Adios Amigo

Who would have thought that we could all get so excited with ball tampering. I was just thinking that I hadn't seen a Darrel Hair effigy being burned, when I found one.

All is not lost for Darrell however. In a last gasp effort to preserve the career of Darrell Hair, Cricket Australia has proposed that it would be great for the Ashes to be officiated by the world's top-ranked umpires. With four of the top ten umpires on the elite panel from England or Australia and also highly ranked, Cricket Australia proposed to ditch the system in favour of white boys (and no Billy Bowden). Instead it will be our friends from the West Indies, Pakistan and South Africa (and Billy Bowden), who get to be the arbiters of the arcane rules of cricket for our friendly joust in the Antipodes.

If things go wrong, Dubya likes holidays and knows how to show the batsman the direction to the pavilion. I mean he is really unpopular at home. He could come and umpire the Ashes and be unpopular in Oz.