www.sundayterritorian.com.au Sunday Territorian, Sunday, January 24, 2010 — 37

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CRICKET N O R T H E R N T E R R I T O R Y

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Who said what ...‘‘I DON’T know what happened. I just looked backand it was all just dripping on the court and he hadthis look on his face. He was surprised. He ran offand it dribbled across the whole back of the court.’’— American tennis young gun DONALD YOUNGdescribes a bizarre incident during his AustralianOpen first round match against Christophe Rochuswhen a ball boy wet himself, resulting in a 40-minute delay.

‘‘When he came in I wanted to give him a waveor curtsy, I don’t know what you’re supposed to dowhen royal people come in, but that was prettycool.’’ — Aussie tennis player CASEY DELLACQUAon the thrill of playing in front of Prince William at theAustralian Open. She won too.

‘‘Lance has won seven Tours, I’ve only lost five.’’— World road cycling champion CADEL EVANSexplains why American Lance Armstrong is the TourDown Under’s biggest drawcard.

‘‘We gave 18 wickets to Hauritz, that is moredisappointing.’’ — A not so subtle sledge of Australianoff-spinner Nathan Hauritz from Pakistan skipperMOHAMMAD YOUSUF after losing the Testseries 3-0.

‘‘I don’t really like the nickname. But it’s the sortof nickname that if you show everyone that if youdislike it so much they’re going to keep calling youit.’’ — Australia’s Mr Cricket, MIKE HUSSEY.

‘‘Twenty20 cricket is a virus and if the ICC

doesn’t restrict matches of this format it will finishTest cricket as leading players will no longer wantto play for their country.’’ — Former Pakistan captainJAVED MIANDAD speaks his mind on cricket’sshortest form.

‘‘The captain rang home and he said that hisparents were behind locked doors and over hismobile he could hear the bullets ricocheting andgoing off around the house.’’ — Afghanistan under-19 cricket coach MIKE SHRIMPTON puts sport inperspective during the World Cup in New Zealand.

‘‘I had Christmasup in Cairns, andnot having a dropof alcohol for 12weeks is a bit of aneye-opener.Especially with theway NorthQueensland is inthe heat and theway my family likesto spendChristmas. It’sbeen a learningcurve.’’ — SydneyRoosters bad boyNATE MYLESdescribes life offthe grog.

‘‘You’ve got to look at the funny side of it.’’ —Former Brisbane Broncos player and currentCastleford Tigers coach TERRY MATTERSON canstill laugh despite having his finger ripped off in a freaktraining accident.

‘‘He just goes in there and kicks the crap out ofeverybody. I mean if you can’t get inspired byPatrick Swayze, you just better give it up.’’ —Minnesota defensive end JARED ALLEN takes hismotivation from a violent bar bouncer in the 1989 filmRoad House.

Nathan Hauritz Donald Young Nate Myles

GETTY IMAGES

Aust. can't affordto be complacent

By PETER BADELin Sydney

NATIONAL coach Tim Nielsen haswarned Australia not to becomecomplacent as Ricky Ponting’s outfitsets its sights on an unbeaten one-day campaign.

And rookie quick Clint McKay hasimplored Sydney fans to pack the SCGtoday amid fears one-day cricket has lostits lustre with the Australian public.

Buoyed by their 3-0 Test series rout ofPakistan, the Australians opened theirone-day campaign on Friday night with agutsy run-chase to sink the tourists atthe Gabba.

McKay (pictured) said Australia headsinto Game 2 today brimming with confid-ence — and revealed the side’s plan tocomplete a ruthless 10-match sweep ofPakistan and the West Indies.

‘‘Every time you walk out onto the field

you are lookingto win so ideallywe want to win10 out of 10 one-dayers this sum-mer,’’ he said.‘‘Only time willtell but that’swhat we’re aim-i n g f o r a n dhopefully wecan do it.

‘‘Our one-dayform of late hasbeen very good.

‘‘We won inIndia and then there was the ChampionsTrophy (victory).

‘‘Last summer was disappointing butwe’re here to win every one-dayer we playand finish off the summer the way westarted.’’

After a long and controversial Testsummer in Australia, weary Pakistanshowed some fight in the one-day opener

and Nielsen urged his side not to ease thepressure valve.

‘‘As a group, we are getting better withevery game we play,’’ Nielsen said.

‘‘It’s important for us to keep a focus onperforming at our best and not dropour standards.

‘‘I’d like to think we’ll continue thetremendous form we’ve had for a littlewhile. We’ve had some great one-dayresults from the start of the Englishsummer, so I hope we continue playingreally good one-day cricket.’’

McKay said he hoped the Sydneypublic would turn out in droves todayafter just 19,758 fans attended Australia’sfive-wicket win at the Gabba.

‘‘I hear it’s virtually a sellout in Sydneyand we usually get a great crowd there,’’he said.

‘‘I think one-day cricket is still a greatspectacle, we chased down 270 (on Fridaynight) and that was a great one-day game.

‘‘Hopefully we can play in front of a fullhouse (today).’’

Strike defies Blues’ rigged draw claim

NATIONAL CHAMPIONS: Territory Strike coach Ken Vowlesand captain Ashley Williams with the fruits of victory, theAustralian Country Championship Shield. Picture: BRAD FLEET

KEN Vowles knew Territorycricket had made it to the topwhen a NSW official accusednational country champion-ship officials of rigging thedraw in the Strike’s favour.

Vowles had just finishedcoaching the Territory to asurprise win at the nationaltitles in Albury-Wodongawhen a Blues official startedlooking for excuses.

‘‘You can imagine my reac-tion when he mentioned thedraw had been rigged,’’ hesaid. ‘‘It’s a 25-year-old compe-tition that has traditionallybeen the breeding ground fora lot of first class cricketers, sowe were just rapt in our win.

‘‘We prepared well andplanned around the playerswe had and it proved enough.’’

Vowles said the win hadrepercussions that wouldc a r r y o v e r t o s e v e r a lNT sports.

‘‘People are stopping usin the street and sayingcongratulations.

‘‘To me it’s a win for sport in

general in the NT because

we’ve sent the message out

that we do have a lot of skilled

people up here.

‘‘Cricket can build on that by

attracting more players up

here that will strengthen

the game.’’

Skipper Ashley Williamssensed a boilover result was onthe cards after the Strike beatSouth Australia and Victoriain two of its first three games.

‘‘We went down there know-ing we would be competitive,but when we’d won two of thefirst three games we thoughthang on, we’re a chance here.

‘‘Then the hot weather —40C it reached on a couple ofoccasions — started to suit usmore than them and westarted to get a bit of confid-ence up.’’

Williams said the defence oftheir national crown in 12month’s time was a big chal-lenge to cricketers rightaround the Territory.

‘‘The pressure’s now onevery NT cricketer to performwell at club level if they wantto play in next year’s titles.

‘‘And the other states will begunning for us big time.’’

— GREY MORRIS

Vics retain Big Bash titleADELAIDE: Victoria enhanced

its standing as the strongest

cricket state in the nation with a

trouncing of trophy-shy South

Australia in the Twenty20 final

at Adelaide Oval, claiming a

fourth such trophy in five years.

The Bushrangers were miss-

ing as many as five first-choice

players — skipper CameronWhite, Ross Taylor, DwayneBravo, Clint McKay and PeterSiddle — yet they were able towriggle free of SA’s bowlers topost 7-166 then held the

Redbacks to 9-118 for a 48-run victory.

A sell-out crowd of 17,722was forced to accept that apainful 13-year wait for moreSA silverware would go on for

some time yet as they watchedthe recalled Aiden Blizzard(42no from 19 balls) lift Victoriato a strong total through somedramatic late hitting.

Dirk Nannes (1-8) set-up his

side’s defence by swerving the

first ball of the SA innings into

captain Graham Manou’s pads

for a clear lbw, and talented

teenager James Pattinson (2-21)

pouched the wickets of Tom

Cooper and Daniel Harris to

slide the Redbacks to 3-13 and

all but begin the celebrations.