Well, the Melbourne Open has finished after a huge couple of weeks. If you read my previous post on tennis, you know I am not usually a fan of this overpaid over-hyped event. But this one was pretty good.

We saw some great games. The main thing for me, though, was that we saw some relative new-comers get up and win their important games from the big stars. There is a changing of the guard underway in all areas, women's and men's. That started last year or even the year before, but this year was conclusive.

However, to harp on again, women's tennis is still unwatchable because of the banshee shrieking. It is not even improving. If anything, it is getting worse. They have become more vocal and, if it is possible, louder.

Why do they do it? Why is it impossible for them to grunt without shrieking? It is extremely distracting. Until they stop (unlikely), or authorities regulate it (unlikely), or viewers start protesting (maybe), I can't watch it.

Which isn't a great loss since it is as boring as batshit anyway. Pip, pip!

    [continued...]

If you are wondering where Simon O'Donnell is in The Cricket Show, it turns out he will be the host for Nine's Sunday Footy Show. O'Donnell is leaving because he has commitments outside Channel Nine and would not be able to do both shows.

I like O'Donnell's presentation style. He had an easy conversational interview style and he had the knowledge that comes from being a former Test player. With his relaxed nature, he was able to get past the formulaic plastic face of PR spin and get his interviewees to really talk about themselves and their game. His tips and answers to young viewer questions about their technique was insightful.

All in all, it was an enjoyable way to spend the lunch break and get some of the background and culture of cricket.

Michael Slater is taking up the reigns from O'Donnell and, from his efforts so far, is doing a pretty good job.

Daniel Ricciardo, the young West Australian with Formula 1 ambitions, will go to team Torro Rosso for 2012. He and Jean Eric Vergne will replace Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari.

It is great news for Ricciardo. He was farmed out to HRT (Hispania Racing Team) for the second half of 2011 and acquited himself well, often beating his team mate there. Now he goes as a full time driver with factory backing and all that that entails for development.

What is suprising is that Alguersuari is being let go. Alguersuari did well in the second half of 2011, getting well up in the middle places. My tip is that he will go to Williams to replace Barrichello. As much as I like the old Brazillian, he did not perform on the track.

On the other hand, the word is that Barrichello, as a highly experienced winning F1 driver, is great for a developing team like Williams as he can talk to the engineers and communicate exactly what the car is doing.

Who knows. It is great news for Ricciardo and, as for the rest, it is the usual game of musical chairs until it settles down in the new year.

I am in shock. Peter Roebuck has been found dead in his hotel room while covering the South Africa v. Australia Test cricket series in South Africa.

I was listening to him on the radio just a couple of days ago while he provided the colour commentary on ABC Radio for the first Test.

I have been listening to him and reading his columns in The Age for well over a decade. He was a great technical commentator, and had a literary erudite aspect to his dialogue. One of the things I liked was that he was "no fear or favour" sort of guy. He would criticise (or praise) either team or player solely on their merits there-and-then and without the baggage of who they were or what was their reputation.

I am sorry that he has gone. Vale Peter Roebuck.

Ouch. I went to bed after Australia had bowled out South Africa for 96, with the last eight wickets falling for 47 runs. I woke up to find Australia was all out for 47 and at one stage were 9 for 21, which would have been the lowest score in Test history if they had finished there. Only tail-enders Siddle (10th) and Lyon (11th) saved us from that and brought the score up to 47.

(Special mention for Shane Watson who took 5 wickets in 21 balls in the first innings.)

The day finished with 23 wickets taken, the most wickets in a single day (after covered wickets were brought in). The worst was 19 wickets for 94, 5 runs a wicket for 19 of them.

For only the second time ever, parts of all four innings were played in one day.

I don't have pay TV so I didn't watch any of it, but from reading the news columns it seems to me that Australia was let down by a lack of Test mentality.

There have been many articles over the last couple of years about the pervasiveness of One Day Internationals and Twenty-20 events in first-class cricket's training grounds: the Sheffield Shield games. Coaches are reporting that players are asking for advice on     [continued...]

Marco Simoncelli has died in today's MotoGP in Malaysia.

The footage of the accident was hard to watch. His helmet came off in the middle of the accident and he was limp after that. You knew something very serious had happened.

Simoncelli was one of the characters of the MotoGP, in much the same vein as The Doctor. Any death is terrible, but Simoncelli's is especially hard because of the fun nature of the man and his flamboyance in MotoGP.

Image source: Wikipedia

It's mid-summer in France, and again we are reminded of the beautiful French countryside as the Tour de France rolls through.

The format is different this year, no prologue and straight into a road stage, then a team time trial for the second stage.

I like this format. The second stage was incredibly exciting as the team time was applied to each member, and so yellow jersey contenders had to rely on their team to earn them a good time.

We're up to stage three now with a road stage, a sprint and a small mountain climb. I'm looking forward to the next three weeks.

More on the Tour de France website.

There was an article in today's The Age about a teenager who crashed a press conference and offered some gratuitous advice to Michael Clarke about his batting technique.

Pretty cheeky for a 17 year old to one of Australia's greats, but a couple of commentators agreed, notably Dean Jones.

© Peter Mathew, The Age

(left) how Clarke is playing — (right) how Clarke should be playing

So, a few hours later I'm watching today's One Day International against England at Hobart, and, lo and behold, how does Clarke get out? Exactly like the teen had demonstrated, with a wave of the bat to the off side, feet and head nowhere near the bat. Out for 10.

I've been a big Clarke fan for years, but he needs to spend some serious time in the nets with a batting coach and get his technique back to scratch.     [continued...]

So Australia has finished The Ashes contest against England with the worst result in 50 years. We lost by an innings in three of the five Tests, plus by a day in the fifth Test.

It was a perplexing series. In the game we won, we won it convincingly with good play in the field, great bowling (a hat trick to Siddle) and good batting by the middle order. In the games we lost, we got thoroughly thrashed.

England was a superior team throughout. In fact, they are a great team, as good as the Aussies were five years ago, when we had been consistently the best team in the world for a number of years. England is now that team.

I heard Warnie say on the TV that there is no shame in being beaten by a superior team, and I agree with him. However, we didn't just get beaten, we got thrashed. We need to reinvigorate the entire process, from selection to coaching to playing. England has learnt from the methods we used in the previous decade and they have produced the best team in the world. Somehow, we have lost that process. We need to restart it so that our team, while perhaps getting beaten occasionally, doesn't get pasted.

If you are a motorsport fan, you already know that Sebastien Vettel has won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and, thanks to Petrov, the Drivers Championship.

Petrov was instrumental because Alsonso, the favourite, pitted for a tyre change and then re-emerged behind Petrov. Alonso was unable to pass Petrov for the rest of the race and, as a consequence, finished seventh, below the fourth place he needed to win the Drivers Championship.

Alonso was furious with Petrov and shook his fist at him on the wind-down lap. Petrov expressed his astonishment by lifting his hands up in a shrug, as if to say "Well, what should I have done". Nothing, Petrov, it was a good drive, especially for a rookie who has not had a good season and is looking at being thrown out of the team. He needs to show his skills whenever he can.

Webber was stuck in the same boat as Alonso and finished eighth, and third in the Drivers Championship.

Finally, I was wondering what they were going to do on the podium with     [continued...]