Before the appearance of the LHoC Sports Desk I'd not been as diligent as I might have been in sending my thoughts on cricket-related matters out into the aether.
It's not that I didn't have opinions. A glance at the Cricket content over on the old MobileMe site will reveal the odd article, and I had other fish to fry through the tours to Sri Lanka and South Africa. Those tours were, of course, the swan song of the Old Pre-Argus Review Regime, so while I'd made a few comments here and there with South Africa out of the way, New Zealand and India coming up and new people in new roles I thought it was time to start paying closer attention to these matters.
The first thing, as far as I could see, was coming up with a side to play the two Tests against New Zealand, and my initial project was to have a go at selecting a side for the Gabba Test, using the thought processes we'd have been applying when selecting a Primary Schools representative side rather than looking at the current Australian XI and questioning who stays and who goes.
It was, after all, obvious we were on the verge of a substantial rebuild, so I'd started with the only absolute certainties (which I saw as the captain, vice captain and the workhorse) and gradually continue from there.
Then, once the series started a day by day watching and listening schedule could produce day by day reflections on the Sports Desk, with the same articles archived here.
As far as the series itself was concerned you'd be hard pressed to find a better opponent to face up to at the start of a rebuilding process. Under those circumstances England or South Africa would best be avoided (you don't want to start out against anyone too strong), India was on the horizon, Sri Lanka was in the recently concluded past, so that left Pakistan (which in turn would depend on which version of Pakistan turned up), West Indies, Bangla Desh and Zimbabwe (all of which were probably weaker than you'd want).
You might be inclined to look at the Black Caps position in the Test playing pecking order and suggest they're also weaker than you'd want, but the old trans-Tasman rivalry is always going to add a spark to an Australia-New Zealand series isn't it?
Looking back on the two Tests and the drawn series, it's obvious both sides came out of it with a few questions answered and interesting issues raised. For the Kiwis I thought the emergence of Brownlie, Bracewell and Boult was a positive sign, while Warner, Pattinson and Lyon looked like long term propositions along with the new look fuller length Siddle.
There were, of course, issues that still needed to be fixed, including the whole structure of the batting order, the question of the all-rounder, the 'keeping and the third quickie. Those matters will be a little clearer by the end of the series against India...
So:
The Preview
Gabba Day One
Gabba Day Two
Gabba Day Three
Gabba Post Mortem
Bellerive Day One
Bellerive Day Two
Bellerive Day Three
Bellerive Post Mortem