I know that I said in the previous entry that I thought England would be struggling to win the fourth test; but I really didn’t expect England to lose the match in three days. Not only were they beaten by a superior team, but they were comprehensively crushed by the Aussies with an innings to spare and 99 runs. But you have to respect the Australians, they went away from their Ashes defeat in England 16 months ago and bounced back with a vengeance to pummel England into the ground and now hold a 4 – 0 series lead over the tourists and you wouldn’t bet against them claiming a 5 – 0 whitewash! Shane Warne passed yet another milestone during the fourth test taking his 700th wicket in test cricket and will almost certainly take his 1000th international wicket in the fifth test at the SCG! In cricketing terms the man is a living legend, I haven’t agreed with the way he goes about things off the field running his mouth, but I simply have to respect his ability, Australia will sorely miss him after this series when he calls an end to his international career! Heads will have to roll in the England camp after this tour with our top order batsman consistently under performing during this series and all the wrong team selections, specifically leaving out Panesar in favour of Giles and giving Jones the nod over Read. I am not making excuses for England, they simply weren’t good enough to beat a rampant Australian team, but you have to feel that it was a general lack of preparation before the series and certainly there has been some bad umpiring decisions. Rudi Koertzen being the chief culprit, giving players out LBW when the ball was clearly missing the stumps or failing to give decisions when the ball was clearly going to hit the middle of the stumps. The decisions did balance out in the end as Australia were on the receiving end of the bad decisions as much as the English! I’ll be surprised if ‘Freddy’ Flintoff is still captain for the world cup, he simply isn’t captain material, he doesn’t inspire the team like his Aussie opposite number Ricky Ponting, the sooner Vaughan is back in action, and leading his team out the better. Flintoff is a great bowler as he proved in this test, but I think that the captaincy has affected his abilities as an all rounder, maybe the pressure has gotten to him? It’s amazing to think that England has completely lost form in 16 months since their 2005 Ashes win over the Aussies! Many people have been saying we shouldn’t have so many overseas players coming into the county game (and I completely agree), we should be developing more players at grass roots level to take the game to Australia and other world cricketing powers, but like many sports its become more a business than a sport, and there lies the problem, sport shouldn’t be about money, it should be about sport and showing that on the field when representing their country! I just feel that English sport has lost touch with the sport aspect of it, running it like a big money business, I know it is a business in simplest terms, but sport should come before business, not the other way around, it’s a sad reflection of English sport!
In not sports related stuff I went to Voodoo Lounge yesterday to witness the last ever Voodoo Alternative night and I am happy to say that it was a busy one to give Colin and Sam a decent send off. It was great to see Voodoo Alternative busy once more as it used to be every week until about 12 months ago when it started to get less and less busy for whatever reason. I have to say that the night affected me more than I thought it would, it was a feeling of great sadness when I switched off all the equipment for the last time for Voodoo Alternative, not quite as intense feelings as when the Phoenix closed, but I was never officially involved in the Voodoo Alternative night, but after 3 1/2 years of going to the night on and off it feels a bit like a home away from home for me; and many other people who has frequented the night since it opened its doors to the public in 2002!
There will be another end of a chapter of another local institution on Saturday as we say a final goodbye to the Phoenix Live Music Venue in spectacular fashion in an all day event with all the old Phoenix engineers, staff and owners. The day will also feature most of the regular ‘Phoenix’ bands with the likes of Redemption Unnamed, Schiztome, Bedroom Project, The Southpaw Jinx, Burning Coalition, Kelly Kemp (formerly No Comply) and Richard Rising and the One Eyed Worm (Phil and Mark from the Phoenix) + many more!
