Almanac Cricket: What do you make of the Brett Geeves article?

What do you make of the Brett Geeves article on Foxsports?

 

http://www.foxsports.com.au/cricket/brett-geeves-on-the-warped-culture-inside-australias-cricket-team/news-story/95ac2cf4e4c97d5ed38025d23cc1b255

 

Have a read and then return to this post to make a comment.

Comments

  1. Shane John Backx says

    Not a lot. Says more about the way modern gen Ys think and act, than about anything else.

  2. Cat from the Country says

    Very sad. No welcome, no consideration of welfare.
    CA needs to run HR and Leadership courses to give theze men some skills ofher than cricket znd partying

  3. Says more about the mismanagement of Babyboomers allowing an individualised culture to purvey a national sporting team.

    This statement is as ridiculous as:
    Shane John Backx says:
    October 26, 2016 at 8:19 am
    Not a lot. Says more about the way modern gen Ys think and act, than about anything else.

    Looking forward to John’s next articles ‘In my Day’ and ‘Smashed Avo’s are the reason we got rinsed in Sri Lanka’

  4. It’s going to possibly be a long, hot summer. I know the points raised in that article are a few years back, but any team beaten comprehensively in a test series, than a One Day series would not be a happy bunch of campers.

    I have heard recently the team is rebuilding. Hasn’t it been rebuilding pretty much since the end of the 2006-2007 summer?

    Glen!

  5. Stone Cold Steve Baker says

    I thought it was a well-written piece, thoroughly entertaining, and ultimately enlightening about the inner-workings of the Test team at the time.

    Geeves illustrates a picture of the Australian cricket side as not so much a team, but of privileged individuals paid to play cricket who do not – at all – take kindly to outsiders infiltrating the Phi Kappa Baggy Green Frat House that is the national Test Team.

    I’d love to be a fly on the wall while Geeves and Ed Cowan bend an elbow or two in a front bar and reminisce one day

  6. I am glad you shared this. Dan Brettig’s book did a pretty good job of laying open some of the tensions, but also balancing the social media hate of Clarke with some mitigation eg the complex backstory to Hussey, Katich, Clarke and Haddin. It’s up there with the Ryan book on the Hughes erA.

    But this latest run of auto-bios is a goldmine.

    Symonds wanted to become skipper?! Wow. A disconnect between his own perception and others. Also a juicy subtext to the end of that friendship.

    And – as the Knox book discusses in terms of the Taylor retirement – like Mark Waugh, maybe he had a strong case?!

    Clarke now suggests that Symonds – the man of colour – wasn’t really offended by Harbajahn. Wow. I’m not even touching that. It doesn’t sit well with AB’s regret, Ponting’s anger etc

    The tumour stuff. Imagine if Kim Hughes had suggested – as he could have dreamed / that Lillee and Marsh were bad for the culture!! This is one referrals Watson will win. Especially when you hear a guy like Maxwell talk about how supportive Watto was cf others.

    The blanking of young or minor players has been around forever. No surprises there. Keep our head down and speak when spoken to. Wankers.

    Where does Smith fit into

  7. Sorry – where does Smith fit into it. Does he just defer to Boofvso he can practice his Greg Chappell hands on hips in the cordon?

  8. And it’s interesting that the high level denials of a link between this incident and Katich’s non-recall don’t cut it on the public domain. It’s Rudd Gillard. With alternative histories encouraged.

  9. The acrimony within the Australian cricket team s not something new. If you look at Malcolm knox’s book ‘Cricket Never a Gentlemans game’, re Australian cricket pre WW1, this acrimony is well established.

    In times where the team struggles the bad blood surfaces. As i’ve said before it’s going to be a long hot summer.

    Glen!

  10. Very interesting stuff indeed. But, ’twas ever thus I feel. Chappells/Lillee/Marsh hardly welcomed newcomers with open arms; Bradman and O’Reilly not best mates and am sure the list is long. Not restricted to Australia either, Boycott and Pietersen not most popular in Pom team. Cricket is both a team and individual sport and these things will continue, but become more evident in the Age of Twitterati et cetera.

  11. Mark Duffett says

    Geeves’ non-reception at Johannesburg airport is a disgrace. I was fortunate enough to have an old hand with me during a not dissimilar experience myself (lobbing at Joburg as a near-novice international traveller after a very long transit from Tasmania). It would have been bloody daunting on my own with a heap of gear.

    At least one person at Cricket Australia clearly didn’t do their job. You’d hope they don’t have it any more.

  12. John Butler says

    That piece fits very well with much else already known.

    Geeve’s point about Clarke’s lack of training or education is telling – Clarke was raised in the womb of the Australian team environment from very early on. Surely his failings reflect on the culture that schooled him.

    Once again, cause to reflect on how CA uses its considerable resources.

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