Cricket

[Shaggy]

Not a very encouraging warm up ffs

[Shaggy]

Alice Springs Fire Brigade 2nd XI reduce England to 212-7

[Chazza]

Back to the good old days.

[Alex]

Ballance made 55. So maybe they will have a little look at him.

[EwarWoo]

Ballance and Bresnan in, Tremlett out. Ballance is the right age, if he does OK he'll be a permanent fixture.

[Shaggy]

Bresnan

[Chazza]

Bresnan will play no doubt, probably at the expense of Tremlett.

Still think Bairstow might get the first crack at the batting spot.

[EwarWoo]

Bresnan

It's not been announced just my expectation. What's wrong with Bresnan? He was our best player last ashes.

[captainfog]

I don't really rate bresnan. But at his best he is very usefull, it's just whether he can get back to a top level. So far it's been a career of two halves with the first much better than the second.

**** balance, bring in stokes.

[Shaggy]

It's not been announced just my expectation. What's wrong with Bresnan? He was our best player last ashes.

Whaaa?!?!

Since the injury he's lost a bit of zip and to me is just a real steady Eddie trundler. A safe pick (i.e. can chip in with the bat). We really need a bit of X-Factor in our attack IMO and he doesn't provide it.

[Chazza]

Breszzzzzzzzzzzznan.

Bell was our best player in the last Ashes.

[Shaggy]

http://www.foxsports.com.au/cricket/ground-announcer-at-england-tour-match-sacked-over-alleged-racist-comments-towards-monty-panesar/story-e6frf3g3-1226772062348?from=public_rss&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

THE ground announcer at Saturday's England tour game in Alice Springs was stood down after making alleged racist remarks towards Monty Panesar over the PA system.

David Nixon, an ABC producer, was sacked on the spot when Cricket Australia heard his introduction of the left-arm spinner to the 2000-strong crowd in an Indian accent.

"Cricket Australia deemed the conduct of the PA announcer as inappropriate and as such he will take no further part in the match," a CA spokesperson said.

Panesar, born in Luton of Indian descent, is understood not to have heard the remarks from the field and England management denied even having heard of the matter until after a replacement announcer was found.

Alice Springs has a strong Indian community, many of whom had turned out at events this week with the English team to show support for the popular Panesar.

And the move to avert possible racial tension was even more remarkable with the announcers, including Dixon himself, reading out anti-racism policies at regular intervals throughout the two-day match.

Nixon's strongly editorial style drew attention on the first day when he gave analyses of on-field events rather than simply read facts and figures.

It's understood CA had spoken to him during the first day and asked him to tone down his style to something less colourful.

The most noticeable of Nixon's remarks was when Joe Root - later unable to field with an upset stomach -- struggled to cope with the sweltering heat during his innings and called for a drink at an unscripted time.

"Joe Root calls for another drink," Nixon informed the festival crowd, with his tone directly implying a sledge of the English opener.

That was quickly followed by the official mid-session drinks break. "Now it's time for everyone to have a drink - including Joe Root," Nixon said.

When Root was dismissed a few overs later, Nixon couldn't resist: "You can go and have another drink now, Joe."

The PA banter continued even with the Australian team involved.

"We're going to have Beer before lunch," he said when the home captain Michael Beer brought himself on to bowl, and there was "More Beer from the Traeger Street end" in the afternoon session.

But there was no more teasing after that. "I got my arse kicked," Nixon explained, off-mic, later in the day.

"I had the violin music ready and everything."

Sledging has been a hot topic since the emotional first Test match in Brisbane last week with both teams heavily involved and Australian captain Michael Clarke fined 20 per cent of his match fee after a profane stump microphone threat to English batsman James Anderson mistakenly was telecast by Channel 9.

The Alice Springs ABC FaceBook page asked readers before the match to suggest their "cheeky tips on how to introduce the English cricketers as they walk out to bat at Traeger Park", saying Nixon "might read out your cheeky sledges at the game".

[Buzzo]

There is starting to be to be a fair bit of pantomime and not enough cricket.

[Shaggy]

Finn wicketless again. This is shaping up really badly. As the BBC article states, Strauss's team 3 years ago would have annihilated that lot.

[RichC]

Have we lost our edge? It seems so strange to be quite so toothless, jimmy and Broad have to start but who else do we give the ball to? Finn, Tremlett and Bresnan just don't seem up to it to me.