Lights, action as Aussies and Kiwis take Test cricket into a new era

The Kiwis put up some resistance to leave Perth with a draw after the second cricket Test against Australia. So maybe they can turn the much-awaited Adelaide day-night encounter into a genuine contest. Tickets have been selling well by all accounts so I hope there is an affordable ‘Twilight’ option available for me after work on Friday evening for the closing sessions of the opening day. Down the years I have witnessed some memorable cricketing occasions at Adelaide Oval both as a visitor flying in from abroad (the UK) or interstate (from my days as a resident of Sydney). Now the stadium has been transformed into a truly iconic venue, I could not think of a better place to watch this historic landmark as the five-day game takes a step into the unknown but hopefully productive future. My first ventures onto the much loved but increasingly run-down and weary looking Adelaide oval were in the early 1990s. The 1992 visit was actually for a one-day game in the 1992 World Cup. Early arrival in Adelaide gave me good time to see England dismiss Pakistan for a paltry 74. What could go wrong from here? Plenty, actually. In came the drizzle in the driest state in the driest country. But the drizzle didn’t want to go away as I looked on in the company of Aussie Dave Patching and soon to be repatriated Brit, Mick Charnley. That meant the end of proceedings with England on 24 for one. No result. The outcome meant that Pakistan who would have suffered an early exit, sneaked through the round-robin group stage. They made the final where they beat … England at the MCG. I was there for that one too. In 1998, England suffered one of their ritual Test humiliations of that era. After flying from Sydney for day one, I felt genuinely sorry for Darren Gough as he had to pounded in and bowl in 40Deg Centigrade heat. It was truly stifling. Being English, I still treat the dry warmth as a novelty but that day it seemed hard to walk, let alone run. As England wilted over the course of the match my lasting memory is of seeing less-than-dynamic Anglo-Aussie Alan Mullally having his stumps uprooted as events took their course. If I thought the Adelaide Oval was adopting ‘jinx’ status, that was nothing on what occurred on the final day of the second Test in December 2006. England had declared way past 500 in the first innings and Australia had finished not far behind in reply. The final day was marked down for a boring draw, as our taxi driver told us as he dropped me and Gabs off outside the ground. Enter the catalyst Shane Warne to spark off mind tricks galore and some astonishing bowling to help blow away England for 129. That set up a run chase which Australia waltzed in one of the most painful gut-wrenching sporting experiences of my life. Even free tickets to Robbie Williams, who I was total indifferent about but was actually all right, could not raise me from a virtual catatonic state that night. It was time for something to go my way at Adelaide Oval. And in December 2010, it did. England had escaped the Brisbane Test with a draw. But as Ricky Ponting won the toss under blue skies and batted, it looked as if the same old story would unfold. But Jonathan Trott ran out Simon Katich in the first over to send the Hill exploding into English joy before Ponting and Michael Clarke succumbed to edges snapped up in the slips by Graeme Swann off the bowling of Jimmy Anderson. Phil Poole, Eric Spiby and me cavorted with the masses as Gabs sought refuge from the “bloody Poms.” The Aussies were three wickets down for two runs. They never recovered. England mopped up on a celebratory last morning – just before an afternoon rainstorm blew in. But after that ‘up’ came another ‘down’ in 2013. England were on the way to a 5-0 series drubbing when on the Saturday Mitchell Johnson simply blew them away. It was a mesmerising pace assault but cruel to watch from English eyes. Alan Potts, a Wolves fan, had a Geordie mate wearing a tee-shirt on mocking Johnson. The wording read: ‘He bowls to the left, he bowls to the right…” and you know the punchline. It looked a bit silly to be sporting that get-up in the Duke of York and the Franklin Hotel after Johnson had ripped us apart. The Geordie had a long train journey back to his hosts’ pad. I suggested he turn his tee-shirt inside out to avoid public derision. He duly did. Along the way, Adelaide Oval has also provided some fine spectacles for me as a neutral such as South Africa’s spirited and marathon rearguard action for a draw a few years ago. India usually fail to come to the party though. They seem to be weary travellers. So, who knows what this twilight tussle will conjure up. It should be quite a spectacle and hopefully the packed stands beneath the floodlights will signal that Test cricket is alive and well and ticking along nicely into a new and expansive age.

Paul Lambert takes reins at Blackburn Rovers in latest twist to Venkys’ tenure

The Kiwis’ sorry capitulation in the Gabba Test kicked off what looked like being a mundane sporting week. There appeared to be more of the same in store for them in Perth. But at least they scored some runs. I just want a contest. Then out of nowhere came the Venkys. The inept chicken pluckers from India who seem hell-bent on steering a once proud football club, Blackburn Rovers, into oblivion had resurfaced. I won’t go over the full story of how these unwanted intruders have taken Rovers from Premier League stability to Championship mediocrity, complete with crippling debts. But for supposed business high-flyers they have done a spectacular job of mismanagement. With the club crippled by a transfer embargo due to financial disorders, boss Gary Bowyer has done a sterling job to keep them afloat in a testing situation. So last week the Venkys decided to sack Bowyer. They want “success.” In their misguided eyes, that probably equates to promotion. The Championship is a crazy division but I can’t see elevation to the Premier League being achieved with a squad, made up of free transfers and loanees, that is already stretched to the limit. The Indian dreamers have turned to Paul Lambert as their sixth full-time chief in their short tenure since 2010. The manager will have to answer to the out-of-sync whims of these owners who seem to have drifted in from Fantasy Island. But Rovers are not alone. I despair of these foreign interlopers thinking they know everything coming in to stir things up at clubs that were motoring along quite smoothly until disruption from faraway lands. Only the other week, Rovers’ troubles seemed to pale against what was going on at Leeds United, under the madcap meanderings of Italian supremo Massimo Celloni. Rovers cruised to a 2-0 win at Elland Road in a televised game. And to say the natives were restless is an understatement. The Tyke fans bellowed their abuse in Celloni’s direction as an insipid ordeal was played out in front of them. At Cardiff City, it has been Malaysian Vincent Tan, who has been pulling the strings and greatly annoying the locals. The crowds have plummeted as Cardiff have lapsed into nowhere-ville after a brief spell in the top flight. Meanwhile, in the East Midlands, Nottingham Forest find themselves in the same boat as Rovers, bogged down in the transfer embargo after the financial plans of Kuwaiti Fawaz Al-Hasawi backfired. It’s sad to see such clubs who are all entwined with their communities being reduced to the playthings of foreign busybodies, who are way out of their depth in English football. I wish Rovers new man Lambert all the luck in the world. He has taken on a tough task, but he seems up for the mission, listening to what he said at his initial press conference. His opening assignment is a tough Lancashire derby at Preston North End. It is Rovers’ first trip to Deepdale since Matt Jansen’s header sealed promotion back to the Premier League at the end of the 2000-01 season. I was there that night and it seems even longer ago than that given what the Venkys have delivered. Maybe Deepdale will be the start of something good under Lambert in spite of the Venkys. I live in hope but won’t get carried away just yet.