Aus Cricket Finally Cummins Round the Mountain
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Saturday 26th November, 2011 13 BY BEN POBJIE handsome or rich as him, but I was big- Turkey reduces prison I feel old. Don’t you feel old? ger, and that shook me up. Watching Patrick Cummins I realised, I was a man. scythe through the South And that was depressing, because if I terms for match-fixing African batsmen and then for was a man, that meant I was a man who ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s The parliament, with the support of an encore, nervelessly smack was not a professional sportsman, and parliament has sharply reduced prison lawmakers from the ruling party, voted Imran Tahir to the fence to win now never would be. I wept. Well, not terms for match-fixing in a move that Thursday to reduce that term to three could lead to lighter sentences for more years. his first Test match, all at the age really, but on the inside, a little bit. My than 30 club officials and players arrest- Sports Minister Suat Kilic has reject- of 18, filled me with joy and excite- childhood was past, and my dreams were ed in a recent rigging scandal. ed accusations from some opposition law- ment and a feeling that I’d become draining away like Mitch Johnson’s con- It is a dramatic U-turn by the govern- makers that the change is designed to my own grandfather. fidence. ment, coming eight months after it intro- save Fenerbahce President Aziz Yildirim, It’s a thrilling new phase in And now Cummins has come along, duced prison sentences of a maximum of who is among those awaiting trial in an 12 years for people convicted of bribing investigation that allegedly involves 19 Australian cricket: a new generation and put the seal on it. players or paying fees to teams as incen- games last season. is coming through and we have high He’s 18. tives. hopes – but it’s all making me feel like a He was born in 1993, the year I first decrepit old-age pensioner. went to the cricket at the SCG. Eighteen years old, and winning Test The year American Samoa, Tonga draw 1-1 in WCup qualifier matches. Shane Warne APIA, Samoa (AP) — An own goal has brate Thursday’s Thanksgiving Day with I’m 32, and I have NEVER won a first destroyed cost American Samoa its second-straight a win until the unlucky Tala Luvu head- Test match. To be brutally honest, I’m England. The victory in Oceania World Cup qualifying ed a free kick from Paavo Mustonen into starting to think I may never get year Justin at it drew 1-1 with the Cook Islands to his own net in the 62nd minute. picked for Australia at all. Patrick Langer played remain unbeaten after two matches. American Samoa’s 2-1 win over Tonga Is this the way it goes? Cummins his first Test, Shalom Luani pounced on a loose ball on Tuesday was its first-ever win in an Is this a stage in life we and Allan and held off two challenges before prod- international match. all go through, the Border hit his ding a shot past Cook Islands goalkeeper stage in which last century. Tony Jamieson to give American Samoa we suddenly It’s ridicu- a 1-0 lead after 24 minutes. discover that lous – American Samoa looked set to cele- we are old, Australia has and the a strike heroes on bowler who’s the sporting two years field are still Aus cricket finally younger than young? Nirvana’s Michael Nevermind. Clarke is the And of first Cummins round course it’s Australian wonderful – I Test captain love to see to be the mountain new players younger coming than me, through, suc- and that’s a sobering thought to say the pretty sure I’m not, so he can’t be. He’s ceeding, forging great careers on the least. I like Clarke, he seems a nice just a kid. He probably still practises world stage. The Johannesburg Test was young lad, but, oh god…how can a man with a tennis ball against the back door. a ray of light for all Australian cricket captain Australia when I can call him a It’s just so jarring. Growing up, fans, not to mention a thrilling experi- “nice young lad”? Surely there is some- sportsmen seemed like giants, great ence for purist lovers of the greatest thing in the charter of Cricket Australia titans bestriding the world. They were form of the game. that specifies that Test teams can only be men, bigger and stronger and altogether I applaud Pat Cummins – all power to skippered by men older than me? I had more heroic than I or my friends. When I his mighty arm. assumed that was the case – all the other watched them on TV,they looked huge, But still…I feel old. I feel like my days captains were older than me, that’s part even though I knew full well that I was as a fresh-faced, bright-eyed fan-boy are of what I liked so much about them. taller than David Boon from the age of 12 over, and my days as a grumpy old man Steve Waugh was older than me; Mark on. Didn’t matter – they were grown up, have begun. Soon I’ll start bitching about Taylor was definitely older than me (and and they inhabited a world of manliness how too many modern players have tat- even better, some summers he seemed to and adulthood that was about a million toos, and wishing we could have a man be fatter too). Ricky Ponting was a brash miles from anything I could dream of. like Greg Ritchie back in the team. It’ll young kid when he debuted, but he was And I kept on feeling that way. be hard to adjust, but if that’s how it has still older than me. Allan Border was so Through my teens, and on into my to be, that’s how it has to be. much older than me it was positively twenties, I retained this feeling that I I just wish I could have one more sea- calming to see his battle-hardened face was young, and they were old, that I was son of feeling like a boy watching men. scowling from behind his ragged beard. a boy and they were men. I went on One more summer with my face Now there, I thought to myself, is an thinking of myself as a wussy little kid, upturned to the gods of leather and wil- adult. A mature fellow with the life expe- watching these majestic creatures living low. One more summer, hoping I could rience to really understand what a four- my dream. one day grow up to be a great cricketer teen-year-old boy is getting at when he But illusions have to shatter, don’t too, instead of hoping I could one day pat writes a lengthy and earnest letter they? I think I first realised the cold a great cricketer on the head. But those informing him of how insipid the team’s truth of the world when I was watching days are behind me now – Pat Cummins performance had been in the Sydney a rugby Test. “Wow, he’s massive,” I has seen to that, and I suppose it’s all for Test of 1993-94. And understand it he did thought, looking upon a tremendous red- the best. – not to blow my own trumpet, but they wood of a second-rower, before suddenly Although, Pat, if you’re reading this: did win the next game. But I digress. stopping and realising that I was just as if you could grow a beard, that’d really My point is, a captain needs to be a tall as him, and about forty kilos heavier. help me a lot. grown-up. Is Clarke a grown-up? Well I’m Of course I wasn’t as fast or strong or (Courtesy The Roar) Beckham’s resiliency inspired Galaxy BY JOSEPH D’HIPPOLITO most of the season with a found Robbie Keane along the expires Dec. 31, and the slightly fractured spine, said left flank. With Dynamo French club Paris Saint- David Beckham might have he tore his hamstring Tuesday. defender Bobby Boswell mark- Germain has expressed inter- made his biggest contribution “I was disappointed, ing Keane, Donovan cut into est in signing him. The Daily to the Los Angeles Galaxy because we had three tough the penalty area. Mail in England reported that away from public view in what games in nine days and I felt Keane passed to Donovan, Beckham’s wife, Victoria, vis- could be his final days with great on the Tuesday,” who took a diagonal 8-yard ited Paris to look for housing the club. Beckham said. “During the shot off the side of his right and schools. Beckham, hampered by match, I had a little bit of dis- foot. The ball bounced over But Beckham dismissed numerous injuries since join- comfort.” goalkeeper Tally Hall’s out- the conjecture. ing the Galaxy in 2007, played Nevertheless, Beckham stretched left leg and inside “Of course, people are all 90 minutes of Sunday’s earned his fourth playoff the right post in the 72nd always going to speculate,” he MLS Cup after tearing his assist on Donovan’s goal. minute. said. “That’s happened right hamstring in training Beckham’s glancing header Beckham’s contract throughout my career.