![Incoming: Chris Lynn bats during a nets session at The Gabba on Thursday.](/web/20170115044155im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/q/p/8/5/image.related.landscape.460x307.gtre0w.png/1484356411387.jpg)
Cricket Australia's programming is the very definition of Lynnsanity
Cricket Australia has made a rod for its own back with the current programming, an evolutionary rather than revolutionary schedule that Charles Darwin may have described.
Cricket Australia has made a rod for its own back with the current programming, an evolutionary rather than revolutionary schedule that Charles Darwin may have described.
The priority for the Australian cricket team right now is not to find or invent an all-rounder to ease workloads, it is to confirm a No.6 who can play spin well and find a wicketkeeper who can keep on spinning wickets. Both of these categories are normally filled by experienced cricketers who have learnt their skills over a period of time, in different environments, against varying opponents.
I'm not sure how deep the objections to playing Ashes Tests under lights truly run: some players want blue skies and cherry-red balls; others seem to be coming around to the idea.
The Pakistan cricket team has the reputation – some of it deserved, some not so much – for performing in an enigmatic and unpredictable fashion. Through the decades, Pakistan have won easily on home surfaces and lost regularly on the road, much as any other national team, yet they have been tagged like no other.
Patrick Cummins has been on the national scene for what seems like a longish time. He made his debut for NSW at 17 and for Australia at 18. He has played just that one Test match at the Wanderers were he took seven wickets and hit the winning runs. In total he has played eight first-class games, the equivalent of less than a single season of Sheffield Shield.
In selecting Matthew Renshaw ('Matthew Who?' doesn't work as well as 'Peter Who?') , Nic Maddinson, the returning Matthew Wade, Chadd Sayers, Peter Handscombe and Jackson Bird, who is also a newbie as he wasn't officially in the Hobart Test squad , Australia have picked six new members of the Test side, with perhaps four debutants. It is a rare occurrence in Test cricket.
In sport, as in life, you can't enjoy the highs without suffering the lows.
The NSW Coroner wondered why 'sledging' was a part of the game. But the term should not be used as a catch-all for the chatter that takes place between opponents on the cricket field.
This will not be a World Cup dominated by the fast bowling Australia used so devastatingly in the 50-over format.
The international cricket season is no more, until next weekend when they set it up in another town. Cape Town, that is.
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