Second Aussie captain in a row to lose the job for a bit of ball tampering. Poor Timothy, he was only trying to bowl a maiden over.
They do love a good cry at a presser the Aussies. Potentially horrific news for England as surely the specialist captain loses his place in the side as well now and he might be replaced with somebody who can actually bat.
Yeah, we all believe you didn’t call your dog Kevin because of the racist in joke. Sure.
Away from all the scandal and crying Australians
Hell of a player, one of the greatest of all time across all three formats (I’d say to date the best T20 batsman there’s been). He could do it all really, from scoring anywhere around the ground striking at ridiculous rates in the shorter formats to blocking out 300 balls on a dust bowl somewhere in India.
Yep, probably the most talented cricketer I’ve seen in my lifetime. All round sportsman, in fact. He could have played hockey for South Africa as well had he wanted to. Probably excellent at loads more sports too given his natural athleticism, hand eye coordination, reaction speed etc.
Cummins as Captain and Carey as wicketkeeper would make the aussies stronger
Probably, though I’ve always been a bit apprehensive about bowlers being captains. I wonder if Cummins will play in all five tests as well, would assume there will be a lot of rotation amongst both sides fast bowling attacks.
From what I remember reading I think I’m right in saying he was an excellent rugby and tennis player in his youth as well. Also held a number of swimming records at some kind of local/district level. So many avenues he could have gone down.
My concern with that, is bowlers want to bowl as much as possible and the captain needs to be able to change the bowling attack for the benefit of the team, not an individual and a bowler that is captain could be bowling himself when it could be more benificial to give the ball to someone else - think of Flintoff when he was England captain in the Ashes in '07 and kept bowling himself more than he should have, and had someone else been captain then would have had a chance to see if/when he was being over-used and given the ball to someone else.
Do they really have anybody else to turn to though? Warner iirc is banned from that role. Smith imo wasn’t a great captain and eh, I’m not sure if you’d open up that can of worms again. Other candidates like Head, Wade, Khawaja aren’t guaranteed spots in the side and going down the “temporary” captain route again wouldn’t look great. That leaves Labuschagne, not sure if he’s ever captained before and some of his actions at the crease and when fielding gives off the impression of somebody who’s maybe a tad immature, think he’d have to show some serious changes in attitude to be considered.
Bring Steve Waugh out of retirement? 
In all seriousness you are spot on though. Warner is a no go as I think part of his punishment for Sandpaper Gate was to never captain Australia. Smith was given a 2 year ban I think but I doubt that the ACB would take that risk and no one else from the batters is established enough to be guaranteed their spot in the team but I still feel uneasy about a bowler being captain as the captain needs to be able to make tough calls as to when to bowl someone and when to give them a rest - there was a reason why McGarth, Warne, Lee and Gillespie were never captain even though I think each of them could have done the job
Please please let him lose his place now!
Waugh and punter?
Waugh is a fair call, but any of the bowlers could have been given the captaincy when he stepped down. The selectors went with Punter to have someone impartial that can make the bowling changes when needed as the concern was if one of the bowlers was capatain, they would not have the opjective view when to not bowl themselves
They really don’t have anyone else except him and Labuschagne. Bowlers do make good captains though , think of the likes of Imran Khan and Wasim Akram for Pakistan as bowlers who do click. Also Holder for windies being a more recent example.
It’s not as if Ponting wasn’t ever petulant on the field. But I do agree that it’s a bit too early to be thinking of giving it to someone like Marnus. He’s made a good start to his career but is only 2-3 series away from being dropped and captaincy is a huge ask for someone at his level of experience in international cricket.
AB De V , probably the most complete batsman I’ve ever seen. I’d rate him even better than Viv if not for his antics at the last part of his career.
A left field choice would be khawaja i suppose considering he captained his domestic team in the past
Give the captaincy to Cummins. Its bullshit to exclude him because he is a bowler. Smith could re appear with vice captaincy which would give him real involvement when Pat is bowling.
Interesting timing about the release of private text on the eve of the Ashes. 2 consenting adults it’s not doping, match fixing or racism. I feel for Painy. And it could get worse as I would give Carey the gloves.
I think there’s a slight difference between petulance and immaturity though. Ponting could be that way (and the majority of other captains have had their fair share of similar moments), but he always had a certain demeanour that commanded respect. Labuschagne throwing his bat around after leaving the ball, screaming no run and making weird noises/comments when fielding in close gives off the impression he’s a bit of a joker and not somebody to be taken seriously.
Isn’t the question mark around him sending an unsolicited dick picture? Having seen the conversation on the face of it the woman in question does seem to be happily going along with the flirtatious nature of the texts, but eh I’m not sure if that immediately means she’s given her consent for him to send a picture of that nature.
