It seems Michael Clarke is heading home early from the tour of New Zealand citing “personal” reasons.  There are unconfirmed reports that this is related to the storm that his, soon to be wife, Lara Bingle finds herself in.  It should be noted that Pups old man is pretty crook with cancer, and his sudden return may be related to this.

While not supportive of Brendan Fevola’s alleged actions against Bingle…I am left wondering her motives for taking him to court.  This incident occurred a few years ago, and as her popularity was bottoming out (some would argue she was never popular), she took on new management.  The following day .. BAM! she is on the front page of all the papers saying she is taking Fevola to court. hmmmm…….

I don’t want to bang on about what Fev has allegedly done, and the impact on Bingle etc.  Fev is a meathead and Bingle is….. well… you decide.

My main concern is for poor ol’ Pup.  If he is cutting his cricket short for this crap… well…. he better be bloody sure this is the right bird for him.  Cos I think he should be seriously considering kicking her to the curb.

Sachin Tendulkar, the Little Indian Master, has cracked the first ever one day international double century.  He batted the whole innings and was unbeaten on 200 off 147 balls.  His innings was the corner stone of the Indian mammoth total of 401, which South Africa couldn’t mow down.  They were 153 runs short, and have subsequently lost the series.

Hats off (or is that Helmets off) to one of the best Batsman that has ever played the game.

I didn’t get much of a chance to get a look (or listen) to the 5th ODI in Perth between Australia and Pakistan. Australia won the game with a few balls to spare chasing 212. Sounds like it was a good game, but there have been two incidents that have got me shaking my head. Maybe someone out there can enlighten me…..

1. Pitch Invasion, Pakistan’s Khalid Latif Tackled

What the hell goes through someones twisted inbred mind, when they jump the fence at the cricket and tackle a cricket player. Yes… i guess I can understand someone dropping their strides, jumping the fence and doing a nudie run…. this is kinda harmless…. but physically touching a cricketer?? What a tool. I hope they throw the book at him. Thankfully Latif was only shaken up a bit and has a bit of a sore neck……. bloody ridiculous…. I would hate for one of our boys to be overseas and cop the same treatment.

2. Afridi Ball Tampering

Stand-in skipper, and renowned big hitter, Shahid ‘Boom Boom’ Afridi, has been banned for 2 games for ball tampering. I have seen a few seconds of the footage of Afridi chowing down on the white cherry…giving it some good gnawing teeth action. What the hell!??! Apparently his defence was that “everybody does it”. Who in their right mind would put a freaking cricket ball in their mouth for starters… let alone think that using their teeth to ‘alter’ the ball in anyway is not cheating or in any way acceptable. This is definitely not the thing a wanna-be future captain should be doing. Very disappointing and unprofessional. Especially considering the Pakistan cricket team have a few blokes capable of swinging the ball regardless of Boom Boom teeth marks.

There is probably no one reading this … but if so … shoot me a comment with your thoughts on either of this.

• 40 Run Win to Australia
• Australia Innings 6 for 286 from 50 Overs.
• Pakistan All out for 247 in the 47th Over.
• Australia take series, next 2 ODIs = dead rubber

Another good win to the Aussies.  I got to catch most of the Aussies innings in the car on the way to Bendigo, listening to Grandstand.  (…side note: was a shame my fave Kerry OK was commentating a state game in Woolongong and not at the Adelaide Oval… anyway) I then caught most of the Pakistan innings on the box later.

Despite good knocks from all but Ponting (3rd ball duck), the aussies total of 286 was pretty much due to Husseys blistering 49 off 37.  Great to see “Mr Cricket” back in form, coming to the wicket and playing aggressive.

There was one moment in the Pakistan run chase that I thought they could do it.  This was mainly due to Boom Boom Afridi.  But with eyes only for the boundary rope, he was ultimately cleaned up by Harris for 40.  You have to wonder, if he has aspirations of taking the Pakistan captaincy reins, if he needs to play a bit smarter.

The Aussie bowlers did well, with Harris claiming a 5’fa and taking out the Man of the Match honours (nudging out Hussey i reakon).

With this win, the Aussies take out the 5 match series.  The next two ODIs are in Perth and we wait n see if the Aussies give a few other players a go.