flashman181

Before we get to the elephant in the room lets reminisce about a lovely few hours spent in Toowoomba soon after return to celebrate my 60th Birthday. All kids and kidlets were in attendance and is great to spend time with the younguns as they are all at different ages. Universal joys the bunch of them

Back to reality after that which means early mornings back on golf course but its still dark at 5 am! Still pesky rain on and off too which is keeping everything nice and green but also tres muggy.

And so to Dumbo. Three words describe – not explain the inexplicable – the latest cricket debacle. Hypocrisy, Stupidity and Arrogance. Aussies have long cried foul about what other teams do with the ball etc while painting themselves as the pure guardians of the game. Meanwhile Blind Freddy knew every team does it and there was a certain acceptance. Much like the Evangelical that decries sexual perversion and then is discovered in bed with a goat – the holier than thou approach will always bite you on the ass. Not kidding # boomtish . In this day and age every cricketer knows there are 10,000 cameras at the game because that is why they get paid 10,000 a game! No one is saying JFK was a more moral president than Slick Willy – simply his actions were not reported or not discovered etc. Its a different media these days. To think you can still do anything on the field and it not be seen is stupid. Then we get to maybe the most galling. The arrogance of Smith to think he could or would still be Captain next game. Bancroft has some form in the sweet science of ball tampering it would appear from newly released footage #boomtish. Maybe he was the stooge or maybe Smith thought he could protect him. To me it smells of a Warner involvement. He aint the brightest tool in a box of rather dull implements admittedly. What then of the involvement of Boof? The video of him seeming to tell Handscombe to get out there and clue in Bancroft looks damning to say the least. To me there is an easy and typically Aussie explanation for all this.

Qantas is major sponsor

Qantas this week debuted the Dreamliner route to London non stop

Sandpaper lining of your undies is a dream way to stay awake for 6 hrs on the field

And you get non stop rash and itching

#youknowitmakessense

There is only one happy cricket follower in Australia today. Trevor Chappell. He is no longer the most reviled player in history. He got a bum rap of course simply following brothers instructions and doing something that was at least legal if not palatable. Gregory of course used the stress yarn to explain his actions – no doubt this will be mentioned in this saga as well at some stage if not already. Ding Ding. It may well be a stressful job. Kinda why you get paid $1.2 million to do it every year. Sick to death of professional sportsmen complaining about stress for playing a game. If u cant handle it get a real job – then see what real stress is when the bills roll in. Crash Craddock made a prophetic statement many weeks ago. He said Smith should forego the IPL riches and concentrate on Aussie captaincy which pays well and he can remain it for years if he reduces playing schedule and not try and make millions for a few years. All gone now. Of course the alarming difference between this and the underarm is the success of this stupid ploy is akin to McKechnie hitting the underarm ball for 6! It didnt work. Thought we had the worlds most feared bowling attack and a reserve bunch of 23 ready to move in should an ingrown toe nail flatten Starc. Yet we cant take 10 wickets unless the ball reverse swings after 20 overs? Fellas, try natural swing and seam. Line and length. Its been know to work in the past

Enough cricket, how about NRL. There are some similarities between the two – ball tampering and salary cap rorting that is. Well, one glaring one. Everyone does it. In NRL they will continue to do it because the penalties are so weak in most cases. Manly actually come out $160 k in front in this latest nonsense as Paul Kent clearly explained. NRL players may well be the only professional sportsmen who make cricketers appear smart mind you. The big question though is when is a player agent going to get fined/booted/shamed ?? One thing is certain – Broncos wont threaten in 2018. With all this crap going on all I can say is thank me for Golf – the last honest game in the world

Of course since Ireland Fling thoughts quickly moved to USA 2019 and there has been much thought and backflipping involved. Do I take the easy winter option of NYC or stick in California and do Golden Triangle.? San Diego is a lock so then question is do you then fly onto NYC and Baltimore for some winter wonderland or go to Las Vegas and Los Angeles for some glitz and glamour? At present leaning towards GT although spending time in LA especially after LV does raise some issues with filling in days. All I really need is a rough plan of when I fly in and out of LA and whether I need Qantas metal for NYC or not. That way when flight specials are released in coming weeks can move quickly and snap them up. Whether I stay 2 days in LA and 10 in LV or vica versa doesnt matter at this stage as long as know when I enter and when I leave the good old USA. These are first world problems of course but do fill in time during the day as it is the planning I enjoy most.

Certainly more than the paying at least…..