Bye bye, Punter

Summer is here bringing with it the cricket and soon, tennis, to our TV sets and the sports pages. Although I can tolerate cricket a lot more than I can tennis, I happen to be no expert on either. Nevertheless, the debacle of the Australians' performance in the cricket this summer has promted me out of my post-Christmas slumber.

Australian Cricket captain Ricky Ponting has had a foul season, "horrible" he called it, culminating in an ignoble performance in the third Ashes test in Melbourne this week, and becoming the first Aussie captain to lose three Ashes series. This summer will surely be Ponting's last as captain on Australian soil.

Ponting should be replaced as captain by Brad Haddin. However, I fear Michael Clarke will get the nod ahead of him, although I hope I am wrong.

Ponting's eventual retirement from the captaincy and test cricket will make way for NSW left-hand top-orderer Usman Khawaja - who should be in the side already at the expense of Phillip Hughes, who lacks the skills for this level of the game. Hughes needs a couple more Sheffield Shield seasons under his belt before I will be convinced of his entitlement to be in the Australian test side.

Other postmortems will be done, but not by me. I've said (and had) enough.

Still sort of on the cricket - Shane Warne is a total oaf as a commentator. I read a Facebook comment that 'Warne would be a better commentator if he stopped talking'. Quite.

UPDATE

Aussie selectors have got it completely wrong with their side for the final test in Sydney. However, I do applaud the selection of Usman Khawaja.

Phil Hughes, should not be in the side, as I have said above. Nathan Haurtz should be in the team, as should Trent Copeland. My team is: Marsh, Watson (vc), Khawaja, M Hussey, B Haddin (c), T Paine, N Hauritz, S Smith, M Johnson, P Siddle, T Copeland, D Bollinger (12th).

I also think Tim Paine should be brought in and given the gloves so that Brad Haddin can captain the side. I would sooner barrack for New Zealand, than an Australian side captained by Michael Clarke - and I'm not Robinson Crusoe there.

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