2 weeks before the start of The Ashes between Australia and England,Cricket Australia has sacked Mickey Arthur as Australian coach and replaced him with Darren Lehmann


I've got a feeling that England will win the series against Australia 5-0 in England

Beauty. Now with a bit of luck that 'Boof' can bring, we might actually force the Poms to bat more than once in each test - well at least on a couple of occasions.
Forecast: 4-0 to England. I'm relying on the weather to save one game for us.

This latest sacking is just symptomatic of the massive problems within the Australian team environment and Cricket Australia at the moment. What a fiasco!!

Someone needs to replace James Sutherland as boss of Cricket Australia and can someone get rid of Pat Howard he is a joke.

Two weeks before the Ashes? TWO WEEKS?
If they were going to do it surely a couple months ago would have been a little better to give the team a chance at some cohesion.
Although maybe it will lift morale within the team but does Lehmann have enough time to do anything?

And Michael Clarke has reportedly quit as selector.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-24/clarke-reportedly-quits-selection-role/4776676?section=sport

That's true about Michael Clarke

Never a truer word was spoken.

I'm not exactly sure how a former Rugby Union forward would know a whole lot about the requisites of International cricket, but apparently one sport is very like another. It's fine to give your props a rest in RU games against lesser teams, but as is well-known, the Baggy Green is something that is earned, not given. I guess the one upside of the 'rotation policy' is that we may have never seen the ability of Jackson Bird had they not decided to rest Starc.

As stated in the "Courier Mail" today, Arthur's sacking has just lengthened Sutherland's stay of execution. When he took over the job in 2001, things were rosy for years, but as the quality of the National team has diminished, he is totally unable to hide from the problems that have been festering for years. I stated on another website, back in early 2005, that England will dominate Australia again, but I didn't think it would be so soon or so comprehensive.

Just to give you some idea about Sutherland's ideas, in 2003 Cricket Australia introduced an Accreditation System for umpires, supposedly designed to improve the quality. It was separate to the standard "Level 2" assessment that you needed to do to be an umpire. You had to complete a huge workbook and submit it to Cricket Australia. I did mine in 2003, renewed in 2007, and submitted my update for 2011. Due to restructuring at CA, ordered by Sutherland, I'm still waiting for my new ticket!