shane warne

Melbourne Day One: Whoa Nellie!

Submitted by Rick Eyre on December 27 2006, 1:48 am

"It wasn't enough for Melba to become one of the greats of the Golden Age of Grand Opera. She wanted to be the greatest. her glorious voice took her to the top; her ruthless determination to overthrow any rival kept her there long after the voice had begun to decline. Revealed in this relentlessly candid yet sympathetic study is Melba the drama queen, the monstrous prima donna, the canny businesswoman, the generous and kindly friend, the unique star who refused to fade."

Warnie to quit

Submitted by Rick Eyre on December 20 2006, 6:21 pm

Well I'll be.

I really thought he was going to stay on for the 2009 Ashes. What we will now see is a SCG dead-rubber which plays second fiddle to Warnie's swan-song in the manner of Steve Waugh 2004.

Here's the SMH report broken just a few minutes ago.

I wonder if Cricket Australia will give him a gold watch, or maybe a gold mobile phone...

Gabba Day 4: Has Australia's wheel fallen off already?

Submitted by Rick Eyre on November 27 2006, 8:27 am

Has Australia blown its best chance of regaining the Ashes?

I'm serious.

Honestly, what was the point of batting on just long enough on Sunday morning to allow Justin Langer to get his hundred? Apart from allowing Ricky to strain his back while taking a run and thus keeping him off the field for the rest of the day... and possibly for the Second Test.

Dickie Knees

Submitted by Rick Eyre on January 5 2006, 5:00 am

It all makes sense, you know...

  • Makhaya Ntini injured his knee during the Second Test at Melbourne
  • An injured knee is known as a "dicky knee"
  • Dickie Knee was a puppet on the 1990s Channel Nine variety program "Hey Hey It's Saturday"
  • The voice of Dickie Knee was played by prominent Melbourne radio identity John Blackman
  • Shane Warne called Makhaya Ntini "John Blackman" because he was batting with a dicky knee.

Shane, you may be, as you told the world in 1998, "naive and stupid", but we're not. Even if that is all there is to the remark, how utterly dopey was it to use the word "Blackman" to a black South African opponent in any context?

Warne should have been disciplined for disrepute for the sheer insensivity of the remark, and it reflects poorly on all those in the Australian camp who condoned it.

Anyway, take a look at this article in the Sunday Herald Sun for a startling revelation about the real Dickie Knee.

Warnie's return to Oz

Submitted by Rick Eyre on September 30 2005, 1:43 pm

Thank goodness for the wellbeing of the Australian media that Shane Warne is back on our shores. After all, Aussie politics has been so darn boring over the last couple of weeks...

Warne, who unlike his Hampshire team-mate Kevin Pietersen is a respectable father of three, flew back into Melbourne early this morning. Here's a three-minute MP3 report on Warne's press conference at Tullamarine Airport from the ABC's AM program (the first few seconds sound like the product of sloppy editing).

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