Peter Lalor

4 days ago | cricketetal.com | Peter Lalor

Watching Ronald Barassi brush past the expensive seats filled with important AFL types on his way to an economy seat at the back of a plane filled with people excitedly whispering about the greatness among them, someone remarked that the only person who doesn’t know who Ron Barassi is, is Ron Barassi. The late AFL legend wasn’t oblivious to the impact he had on ordinarypeople, but did his best to dissuade them of any notion that he was separate.

6 days ago | cricketetal.com | Peter Lalor

“Change is present everywhere, India was now a country of million mutinies. A million mutinies, supported by twenty kinds of group excess, sectarian excess, religious excess, regional excess: the beginnings of self-awareness, it would seem the beginnings of an intellectual life, already negated by old anarchy and disorder. But there was in India now what didn't exist 200 years before: a central will, a central intellect, a national idea. ....

2 weeks ago | cricketetal.com | Peter Lalor

Francis’s last days are ignominious to say the least. An old man, stripped down to his sagging Y-fronts, motionless and listless in the backyard; when it rained earlier this week, he sought no shelter. Homeless, he has abandoned himself to the elements. He’s acquired a mouldy, dank smell that gets quite ripe on a warmer day. It can’t be long before they carry him away – like the bloke in the George Jones song. (Just quietly, one of the great pieces of country songcraft and often voted so.

3 weeks ago | cricketetal.com | Peter Lalor

“I wanted to hold on to the dream as long as I could, but the flip side to that is you want to feel better and live your life normally. I just don't want to risk doing any more damage to my brain than I've already done."Will Pucovski has finally – sadly – accepted that he can no longer play cricket, a decision he describes as “humongously disappointing”.

1 month ago | cricketetal.com | Peter Lalor

When Sam Konstas took down Jasprit Bumrah on that heady Boxing Day morning at the MCG all of cricket fell in love with the tousled-haired teen. How then do we find ourselves, just one Test further into his career, debating whether he should or should not open for his country in the World Test Championship final? Given what happened in front of 87,242 cricket fans that day, it hardly seems likely the occasion is going to get to the kid.