"Our reward for beating England in this year's World Cup is to be excluded from the next one"

A slightly different tack for this post, but one which I feel compelled to write about! As anyone who has spent more than about ten minutes talking to me will know, I love sport. Playing, watching, reading about, talking about - it all counts. And an opportunity for a good debate about sport is always welcome.

So, this morning, as most days when I first get up, I took a quick look at the headlines on the BBC Sport website. Today, the one that caught my eye was the news that the next Cricket World Cup, to be held in Australia and New Zealand in 2015, will only feature 10 teams, not 14 like the one that has just finished.

Not a massive story, right? I mean, I agree with the majority of people worldwide that seven weeks for a world cup is definitely too long, and to shorten a tournament, then the easiest way is to cut down the amount of teams. And, let's face it, there were a number of one-sided games during this latest tournament, and in fact the one before that.

But, wait. It's not quite that simple. The ten teams that will take part in this tournament have already been decided. Yes, four years in advance. And that means no place for Ireland, who reached the Super Eights four years ago and, this time around, pulled off a sensational win over England, as well as running the West Indies, India and Bangladesh fairly close. Ireland, despite being ranked ahead of Zimbabwe now, are not considered worthy of a place in the tournament. How can this be fair? But it's okay, because for the 2019 CWC, there will be qualifying rounds prior to the tournament itself.

That's an eight year gap. Eight years during which Irish (and Canadian, Kenyan, Dutch etc) cricketers know that they have no chance in even trying to make it to a competition which is supposedly the pinnacle of limited overs cricket. The ICC claim they are committed to fifty overs cricket, and to the development of cricket in the 96 associate nations, yet this step seems to be a complete contradiction. Only time will, but I would not be surprised to see more and more Irish cricketers trying to declare for England as this could be their best chance of getting to play in a world cup. Or else, there could well be a dearth of interest in the fifty over game inside these associate nations, and perhaps even more of a focus on Twenty20 cricket, where at least they are allowed to compete. All this, coming on the back of an exciting, often enthralling tournament that brought public attention back on fifty over cricket. Jonathan Agnew, for example, in his column on the BBC website, said that "The Cup showed the 50-over game is the best one-day format". He should have added: “If you're one of the ten test playing nations, that is.”

What's the solution then? I don't claim to have all the answers. All I know is that, at the end of the day, sport is a competition. You want a contest. You should not have a tournament where the participants are decided four years in advance, essentially down to the fact that they are better established in world cricket. They aren't even the best ten teams in the world according to the ICC's somewhat dubious ranking criteria. Selecting the top ten ranked teams has its merits, and can be defended, but not four years in advance. But even that appears to have gone too far for the ICC and the status quo of the older cricket playing nations has been preserved for at least the next four years. No one wants to risk embarrassment at the hands of a team who does not even play test matches...But surely, if you have a genuine interest in the game of cricket, then you should want to develop across the globe and rid itself somewhat of the image of the "colonial, elitist game" and attract new fans and participants – outside the traditional strongholds of the game. 

Kangaroos in the Garden, and other stories...

So I've definitely not updated this as often as I have been intending to, but its quality, not quantity, right? Ahem. Not that I would claim that my musings are particularly full of quality either though, but never mind.

So I've spent the last two weekend seeing something of New South Wales, including a trip to Orange, to see the lovely Miss Kelly Wade-Johnson, a fellow ex Uni-Haller, and also an epic 8 person trip to Jervis Bay. Things may never be the same again after a couple of hours spent playing Ring of Fire and of course, Never Have I Ever. By the end of 3rd year in St. Andrews, Never Have I Ever became more of a game of catching people out because, let's be fair, living in hall we knew pretty much who HAD done what, and when. So playing it for the first time with people - always revealing.

Anyway, Jervis Bay is gorgeous. It chucked it down with rain most of the time and I ended up throwing up due the choppy water on our dolphin searching trip (nice, I know...) but apart from that, simply stunning.

And also, we saw kangaroos. Yes, I know I'm in Australia, but they don't exactly bound up the main streets of Sydney or go chill out under the Harbour Bridge. But apparently, they do live in the more rural areas...and just wander into town for an afternoon relaxing in the gardens or by the side of the road. Immense. I definitely felt like I was in Australia as we stood looking at these incredible animals.

And now its Friday again, and I can't believe another week of my time in Sydney has passed. 

Life on a blow-up mattress

This week has not entirely gone according to plan. Having moved into a new flat on Tuesday - a cheap room, own room for myself and my friend - and it even had a TV,  was pretty much right in the middle of town and the office...yes, it was most definitely too good to be true. Tanya and I did not have our own room, we were in fact sharing it with hundreds of bedbugs. Or so it seems, looking at the amount of bites on our bodies. Not an ideal situation. Needless to say, we moved out of the flat pretty sharply. Although apparently 2 nights is plenty long enough and I definitely can't wear tank tops or shorts for a few more days unless I want to be looked at as though I'm contagious. I'm not, incidentally. No bed bugs actually live on me...

So we're technically homeless, though of course that's not strictly true. We staying on a blow-up mattress at my work, which is also where my boss and colleague are living. Which, I'm not going to lie, has been a lot of fun. I think the two people I work with are absolutely brilliant, and it's great getting to know them better. We have been out the last two nights and also went walking yesterday afternoon.

It's also reminded me that I do enjoy meeting new people. It's very easy when you have a group of friends to just stick to what you know, what's fun, and what's comfortable. And there are a lot of strange people in Sydney. But there are also a lot of interesting people that you miss out on when you're out as a group. Friday night, two of us went to the apartment downstairs and had a brilliant time - we'd never met any of the people before yet they forced us to drink their mojitos and eat their burritos. I only hope that I can be that welcoming! They were all a little older, late twenties I guess, I felt completely comfortable, though clearly conversations around marriage and house buying are a little beyond me right now. Thank goodness, I feel I should add.

I can't actually quite believe that it is Sunday again. The weeks just fly by here, much as they did during my last year at St. Andrews, and another week of work awaits. Which really isn't a problem. There's also plenty to look forward to, particularly a mini St. Andrews invasion. Karen, a girl I knew from the Bubble, arrives in Sydney Wednesday morning, and I could not be more excited. We aren't even particularly close, but I love this little slice of Scottishness. St. Andrews is such a unique place that I feel that you have to have lived there to truly understand. I've become friends with another girl in Sydney who I never even met in St. Andrews (I hardly thought that was possible!) and it's great getting to know her. And incredibly easy to find a range of topics to talk about...And then, on Thursday, a guy I met in Melbourne is coming over from New Zealand for a few days - and he went to St. Andrews too, though graduated the year before I started. And, to top it all, one of my closest friends, Emma, has booked to come out here in April.

It's strange though, seeing people you know from a completely different context, out here. I mean, one of the one hand you have a tiny Scottish town - and probably my favourite place in the world. On the other, you have the most populous city in Australia, home to the Harbour bridge and the Sydney Opera house. Without a doubt, my four years in St. Andrews had a massive effect on the person I am today, and I wonder if I'll look back on my experiences as a Sydneysider in a similar fashion in a few months time. This is the only time I've ever lived in a city but I don't think it's going to be the last. Now there's something I never thought I'd be so excited about...

So, almost three months in...

This has not been a decision taken lightly. After all, I am almost 3 months into my epic trip and it's only now that I feel that I need to put some of my feelings and experiences down in writing, to go with the thousands of photos I have taken so far. I just can't go on any longer without some written words on the matter.


Since December 3rd, when I packed my suitcase and headed for the UK, I have seen more and done more than I could ever have imagined, yet have only experienced a very small part of the immense country that is Australia - which, in turn, is only such a very small part of the amazing array of cultural experiences that can be found all over the world. I've had a brilliant time but am most definitely not ready to go home yet, so it's lucky I don't have to. 


I started off with Perth, Western Australia, the most remote city in the country. It takes five hours to fly from Perth to Sydney - just to put into context, within that amount of time you could fly from London to Moscow, or almost reach Nova Scotia from Glasgow. The size of this country is just staggering and really makes travelling inside the UK seem like a walk in the park. I'll never again complain about a six hour train journey from London to Scotland!


After that, it was Sydney for New Years Eve and, much to my surprise, I fell in love with the city almost immediately. I never thought I was a 'city person,' but my experiences in Sydney and Melbourne have certainly changed my feelings on this matter. I love the fact that there is always something going on and have certainly made the most of the international sporting events that have taken place during the three months I have been away. It's made me even more certain that my future does lie with some sort of sporting involvement. Now just to try and narrow it down from there...


I'm now back in Sydney, working part time for a company called Global Business Reports, a provider or industry reports on behalf of the Commonwealth Business Council. The project I'm working on is to compile a report for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting that's taking place in Perth in October, and as a result, I now know more about the state of the Australian economy than I would ever have thought possible - and probably more than a lot of Australians know about their own company. The plan is to stay here for the next couple of months, before restarting my travels again properly, with the East Coast, New Zealand and possibly even the Northern Territory and Thailand awaiting. 


So, from over 10,000 miles away, here is the introduction to my blog. This is what I'm going to try and do over the next few months, combining reflections on my experiences together with anything that I feel needs to be expressed. Thank you for reading it.