The Sound of One Hand Typing

Some random thoughts and comments to fill the time whilst I'm off work for a fortnight. A week ago I had surgery to repair some frayed tendons and a 'slap tear' in my shoulder. The arm's in a sling, which means that this post is taking an age to type - and spell-check will be crucial before publication!

• The hospital physiotherapist was a big cricket fan. We had a long chat about causes of shoulder problems. He stressed the importance of fundamentals like a smooth action, and a good follow through to absorb some of the energy that has been created by the process of delivering the ball at speed. I've never really worried about the length of folow-through before, but from now on I'll be finishing in the batsman's popping crease.

• Just the act of watching Malinga bowl is enough to make me wince with pain.

• We're less than a month away from the start of the first test at the Gabba. Of our first choice bowling attack, one has a defective radar, one is only playing as a batsman, and another isn't playing at all - yet is quite happy to be quoted in the press saying he's 'confident he'll be ok if selected'. All together now "Are we happy...?"

• Direct quote from Ian Bishop commentating on the England/Australia game last Saturday. "Australia are scoring at 4.76 per over, and need to score at 2.12 per over to win from here." Factually correct, yes, but he was reading that off of the screen! We're quite capable of doing that ourselves Ian - what you're being paid for is to provide some analysis and 'commentary' - not simply say what we can see with our own eyes. Lazy... and pathetic.

• After that, I was starting to think that maybe I've been a bit harsh on Bob Willis over the past few months. But then, about half an hour ago, he came out with this beauty. "Spectators like to see lots of 4s and 6s - do you think there's a future for the 50 over game in its current format?"

• Funnily enough, the other TRSM favourite, Paul Allott, has been pretty inoffensive over the past couple of weeks - maybe he lurks here!

• Loved the comment by the Victoria State Cricket Administrator after the NSW authorities announced that they were going to set up a 'text hotline' for spectators at the SCG Test to complain about English 'hooligans'... "We'll get 30,000 texts at the MCG from Australians complaining that the English spectators have better songs!"

• An idea to throw into the mix of the ball tampering row. Why not provide two new balls at the start of an innings - one to be used at each end? The umpire would hold the ball for his end whilst standing at square leg - so he'd have regular opportunity to inspect it. A fielding side could let one ball deteriorate quickly to enable a spinner, or reverse swing bowler, to use it whilst maintaining the shine on the other one. One new ball available at 80 overs, the other at 100 overs.

• Prediction - Saj Mahmood will get more wickets in this winter's series than Glenn McGrath - but Mitchell Johnson will get more than both of them.