CLUBS TACKLE BUGBEAR
Some of Queensland major football codes have plans in place as they prepare for a rise in infestation of fire ants this winter.
Fire ants forced Helensvale Cricket Club to abandon a cricket match and move the next two matches in January after they were spotted at Hession Oval, now other sporting codes are on red alert.
Rugby League Gold Coast and Football Queensland had an issue with fire ants during their 2023 seasons and since have planned ahead.
Alex Carey didn’t even need to be asked directly.
He knows the perception and understands why people jump to the conclusion.
It’s just that according to Australia’s Test wicketkeeper, the most obvious answer isn’t the right one.
The prevailing narrative was straightforward. Carey – who had started his tour of England strongly – couldn’t handle the fallout of the Jonny Bairstow stumping, precipitating a marked decline in form across formats that culminated with his axing from Australia’s one-day side just one match into the World Cup.
Cause and effect. Some less sporting English may have framed it as finding out after effing around.
Yet since returning to Australia from the World Cup, the gloveman has averaged 36.92 across domestic and international formats, passing 30 in eight of 13 innings including
Queensland Rugby League’s Gold Coast co-ordinator Geoff Bartlett said last year’s hiccup was a great opportunity to put plans in place.
“We had an issue last year where we had to move a match due to fire ants,” Bartlett said.
“We will work with clubs this year if in case it does happen again, we hope it doesn’t but you never know with these things. Clubs will move to a ground that will be able to house more games and poten49 and 90 in a low-scoring Sheffield Shield match for South Australia against Queensland.
Carey’s average across his previous 13 digs dating back to the Bairstow stumping was 16.77, even including 99 in a one-dayer at Centurion.
So, what’s changed?
“I think that’s just the game isn’t it?” Carey tells this masthead in the lead-up to this week’s first Test against New Zealand in Wellington.
“And I didn’t feel like I changed a lot through the Ashes either. I got some good balls over there in England, some different ways of getting out and then one-day cricket as well probably over in South Africa and in India was I think just one of those things, you just get out different ways. And probably at the wrong time to lose a bit of form…losing the spot.
“But nothing really has changed for me. And that’s tially a night game. Helensvale have now got new lights put up so they could house a night game. A lot of things would have to be discussed though on how we go about it.”
It’s not just the on-field issue clubs will face if their grounds are closed due to fire ants.
“Clubs will lose out on the financial side of things, they will lose canteens sales,” Bartlett said. “We will make sure there is a way around everything that we possibly can for them. where I guess it’s easy for outside viewers to make comparisons of when the Bairstow stumping happened to what sort of followed for a couple of months. It’s just one of those things in the game, I think it just sort of coincided without it being on my mind at all.”
While Australia’s loss to the West Indies at the Gabba was a shock, it also marked Carey’s most impressive Test performance with the bat since early in the Ashes tour, if not early. Arriving at the crease with Australia 5-54 in its first innings, Carey fearlessly blasted 65 from 49 balls – albeit with a touch of luck via a non-dislodgment
“Last year when we had the issue, we moved them up to the touch football field.
“That at least gave them the chance to still play on pretty much their home deck.
“But were able to move and set up a stand-like canteen for them to at least sell drinks.”
Football Gold Coast general manager Damien Bresic said it was no different to moving clubs because of wet pitches. – to drive the Aussies towards parity. It was a genuine momentum-shifter, and a blueprint for the No. 7 to follow. But it was always largely the plan, he says.
“So no, I don’t think I had to change too much. It was just continue to be positive. I think I got an 80 leading into the summer against Victoria in the Shield game so that was a nice way to start the summer back in Australia,” Carey said.
“I felt like I played some good innings through the summer without a bigger score but some good 30s and 50s. And I think this year we probably saw the wickets potentially favoured the bowlers a little bit more. I felt like there was some solid contributions through the summer and then again in the Shield game so we’ll see (in) New Zealand what the wickets look like. But yeah, I think for me it’s just continue to be positive, show good intent and play I guess what’s in
“If grounds are absolutely soaked, like they were last week, we move clubs elsewhere,” Bresic said.
“I wish it was as simple as that sounds though, a lot of work gets put into that.
“We had an issue last year where some clubs weren’t able to play on their home decks because of the weather.
“But we made it work, and we will make it work this year if we come across anything along the lines of it again.” front of me. Against the West Indies (in Brisbane), five down past 60 It was sort of, if I go out there and sort of try to survive it looked like it was pretty tough work.”
It is almost eight months on from Lord’s and all that followed, including abuse directed towards Carey and his family at the time was bad enough for him to deactivate Instagram for a week.
Watching edits of the newest edition of The Test documentary series, which delves deeply into the events of day five of the second Ashes rubber, Carey appreciated the magnitude of the aftershocks.
“I probably didn’t really realise how much the media made it out over in England. Like I just had stuff to do. So I didn’t read the papers or see any TV interviews.
“People getting really riled up about it over there, and then you come back to Australia, and everyone loves it. So you play the game. You play what’s in front of you.”
Fringe Australian spinner Ashton Agar is set to look for a role as a net spinner during the upcoming Indian Premier League as he tries to convince selectors he should be included in the Australian side for this year’s T20 World Cup.
Agar, 30, was one of Western Australia’s best on Sunday as they claimed their thirdstraight Marsh Cup title in a five-wicket win over NSW.
The left-arm spinner with figures of 2-35, including a stunning caught and bowled to remove Blues skipper Moises Henriques.
The final took place at the same time as Australia completed a T20 series whitewash over New Zealand in Auckland. While Agar would have loved to have been involved in that series, he knew that he had to prioritise game time over likely watching the Aussie team from the sidelines.
“The communication was always that they were probably only going to play one spinner,” Agar said. “And if I toured, I probably would have missed out on one-day games, so they said it was better I play those games. I was told to take my passport [to Sydney] so I had it in the bag ready to go in case I had to be available for the third game over here.
“But yeah, those boys are going great. A World Cup is coming up soon which is exciting. So, we’ll just have to see what happens.”
Agar was a part of the Australian squad that won the T20 World Cup in 2021, while also appearing in the 2022 event on home soil. However, he only played in two matches across both of those competitions.
Since the start of that World Cup in 2021, Agar has only played in eight of Australia’s 42 T20I matches. His last T20 match for his country was during the 2022 World Cup against Sri Lanka in Perth. finished