lol

I think we're done with Cricket. The team is off having tea anyway

Actually, I think we should stick with cricket. Arguments about cricket are less likely to inflame the passions than those about history. Unless, it's about cricket history LOL. The "bodyline" tour of 1932-33 can still get Aussie blood boiling. Now, India or Pakistan to win tomorrow? 

"I would have thought that what separated the north and the south was long gone and so playing dixie would just be of historical interest rather than flaming the fires of the south. Is there really so much power in an old song?"

Only if the current political environment says so.... 

I am just so tired of the Southern US being so stigmatized. Seriously, the colonists did not invent the slave trade! People don’t seem to realize just how young America is... and that America was born out of rebellion against tyranny and slavery. That spirit of rebellion is still evident, alive and well in our Constitution but, because of current political bias and agendas, it will not be allowed its due credit. In fact, those who scream "racism" the loudest are the very same who seek to subvert and destroy the Constitution in the name of "political correctness". The "Dixiecrats" just moved to DC!!! Racism in America has always been a political hot button... that’s why the political "progressives" can’t let it die. Without racism many political agendests would have no platform at all. Now, I'm well aware that I'm only one generation removed from the assassination of MLKJr, but since I'm not a racist, it’s easy for me to believe that should be enough! 

Cheers Gavin!

Good bye diet! Meal in a bottle that is

Well, I'm going to refrain from any other political posts here. One of the things that is making me nuts is that EVERYBODY is making EVERYTHING political. That's the problem. I'd prefer to keep these topics on music alone if possible. Start other threads for that and lets get back to what this started out as. 
Thanks. Happy Fathers day to all you Fathers or people with Fathers.
MAB

Happy Fathers' Day, MAB.

Thanks Jen.

...and just for completeness. India won LOL.

lol..... I wasn’t gonna' say it!

@mabbo

Actually the song you were talking about, Only In Australia, has cricket mentioned in it three times...
"playing backyard cricket the beer running free"
"at the MCG with the crowd going off"  the MCG is the Melbourne Cricket Ground
"going off at the MCG" in the outro
removed link

We're crazy about cricket in Australia. We play it on the beaches, we play it on the landing fields we will never surrender. No wait I think I messed that up.

Thanks for talking about our song MAB. You were a huge part of my growth as a songwriter for a pile of different reasons.

Andrew

And originally cricket test matches didn't have a time limit...you played until one team won or lost. Some matches would go 7 days...I think the record was 9 days.

They brought in 5 day test matches a while ago. It's very common for test matches to go the full five days and end in a draw.

The game got a lot more exciting when they invented one day cricket in the late 70s. Now they have games that last for just one night.

And there's been a huge amount of politics in cricket too.

The introduction of the one day series by Channel 9 in Australia resulted in half the best players being sacked from the national test match team.

It took a while for the national governing body to realize their best players preferred to get paid an actual income for matches they were playing in stadiums filled with tens of thousands of paying fans.

And then there was bodyline as you mentioned and more recently the underarm incident between New Zealand and Australia which created genuine tension between the two countries.

And the sandpaper incident between Australia and South Africa. That was a huge scandal!

I'm honestly not making this stuff up!

Andrew, welcome. Sorry it took me a day to moderate your first posts. This is an anti-spam measure to stop the dozens of bots that sign up every week from posting. Your posts should appear instantly from now on.

@andrew-cavanagh

Ah yes, Sandpapergate! I bet England are wishing Steve Smith was still banned at the moment. Been quite an Ashes series this summer.