Australia are in desperate trouble at choo for choo.
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Right from the outset of our home Test - the Sydney Test - provided once again a great platform for parodying our likeable TV cricket commentators.
The Betfair Great Pink Pigeon Race on Jane McGrath Day at Narromine unleashed 12 pigeons - most nicknamed after the Channel Nine commentary team.
That light-hearted sideshow to the cricket reinvigorated my desire at least to try out my best impersonations.
While Billy Birmingham is the master, he did stumble upon a rock-solid platform of distinguishable voices that never cease to catch a laugh even from the most amateur backroom mimic.
There’s Bill Lawry:
“Got ‘im gone, you’re off, tell your story walkin’! Marvellous crowd the Victorians.”
Ian Chappell:
“Yes it is a marvellous crowd at the MCG, Bill.”
Tony Greig:
“Oh, blow up your a**e, Bill.”
Interestingly, apart from Kerry O’Keeffe and his infectious, utterly ridiculous laugh, the ABC Grandstand commentators have avoided such humour, mainly I guess due to their more astute, knowledgeable approach to their description of the game.
But I reckon there is room for both, I never get sick of the television coverage, but there is nothing better than spending a long six-hour drive on holidays with the ABC cricket team.
You get more than just the cricket game at hand - you get a full taste of the rice bowl of cricket culture at that place, at that time.
It’s a bit like overhearing a couple of blokes in an air-conditioned pub discussing their views and actually finding what they’re talking about interesting and intriguing enough to satisfy your thirst for information while the sound is turned down as you sip on another lager.
Dead rubber or no dead rubber, bring on Hobart.