Waking up to Ashes lag
If you are reading this in Australia, then you maybe suffering from Ashes lag? Or perhaps you burned the midnight oil to watch Mark Webber become the first Aussie in over a quarter-century to win a Formula One grand prix (which is all the more impressive since he broke his leg in a charity bicycle race in Tasmania last November). Maybe it was Le Tour that got us staying up late into la nuit. Doubtless, some racked up a night-time hat-trick, flicking furiously between all three.
For the armchair sports fan, it's not the tyranny of distance that's the problem during the northern summer, but the trickiness of the time difference - nine hours between the east coast of Australia and the south coast of Wales. Sports-induced sleep deprivation. I wonder how much it costs the national economy? At least it combines two of Australia's great passions: the love of sporting world-beaters and, the following morning, the love of world-beating coffee.
Confessedly, I fell asleep with my earphones in at about two in the morning, and then went on to have the cricketing equivalent of a new father's interrupted sleep - awoken by screaming commentators, rather than a screaming baby. So since there was no further wicket in the final 40 minutes of play, I was away with the fairies when the England bowler, James Anderson, needed all those glove changes, the time-wasting tactics which provided the early morning headline: .
With characteristic bluntness, this is what the has had to say on the matter: "The England captain is either a weak leader,'"said Conn, "or has no idea about the spirit of cricket." Ricky Ponting's press conference comments are also getting a frequent airing. He described the time-wasting tactics as "pretty ordinary" and not in the spirit of the game.
But for all its controversies, the dramatic end to the First Test showed that hopefully we are in for another classic series - lacking the high quality of the 2005 series, perhaps, but filled the same high tension.
Overall, I thought the first test in Cardiff reinforced a few points in some of the last few blogs and undercut some of the others. There was further evidence of the cricketing celebritocracy, with the Australian WAGS in prominent attendance (some traditionalists, veteran players among them, have argued they should not have come over until much later in the tour). We've also heard from the cricketing MAGs - mothers and girlfriends. In the tabloid press and on tabloid tv, has complaining about the influence of his fiancé, the model Jessica Bratich.
For all that, the Aussies showed a lot of the toughness, doggedness, bloody-mindedness and team spirit that were the hallmarks of the Waugh, Taylor and Border eras. They made England field for more than 12 hours, after all, and piled misery upon misery by racking up four individual centuries. The fear factor might have been diluted, but Ricky Ponting's new-look side showed itself to be formidable nonetheless.
The cricket writer Gideon Haigh also highlighted one of the great flaws in much of the pre-match commentary. When Australia's bowling attack was compared with England's bowling attack, it was thought to be weaker. But the true and relevant comparison should have been between Australia's bowling attack and England's batting line-up.
I thought the television and radio coverage of this Test Match reinforced one of the points made in the "Pom influence" blog and how the broadcast media, in particular, reinforces it.
Readers outside of Australia might be surprised to hear that the two television stations covering the Ashes, SBS and Fox Sports, both rely on the commentary feed from Sky Sports in Britain. Similarly, ABC Grandstand is relying upon the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s Test Match Special - although, happily, ABC's Jim Maxwell is an integral part of the team.
As a Pom, it's always comforting, and faintly nostalgic, to hear the commentary of Jonathan Agnew and Henry Blofeld. But perhaps if Kerry O'Keefe was on hand, his cackle would have made it all but impossible to fall asleep...
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