new era~

ricky ponting has stood down from captaincy...

and today, cricket australia has announced Michael Clarke as the new captain, and Shane Watson as the new vice captain.....

many polls from different media sources have shown that people are opposed to clarke taking over the reins.... and instead there is a strong backing for shane watson and even mike hussey to be the new australian captain.....

i think mike hussey can be dismissed pretty easily in this case.... firstly, several months ago, before the ashes, we had the situation with marcus north.... people wanted him out of the team... then he made a few centuries, then everyone said he could be the new captain.....

then mike hussey was under pressure.... he should be out of the team.... then he was our best performer in the ashes series.... and he's the new hero..... then the selectors wouldnt do him a favour and choose him for the world cup squad.... then they fly him to the world cup to join the team later on..... now he's a candidate for the captaincy....

if anything, i start to wonder why brad haddin hasnt had more backing to be a captain.... it seems the wicket keeper would have the best perspective of the game, yet haddin... and gilchrist have always been overlooked.... being vice to several captains instead....

im quite critical of clarke being captain as well.... not that he's bad at the job... but purely based on the fact that he's an out of form cricketer, and if he's captain, he wont be dropped from the team.... i think like all players, they should be picked on form.... and clarke's form doesnt put him in our best 11 at the moment....

yes, he has made a few high scores lately... but put that with the other <10-run innings in between... there are plenty of talented batsmen in australia..... like mitchell johnson.... like mike hussey.... like marcus north... like ALL the spinners..... clarke needs to be dropped from the team, play some state cricket and find form again.....

now... it will never happen....

so just like that random guy at the media conference told him.... he should start putting his eyes over the ball and practice practice practice!!!

disaster after disaster....

its as if the earthquake and tsunami wasnt bad enough... disaster continues to hit japan day after day....

it has been 4 days since the original earthquake.... the resulting tsunami causing tremendous damage, and 28 aftershocks following the first earthquake... 28!!!! and more than a handful of them were big earthquakes themselves....

yesterday, a volcano in japan woke up from its silence and started to spew smoke and ash all over a devasted country.....

and in the last 24 hours, the most serious of disaster broke out.... a nuclear power station pretty much overheated and blew up.... causing dangerous amounts of radiation to break through into the atmosphere....

the official death toll is over 4000, but with the number of people still missing, they fear that over 10,000 people died in the city of Miyagi alone....

this is modern tragedy at its peak.... and with the nuclear issue hitting the east coast of japan... it seems the serious issue is only beginning now....

Japan quake...

really... what were the odds??
my last post was the NZ quake... and today, there was a quake measuring 8.9 that hit off the coast of japan.... and as a result, a quake that size has caused a tsunami that has gone thru japan...

also, in my last post, i noted how warming it was to see australians help out their neighbours.... i commended the friendly rivalry.... and really wished that koreans would take that approach too.... so... what were the odds this would happen weeks later....

well.... south korea are sending a rescue team to japan to help out... that was always going to happen.... but its the public reaction that im actually looking into.... it is day 1 of the quake.... and if u go on a live feed forum on a korean website, alot of celebrities are posting messages of condolence for the quake victims....

general public... hopefully they are primary school kids.... are writing posts just to commend japanese buildings that didnt fall.... comment that korea should pay the engineers to come and build some of our buildings.... someone even wrote, "i live on the east coast of korea. am i going to die? i cant swim"...... im going to assume a 10 year old wrote that....

on the 27th of this month, im going to play in a charity cricket match in korea to raise funds for the NZ quake.... theres a ANZ cricket team here that i've joined, and they are trying to gather foreigners here to donate....

NZ.... and now Japan.....

my neighbours~~~~~~!!! 화이팅~~!!