“Well, because there’s times where the bowler’s bowled badly, it’s down the leg side, it clips the pad, why shouldn’t you get runs for that?” Vaughan said.

What about where say a spin bowler bowls ‘not badly’ and it hits the pad after a false shot??? Should it be a catch if it goes to hand at bat pad???...

Perhaps the game will be better off playing 11 batsmen and using a bowling machine set to bowl full tosses and half volleys???

#battersgame...

Sounds like a few ex-cricketers have been into the fruit cake over Christmas...maybe there was a little bit of strong whiskey in it....or maybe there wasn't any fruit cake in it...

The problem is that Test cricket cannot survive for just the purists, and the only way it is viable is between teams of similar level or distinct rivalry.

For example.... tests between Aus, Eng, NZ, Ind and SA can work but these teams vs Pak, WI, Sri Lanka, Zim cannot.

On that basis, you either need to split the nations into a seeded group (like Davis cup in tennis) or suffer the ultimate fate.

Yes, this is a result of limited overs and T20 - no doubt. But in this say and age, T20 makes money and Test cricket does not. So from a business perspective, Test cricket is unsustainable. 

If both formats were put on the chopping block right now, you know which one will go first - much to the dismay of the purists...

Sport is sport. Business is nothing to do with it until the governing body of a sport & the players themselves get corrupted by greed & bribes. At that point the sport ceases to exist & it becomes a business & a charade to dupe gullible people into parting with their money. Just another advertising campaign telling people where they can drop the money off. There's no better example than Murdoch destroying league & turning it into an unbalanced, hand picked draw joke. He's screwed up the NBN for the whole country as well, but that's another story. 

If I was going to a tennis court for a match with a mate, it'd be for free. It's 5 sets because that's how it is, not 2 or 4 because Colonel Sanders, Qantas or Ronald McDonald tries to tell me otherwise. And it's 15-love, not 11-love or their next exploit to try & sell people a Toyota or whatever. We'd use tennis balls, not gherkins etc...

A sign of the times unfortunately...
honestly im glad I’ll be dead in however many years, cos what’s coming is not for me,..

Looks like you're too late...pink stumps, pink numbers on the back of players shirts etc because McGrath has his hand out for money again, hehe.
No shortage of reminders of who the sponsors are, Commonwealth bank, Anz, Domain, XXXX, everything from airlines to energy companies to agricultural machinery.
Now they've taken control, time for them to start re-writing the rules...maybe the Toyota CEO's daughter wants it played in indoor squash courts, 5 a side...

Tip of the iceberg, and for more than just sport... 
I still can’t help but laugh at people who refer to themselves as Instagram models or influencuers...  To me you’re a nobody or up yourself and in most cases both...

Cry me a river.....
Mankind has been around for afew thousand years and you guys are crying foul because your sport has evolved within around 150 years.

Step outside the microscopic timeframe you are looking at and it becomes just a small timespace in history.

4 thousand years ago, the sport was 2 blokes fighting with sticks and spears until 1 died. 
We dont do that anymore but hey....we have boxing, wrestling, martial arts, etc for points with the winner getting a fat paycheck.

In another few hundred years the game might be a couple of blokes firing lasers at each other.....

It's just the evolution of sport.

Lets hope evolution sees a time where people like you who uses the terms and promotes the views you do on this page cease to exist...

In case you didn’t know laser tag is a thing already... and no doubt e sports will be at the olympics in our lifetime... but like T20 Crocket I will invest my time and dollar elsewhere...

Is it the evolution of sport or the bastardising of absolutely everything at the behest of the corporate dollar???...

Or is it the evolution sport of a dumbed down human kind with the attention span of a gnat???...

you see soccer is a fvcking shit sport... just shit... shit,.. and the rules were made when men were shorter and slower... how about we make the goals a metre wider and higher so there’s less draws??? Or let them use their hands???.... Guess what even if they did, I still wouldn’t watch the shit... 

Crickets got it’s all show no substance games for people like you, let those of us that love tests enjoy what we have... All this talk of test cricket and rugby league dying has been going on for well ever... and guess what???.... 

Seriously do we think having 4 day tests will bring new fans to the game???... cos that’s the main angle being used...
I love cricket and footy cos that’s what my peers and family loved... indoctrination... 

How did AFLX go???... How is Fast 4 or whatever the fvck it is tennis going???.,, what about the NFL rip off???...

It’s not a given that bastardising a sport will attract new fans... this is not about the sport it’s about corporate dollars... like everything else... 

Also with you being an expert on everything id have thought a a better comparison to draw would have been hitting a rock with a stick, not two blokes fighting to the death...  or you could’ve even referred to when over arm bowling started... or the third stump introduced... or timeless tests...

what about out gay marriage old mate???... it’s just evolution cry me a river... 

Day 1 & it looks like the test is already over. Even did when the toss was won. Hasn't helped with so many kiwis out sick. Well done to the Aus batsmen but it's a tad one-sided again. So be it, pink stumps & all, back again tomorrow...

Look, Marki just likes to troll.... badly.... so you should just ignore him.

But, you two blokes, Nora and Dman, are frothing about what nobody has ever suggested - Two day games, huge bats and all the rest of the absolute garbage that you've just made up.

The issue is 4 day tests, trying to maximise the schedule, while keeping as many overs as they can. And it's suggested with the best of intentions FOR Test Cricket, for MORE Test Cricket.

Debate it all you want, but quit making up sh.t.

Huge bats are a thing... miscues fly for 6 far more than they ever did... yes the rest perhaps a little over the top though obviously tongue in cheek...

But making stuff up is not exclusive to us here... Can’t say how many times I’ve seen written the majority of tests, 70 something % are over in 372 overs “four days”... which it obviously isn’t... incorporating  Finlay’s +8 overs a day to push the case as if it’s already happening...

And I don’t think it will result in more test cricket, I think it will result in more T20 crap... and there’s nothing wrong with being a tad sceptical... Already T20 is fast enough so the 100 is happening... 

There used to be 8 ball overs too, and a rest day. The Windies of the 80's and early 90's would be lucky to bowl 75 overs a day. You'd get more Test Cricket in a 4 day game then you would a Windies Test of the 80's, But, they didn't need any more I guess.

Nostalgia aside, what a team they were...

The problem I got with your argument is you think proponents of 4 day Tests want more T20's or Tests to resemble more T20.

When in actual fact it's exactly the opposite. The intent is MORE Test cricket hand in hand with being able to schedule a World Test Championship every four (or maybe two?) years that would motivate players to want to play and win it (much like WC's in every sport) and so make themselves more available for Test Cricket rather than opting for the easy T20 dollar.

You got the motivations completely arse about.

You’re spot on, and I hope you’re correct... just difficult for me (being me) not to be cynical about their motivations...

They can schedule 25 test matches simultaneously....50 countries...sign up even more....without messing with the rules or format....& they don't all have to be at the MCG.
But, if some capitalist wants to sell people streams of every one of them...& the governing body considers the bribe...of course accountants will be looking at ways to chop & change, cut corners & basically butcher the format many generations have lived their whole lives with. 
Maybe a silly person with more money than sense wants every country playing every other country in the same year...it'd be pushing it with T20's.

Surely with the ICC already seeking and getting support from NZ, AUS and ENG, and it allegedly being about more tests and a World Cup type thing (and not money or more T20) they’d be able to release an example of what a draw might look like as a PR exercise...

I don't know what it would look like. One way it might work (a test world cup) is simply push in for a year every so many years. That's to avoid the division & keep those who want it happy & those that don't want the existing format messed with from going awol.
A test world cup isn't as unappealing to me as saying tests are 4 days, also I see the argument & potential merits of it, but with the world rankings chart already there, I'm content with that. When the top 2 ranked sides line up it's usually a ripper. A test world cup has that nuance of nines footy, just not the same. Tolerable if it doesn't hinder the real thing.

Bloody hell Dman.... you crossed the line

What was wrong with LFL???.....Lingerie Football League

They thought it was best leaving it to the ladies & brought in laws to stop people like dman running onto football fields wearing it...

There’s plenty of other places I can still ‘perform’... 

Joker.

Starts bleak and gets bleaker. Glorifies violence as a means to an end and insanity as a salvation.

One of the greatest movies of the 21st century, not out of place on an all time list. Stunning movie. Iconic acting performance that will be analysed and studied for centuries.

Awesome to hear... am psyched to see it as a tragic... also a big fan of the lead..

Well played young man... Marnus the Magnificent...

Ya just gotsta admire this Wagner’s moxy... 

Just understand this is NOT a Batman movie. Apart from some familiar names and places it's about as far removed from a Batman movie as you could imagine. It's more like somebody decided to re-make Taxi Driver but take out all the fun bits.

It's that bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeak.

When it first came out it was almost to universal acclaim but over the months it's been marked down a fair bit on IMDB, Metacritic, Rotten Tomato etc. And when you read the reviews that mark it down they're basically all about subject matter - some people just don't like the message it delivers. And that message is viva la anarchy.

So if you got any sort of snowflake in you be warned you'll melt within the first 10 mins.

One review I read said it's one of the scariest horror movies he's seen. And it is, in it's way, a horror movie. One where nobody gets out alive.

Very, very brave movie. I think it's a masterpiece myself, plenty will disagree. But they're allowed to be wrong.

What did you think of Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash...I was never convinced. 

Well I thought he was excellent and I don't think you were meant to be convinced. If you're looking for someone to do a perfect Johnny Cash you're not looking for an actor, you're looking for an impersonator.

I think the only "convincing" portrayal of a real person in modern memory was Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles where he basically put his acting skills away and just mimicked for the entire film.

Whether that makes a better film or not I guess is up to personal opinion.