Former Australia batsman’s father says his son woke up with a virus and felt so bad that he almost pulled out
By Isabelle Westbury, Adelaide
Greg Hughes, father of the Australian cricketer Phillip who died this time last year, has revealed that his son nearly withdrew from the game in which he suffered the fatal injury.
The roar from the crowd echoed triumphantly through the stadium. The mood was one of nervous excitement. Thirty minutes in and Germany were yet to break the deadlock; the partisan French crowd fancied their luck against the reigning World Champs.
Australia versus New Zealand on the world stage has become a a regular occurrence. Cricket, netball, and rugby World Cup finals have all seen these two nations face off in the past year. Now they’re back at it again in the cricket.
Moderation in all things. A phrase so often uttered and agreed with, but so infrequently followed. And so it is with cricket and its obsession with age.
Women excel in so many sports yet investment and belief in female athletes lags behind. Jockey Michelle Payne’s win should be a game changer.
She’s only gone and won it. In a paradox like no other, Australian racing’s greatest prize has been won by a person on the field that the whole sport has for years contrived to belittle and objectify. Michelle Payne’s unlikely victory in Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup fittingly caps a year of tremendous sporting achievement for Australia’s women. Now here’s to capitalising on it.
“Who’s winning?” The cardinal sin of cricket spectating — asking who’s ahead. Ask the same question to 10 different punters and you’ll generally get 10 different answers. The same could apply to the question of which is better — English club cricket or Australian? National bias aside, it’s a difficult comparison, in both the men’s and women’s game.
compiled by Paul Grunill, BBC Sport
This summer, BBC Sport has again broadcast live commentary on every day’s play of every match in the county season.
“Where were we exactly 10 years ago today?” tweeted Clare Connor to her former team-mates the day before England entered their, ultimately futile, must-win T20 against Australia at Hove on Friday. The former England captain, now Head of Women’s Cricket at the ECB, was alluding to the day England women, after 42 barren years, regained the Ashes from Australia in 2005.
by Kalika Mehta, BBC Sport at Canterbury
A dismal display from England in the sole Test of the seven-match multi-format Women’s Ashes series has left them on the brink of relinquishing the Ashes to Australia for the first time in five years.
England head into the first and only Test of their Ashes series on Tuesday knowing that Australia, now 4-2 up in the multi-format series after taking the One Day Internationals 2-1, have found the X-factor so sorely lacking at present in their men. Captain Meg Lanning is living up to her status as number one batter in the world having struck a sublime century in the second ODI to take her series tally to 195.
Isabelle Westbury 