Tagged with chris hartley

Who wants to be an Australian keeper

Christ Hartley does.

And tomorrow he gets his chance as Australia use their 3rd gloveman on this tour.

Going on recent records this means that Hartley will get a broken finger Manou and Haddin style.

The next time Australia tour England they will bring 4 keepers just to be safe.

There is one good thing about all this, every time Australia uses a new keeper, he is better than the last.

Hartley is to Manou what Manou is to Haddin.

There is probably no finer keeper in Australia.

He is Australia’s James Foster, and just recently he has started making some runs.

Don’t let this call up fool you though, he is still well down the queue, Tim Paine would probably be 3rd, but he isn’t in England.

Australia has now run out of keepers in the UK, if Hartley gets injured then Tim Ambrose or Tim Nielsen will have to keep.

I wrote about Hartley when working out who Australia’s back up keeper might be.

“Chris Hartley might be the man to jump the queue. Is the best regular gloveman in the country, and with Crosthwaite, are the only two guys who are proper old school keepers. His career batting average is 27, but is in career best form with the bat, has one hundred this year, 3 50s and that is not including his 82* overnight in the current match. Of all the keepers in Australia only he and Manou seem to be safe in their jobs.”

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The Australian Squad for the Ashes in a parallel universe

The test squad for the Ashes seems pretty worked out, bar the two all rounders.

But what of the parallel universe, as they prepare for their series, we take a look through the wormhole at the make up of their team.

In that universe they pick squads on Tuesday. Obviously.

M North (captain) – Having cemented his captaincy after Shane Warne’s retirement he fires up the team with sensible slogans and common sense captaincy.

C White (vice captain) – When Cameron is not poisoning North’s meals he is the number 7 Australia has been waiting for since Ian Harvey retired, and his big turning leg breaks are unplayable.

S Katich – This stylish batsman doesn’t make many runs, but when he makes runs, the whole world sighs in orgasmic delight.

M Klinger – Struggling to perform as a Jew, Klinger has had the best run of his life since converting to Satanism.

B Hodge – Although suspected in the deaths of many of Australia’s best young batsmen, Hodge has never been charged, and his form is as good as ever. The selectors love his good nature ribbing.

D Hussey – Inspired by the tragic auto erotic asphyxiation of his brother, David becomes the worlds most dominant stroke maker.

M Cosgrove – Even though Cosgrove’s form is poor, he is selected for the tour on the basis that he gets his weight back up to over 120kgs. Coach Darren Lehmann remains confident he can gain the weight and form.

D Christian – Australia decide to follow the South African example and set a quota of one Aboriginal player in every test. After poor results bringing Jason Gillespie and Ryan Campbell out of retirement, they settle for Dan Christian, and find that he is shit hot.

L Carseldine – Is now technically steel than flesh, but the ICC is slow to move on banning bionic cricketers, and Lee’s metal torso body and titanium legs will be allowed in the ashes.

C Hartley – Is the best keeper in the world, averages 12 with the bat, but everyone knows you take the best keeper regardless of batting quality.

S Tait – Australia finally get the best out of Shaun Tait by employing Rodney Hogg as his full time carer. The two fall in love and get married in the lunacy room.

B McGain – Was humiliated by losing his test spot in South Africa after missing the flight over, but is fired up to star in his first test against England.

M Inness – Even though he had retired, experts realise that Matthew’s first class average was 2fucken5 and pick him for the tour.

D Pattinson – The man the Ashes hopes rely on. His 26 wickets against South Africa in only 3 tests was just about perfect fast bowling.

D Marsh – Some would say that Dan is an odd choice, especially since he is retired, but Chief Selector Rod Marsh said “we needed a hard bastard to toughen these fuckers up”.  Is picked to be the back up keeper/spinner/batsman.

They should do well against Rob Key’s England.

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replacing gilly with a human

Wicket keepers are great.

No really they are.

But Australia is losing one, so it is now their turn to look into the pantry cupboard to see what there is on the shelf.

Brad Haddin is the breakfast serial that is marketed as “tastes great and is good for you”. In other words you know that it’s going to let you down one way or the other, you just hope it’s not both. He can seriously bat, and he can catch the ball more often than not. Could possibly bat at 6 with some one like Noffke or McDonald behind him. He is the sound logical choice, so I’ll look elsewhere.

Luke Ronchi is pancake mix, sure homemade pancakes are better, but this is easier, and your pancakes will come quickly. Negative points are his Kiwi heritage, positive points, he hits the ball like it cheated him in a card game. Is good enough to get picked as batsmen in the best domestic batting line up in the world. Only in Australia would he not be an automatic selection.

Adam Crosthwaite is the bag of chips, sure they taste good, but you can’t eat them for 5 days. His keeping is top notch, his batting is dyslexic. The other night he won a game off his helmet, and he is by far Victoria’s best batsmen under pressure. But a sever lack of runs means he is only an automatic selection in one dayers and 2020. Is willing to cheat, which should be a pre requisite for Australian keepers, especially after the last few years of the saint walker behind the stumps.

Chris Hartley is a Soda Fountain, in the 50’s everyone had one, but not many of us have them now. The boy can seriously wicket keep, but he can only just bat, and like Darren Berry before him he was born in the wrong generation. If John Howard gets re elected and the world starts commie bashing again, he may just wicket keep for Australia.

And Tim Paine is like the expensive bottle of wine you put in the bottom of your pantry because you can’t afford to put it in a better spot, it will age well. Look the boy isn’t quite ready, but if the selectors want to make a Healy choice, which they won’t, this is the man you would pick. He is a good enough batsman to open for Tassie, and it would be good for Australian cricket if a Tasmanian was in the test team.

Paine is my choice, that’s because I’m crazy in the coconut.

I’ve written about this before, but this time i took it seriously.

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