Ashes 5th Test at the SCG, Day 3

Having suffered at the hands of Australian cricket for the best part of 2 decades, how fitting is was to combine my first trip to Australia with a visit to the SCG to watch England trounce Australia in the Ashes. The atmosphere was awesome and not unlike a sunny day at Lord’s - except there was none of the stuffiness. The Australian fans were more scathing of their own players than the English and the sledging coming from the fans in the stands was relentless.

André was kind enough to find us seats with no shade so we could really work on our tans. And it got really hot as the afternoon wore on. Really hot. This was not like Lord’s – anyone without sun crème would have burned more quickly than Jamie Oliver’s school dinners. Although some preferred to cover themselves from head to toe so as to make sure the sun couldn’t get the more remote parts (see pic.)

Pink-suited man at SCG

Siva and Martin at SCG

 Through his rapidly expanding network of media contacts, André managed to secure us a radio interview with ABC. We were escorted into the Bradman media centre and into the warren of broadcasting rooms where Sky Sports, BBC and ABC all had the best seats in the house to commentate on the on-field goings-on. I brushed past Beefy who looked straight past me (actually he looked right over me  - him being a strapping 6’5” or so). Athers looked accusingly at us as he reached for another chocolate muffin from the media buffet and Boycott and Tony Greig were busy looking important and thinking up new ways to say how good England were. Shane Warne was also up there – not smoking and not eating muffins! Finding an empty room turned out to be impossible so we decided to hold the interview outside to the sound of beer barrels being rolled in the background. I think it went well – I managed to mention the web address, so with any luck we may have an influx of overseas players next year!