warne v pietersen 4eva
back back home
toying toy cricketers
submarine
fields set set
mysterious chemistry
you taste like
home to me
home to me
home in on
a crack fine lines and subtle curves
yesterday david fine wrote two tiny poems & a pastiche on a pear tree
its gone high
right toward that beautiful blue sky – odonnell
early on nothing for england to hold on to. harmison is a very different kind of animal. he brings the game alive but this life anticipates width with a cruel humour – harmy flies into the outer reaches of ridicule. its kinda sad to watch. he has the ability and the limbs to throw everything back into those cruel laughing faces, if only he can regain control of those arms those long bones. today his width seemed infectious. england bowled poorly all morning.
slowly, overtime, they clawed their way back into some sort of distinction. thanks to concerted work by flintoff and hoggard there were glimmers of an england that could be competitive at some point in the series. by the end of his long long days in the field even harmison was at least improving.
things became very frivolous when warne came to the crease, a nice relief after the intensity of pontings effort. australia have learnt how to modulate innings. when they got their chance to bowl they (as always in the old days when we used to hold the ashes) gave england a lesson in how to bowl.
mcgraths 2 openers in 2 balls was a highly emotionally charged little period. after months out of the game at janes side, after the speculation as to whether he could ever get back, and playing in quite possibly his last test series in australia… the sentimentality in those 2 deliveries was huge.
warney bowled the flipper first up and it had kp fooled for a moment. love his frivolity. love the way he disseminates information. cracks and pointed gags.
El Warno. When they build a statue of him outside gate 5 at the MCG it will invariably look something like a bronzed version of this pic. The more he’s turned down the better his appeals get – until the umpire just can’t refuse. This is no weakness of the umpire or even misfortune for the batsman. It is no different, for the batsmen, to having an unplayable delivery account for his wkt. It is the irresistible appeal – all part of El Warno’s great athleticism.
Watching Warno’s appeals on day 5 it seemed almost unfair that that no one had to pay for the privilege. Though I guess the arduosness of having to watch Pollock compile a half century provided a counterweight to the guilt I was feeling. Pollock is such a dully competent player these days that really he should be playing for nz.
The Australian govt and Cricket Australia must enter into a serious and dedicated joint campaign to bring El Warno back to Australia. Failure to do so would be a disgrace to our country’s heritage and would undermine all that we hold dear. El Warno occupies a special place in every Australian’s heart and it is only right & just that he should be here for us in a time of need.
cricket’s twisted fragile narratives & crazy ironies – the sublime El Warno, Australia’s last great hope, powering his team to unlikely victory, puts down the catch that sinks all hope. K “Wearing the earrings its not going to make me cover drive any differently” P who has dropped 6 out of 6 catches in test cricket is put down by El Warno. KP’s 6 drops have barely cost England a dime, El Warno’s one (final) indiscretion costs the urth.
Flintoff’s name resonates somehow with the whole Ashes idea – flint, fire, fire out, flint off, left with the ashes, he’s left with the ashes, he’s gone and taken the ashes away with him… only one man can stop him now. EL REY (of hope) WARNO – and he will need the help of a certain volatile muttering.
El Warno is the king. Without question. He is irreproachable. Entire people have long been uneasy about his indiscretions – there are no longer, and never have been any indiscretions. El Warno has licence to do as he likes, he has earnt total immunity from judgement & moral zealotries. Through his work, his tireless exertions and his focus on attaining the perfect state in which to produce leg spin he has earnt the right to be exactly as he will be. He is the absolute role model, the ideal human. The next person who thinks they are funny because they can mention El Warno and Mobile Phones in the same thetic space shall be struck down by a bottle of El Warno’s prestige line of red wine. The good authority is that it makes your world spin after a single glass – and of course it does, what else would it do?
On Monday morning after the conclusion to the test I sat on the tram in a daze. I had taken my book from my satchel and was planning to read it but I just sat there with it in my hands as I thought about the cricket. My breathing was all over the place. I was basically sighing or maybe even panting – there was exhaustion and tension and exhiliration all involved in the make up of my gasping. And I hadn’t even satyed up to watch the England innings. I only heard about the score on the morning news. These magnificent last ditch efforts by the Australians (or should I attribute them more precisely – El Warno and Lee) are all well and good but just not quite good enough. Its tantalising stuff.
Its a shame there’s been so much whingeing from the Australian camp about substitues (ok, it’s a pretty iffy tactic of the Poms but it should be pursued quietly along the proper channels) and the umpires (certainly the umpiring’s been poor but only in the same way that Hayden’s form has been poor, or poor old Dizzy – misfiring players get replaced by other players, not by computer animated simulations.) Its not the outbursts on the field that are a problem, that’s heat of the battle stuff, the frustration after having worked so hard takes over, as is reasonable. Its in the days between matches that losing teams need to keep their gripes tightly quiet, to speak is to be a sore loser and displays in some sense an acceptance of the fact that they are not cut out for copping sweet blows and going on to really challenge a dominant opposition.
here is a link which captures the kind of nervous excitement that the cricket world is feeling in the final few hours of the lead up to the 4TH TEST. Personally I feel like I’ve suddenly turned left handed, it is as though every movement I make has never been made before. I have no maps for this. Tonight I am going to the ballet. I am more than a little confused, will El Warno be dancing there, and do they allow raw meat at the ballet?
Now that cricket is sexy and all cricketers are going to be superstars, here’s a bit of a prediction from one of the many cricket prophets that I regularly consult. I showed the sage this picture of Warney – this is the future they saw:
Gilly seems a bit concerned, it’s like he’s the on field grooming expert. He’s probably got a bit of concealer and lip gloss tucked away in his pocket, a bit of hairspray and the like for quick touch ups. With all the hair on the field these days it’s only a matter of time. No more tea breaks – makeovers instead of overs.