Death by Multimedia

The men's World T20 tournament starts in a few hours, and so it is time to consider two important questions. Can Australia win it? And if not, who will? Today on The Casual Mankadder I give you my thoughts on Australia's squad, how they will line up, and what they need to do to change up their recent poor T20 form in order to have a chance of making the semi-final stage. After that I'll give you m...

There seems to be a lot of excitement in some overseas places and also on Fox Cricket who have the exclusive rights, to the beginning of the delayed men’s T20 World Cup, which gets underway tonight Australian time. And while we here at The Casual Mankadder are less enamored about the shortest form of the game at an international level, the first couple of weeks will at least showcase some of the l...

Yes, the WBBL starts tonight, and here on The Casual Mankadder, we like to put our money where our mouth is. And then generally lose it. So on today's episode we run through all of the competing teams, and give you a run down on where they will finish this season from 8 through to the number 1.

On today's episode of The Casual Mankadder, we discuss the turmoil that exists with the Sheffield Shield, both on the field and off, and whether or not Cricket Australia could have done more to avoid the challenges that not face it. The women have won their series against India, but once again I decide to mouth off about the follies of winning the toss and inserting the opposition. And finally, ap...

In the first of a planned 25 years of upcoming episodes, friends of almost 40 years get together on a Saturday and discuss the week in sports, politics, life and covid meltdowns. On today's first episode, these two giants of mediocrity discuss last week's NRL Grand Final, along with rules tweaking, the 17th NRL franchise and Benji Marshall's legacy. Alongside this there is also Toby Green's length...

As Australia creeps closer to being released from the grip of Covid lockdowns, this week has seen an outbreak on opinions of the fate of this summers men’s Ashes series and just who if anyone will tour for England. Today we discuss both sides of the argument and try to decide if there is a possibility of a compromise in the air. The women’s Test on the Gold Coast has raised differing opinions on t...

Ravi Ashwin has managed to make the news again this week, this time by being solely blamed for taking an extra run after the ball thrown in had hit his batting partner and bounced away from the backup fielder. Not for the first time in his career he was accused of conduct unbecoming of "The Spirit of Cricket". On today's episode I will rant on once again about my feelings of that magical phrase an...

The ODI section of the Women's Cricket Series between Australia and India have been completed, and the series is a lot tighter than the score line suggests, and today we'll look at what has been occurring in Mackay. The Sheffield Shield is also (finally) underway, but has already hit a hurdle that may well spell disaster for the Australian summer ahead. David Warner has lost his spot (again) for h...

In round four of the Chip Challenge, there is drama, tears, anger and court action over the final result. It's a no holds barred episode as the decisions of some judges come under attack, and the final result is left completely up in the air until the final seconds. It is the most dramatic episode of the Chip Challenge yet, and is not to be missed.

We've reached (finally) the third round of the Choc Challenge, and there are some surprising results, as the choc that was expected to be the number one popular choice surprisingly defeated on the day! Tune in for all the action.

The decision by the ECB to abandon their tour of Pakistan this week, on top of India’s decision to abandon the 5th Test of their series against India two weeks ago, along with New Zealand’s decision to abandon their tour of Pakistan last week, not only leaves the cricket world in a state of flux, but also acts as a warning to Cricket Australia in their decision making over the next 12 months regar...

Australia’s Test captain Tim Paine has just gone in for surgery on an injury to his neck which has apparently been causing him problems in training for almost two months. Although the prognosis is good and he currently claims he will be fine to lead his country onto the ground for the start of the 1st Test against England, it raises a few questions in regard to why it took so long to have the surg...

Week 3 of the Chip Challenge, and the judges are really beginning to get into their roles, indeed beginning to even taking into account the health factor and sodium content of the chip. Madness. Anyway, five new chip varieties fight it out to make it to the next round in this episode of the Chip Challenge.

It has been just over a week now since the 5th Test between England and India was 'abandoned' due to a positive covid outbreak in the Indian backroom staff. Since then, the back and forth between what the result of that match should be, and what the real reason for the 'abandonment' occurring was, has been a source of discussion. Which is just what we'll do here today on this episode of The Casual...

Controversy erupts on this week's edition of the Choc Challenge, as the four judges almost come to blows over the choices for the Ultimate Loser chocolate and then the winning chocolate that progresses through to the next round. Tension abounds as one of this weeks' chocalte actually fights it out for BOTH awards! Tune in to hear how it all unfolds!

After the raging success of the 1st round of the Chip Challenge, we're back this week with seven new varieties of chips for our contestants to try, in the race to decide what is the best chip in this part of the multiverse. Tune in for all the excitement as the votes come down to the wire!

If the inaugural Test between Australia and Afghanistan, set down for late November in Hobart, is cancelled due to the Taliban’s stance on women playing sport, which seems increasingly likely, then we can only hope that someone at Cricket Australia already has their thinking cap on and is ready to run with the best way to prepare our Test team for the upcoming Ashes series. Well as it turns out, t...

It's been on hiatus for awhile, but with the finals upon us, it's time to ramble on endlessly about the footy, and see just how many people I can disagree with on the subject at hand. We take a look at the final round shenanigans, discuss the pros and cons of the teams in the bottom eight, and then look ahead to this weekend's first finals - all here on In League With the NRL.

After the amazing success of the introduction of the Chip Challenge - mainly from the members of the family that got to consume the chips - we've decided to take it a step further, and introduce... the Choc Challenge! Here then is the first round of the Choc Challenge, where hungry and sugar starved family members grab a cup of tea and charge in on five different chocolate bars to decide which one...

How bored are you getting with the Australian East Coast Lockdown? No doubt, after ten weeks of it, you, like us, are starting to get to a point where you need to find new ways of keeping yourself amused. So what do we do? We decide that what we need to do is start a competition that involves eating salty flavourful snacks, and then record it for posterity. So that’s how this came about – the Chip...

Over the past couple of weeks there has been a very public and brutal bringing down of the Australia head cricket coach, not only from leaks to the media from within the playing group and the back room staff employed by the national team, but from further stories being aired every day from many news organisations. Exactly what the supposed problems within the closed walls of the Australian cricket...

Three playing squads from two different countries for several different forms of the game for three different series were announced last week, and while all contained their surprises the men’s squads went in a similar direction – back to the future, consolidating experience against those that in recent times have been asked to cover for their absence. Australia’s squad for the T20 World Cup is loo...

In the space of 24 hours we have seen the conclusion of two fantastic Test matches, games that have once again provided all the proof you need that Test cricket is the ultimate form of the game, and must continue to be allowed to be the number one spectacle when it comes to cricket, and defy any attempts to tinker with its format. Today on The Casual Mankadder we will have a look at two different...

Perhaps you, like me, have spent the past couple of weeks watching the Olympic Games from Tokyo, and no matter what your thoughts going into were in regards to whether or not it should have gone ahead, I think most of us would agree that it has been an amazing success given the hardships that have occurred over the past 18 months to get it off the ground. On today’s episode, while discussing the p...

This week on THE CASUAL MANKADDER, we discuss Australia's collapse to a 4-1 defeat in the T20 series in Bangladesh and try to look forward  as to what this result will mean for the players and the team's chances in the upcoming T20 World Cup. Then we take a look at the washup - or washout - of the 1st Test between England and India and why Joe Root has gone from mediocre to sudden saviour in...