Whining Aussies blame counties
THE Aussies’ frustrations ahead of their resounding first-Test defeat by England included the standard of county opponents they are facing on this tour.
Easy victories against County Championship Division Two sides Kent and Essex in the two warm-up games only added to Australia’s seemingly complacent attitude before Cardiff.
Now it has emerged that Pat Howard, Cricket Australia’s general manager, complained to ECB chairman Giles Clarke about the lower division opposition during England’s triangular one-day series Down Under at the start of the year. Kent rested leading wicket-takers Matt Coles and Darren Stevens and Essex also fielded second-string bowlers. Australia’s two other county fixtures are against Division Two sides Derbyshire and Northants. The ECB try to share out county games against tourists among non-Test grounds. But on the 2013 tour Australia played top-flight sides Somerset and Sussex as well as England Lions.
l DONALD TRUMP’S £200million redevelopment of Turnberry is already mired in controversy following the storm over his racist remarks about Mexicans. It won’t help restore Trump’s tarnished reputation in Scotland that caddies at Trump Turnberry now have to wear white boiler suits when working, which smacks of inequality. The club rule will be lifted for the women’s British Open next week. HENRY BLofELD (right) showed during his gaffe-strewn commentary spells for Test Match Special at Cardiff that time is catching up with him at 75, but the Beeb just embrace the blunders as part of his charm. The same leeway is afforded to Peter Alliss who, at 84, is due to stay on for the last two years of the BBC’s open coverage. far better for fraillooking Alliss to bow out at the home of golf. Meanwhile, there have been discussions between BBC and Sky, who take over the open in 2017, about buying out the last year of the Beeb’s contract. But the talks went nowhere.
l DAVID GRAHAM, who in 1981 became the first Australian to win the US Open, was belatedly inducted into world golf’s hall of fame at St Andrews yesterday — the first time the ceremony has taken place outside America. Graham, who was inducted along with Britain’s Dame Laura Davies, said it was ‘better late than never’ and used the platform to highlight another glaring omission from the list — Britain’s Ian Woosnam.