Yes, North is on the Honours Board as anyone who takes five...

Yes, North is on the Honours Board as anyone who takes five wickets in an innings gets their name on it. It is yet another example of how cheap 'records' have become these days. Years ago Cricket was war and the contests were fierce, half centuries and centuries were well earned and bowlers had to be exceptional to take five wickets in an innings and even more exceptional to take 10 wickets in a match. For too long now standards have been woeful and records have become largely meaningless.

In the current Cricket climate when you have so many "ordinary" players on the international circuit and so many "ordinary" teams I don't think it matters who captains Australia, they will still win the vast majority of Test Matches and Test Series they play, and if things continue the way they are going most of these victories will be offered up to them on a platter just like the spineless Pakistanis did for them in the First Test.

Pakistani Cricket is a joke and the same has been true of West Indian Cricket for quite some time now as is Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, although to their credit Zimbabwe showed plenty of team spirit, commitment and pride in their performances in a recent triangular tournament against India and Sri Lanka to give hope that they might finally be turning the corner. These attributes are something rarely seen from Pakistani,West Indian and Bangladeshi outfits.

One of these days the players that represent Pakistan, the West Indies and Bangladesh will actually put a price on their wickets and make the opposition toil hard for their victories, but commitment and pride in representing one's country seems not to matter anymore and the recent introduction of the IPL seems like it will only make matters worse when you have an increasing number of players more interested in the money they can make in the IPL than representing their country on the international stage.