a fan
of, although he's very one dimensionalplayers, Tim David. Do we see
a future in that bottom Tim Davidis going to be a player, and

(35:38):
I know Towny would disagree fiercely.He was here. I think Tim David
is going to be a guy that'sgoing to be on the periphery of Australian
teams for a long time, justwith what he offers with his late order
hitting. That being said, TimDavid is not an automatic selection for any
Australian teams moving forward. He wasnot great in the last sort of one

(36:00):
day international fixtures. He didn't reallydo anything that was overly impressive in this
World Cup. I still think thathe with that ability to find the boundary
at the end of innings, he'sa guy that will be thereabouts. But
I certainly don't think he's a playerthat gets automatically picked. He's not necessarily
He's probably in your best twenty ttwenty players moving forward. Depending on form,

(36:22):
he might move himself up and downthat but I certainly think that he
hasn't. He's now had a relativelyprolonged go and soose the nature of his
position means that and twenty twenty cricket, if you're batting down the order,
you don't necessarily have a lot oftime to impact the game, and there's
certainly a lot of games where youmay not be involved at all. But

(36:44):
yeah, he hasn't kicked on inthis tournament, and that was one of
the things that town he said thatif he hasn't kicked on, he dropped
him for life. I'm not atthat point, but I don't think.
I don't necessarily think he wears thecap for the next match. I think
maybe he makes the next squad,but you're now looking to see if he
can oust someone else. My concernwith Tim David Okay is that in his

(37:07):
position, do we have guys whoare better Batterson who could do a very
similar job to him at number six, And if he doesn't but at number
six, and you're pushing him downinto positions where he's starting to take another
player's position. Maybe not the wickedkeeper, but certainly when you need your

(37:28):
death. I really I'd really liketo see Australia's team going forward to have
three or four genuine or rounders inthat middle order, say from about four
down to eight. I would belooking, just off the top of my
head moving forward, you'd have FraserMcGirk in head opening, Yeah, you
would have March at three. I'dbe looking at someone like maybe a Matt

(37:52):
Short someone like that at four.Then there I would be having Green and
Heart would be my five and six, and and then you maybe look or
maybe no, you'd have English atfive and then Green and Hardy at six
and seven as those couple of genuineall rounders, and then you'd go,

(38:14):
you know, Commen's Hazelwood, EllisZampa, nine, ten and eleven.
That soon's winning you a lot ofgames man. And then obviously, if
you're needing to shuffle some things around, because obviously there's quite a lot of
things, you could you maybe dropa you know, you maybe drop a
hazel Wood to bring in a tenV singer if that's required, or you

(38:35):
know, if you need another genuineout and out batsman, you can lose
an Aaron Hardy to bring in aI don't know, like we've got lots
of players like mate. You know, you're bringing in someone like a Philippy
at the top of the order andshuffling everyone down on whatever that might be.
It gives you flexibility. It meansyou don't necessarily have to bowl your
five bowlers four overs each, likeyou know, think Afghanistan through Yeah,

(38:55):
I think the seven Bowls bowlers atUS. I think the days of that.
If you're going into a T twentygame with just the five bowling options,
you're really selling yourself probably a bowlershort on most occasions, because let's
face it, someone's going to getsome tap. Someone's going to get tagged
in a T twenty game ninety ninetimes out of one hundred. It's just
the degree of how much tap theyactually get. So I really like the

(39:20):
idea personally. I really see there'sa position there possibly I would probably be
to me, maybe Josh Inglis four. Yeah, I can see Josh Ingles
at four, and then you play. You know, Matt Short deserves a
spot and should get a good runand deserves a good run, and hopefully

(39:43):
he will get a good run,And I really like what he brings to
the team. I'm just looking moretowards a situation where we've got say we've
got Hardy, we've got Green asour two gun all rounders, and maybe
someone like a Will Subland or somethingsitting in that number eight spot. Yeah,
that's certainly something that you can doas well. He's bowling last year,

(40:07):
improved absolutely out of sight. Youknow, he's a genuine wicket taker
in all formats of the game.He's a pretty good batsman, certainly good
enough to bat number eight going forward. That's sort of, you know,
it might not necessarily be him,but that's sort of I want that,
say, from from six to seveneight. I want them to be genuine

(40:28):
around as they can do, bowltheir four overs and come out and put
some tap on the ball. Iwould the only hesitation. I love Matt
Short, Don't get me wrong.I think he's a great player and has
deserved probably more representation. But Isee he's probably most effectiveness has been right
at the top, and I don'tthink he's going to get into that top
three now. And then I agreethat English is probably more valuable at four

(40:51):
with some of his pure hitting,and then possibly Matt Short. But I
also look at that line up.You know, Fraser mcgirk's obviously quite inventive,
but and Travis Head's a bit inventiveas well. But Marsh, English,
Green, hardy, subtle, andeven Short, very traditional. If
it's pitched up, it's going inthe V. If it's sure that it's

(41:12):
going square, I would really andobviously Glenn Maxwell is once in a generation,
possibly even once in a lifetime sortof player. But I would like
to see maybe someone in that middleorder that can maneuver the ball into funny
areas a little bit more than so, whether that's someone like Alex Carey is
pretty good at doing that. Heobviously hasn't done that very well at international

(41:34):
level, and I can't a playerlike that doesn't readily come to mind about
who that would be, in whichcase you've just got to pick the best
player available. But I think that'ssomeone that Australia needs to be looking forward.
So is is there a guy thatwe can get that can access three
hundred and sixty degrees of a cricketfield, because the ability to be able
to do that somewhat consistently is Doyou then look at maybe a situation where

(41:58):
I mean, yes, we havethe flexibility now now that you've to have
taken that block away from Warner thathe's always going to be there. I
maybe not about it. Let's sayfragrant take a Travis Head Matt short open
in combination with mcgirk's slotting in atfour. Yeah. Look, I think
McGirk is a type of player thatcould bat Okay, I don't think he
necessarily opened all the time for theRenegades and now he didn't. So I

(42:21):
think Fraser McGirt coming in at fourcould also work through. And I think
Fraser McGurk is that sort of player. I think I don't think Australia will
go there because I think they'll feelthat McGirt would be very good to have
in the power play and being ableto access lots of the ground with only
two players out, so they wantto get him there. And like,
could you imagine if Travis Head andFraser mcgurt got going in a six over

(42:45):
powerplay, we could we could beon one hundred before we talking about you
know, massive scores. I meanTravis Head was part of that one where
him, you know, agab Checkput on I think nearly two hundred in
that Strouda was one hundred and sixtynine and ten overs. That's ridiculous.
That is just absurd against some highquality ballers, mind you. I mean

(43:05):
that was just an example of whatthe nonsense that went on in the IPL
last year. But yeah, withoutwe digress, I really am looking to
see, you know, I wantto have a team that's got at least
six or seven boling options. Init, and that's real deep. You
know, we can these days,I think we can only afford to carry
free guys in the team. Andthey happen to be Zamps, Starcky or

(43:29):
Hazelwood and Cummings. Fine, they'rethe free who we don't we're not looking
to get anything from. But thosetop that next eight. Yeah, Nathan
Ellis, I can certainly see anargument so maybe not having him an automatic
start and depending on where conditions arethat that spot becomes. Obviously, if

(43:49):
you've decided that your three best bowlersare going to be Hazel would come and
Zampa and then that fourth ball ofbeing someone like Analyst and that or will
subtle them to lengthen your batting lineup, that's certainly something that you could you
go down that I would feel thatmaybe you don't necessarily need to have Hardy

(44:13):
and Green. You could probably thengo in that case maybe a Tim David.
It is in form because you've gotbowling and batting at eight. But
yeah, I think the idea ofhaving enough all rounds is that you you're
flexible and if you've got you know, and as you can't tell me that
Green, Hardy and Subtleland aren't goodenough to play cricket for Australia. They've

(44:34):
all got Australian caps, they're allrepresentative and so the if you've got three
Australian quality all rounders going in theremakes your side. So remember the Test
side South Africa had when they hadcallous and they had ab Devillias keeping.
So they're two best batsmen were historicallyspeaking the weakest batting positions being you're all

(44:59):
around and your could keep up.So you go there, you're all around
abouts at six, you we couldkeep abouts at seven. They're historically speaking,
you would say on average they wouldbe your worst batsman out of your
lineup. For South Africa they werethe best. They had the highest averages.
They're all round about it at four, we could keep about it at
five and they both average over.And then you throwing guys like Sean Pollock
made three Tests, three or fourTest hundreds, but number eight boling at

(45:22):
twenty two. They're bowling at twentytwo, and then you know that that's
the sort of thing that you knowin a in a microcosm sort of where
you want to get to, youwant to have, you know, and
don't tell me Cam Green in aphase of his development, We'll probably be
saying cam Green's going to be backnumber three? What going to bat for
in t twenty games? Cam Greenwill bat three when March gives it away.

(45:45):
That just it just makes the sense. They're they're very similar in the
way they go about it, thevery hard hitters of the creagable. I
think Green is technically more proficient,yeah identity. Then March is a much
better batsman technically. He's got he'sgot to have that that moment for him
where he switches it on. Butlike and I think that one seventy scored
against New Zealand will be will besomething that really helps him out. It's

(46:06):
just finding his groove when the gamehas been shortened. The talent is there,
it's now just being able to executein a shorter period. Some final
thoughts on the Australian side before welook forward to the semi finals. So
I just want to start off bysaying that in this World Cup it's probably
the last time, as I said, we'll see Mitchell Stark in a World
Cup. He has taken the mostwickets in World Cups. He's records extraordinary

(46:31):
and this is why I have absolutelyno problem. I really don't want to
be You'd hate to see him geta tap on the shoulder. I'm hoping
that he'll come to the realization that, you know, I'm going to step
away from one of these formats.I really like to say, just play
test cricket. Quite frankly, youknow, we love him in the fifty

(46:51):
eight games as well, but we'vegot we've got guys who can come in
and do a very similar job,maybe not as effective. I mean,
Mark is going to go down asone of the Oh his record is just
a phenomenal one of the best whiteball bowlers ever for any country like he
is. He has been absolutely staggeringfor it's been what have we got nearly

(47:13):
sixty years of white ball cricket startedback in nineteen seventy, So what we've
got, So I've got fifty fourto fifty five years worth of white ball
cricket. Name me a better one, better white ball bowler. Yeah,
well I have to go look atsome status. You be looking at guys
like I think McGrath was a betterwhite ball bowler. Yeah, Look,
McGrath from the from the point ofview of doing McGrath things McGrath. The

(47:34):
beauty about Stark is that mcgrad didn'tbuy you too many unplayable balls. McGrath
just bored you out and kept hittingthat spot, hitting that spot. If
you're absolute very peak of what theycan what they can achieve two fifteen Ghana,
Yeah, peak peak Alan Donald washim, Akram was him at Krem.

(48:00):
But if you're looking like that,pretty shortly, you're looking like that
twenty fifteen World Cup, like whereyou absolutely they're absolutely operating on peak efficiency.
Yeah, there'd be a short list. I don't even know, No,
not even Dale Stain. I thinkpeak Dale Stain doesn't quite match up
to Pete Mitchell Stark in one dayformat. Yeah you're looking Yeah, probably

(48:22):
Joe Garner, Akram, peak Donald, maybe maybe peak Lee, peak peak
Lee was pretty peak peak McGrath.I still think, yeah, I wouldn't
be able to I wouldn't have McGraw'sone day record is what record is just
absolutely insane, It's ridiculous. Yeah, just the tools that Stark brings to

(48:45):
the arsenal when he gets right,he can is like I know, it's
get thrown around quite a lot,but he can be genuinely unplayable. The
twenty nineteen World Cup with the reverseswinging yorker that he got Ben Stokes out
with in the semi final. Thereeverything was tailing away, tailing, tailing
away, and then Soaki throws himone that swings back in at him and
rips his stumps out of the ground. You know, when he gets it

(49:07):
right with white ball cricket, he'sunbelievable. So I would be happy for
I would actually be really really nicefrom this general oration of Australian cricketers.
And we've had a very we've hada wonderful generation has come through over the
last ten years or so for oneof them to actually say, you know
what, I've had enough. I'mgoing to go and do this and I'm

(49:30):
still happy to play Test cricket,and you know, I want to devote
my energies to Australia being the numberone Test nation in well retaining their World
Test Championship, all of those typeof goals which are in the future.
He's pushing up towards four hundred Testwickets, which is like now we're starting
to get into very very rarefied airat a pretty good average. He's got
to be, though, one ofthe most criticized bowlers he's got. Yeah.

(49:55):
Well, actually it's interesting you talkabout that because we all talk about
Brett Lee now and like I don'trate Brettley is an all time great.
He was one of the very veryfine players who played all time Tests.
Great. Yeah, yeah, yeah, great, absolutely got all time Test
great. Brett Lee used to copsome absolute ferocious pastings from the Australian media

(50:16):
when he's playing Test cricket, butat the end of the day, we
don't remember any of that because it'sjust what's happening in the thing. What
matters is when you sit back andyou look at this guy and then we'll
go right, well, you've retainedthe ashes in England, you did this,
You did this. Plus you've gotfour hundred wickets at twenty five and
you've got you know, two anda half thousand runs about making a century,

(50:39):
which puts you right up there aswell. And you've won everything you
can think of in white ball cricket. You just can't that. You can't
make up stuff like that. He'sactually done it. Yeah, yeah,
I'd love to see Starking actually caughtpaula Club on one of the formats.
Going forward, we really do needan overhaul of his team twenty we need

(51:00):
to get our mentality right about whatwe're trying to do. The other big
one obviously David Warner a step aside. He finishes with one hundred and ten
to twenty internationals, thirty two hundredguns, a high score of one hundred
and a career strike rate of onehundred and forty two. It can be
no doubt despite the shortcomings and theprolonged farewell tours that have soured and obviously

(51:22):
stam paper Gate that have soured hisopinion, if you're going to make it
all format, all time Australian eleven, Warner is in that as an opener,
he is one of the most talentedplayers that have ever played for Australia.
Very polarizing, you know, butgun in the field, gone with

(51:44):
the bat. As I said,he's probably his career has probably gone on
a handful of years too long,but there can be no doubt that at
the peak of his powers, Likethere was a period of time in the
like the mid twenty tens where whereAustralia lived and died on David Warner and
Steve Smith. If one of thoseblokes didn't score runs. We lost the

(52:07):
game, and so yeah, hewas a very very good player, and
you're right, I think, yeah, a big overhaul needs to be done
this this World Cup cycle needs tobe different. We need to come in.
I think we really do need adifferent approach and are we going to
My concern is are we going toget it from the same old, same
old These guys have gone in.They and Towny summed it up perfectly.

(52:31):
You've got two or three bit partcricketers making decisions about bit part cricketers and
we really need to be focusing onspecific skill sets with the two twenty guys
like you know, like we're verycritical of him, but guys like Tim

(52:51):
David who is a very specific typeof player who was picked for a very
specific role. We need to bebringing that approach to the entire squad because
we need fifteen to sixteen good playersto be I think we are trending in
that direction for a long period oftime. What we used to do was
just pick the eleven, like thesix leading run scorers, and pick them

(53:12):
from Australian side just bye the factthat they were all openers, and then
we were just whacking in an openerat six and wondering why it wasn't working,
Like Josh Philippi's career has been damagedbecause we never let him open.
He never opened. It was Warnerand Finch that open sort of. Ben
McDermott is another one. Ben Dermottabsolutely kills it at the top of the
order, scores hundreds of fun inthe Big Bash, and then we pick

(53:34):
him at five in short form cricket, we wonder why it doesn't come off
the same way. But yeah,I think there's this is this is like
the current Warner, Finch, StoynerSmith, Maxwell, you know, ways
come and start hazeld era that we'vehad. We've had a couple of really
good goes up. We've got aWorld Cup out of it. But overall,

(53:58):
I mean what, we've missed thesemifinal in every every tournament except the
one that we won. We madethe semifinals a couple of times early on
with the current I know we madethe final against England in twenty ten.
Oh yeah yeah. Then when you'relike, as far as this group goes,
they've had some really good shots,don't they. Where this with this

(54:19):
group have been that Warner, Finch, Smith Maxwell sort of modern day iteration
of this side. I think youwould go back and I think we missed
the semis and the one against Bangladeshin Bangladesh, sorry, and then we
yeah, I think that's that's beenit. We've missed. We've made the
final and won it, and theneverything else we've missed. The stemies could

(54:42):
be wrong. I haven't checked,but I'm pretty sure where the key group
of that side has been together overall, they missed the semifinals. So we
just need to pass from the batinto the next generation. And the next
generation fills you with hope as well, because there's some very very fine players
coming through. I mean the factthat we're going to have a guy like
Cameron Green at the next World Cupwho's going to have four solid years of

(55:07):
IPL experience, don't for his namepass playing cricket all over the world,
and he's going to be could yousee five? Could you see him potentially
being an opener with head McGirk beingat four, and then you've I would
have had problems at five. Thenyou've still got room to say, like
a Cardian A. Davis, I'vegot no problem where anywhere we want to

(55:30):
pick Cam Green in the team becausehe was very explosive in that short Indian
t twenty tour that we went ona couple of years ago where he opened
just decided I'm playing a shot ateverything seventy five, fifty or fifteen balls
or something. But it was andhe missed about three of them. It
was very much was I am playinga four ball shot at every delivery that

(55:54):
I faced. I think maybe therewas one little tuck around the corner,
but everything was just like whoosh.That's good to say it would be,
and it actually might be a worthwhileexperiment to have. My concern is because
he does at his best, hetakes a little bit to get going,
which is why I think if youpartner with someone like a Travis Head and

(56:16):
you put him in the powerplay wherehe knows that he can use his long
levers steal a Mark war ethhemism toget it over the infield, and with
Travis Head being a dasher at theother end, he's a guy that you
can just let him bat long,doesn't it I mean, just even thinking
about it, just bringing it upnow you think about the possibilities of that,
because all of a sudden that opensup another spot down the Auder,

(56:37):
and we can strengthen our bilin,we can put in another all rounder,
we can put in another batsman.Cam Green opening is a is a win
win situation for Australia. I'm notsure we'll go that way, but Edward
Cipher certainly think it would be wortha prolonged experiment, you know, for
what it would say the next twoor three tournaments we've got coming up.

(56:58):
Cam Green he gets picked his openingwith Tradhead and I wouldn't mind, Like
honestly wouldn't mind either way. Ithink you could rage it either way.
Fraser McGirk and Green get a prolongrun in spots one and four, whichever
order that takes away. But Ithink that you put cam Green at four,
put Fraser McGirk in it one orvice versa, and just and have
a crack. We really need tobe getting these young guys and putting some

(57:21):
responsibility on their shoulders to be theplayers who we think they're going to be.
Cam Green has the potential to bean all time great for Australia.
And Fraser McGirk, I mean wedon't really yeah, we don't really know
what he's what he's ceiling is becausequite frankly, anybody who comes out,
you know, I still remember beingin all he I forget who it was.

(57:44):
It was a very well condential bowler. But but in basically the ball
landed in the same spot for twoballs. The first one went over square
leg and the second one disappeared overcover for six and with very little adjustment,
very little effort. I mean,they might have been a couple of
millimeters in difference between where the ballpitched and the width from everything, but

(58:05):
largely the same area. The presenceof mind and the skill set to be
able to just deposit that ball intodifferent areas of the ground with essentially a
very similar shot, you know,like it's just one he's holding his wrist
back a little bit and flicking ita bit later in the gays ovid square
leg, and the other one hegets out a little bit in front of
it and it puts today. Butthat's always been the big key to what

(58:25):
the difference between a good batsman anda special batsman is. A good batsman
might be able to play three shotsto one ball, you know, on
defense, you know, whatever itmight be, and the more shots that
you can conceivably play to the sameball the better bats when you. I
think that was one of the thingsthey said about Bradman. Is a certain
ball that a typical batsman will playtwo shots, that Radman would play five

(58:46):
and would be able to with equaldegrees of success. And I think McGirk
is in that sort of mold,that he's a player that's like a Devilliers
or like a Maxwell, or evenlike a prime Steve Smith at that and
go. He could play a numberof different shots. He's not a classical
batsman in that sense. We're goingto be bold enough and stick our nexts

(59:08):
out for prediction here, Yes wewill. So the semifinals are coming up,
and I believe it is South Africathe Afghanistan and India the England.
Aaron, where do you think thisis going from here? Okay, you
very much look at these two semifinals and you think yourself it must come
from one side of this draw.I'm actually going to the other side of

(59:30):
the draw. I think the whodoois possibly going to end for the South
Africans. They have been playing wonderfulcricket. They've beaten everybody who's been prone
at them, and quite frankly,if the cricket gods have any sense of
destiny, then may be this isa South Africans time. Someone's saying a

(59:51):
South African India final with the SouthAfricans triumphing in the end. Yep,
I think in my heart of hearts, that's what it'll be. Whether or
not India where South Africa wins isanother thing. I'm hoping it's South.
I think India will be too strongfor England, though I would really like
to see Shum on the fence.I don't know if I want to see

(01:00:13):
the Poms make the final after wemade the whole big Are we going to
get them up by you know,slow playing Scotland or whatever it is,
and then then we go out instraight sets and the Super eights. But
all on the other side of me, I would really love to see India
fall well short again. But Ithink you're right. I think what it
would be South Africa will be toostrong for Afghanistan. The cellar Nda Cinderella

(01:00:35):
story will come to an end.And I think that India will be too
strong for England too. I thinkof while they've started to slowly put some
things together that obviously keep their campaignalive, I just genuinely just don't think
they're as good a side as India. I mean, Coally hasn't fired a
shot and angry yet, which alwaysmakes me scared because you know, he's
always good for something in a WorldCup like he'll there will be a Coli

(01:00:57):
esque performance, and I have afeeling that this might be the one that'll
be a probably I reckon I'll almostgo that England Hall said a pretty daunting
score batting first, and then youmight see a vintage Coali innings to steer
them into the final sort of thing. And I just think India are like
India have been the side and ifit wasn't for a washout, they probably

(01:01:20):
would have finished the pool stages atthe top of the tree, which may
have meant that we made it throughto the semi finals because we wouldn't have
had to run into a ramp atIndia side to keep our finals destiny and
alive. But they've been very welllooked after, and there's been a lot
of talk in the media around thatand around the fact that they've hardly had
to travel. They've played all ofthe daytime games because it suits the Indian

(01:01:43):
crowd better, you know, Australiafinished their media commitments at one o'clock in
the morning. They would have beenback to the hotel after two. They
probably would have been asleep after four, and then they were up catching a
plane at nine point thirty for aneleven o'clock flight to get to the next
island to be ready for the nextgame. And it's not coming down to
scheduling a bit before anyone goes either. Two slips guys looking for excuses.

(01:02:05):
We simply didn't feel well enough,and we simply didn't bat well enough against
spin on slow, low wickets.Our much vaunted weakness that we've had has
come out to buy us on theUS again because we simply don't play spin
well. But India and England havenot had to face those sort of adversities.
I mean, India's hardly had totravel at all. I think England
have had for their campaign, havehad two games in each venue, so

(01:02:30):
they've been able to obviously get settledin and unpack and everything, you know,
and whereas other nations like US havehad to basically been you know,
we're leaving the one game to goand play another one straight away sort of
thing. And so India are obviouslygoing to be arrested. They've known where
they're going to be playing their semifinals since the tournament began. All they

(01:02:50):
had to do was win the gamesto be there. They're playing, you
know, during the day, sothere's no due factor or anything like that
at all. You know, they'rewell rested. I think they're going to
be just a little bit too muchfor England. Even if they are at
resurgent, They're going to run intothe South Africans in the final. I
really if I was betting my houseon it, I would say India are
going to win, but I amhoping that South Africa finally gets well.

(01:03:14):
I just look at that South Africanteam and if there's one thing that I
think India can be very very vulnerableagainst when conditions suit, guys who hit
the same really really hard at goodpace, and South Africa got three of
them and they're all bowling really reallywell. To me, Robarta is the

(01:03:35):
key. Robarta is the leader ofthat attack if he has If he comes
out and say he rips out rowAt Sharma and Colei in the first couple
of overs, would I would bevery very surprised if South Africa didn't go
on and win. They have mostof the bases covered, they've got depth
in their batting. I really,I really just think that the stars are

(01:03:57):
aligning for the South Africans and thatthis is probably for this generation of South
African cricketers, this is the chanceto really put a stamp in the nation's
history, to be the ones whobreak the hoodoo. Because it's only well,
probably a year ago would be despairingabout South Africa in Test cricket,
but they're certainly doing quite well inin whiteball cricket and they have some of

(01:04:20):
the best players in the world.I really think this is their time.
Yeah, I think obviously they're batingquick guys like Quentin and Koch and they're
going to be crucial. But Ithink on the other side of other things,
obviously Ribarda. Anytime South Africa playswhere Robarda's on the field, his
performance is key. But Mara isjust going to be one for me that

(01:04:40):
if he can have a good game, we'll go a long way towards you.
Well, he's one of the oneof the little bits of the puzzle
that really needs to fall into placefor the South Africans. To get across
the line, because let's face anIndians player, it's been better than anybody
else in the world. You know, they see it every day, they
play it in all sorts of conditionsand quite frankly, you think to yourself,

(01:05:01):
they don't care what you're bowling.They really don't. So yeah,
if he would be a key forme Maharaj as you're pointing out, if
he can, if he say,you come on and got two for two
for twenty eight, Yeah, ifhe's a net positive in a game,
then that goes a long way.So as long as the you know,

(01:05:21):
India, don't expose him, ifhe can be, if he can be
as assertive as has been for mostthis World Cup, go quite a long
way, as you said, becausethere is a very good pace battery there
which can unsettle the Indians a littlebit if it's not you know, if
it's not too wayward, but obviouslybe targeting guys like Maharaje because you'd much

(01:05:42):
rather try and take maharaj to townthan Kagiza Robata like that. So but
yeah, so no, Australians meanthat I am very much South African fan.
For the next week or so,we happen to get across the line.
All the South african As will breakout the bill tong for the next

(01:06:02):
episode. Yes, indeed, allright, guys, that'll do us for
our World Cup rap. As Isaid from the outset, a bit disappointing.
There promised. There was actually onethat promised quite a lot. We
weren't just sort of scrapping and scrapingtrying to get things to go our way
for most of the tournament. Westarted off strong and then started and stumbled
in straight sets to be knocked outin the super eights, missing the semis,

(01:06:26):
upsetting as an Australian one and upsettingin a way even though we probably
would have liked it to have happenedbefore this World Cup, it would be
the definitive end of an era.In similar ways, so the colleaged Asia
Sharma era for India. This isprobably their last hurrah, you know,
the Warner Finch, Smith, MaxwellStark, Sowiness white ball. Australian side,

(01:06:50):
while obviously hasn't been as successful asin the one in a twenty over
format as we would have liked thatA has now run its course. So
all done for us, but there'sstill plenty to play for. There is
as we said, you know,two sides in it that could be winning
their first ever Obviously only one ofthem are going to get the chance because

(01:07:11):
they're teaming off against each other,but two sides that could be there to
make their normally their first ever WorldCup win, but their first World Cup
final. You know what I actuallyfind and you know you you would appreciate
the irony of this that we couldpenitentially have a winner of a major ICC
World Cup who really shouldn't be thereat all. Yeah, well maybe not

(01:07:34):
as a full Test I think theycould still. I think they still would
technically qualify as an associate I thinkI have to read over this, so
they certainly don't. They don't qualifyas a full test nation. But well
we're right delve into that. That'sfor another time, another place. But
yeah, so we've got all thatcoming up. We'll have a look at
the final once it's done. MajorLeague cricket, as we said, is

(01:07:56):
right around the corner. The cricketwheel never sting, and it'll only be
a few short months before the sunwill be shining in baptist again, and
then we'll get to go and playas well. Well some of us will
anyway. All right, thank youfor your time everyone. We'll be back
next time with more of the WorldCup. Until then, by for now

(01:08:17):
over Sports Social Podcast Network.