Here is what we’re up to for the Beige Brigade pilgrimage from Feb 2- Feb 10.
Game #1 - Melbourne, Sunday 4 February, NZ v Australia: We will be staying on Exhibition St and indulging in a couple of beers at Young & Jackson from around 12 noon on the Sunday. Our seats at the MCG are in Section M52, down the front.
Game #2 - Brisbane, Tuesday 6 February, NZ v England: We will be staying in Ann St and indulging in a couple of beers at The Pineapple Hotel from around 12 noon on the Tuesday. Our seats are General Admission so if you’re about come and join us.
Game #3 - Melbourne, Friday 9 February, First Final [NZ v Australia?]: We will be staying on Exhibition St, flying in from Surfers the morning of the game, and grabbing a quick couple of pints at Young & Jackson from around 12 noon. Once again, our seats at the MCG are in Section M52, down the front.
Cheers, Paul at Beige Brigade HQ (southern hemisphere)
Chipping away with Dan and Mystery on Saturday morning…
A plane flew over Eden Park at the NZ v Sri Lanka ODI on Saturday dragging this message about the Tamils on it. Presumably the Beige Brigade were not the target audience. This website doesn’t exactly make it clear as mud what they’re on about either. In the end it was Sri Lanka who were doing the killing - to all but one of the NZ batsmen.
This new visa for the West Indies World Cup is bloody ridiculous - and we have told the Herald on Sunday that too. (And it has been picked up at least one newspaper in the West Indies too.) Here are 7 reasons why:
1. It was announced far too late and once all plans had been set in stone
2. It could take up to 3 weeks to process - and you have to hand your passport over (the actual passport, not a certified copy) and wait for the stamp
3. The locations of the processing offices do not include New Zealand - and the Sydney one opened late (or not at all) and is a shambles
4. Your UK travelling companions don’t need a visa - they’re exempt
5. The processing time means that if you are in Aussie for the VB Series you can’t apply for the visa until you get back (because you will need your passport to get in and out of Aussie)
6. It’s a tax masquerading as a “convenience fee”
7. Nobody knows what the hell is going on - there have been exemptions for kids, countries looking at pulling out of the Caricom visa, extensions of time… All because the whole thing is a balls-up.
Richard - aka Aussie Matt off RadioSport’s great mate - has his take on John Bracewell’s selectorial approach here.
A star of our mickey-taking BYC Podcast is a dribbling Billy Bowden. He’s notched up a century of ODIs. Billy is definitely a God botherer, and we’d forgotten that Martin Crowe once referred to him as Bozo the Clown! He certainly loves his cricket - and for that alone, God less the man. We’re not sure about his plans to reform Robbie Williams.
Sulky former Aussie cricketer Damian “Kate Lynch” Martyn will spill the beans on his shock retirement on the Aussie 6o Minutes show. There is speculation that he and Matty Hayden had a dressing-room dust-up! Tough guys. Martyn gatecrashed the Ashes whitewash celebrations at the SCG last week.
Check this out - the Beige Brigade’s first assault on West Indian soil/sand has appeared on a Caribbean website…
Little Rory, the small horse, thinks he is a dog
We’d be rich if we had a buck for every time some NZ cricket commentator/coach/player/administrator has crapped on about how magnificent Chris “Tommy” Martin is at bowling to left-handers. Well he may be good but he ain’t in the top 6 in international cricket at it in the past 12 monts. However, while the latest analysis from Cricinfo taketh away that stat, it also giveth us another - Kyle Mills was #1 amongst the bowlers in terms of his strike rate against right-hand batsmen in 2006. Listen out as everyone starts crapping on about this over the next 12 months…
There are reports that Sth African cricketers G Smith, J Kallis and H Gibbs are set to revert to being bachelor boys as a trio of break-ups is on the cards… Minki the monkey, Smith’s former missus has pulled the pin in a huge way - she is engaged to a businessman already. Cindy Nell is a former Miss South Africa and Tenieel Povey was engaged to Gibbs before it all turned to custard. More scandalous news on the WAGS and the break-ups here here.
Justin Langer and Cricket Australia have packed a sad at Cricinfo’s light-hearted ball-by-ball commentator comparing him to a gnome… We are well aware that he is not a gnome - having found out he hates hearing anything derogatory about his height we announced to the basin Reserve via megaphone that he was in fact the long lost Cricket Smurf. Last time something similar happened the poor bugger writing away and doing the dog’s work for people stuck at work without TV or radio paid a hefty price - he was stripped of his media accreditation, lost his job, and created “a major rift” between Cricket Australia and Wisden Cricinfo. So ridiculous!
