Rudd takes guard

Australia would never stomach a dour football-lover as their Prime Minister, so it goes without saying that, unlike Gordon Brown, the new Aussie PM must be a cricket fan. But what does Kevin Rudd have to say about the noble sport, given that John Howard was quite happy to spout his opinions from beating the Poms to Murali's action?

Not much, it seems. As opposition leader, he popped up four years ago to defend Henry Olonga and Andy Flower after their protest at the death of democracy in Zimbabwe. Rudd tried to get the Government to give Olonga a scholarship to play in - and possibly for - Australia. He has also spoken out in favour of Australia not touring Zimbabwe until Mugabe is deposed.

His constituency includes the Gabba cricket ground and Rudd has said that he was "an attacking batsman in backyard cricket" while a diplomat in China but that's about it. He was at least savvy enough not to allow the media to film him playing cricket, unlike Howard who found that footage of him failing to land a ball on the wicket became a favourite on YouTube. So if anyone does have any info on Rudd and cricket, let me know.

Aussies may be reassured by this statistic: under Labour governments they have won 2.2 times more Tests against England than they have lost, while under the Liberals or their forerunners the win ratio is only 1.3. The reverse is true for England where our national team have won the Ashes only four times under Labour (losing 13 series) compared with a 16-18 series record under the Conservatives. If Brown goes for an election in May 2009, people may feel that voting for David Cameron is the best chance of winning back the Ashes.

Comments

[Kev]

Upon the occasion of the next sitting of Parliament, the first order of business for Her Majesty's new Commonwealth Government will be to legislate the approval of Ear Wax for gastronomical consumption and as an aerodynamic enhancer for sporting products.

If you read the transcript of my campaign launch thoroughly, you'd have found it on Page 876, Section B, Part (xxii); under 'Revised Booger (and Related) Usage'.

Sorry I can't expand, but I'm a bit busy.

All the best.

[Angus]

Will this affect selection for the Prime Minister's XI?

Do you really trust a man that eats his own earwax?

If you can rub saliva on a ball, can you buff it with earwax?

[Patrick Kidd]

Pedantry always welcome, James, especially when you do it so politely. Yes, a slip there on promoting Rudd ahead of time. I'd gone for the English spelling of Labour because I thought Times style was that we Anglicise such things (certainly we refer to the US Secretary of State for Defence, not Defense, and to the World Trade Centre, although Pearl Harbor still loses its "u" according to our style guide). But then after your message I checked and apparently we do style your new governing party as Labor. Maybe we just do it to wind up the Americans?

[James]

Couple of pedantic corrections. Rudd wasn't opposition leader four years ago during the Olonga/Flower protest. He was shadow to the foreign affairs minister back then and only became leader last December. The party he is in is the Australian LabOR (not Labour) Party. King O'Malley changed the spelling back in 1912.

[Moses @ OxenShizer]

I'd like to have seen a net session in the leadup to the election, would have told us a lot more than that stupid debate.

Howard has claimed recently that the ball in India was made of string. Still no excuse, and I believe that about as much as when he said he wouldn't introduce a GST. "Never?" "Never Ever!"

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www.oxenshizer.blogspot.com

[Peter McGuinness]

What a remarkable post Patrick.

I may be able to help.

I know little of Kevin Rudd's cricketing background, other than the fact that he could not break into the 3 XI at Nambour High. Ironically, the new Treasurer - Wayne Swan - went to the very same High School as Kev, and was apparently as handy 'keeper in the Seconds. I am encouraged that the new Treasurer has at least some experience as a custodian.

Rudd describes remembering his front bench colleague as 'a cool kid, a couple of years ahead of me, who used to smoke Marlboros continually behind the Moreton Bay Fig adjacent to the cricket nets.

Unsurprisingly, Swan has no schooldays recollection of the bookish young specialist Fine Leg Fieldsman at all.

Howard played for his Church Team until his late 20s. This goes to underline the importance of the separation of powers between Church and State, because it is said that John Winston Howard went very, very close to offending God himself with his Off-'Spin'.

Kev loves his cricket. Here's hoping he won't be filmed bowling a ball into his toe (Howard), or getting his glasses smashed into the Prime Ministerial forehead off a lifter (Hawke).

No Kev's cagey. I picture him as a Brearley type. Not getting involved in the crudeness of any physical activity, but directing proceedings with quiet genius from the safety of slip.