A full list of stuff I got published for The Roar

They publish almost anything about sport; just not THIS.

BBL09 Best XI

The ninth season of the Big Bash League still has its highly convoluted final series to come, but the annual Best XI is ready!

PREVIOUS EDITIONS:

• BBL08 Best XI
• BBL07 Best XI
• BBL06 Best XI
• BBL05 Best XI

Here is the team of the tournament (pending finals):

BBL08 Best XI

This article does eventually reveal the Rob's Blog official unofficial BBL08 Best XI.

But first, a review of the season.

BBL08 was, at best, a plateau for the golden goose of Australian cricket. And at worst, the competition jumped the shark.

Everything prophesied in the BBL07 Best XI introductory spiel has come to pass...

Ranking the Australian Male Cricketers, 2018-19

It's time to rank the current Australian male cricketers again!

I ranked all of them in 2015-16 and 2016-17, then kept it to a more sensible 20 (plus 10 honourable mentions) in 2017-18. For season 2018-19, I've decided to stick with thirty players again.

This is a ranking favouring "red ball" cricket - Test matches and Sheffield Shield. I may (or may not) do a Big Bash League listing later in the summer.

Eligibility is all cricketers that have played Sheffield Shield through the opening four rounds, or have been unavailable for Sheffield Shield in that period due to Australia T20 committments.

That means pretty much everyone was considered, except these three guys, for some reason:

Put your OLED's out.

Now here is the list, and like an expertly sandpapered ball, we are going reverse...

The Real Victim in the Ball Tampering Scandal

Firstly, are we still calling this the 'ball tampering scandal'? It should have a name that draws upon Watergate by now, like all notable scandals.

#BallGate
#TamperGate
#TapeGate

Maybe it has happened, and I missed it?

If not, we need a consensus on this.

Aside from that, let's talk about the real victim here...

On Ball Tampering

The Australian cricket team finally crossed the line. It turned out the line was made from adhesive tape, and the headbutt went straight through it.

This has led to some measured and reasoned national discourse...

I Own Nine Books

We fixed up our home study recently. It was a nice improvement. I can now dial into work video conferences from home, without having to push boxes we never unpacked and unfolded baskets of clean clothes out of camera view.

There was some collateral damage though.

To create space, I got rid of almost all my books. These nine are the only ones I still possess...

BBL07 Best XI

Here is the Rob's Blog official unofficial BBL07 Best XI! (BBL06 Best XI HERE, BBL05 Best XI HERE). As with the franchises, I've limited it to two imports.

This is the third season I've selected a BBL Best XI, and season 07 was the hardest selection yet...

Ranking Some Of The Australian Cricketers, 2017-18

Two years ago I ranked all the current Australian cricketers, following the 1st test of the summer.

Last year, I did it again.

This year, I just couldn't bring myself to do it a third time.

It just didn't seem fun. And I didn't start writing things of very limited appeal for a tiny audience with no monetary reward to not have fun.

I think the main reason it was no longer fun lies in this question: how can you make sense of Australian cricket currently? 

BBL06 Best XI

Presenting the Rob's Blog official unofficial BBL06 Best XI. As with BBL franchises, I can only pick a maximum of two overseas players. The BBL05 Best XI is HERE. Here's the BBL06 Best XI...

Review: An Evening at the Big Bash

My Facebook feed on 28th December 2016: 

BBL Thunder v Heat - look for me on TV. I'll be the one regretting taking 3 kids under 4 to a cricket match. 

Attached to this status update was a photo, just taken at the ground.

On the left, R with a KFC bucket on his head, courtesy of the major sponsor. Not one that had housed The Dirty Bird in it, but a clean one they handout at the gate. He is waving a Sydney Thunder flag - another entry giveaway - while the bucket covers his eyes.

Then my wife, with baby O in a baby carrier on her chest, in the middle.

Finally on the right of the photo, J is watching intently. He is watching an empty field, as the game hasn't started yet. This is the most attention he'll pay to the middle all night.

The Best Performances in Test Cricket 2016

This list is an aggregation of the best performances from around the world of Test cricket for 2016.

The best performances, so no Australian players made the cut.

Hot Cricket Newz~! November 2016

In these extraordinary cricket times, I've brought back the highly reputable HOT NEWZ~! masthead.

In this edition:

• There Are No Selection Failures
• Lollygeddon! 

Ranking All The Australian Cricketers, 2016-17

To coincide with #AusvSA starting tomorrow in the bustling metropolis of Hobart, this blog entry is a ranked list of every current Australian first-class cricketer. I’m quietly confident this is the best and most respected ranking of its type in the history of Earth.

This is the second edition. Last years edition is linked HERE. 

BBL05 Best XI

I've watched a lot of the Big Bash League. Here is the team of the tournament.

There are only two rules:

1. Selection is based on performances during the tournament only. Past performance and reputation counts for nothing.
2. Selections are limited two imports, just like the teams, sorry, franchises.

The official unofficial BBL05 Best XI is presented in batting order:

Unconscious Sexism

It's not that surprising that cricketer Chris Gayle would demean Mel McLaughlin - he's done it to other female interviewers before, both in Australia and in the Caribbean. On his Twitter account he basically plays the role of Jamaican Hugh Hefner, but with much less literacy.

I can't relate to doing your job and having your work completely ignored so you can be propositioned, then when clearly uncomfortable at the advance, being called "baby" and having the initial comment repeated. Then to have work colleagues sniggering in the background and your employer initially play it for laughs before going into damage control much later. Then to have the person punished by his employer, who then excuses the behaviour as a cultural misunderstanding "said in jest".

I can't relate to that, because I'm a man.

Big Bash League Ladder Prediction

I really didn't care about BBL1 and BBL2, but then BBL3 was on free-to-air television every night for six weeks, and suddenly I found it very interesting. There is probably a lesson there for sport leagues on the margins of mainstream public consiousness – I'm looking at you A-League and Super Rugby.

By BBL4 I'd even decided which of the artificial Sydney-based franchises with ugly uniforms I'd support – go Sixers!

Now I'm so comfortably on the bandwagon I'm going to try and predict the final ladder positions of each team in BBL5, which seems absurd given the unpredictability of Twenty20 cricket and the short length of the regular season. But it can't go worse than my NRL predictions.

Ranking All The Current Australian Cricketers

Following Australian cricket used to be relatively simple. Your typical summer would have 12 or 13 Test cricketers, and maybe an additional half dozen cricketers for the one dayers, either to replace the Test specialists or as cover to give players a rest. There were a maximum twenty players in the mix at any one time.

It's not so simple now. There are now three cricket formats and I reckon across them Australia now typically uses 30 to 40 cricketers over a summer. There are quite possibly more current cricketers that have represented Australia - or at least made a national squad - than there are mere state players.

You've changed, man!

So here's a helpful guide to literally all of them. Number 81 is my favourite.

Hot Cricket Newz~! 11/02/15

In this edition:

• Fearless World Cup Prediction
• Around the Grounds
• The Bad Luck of the Irish
• Bats and Balls and Ropes

Hot Sport Newz~! 22/01/15

In this edition:

• Anyone for Tennis?
• Words from Warner
• Deflategate