It has been a fascinating week in Australian cricket. A new selection panel has delivered its first home squad and a new coach has overseen his first days in the national office. Two of the biggest cogs are now in place for Australia to once again dream of glory days. But the burning question is will they work?Mickey Arthur is South African. Men from that part of the world are, if you have the priviledge of knowing one, hard, tough people. Their history and physical environment dictates they...

In a London court room, after two weeks of claim and counter claim, Lawyers for Mohammad Asif and Salman Butt are making one last desperate attempt to convince a jury of their clients innocence in match fixing and bribery. No doubt these are monumental proceedings, but are they as controversial as most make them out to be? Are they set to shake the game to its very foundations?A short perusal of the people involved in the saga reveal who are the players and who are the pawns. And maybe it could...

Dissecting Australia’s form over the last two years has been easy. There is simple so much that can be critically analysed as not many aspects of their play is solid enough to withstand scrutiny. Those that have criticized have generally concentrated on their own field; former bowlers have chipped at bowlers, batters have alluded to their time when it was so much harder while the media has focused on peripheral issues like captaincy and scheduling as to the reasons for the downturn. One...

Cricket is currently in the midst of a desert. Dusty, dry, unforgiving nothingness consumed with boredom and predictability. So drum the naysayers that is. These cynics, sowing their seeds of negativity with stories of corruption in the hideous concept of T20; of Indian politicians-cum-millionaires culling tradition and respect in the boardroom; and the loss of champion players would rather us believe that the game is not as good as it used to be and worse, in catastrophic decline....