I heard rumors that cricket australia is getting MC and IT strategy advice from ACN Australia. Has anyone else heard this as well?

if that's true, then they are looking in the wrong direction.what they really need is a decent bowling coach and a few top class batsmen.

Hoping that the Acn contract gets extended to the Ashes this year!

I think that even with ACN giving them advisory services, they can still win matches. England is so well behind the curve that even with acn, australia will still beat them in the ashes. However, if IBM joins in, then the IBM-ACN advisory combo is so great that no team can overcome this handicap.

England would have a better chance in the Ashes if we still had the egomaniac in charge.At the moment, unless BAS wins the contract to adise Cricket Australia, I would make them slight favourites.

I'd love to meet the slightly sweaty grad spending sleepless nights preparing the powerpoint to teach Ponting about forward defensive technique.Now that's borrowing a watch to tell them the time!

They'd probably provide a 30 slide deck on the pitfalls of laying jellybeans on the wicket. Maybe even a few 'value-add' slides on the concept of reverse swing.

Ponting is still the best captain by far.His side is weakened by the recent departures, but still top-tier. They are just a bit tired of playing so much cricket in a short period of time. As an arrogant aussie fan, i think they are the best side and will bounce back very strong with the likes of ACN providing them advice.ACN never fails; see its website...its one of the highest value add consulting companies around.

Ponting best captain?No way - lacks any real imagination and his tactical naivity is fully apparent now that he does not have McGrath and Warne to carry his side to victory.He does not even get the best of a limited bunch (unlike Jaewardene) and lacks the charisma of a great leader such as Smith or Dhoni

Judging from their win against NZ, it looks like the MC consulting is paying dividends. I wonder if PA are secretly advising England - 51 all out is on par with PA performance... Hmmm.

51 against the windies...PA aint consulting them, IBM global services is!

with their recent series win against NZ and also the t20 win,australia have once again shown they are the best team in the world. The team has some of the best players, led by the best captain in the world. Their fans, although arrogant, are also good; as can be evidenced by the hot chicks in the crowd at their matches.

How does drawing 2-2 equate to winning a series? Against NZ too - not exactly in the same class as India or South Africa

To the above poster:australia's win in the series- 2-2 means that the defending champs retain the trophy in the event of a tied series. These are the rules, so australia did retain the trophy.As for NZ, agree that they are not in the same league as india or south africa, but are in the same league as merry old england!Watch and see what australia will do to the poms in the upcomming ashes series. No more trips to number 10 downing street for the english team!

wow...who ever thinks that ponting is the best captain needs to think again....he was never an extraodinary captain...majority of his sucess was due to warne, langer, mcgrath, gilchrist ....now when a testing time came after all these superstars have gone..his captaincy skills have been badly exposed...all the great captains in the past have been able to transform the ordinary outfits into a winning combination...e.g. imran khan, stephen fleming, presently dhoni and smith...and who ever thinks they have some of the world's best players needs to get facts right as none of aussie player made it into ICC test team of year 2008....

t20 Player.Australia drew the series 2-2 (rain saved them in the last game) and therfore retained the pointless trophy by virtue of not having lost the series.That is not the same as winning the series.Perhaps one of your colleagues can lend you an abacus to help you add up?

All the greats who hae retired can be replaced:Mcgrath--> shaun taitWarne--> Stuart Mcgill/David HusseyHayden--> Warner(need to give him another chance)Symonds( kicked out indefinately pending psychiatic help)--> Moses Henriques

t20 player - you are delusionalTait like Symonds is a mentalist and really struggles for consistencymcgill - hasn't he retired? / Hussey - is he going to reinvent himself from batting allrounder to spin king?Warner - to be fair he could step in Haydos shoesHenriques - reserve judgement but his first class figures dont really stack up

Mcgrath--> shaun taitWarne--> Stuart Mcgill/David HusseyHayden--> Warner(need to give him another chance)Symonds( kicked out indefinately pending psychiatic help)--> Moses Henriques This brightened up my day.McGill is retired. In fact, your spin cupboard is so dry I reckon my nan could do a better job. Tait breaks down and indeed is a mentalist, having the same mental toughness as Ian Bell on a bad day. Warner is unproven at first class level as does Henriques - he never did kick on as a junior. Stick to what you know, which is clearly nothing whatsoever about cricket.

Do you rate Bell? - I do, I thinks he's one of the best cricketers England's had for a long time.... he has a confidence/esteem/astertiveness etc problem but I hope he gets another chance.

Okay, I'll agree that australia's spin dept is a bit dry. I think nathan hauritz (off spin) can give it a go. He has shown excellent progress so far against NZ and is a real up and commer.I also think Ben Hilfenhaus is an excellent backup bowler to brett lee. The australian team never ceases to amaze me; they keep on bringing young stars to the game who step up when their team needs them to. Although they lost the series against south africa, all the games were close, and could have gone either way. Its like a coin toss, and south africa got lucky most of the time.For debutants in the aussie team to make a real match against the likes of smith, kallis, etc speaks vol.umes as to how much potential the young australian team has. Aas soon as these guys get some more matches under their belt, they will once again regain their rightful place as the #1 test and one day side.And when ricky retires, michae clarke will take control ( and probably have symonds as vice captain- provided he passes his psycho tests).

Typical whinging Aussie. Wouldn't catch us Poms moaning like that about bad luck.

T20 fantasist,Were Aus also unfortunate to lose the series to India last year? No they were outclassed and outfought by a better side.Both Smith and Dhoni outcaptained Ponting.Hauritz is a nowhere near Warne or even McGill class.Australia have a history of not bringing young stars into the game - why did Hussey (M) have to wait so long for his test debut? Why recall Katich to reinvent himself as an opener? Why call up McGain at the age of 36?Lee seems to be terminally unfit, Tait is a looney. The bowling cupboard is very bare. Good enough to beat the likes of NZ, WI and Pakistan (if you can bring youselves to play them), but will come unstuck agains SA, Ind and England.

pseud (SOOD) n. A person with pretensions to cultural or intellectual sophistication.

Last poster - greeat way to continue a thread about cricket- real value added - how about getting a life / girlfriend / testiclesI'd still make the arrogants slight favourites in the Ashes given England's inabiliity to close out WI today

Heheh... australia is back baby! convincing performance with bat and ball against the south africans.This is proof that the australian team is an excellent outfit , even with debutants ( North scored a ton on debut!!), and how bout mitch johnson...yikes ..hes simply the best all rounder on the planet.Finally, this also vindicates pontings captaincy and puts him in the same league as allan border, gavaskar, beneaud, clive lloyd, etc.He has been able to take a very young team, a team that got beaten at home, take em to a foreign land and get them to play excellent cricket.Watch out in the ashes...the poms dont stand a chance. Heck, they cant even put away the west indies ( worst professional test playing side).

More great inspirational captaincy by Punter/ Knocked out of the t20 at the group stages = hope that Brett Lee bowls as well in the Ashes

That's what I call - HIGH PERFORMANCE. DELIVERED. Good bye aussie w@nker$, see you next year (for another round of bashing). I'm loving it....

I hate to get all 'Germaine Greer' on you but at least 50% of people who have read this thread will be women now frantically typing entries into google of 'cricket' and 'spin bowling' to try and understand what on earth is being talked about.Let's keep the sport to a men only forum shall we?

A nice spot of Aussie bashing adds some joviality and a human element to the forum.

Kicking out symonds was a mistake. So what if he knocked back a few? aint a man allowed to get wasted? ...or going fishing for that matter..?In the old days, if you did not come into practice under the influence, you would be considered abnormal and the team captain would personally take you out to knock back a few beers.

So much for the Aussies n English who invent the game, play it for 120 years and still loose at it. My money is on the Windies

"So much for the Aussies n English who invent the game, play it for 120 years and still loose at it. My money is on the Windies"Probably went to uni and still can't form a sentence properly.Dark horse tip - Pakistan. If they decide they actually want to put in a performance come Thursday.

Australia outclassed by England in this test - made for great TV.Poor selection for them in leaving out their best fit bowler (Clark) - plays into our hands!This is the beginning of the end for Ponting!T20 loser / arrogant aussie - how does it feel?

everyone by now knows that the only reason why australia lost at lords is because of dodgy decisions against them by the umpires. They surely would have won had these decisions been fair. As far as I am concerned, they lost only 6 wickets in the last innings....thus the match is still open..lets call it a draw.Australia play to win....england play to not loose, kinda like accentures mindset...play to not loose.Freddy flintoph is not the best player ; even hauritz is better than him ( his figures proove it).Australia also plays within the spirit of the game, especially at a place like lords. England did not at the wales test match. I still think australia should revoke the symonds ban as he is obviously capable and mentally fit as well. In addition, i would also bring back shaun tait in place of michell johnson, who is out of form with the ball.For england, i would bring in garlic and eggplant instead of onions...lol

confused by some of the spelling where there seems to be a loose cannon losing his balls whilst letting loose at the enemy.Lose - to not winLoos - a beckham fanLoose - how you may describe the above

And the other variant:Loser = Australia / Ricky Ponting