Brilliant!

Sadly he has some side strain and flies back to Australia. Too bad not to be in the same league as McKay, Henriques and Bollinger

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand now he's injured... Hooray!

Seriously, what's with the Aussies suddenly becoming so cute and friendly! It just isn't right! I mean just look at Tim Paine! Just on principle, he shouldn't be allowed to play in the same slot once occupied by Haydos!! Blasphemy i say! Bring on more Viciouses and Bears!

The only reason Lees, Clarkes and Paines are suffering injuries is due to the amount of cricket Australia has played this summa. Liked your description of Siddle..lol...Great article overall, but I reckon you are being a bit too harsh on Lee:)

Siddle does give us an impression of people like waqar , ambrose, lillee , donald and steyn at full throttle. These blokes give nothing less than 100% effort in the field. His raw aggression and runup ( at sydney against SA was brilliant). If he keeps his fitness level high , he could turnout to be next Mcdermott or Merv Hughes

and now Siddle is injured.

Nice...

Yes, indeed he is a delight to watch and reminds you of how vicious a fast bowler could be with his bowling skills than sledging.

I love his approach and wish him the best for is future tours. Also, I'd wish he had a better captain not a cribbing crying punter.

Cheers mate. Keep siddling those perfume balls. :)

Yes we need these chaps - kind of 'mean' but still play-it-fair types.
Thanks for the piece.
To me (though I'm not Aussie by any stretch of the imagination), it's the Australians that are playing the game in its best style and spirit - at the international level in any case.

Now Siddle injured.This should be a lesson to the Aussie cricket bosses..there is to much cricket!!!!

Why do you call them 'trundler'? Bollinger was touching/exceeding 90 MPH quite consistently. Besides, Siddle and Johnson were also in 90's. So the only two people in 'medium' category were Henriques and Watson. Earlier, it used to be Watson and Hopes. But these are allrouders, which are fairly acceptable at the speed of 135 KMPH. How many teams you can count who would have all four (and the allrounder) bowler who bowl in 90's?

Great article, I especially liked
"There’s grizzled old Punter, who is always grumbling but secretly has a heart of gold; saintly Uncle Sachin, who listens to everyone’s problems without ever complaining; and the villainous Bhaji, who is pretending to have turned over a new leaf, but who everyone knows is bound to do something despicable any day now."
So true..

I prefer what J-Rod (cricketwithballs and all that) calls him - Peter Sizzle.

"....ponting with a heart of gold".. ru kiddin me? must be thinking of stealing some gold.

The last paragraph dramatically transformed this mediocre-so-far article into a work of art, and Peter Siddle should frame it and keep it on a wall somewhere. Keep it up, Andrew.

Somo

“La la la la!”

haha, what krftw said. and now Siddle is injured. lol.

Ponting having a secret heart of gold? and bhajji will always do the next despicable thing? seriously, bhajji didnt claim a catch after picking it up off the turf. Ponting is a wonderful batsman, but to call him as having a heart of gold is like saying mike tyson is secretly a pacifist.

Very amusing - why can't more cricket writers write this sort of stuff? I get bored with all the articles about the magnificence and superlativeness of some over-groomed poser with David Beckham's brain. To say nothing of the awestruck comments that follow some very, very ordinary interview with them from their besotted fans. More Hughes!

Peter Siddle is great. If I met him the pub I'd shake his hand... then leave before he started a fight.

Yes Siddle is a throw back to the old days. Give the ball an old fashioned thump if you are a batsman and breathe fire and brimstone when you come steaming in, give it everything you have , it might be your last ball. And that seems to be true with the spate of injuries that teams are going through, and the no 1 team in the world is showing the way. Thank God for punter , who still seems to be in some sort of control and is leading hs team riddled with injuries and each day he is leading someone he has never played against or heard of, given the fact that he hardly plays domestic cricket in Australia. Who knows some of these players might make a big impact. Bollinger has been waiting in the wings for ever and seems to be takingn his chances, till he gets injured that is!
sridhar

Merv Hughes? All bluff and huff. All those test matches he played ought to have been played by Mike Whitney!

Nice article! I’m definitely a big fan of P-Siddy.....

I think Henriques took this article to heart, and promptly joined the sick list. Be careful of what you say Andrew! You don't know who's going to be next after this...

Siddle is no trundler. He bowls at 145kph a lot of the time.i can see the 70s comparison but give me Lillee Thomson and Pascoe anytime.The day when chest hair and gold chains reigned supreme.These boys terrified the opposition just running up to bowl and they bowled consistantly very fast indeed. Todays boys are just pretenders .I like Siddles whole hearted approach to the game and hes no show pony like Lee who spends most of his time checking his speed after every delivery.Siddles bowls the heavy ball and jars batsmans hands and runs in hard all day

loved this part

"We know, for example, that Clint McKay is not the cheroot-chomping, Stetson-wearing sidekick of cowboy Jesse Ryder. Moises Henriques is not the dictator of a small island off the Mozambique coast with a solid gold throne and a personal bodyguard of Amazonian mercenaries. And Doug Bollinger is not a cartoon character devised to help sell champagne to the Australian market."

most amusing article I've read for a long time. It still Australia won the ODI series.