Australian Cricket Team
The Australian Cricket Team has been copping a fair bit of flak recently - poor sports, arrogant, etc. What are my thoughts on all of this? I would tend to agree with those critics who say the Australian team is arrogant and that members of the team are probably full of themselves.
The behaviour of some of the team is especially poor, espeically in regards to onfield antics, etc. I'm thinking of the likes of Warne, McGrath and co. Off-field - well, the antics of Warne speak for themselves.
Though I do not believe it necessary to bring the game into disrepute or to show dissent toward the umpires when things don't go the way you would like, I do have to say that the umpires must share some of the blame for the reaction of players toward them at the moment.
What do I mean? Some of the umpires and their bosses have said that umpiring is currently at a high standard - however, I would disagree greatly with that assessment. Just have a look at the recent Ashes series, the Australia-West Indies series, and the Australia-South Africa series. The number of poor umpring decisions has been incredible. Brian Lara, easily the greatest batsmen of his era, could hardly get a decent batting opportunity, being victim to terrible umpiring decision after another.
So players are not allowed to show dissent (and Lara certainly did not) - well I can almost forgive them (and probably do) when the umpiring is so ordinary. Adam Gilchrist's recent dissent charge was probably justified - however, I can understand the frustration when the umpires keep turning in so many ordinary performances. Perhaps the umpires should improve their game before they start crying about players showing them little respect - after all, there is truth in the maxim that respect is earned.
The other thing I find incredible is the constant complaints about there being too much cricket and that players need a rest. Are you kidding? I saw a recent report that Australian cricket players are playing at the international level something like 100 days of the year. How tough is that? Half of that time they are sitting in the dressing room and a lot of the other time they are standing in the field waiting for someone to hit the ball in their direction - very hard work and exhausting! Perhaps they should get a real job like many other Australians who work at least five days a week and do real work that is far more trying than playing your chosen sport.
Perhaps they are getting too much money for doing so little :-)
There is little doubt that the Australian cricket team is the best in the world - but some healthy perspective and a dose of reality for the players wouldn't go astray.
Global Warming
I couldn't believe what I was hearing on the news the other day - there was a member of the Australian government all but saying that there really isn't an issue with global warming. Is he for real? We had our hottest day ever here a week or so ago, probably because of global warming and he still can't see what is happening.
Surely it is time to now start doing something to try and repair the damage we have done to the environment! Sure, it may take some time to reverse - but if we don't start now the problem is only going to get worse and eventually we will have no choice but to try and do something. I say now before things get much worse!
The industrial nations like Australia should be leading the way - after all we did cause the problem!
What do we do - we refuse to assist those low lying nations in the Pacific who are in danger from rising sea levels. Pathetic really! We should definitely be helping these people before they loose their countries to global warming.
Australian Wine
Australian wine producers are facing a major glut of grapes and wine on the market. Prices for wines will probably drop quite a bit - but hopefully quality won't.
You would expect that there will be a whole heap of cheap and nasty wines dumped on the market in coming years - however, you would hope that quality producers will concentrate on quality and produce even better wines.
Australian wines - there are a lot of good ones out there. Then again, I am an Aussie.
Little Britain
What is it with this ridiculous show? I saw it once and the next thing I know the people at the local Takeaway are raving about the thing.
Me - I thought it was rubbish and wanted nothing more to do with the show - yet all I hear is 'Little Britain' at the takeaway. Aaagh! It was driving me mad.
So what did I do? I went out and bought the two volumes of the show! Why? I'm still asking myself that question.
I think I did it because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about in detail - I think my original assessment was exactly right. From the 'only gay in the village' to all the other insane characters in the show - it is all very ridiculous and a disgrace!
Anyhow - that's what I think.
Married a Dolphin Lately?
Now how about this idiot who married a dolphin recently - no, it's not a sick joke, it actually happened. Some woman married a dolphin! Maybe the less said about that the better. This person has to be an idiot I hear you say - yes, you may have a point there... but what about the other people involved?
There are those that went to the wedding, the one who performed the celibrant role, those in higher places that allowed such stupidity to take place, etc. What is the world coming to eh?
Terrorist Killed
Big news out of Pakistan today - they may have got the second in charge of Al Quada (that how you spell it?)! Now that could be big news. Mind you it seems to have taken an awlfully long time for any major progress in the war on terror to have been made.
Mind you, given past history it probably won't be too surprising to hear that this bloke wasn't killed after all - I mean it wouldn't be the first time they could have had him and missed.
But if they have - it's good news as far as I'm concerned.
Back Again
After such a long time I'm back again - been too busy at work and doing other things. Not that any of this blog has been in any way interesting to this point anyway. Maybe it will start to be interesting now - time will tell I guess.
I have been thinking about the blog today and the many very useless things I can ramble on about - hence the term 'random.' Still, it may interest someone at some point.