When it comes to regular events, we have the rising and the falling of the sun, Shane Warne cutting off fellow commentators at will as well as belittling those players he dislikes and protecting those players he loves, and Will Pucovski finding another way in which to concuss himself which cuts off every comeback he makes the second he has returned to the field.

Very few of us would truly understand the position Pucovski finds himself in, and few of us would understand just what effect it has truly has on a person going forward. But let’s face it. One concussion would be a problem. Two would be something to start taking seriously. But when you have suffered at least ELEVEN concussions at a count… then there has to be something considered as to what the path forward should be. There has already been plenty of opinion throw around from all quarters, ranging from the player needing to quit the game to support for him to come back again at the earliest opportunity.

Now as we know, I have little factual evidence to back me up when it comes to my opinions on cricket, so my factual evidence on medical situations is much much less than that. What I do have is an opinion, one that may not be perfectly backed in all of the facts, but one that SURELY is one worth listening to… No?.... well, that also may be fair… but today I will be discussing the situation that exist around Will Pucovski, once the young kid who was the great hope of Australian cricket, whose whole career now hangs by a thread… on this episode of The Casual Mankadder, right here on Thoughts from the Metal Cavern.

England’s 2021 Test record was one of the bleakest in the history of Test cricket, though arguably also one of the toughest. They lost a series in India where few teams have won over the past 30 years, they then lost a home series against New Zealand who were then crowned as World Test champions, and found themselves behind in a home series against India before covid issues put paid to the final Test of that series. They then headed to Australia where they have won only one series since 1987 and duly lost 4-0. In between that, they were beaten in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup, a tournament they had been expecting to win. All in all, very little went right over that 12 month period, and it was obvious to most that something had to change if they were to put a halt to the bleeding and start to climb back out of the cellar.

One of the questions requiring answering is – do they have the depth of players in the red ball game to do that? And just how would the England selectors – or selector – go about that? Well, that was answered this week with the announcement of the Test squad to travel to the West Indies for their three Test series, and it is fair to say that it has caused some controversy. So, with Australia currently more concerned about sacking successful coaches, today we’ll have a quick look over the squad that England has selected, and discuss whether or not the changes that have been made are sending the team into the right direction, or if it is just reshuffling deck chairs on the Titanic. So that is today’s discussion on The Casual Mankadder, on the podcast that professes to have some idea on certain issues, Thoughts from the Metal Cavern

In several different ways over a period of many years, the governing body of cricket Australia has made decisions that have come back to bite them in their proverbial, decisions that have proved costly and embarrassing for Australian cricket and individuals involved in those decisions. And each time those things occur, most of the cricket loving public of the country say to themselves “well, hopefully this time the organization will have learned their lesson, and will ensure that such things will not happen again”. And every single time, the cricket loving public of Australia are proven to be incorrect.

We all watched as the debacle over the last ‘negotiations’ in the pay dispute for the Memorandum of Understanding dragged on, the 9 months where the standoff lasted, which then saw the agreement expire through the arrogance of the business people who now populate the board of CA, and how they eventually had to accede to the ACA and the players or risk losing hundreds of millions of dollars through lost tours. And then leading up to the Newlands debacle, when the players arrogance and behaviour on the field was so ordinary that fans began switching off in disgust, and yet nothing was done to reel them in. And then following the Newlands debacle, that was an obvious offshoot of this player arrogance, the board went hard at the senior players involved, and yet then stopped short of investigating if this ball tampering was a one off thing (which everyone will tell you was literally impossible) or in fact how deep and how long it had been going on, for fear of actually finding out the truth and having to act upon it. All of this resulted in much of the executive being moved on, and though it had been an incompetent time in Australian cricket on the field and in the board room, we could only hope that, surely, this kind of impotency would not occur again.

Error.

What we have seen in the last six months at an administrative level has not only directly contributed to some serious problems in Australian cricket, it threatens to derail all of the positive results that have come in that time. On today’s episode I will offer you my thoughts on those things that have occurred in that time period, my reasoning behind how they should have been handled, and whether or not they can be solved so as to not become bigger problems down the line. While I can’t back up any of these thoughts with complete knowledge of the facts or the support required to support any solutions, as always I can offer a passionate thought process from someone who loves the game of cricket. So if you have any interest in that, allow me to offer you an alternate narrative on this episode of The Casual Mankadder, right here on Thoughts from the Metal Cavern.

The Australian men's cricket team has had a season out of the box. They took out the T20 World Cup title, the one major competition they had never won, and did so without anyone ever thinking they were a chance to do so. They then returned home to Australia to defend the Ashes, something they did handsomely and without ever looking as though they were in trouble, eventually winning the five Test series by 4-0. And shortly, they will depart to Pakistan to play their first cricket in that country since 1998, and thus be a flagbearer to help kickstart the popularity of the game at international level in that country. So, everything at the moment is golden, right?

Well, apparently not.

Today, after 12 months of infighting and leaked stories that have consistently undermined the Australian team’s head coach’s position without any actual source being revealed, and despite the head coach agreeing to mediation with CA to implement changes that had apparently been a directive of those leaking their disapproval of the coach, Justin Langer had come to the end of his rope, and decided to resign from the position rather than have his reputation tarnished any longer by CA’s inability to make a decision on the matter at hand.

So how did we get to this position, where a successful coach can be cast aside in such appalling fashion, while the perpetrators are able to remain anonymous? And just how will this affect the team going forward? On today’s episode I will speculate on all that has occurred and give you my ten cents worth – all completely free from any facts on the matter – on this edition of The Casual Mankadder.

Australia has finished 2021 on an enormous high, while England has sunk to depths that they haven't experienced since the dark days of the 1990's. Questions remain for both sides, but are there any easy answers? On today's final episode for 2021, we discuss just where English Test cricket finds itself and wonder how much of the blame can be pointed towards administrators concentrating on white ball cricket and a single head selector/coach, and then we ponder whether Australia has been as dominant as the current score line suggests, and and what problems they may face as they head in to the new year.

The Gabba has never been an easy place for opposing countries to come to and win. England hasn’t won there since 1986, with a draw in 2010 their only match that has saved a whitewash since then. But if ever they were a chance, surely it had to be this year. Neither team had been firing or had much cricket, but Australia had lost their captain and keeper, two of their strike bowlers were struggling, England’s bowling looked in good shape, and Shane Warner was doing most of the heavy lifting for them in the media by bagging every decision made in the Australian camp. So just how did it go so wrong for England? It wasn’t as if they didn’t have their chances in the match, but once again in Australia they appeared incapable of seizing the moment. On today’s episode, we’ll have a look at a few of those moments, and wonder whether there exists any ‘sliding doors’ moments for England, or whether it didn’t matter what card they’d played Australia would always have had a better hand. All that on the one podcast that isn’t afraid to speculate on how big an ego you have to have if you can’t just shut your mouth once in a while, on The Casual Mankadder, right here on Thoughts from the Metal Cavern.

The day has finally arrived. The first day of the first Test of the summer. Australia's build up has been chaotic, England's has been under the radar. Rain has stooped both teams from the kind of match practice that they would have liked. But none of that matters now. If you have 20 minutes to spare and are interested in just what I can see as the strengths and weaknesses of both teams leading into today's play, then put in the earbuds and have a listen to today's episode of The Casual Mankadder.

We are a week away from the 1stTest of this season Ashes series, the first to be played in the Covid pandemic years, and as a result there is a little more up in the air than usual. Both countries have just competed in the T20 World Cup, the one expected to win it fell in the semi-final, the one expected to be making up the numbers got up and won it. As a result the preparation of both sides has been compromised by both quarantine circumstances and the Brisbane November Rain, something not foretold in the Guns N Roses song of the same name. Apart from this, England’s lead up has been sublime, under the radar. The addition of a supposedly physically and mentally fit Ben Stokes has lifted their spirits and boosted their belief. Australia has lost a captain and wicket-keeper through yet another media scandal, their young star through yet another concussion, and several of their players under major form pressure. Taking all of this into account it begs the question – can England find a way to regain the Ashes on Australian soil and win down under as they did back in 2010/11? Is that such a far fetched possibility? Today I’ll be discussing the recent history of the two teams, and running the rule over the England squad in search for these answers, on todays edition of The Casual Mankadder, right here on Thoughts From the Metal Cavern.

There has been nothing good to have come out of the last four days in the Australian cricket news cycle. The euphoria of having won the men’s T20 World Cup has evaporated. The excitement of reaching the pointy end of this season’s WBBL tournament has been buried. Even the selection of the Ashes squad and the A team squad has now been thrown into chaos. I had decided a few days ago that this podcast episode would have been about the racism row that has broken out at the Yorkshire County Cricket Club, and how it has been dragging in well known players and ex-players from all over the shop, and at some stage I may well get back to that. But the sudden news conference on last Friday afternoon where Tim Paine announced his immediate retirement from the Australian captaincy of the Test team has taken on the focus of all of the media since that point in time – some of it well researched, and then the usual flop media who are more interested in gaining clickbait than actual journalism. So, for what it is worth, you can hear my ten cents worth here in regards to how this has all played out, and what the further ramifications are, on today’s edition of the Casual Mankadder, right here on Thoughts from the Metal Cavern.