Submitted by rickeyre on
Clive Rice has died at the age of 66 after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was one of cricket's greatest all-rounders in an era of truly great all-rounders. But unlike Ian Botham, Imran Khan, Kapil Dev and Richard Hadlee, Rice's achievements register barely a blip on the international cricket radar.
Submitted by rickeyre on
My Twitter list of media sources that I track for news about South Africa.
The direct link to this on the web is https://twitter.com/rickeyre/media-southafrica although I understand this is hard to pick up on some Twitter apps.
Note that I have included the official Twitter feed of President Jacob Zuma's office in this list.
Tweets from @rickeyre/media-southafrica
(This was originally posted in June 2013 when Nelson Mandela was gravely ill in hospital. I have updated in on 6 December 2013 following news of his passing.)
Submitted by rickeyre on
Shortly after midday on a Perth Monday afternoon, Ricky Ponting's Test career of 16 years and 362 days came to an end with this delivery from Robin Peterson:
Submitted by rickeyre on
We've seen two great Test matches between South Africa and Australia in the past fortnight.
At Newlands, Cape Town, a dramatic South African collapse was followed by an utterly historic Australian one, after which the home side's batsmen stormed back to claim a stunning win by eight wickets within two and a half days.
Submitted by rickeyre on
Some critics have described Day Two at Newlands as one of Australia's worst ever days of Test cricket. It's not even close. We bowled out the opposition for 96, after the captain played a classic leader's knock of 151. And have we forgotten those long long long days in the field bowling to the Poms less than a year ago?
But nor is it every day that an Australian Test team is bowled out for 47. Especially not after losing their first nine wickets for 21 runs. Eighteen overs worthy of the Pantheon of the Hideous utterly ruined what was otherwise a top day for Australia.
Submitted by rickeyre on
"John Howard for President". It makes about as much sense as "Joh For PM" and now looks just as doomed. The supposedly-innocuous bid to parachute Howard into the vice-presidency of the International Cricket Council from July this year, and by virtue of succession, its presidency from July 2012, appears dead in the water.
Submitted by rickeyre on
Proof! In South Africa, carrier pigeon is a faster means of data transfer than the internet. Al Jazeera English picks up the story:
Submitted by rickeyre on
Mitchell Johnson. A devastating display with the bat in a losing cause was enough to have him breezing past Dale Steyn to break the ribbon first at the end of the six-Test reciprocal series between Australia and South Africa, conducted over the past three months.
Submitted by rickeyre on
South African organisers for next year's World Cup had set up a peace conference for this weekend as part of the buildup to the 2010 event. The government, however, has decided that the Dalai Lama should not be given a visa to entry the country to attend.
The reason? His visit would "overshadow the country's preparations for the 2010 FIFA World Cup". In protest, two former Nobel Peace laureates who don't require entry visas, namely Desmond Tutu and FW de Klerk, have decided not to attend.
Submitted by rickeyre on
For the sixth and final Test of the reciprocal Australia-South Africa dual Test series, I will be posting my daily best-on-ground (BoG) votes to Twitter, and posting a final roundup to this blog after the conclusion of the game. Suffice to say that Dale Steyn is now in the box seat.
A reminder that the Midwinter-Midwinter will be back in the Ashes of 2009 coming this July. Maybe I can be encouraged to dream up some other stupid award in the meantime...
