Memories of England’s first Test in Perth: a terry towelling hat and Lillee’s aluminium bat | Brendan Foster
The first time I saw Australia play England in a Test at Perth, the Ashes weren’t at stake because the urn was gathering dust in a glass cabinet at Lord’s.A three-Test series against England in the summer of 1979-80 was hastily cobbled together after Cricket Australia finally capitulated to media tycoon Kerry Packer and awarded him the rights to televise top matches on Channel Nine.In return, Packer agreed to disband the World Series Cricket (WSC), which had caused a significant rupture in the game.England agreed to play the series on two strict conditions: the Ashes weren’t up for grabs, and the team wouldn’t wear the coloured uniforms made famous during WSC.It didn’t matter to me.
I was 12 years old, too young to understand the history of a tiny terracotta urn or grasp the complexities of Packer’s pyjama cricket.I wanted to see the firebrand bowler that every kid on the school oval was trying to emulate, Dennis Lillee.I arrived at the Waca Ground on the second day with a friend and his dad, hours before play began, and found a seat on a decaying wooden bench just inches from the field.Given that the venue offered as much shade as the Great Sandy Desert, the only protection I had from getting blisteringly sunburnt was my terry towelling hat.Even in the late 70s, the Waca seemed dilapidated, tired, and outdated.
The dusty, parched outfield resembled the drought-affected lawns of suburban Perth during a summer of water restrictions,When Lillee strode to the crease on the second morning of the game, neither the crowd nor the England players were aware he was wielding an aluminium bat,Lillee was warned by the Western Australian Cricket Board and his captain, Greg Chappell, about using the aluminium alternative,The bat, dubbed Combat, was designed by Lillee’s business partner, Graeme Monaghan,Cricketing folklore has a habit of eschewing the truth, but the story goes that close mate Rod Marsh goaded him to take it to the crease when he resumed his innings on day two.
(Lillee later admitted in his book, Menace, that the entire incident was a well-executed publicity stunt.) The only hint that something was amiss was when a resounding clunk echoed throughout the ground after Lillee drove Ian Botham down the ground.There was no humorous recognition from the cricketing congregation.England’s captain, Mike Brealey, immediately complained to umpires Max O’Connell and Don Weser that the bat was damaging the ball.While the calamity unfolded, Lillee leaned on his metal blade with his ill-fitting helmet and unbuttoned shirt, like a welder having a five-minute smoko.
The crowd started hooting and jeering, a grim blend of unrest and hostility, convinced that their beloved, heroic fast bowler was part of some daring, honourable deed,I was genuinely terrified and desperate to escape,Suddenly, every member of the moustached-clad, marauding mob behind me looked like villain Lee Van Cleef in the Italian epic spaghetti western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,Luckily, the early morning revellers’ rage hadn’t yet been fuelled by lukewarm Swan Lager,Had the incident occurred later in the afternoon, it might have been a different story.
The officials needed to act.After an animated discussion between the umpires and Brealey, Lillee was told he would have to replace his bat.The recalcitrant paceman refused to budge.After 10 minutes, Chappell was fed up, and barged on to the ground carrying three wooden bats.Despite partisan punters egging Lillee on, he knew the jig was up, so he aggressively hurled his bat away in humiliation and disgust.
The cricketing chatter at the time was that Chappell allowed the saga to drag on long enough to fire up Lillee,Not that Australia’s most revered tearaway needed any provocation,When it was time for him to bowl, Lillee came thundering in from the city end, with the Fremantle Doctor behind him, displaying an unmistakable and hypnotising swagger,In the blink of an eye, he had the openers, Geoff Boycott and Derek Randall, dismissed for ducks,The hostility from the crowd was now replaced by humour and hubris.
Sign up to The SpinSubscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week’s actionafter newsletter promotionI became mesmerised by these shirtless, drunken buffoons boisterously belting out Lillee’s name, as if he was some demigod sent down from the heavens.The tribal chanting from fans gathered around old caravans turned into makeshift bars, awkwardly plonked on the hill, was both thrilling and unsettling.I was hooked; I had found my tribe.Australia went on to win by 138 runs.They appeared to take just as much delight from seeing Boycott stranded on 99 in England’s second innings.
While I gained an uncensored view of the fierce competitiveness and bitter rivalry.I’ve been to every Ashes Test in Perth since, except in 2017 when Mitch Marsh and Steve Smith bludgeoned a frazzled England attack to all parts of the Waca.It would be the last time the old enemy played a Test at the venue.On Friday, Optus Stadium will host its first Ashes Test in one of the most eagerly anticipated contests since the gripping 2005 series.I will be there, minus the terry towelling hat.
People in the UK: have you received good or bad financial advice from an AI chatbot?
Tech companies are pumping billions into the growth of artificial intelligence, with OpenAI this month signing a $38bn (£29bn) cloud computing deal with Amazon as part of a $3tn datacentre spending spree.But as people increasingly use AI chatbots – such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot, Meta AI and Perplexity – for advice and task completion, some observers have concerns about misinformation, hullicinations and irresponsible advice.A survey this year from KPMG and the University of Melbourne found that 80 percent of people in the UK believe AI regulation is required.We want to hear from people who have asked chatbots for financial advice. Have you asked AI tools for help with money, debt or personal finance? Were you recommended anything unexpected, or unsuitable? What was the financial result? Do you have concerns?You can tell us about askng AI tools for financial advice herePlease include as much detail as possible
AI slop tops Billboard and Spotify charts as synthetic music spreads
Three songs generated by artificial intelligence topped music charts this week, reaching the highest spots on Spotify and Billboard charts.Walk My Walk and Livin’ on Borrowed Time by the outfit Breaking Rust topped Spotify’s “Viral 50” songs in the US, which documents the “most viral tracks right now” on a daily basis, according to the streaming service. A Dutch song, We Say No, No, No to an Asylum Center, an anti-migrant anthem by JW “Broken Veteran” that protests against the creation of new asylum centers, took the top position in Spotify’s global version of the viral chart around the same time. Breaking Rust also appeared in the top five on the global chart.“You can kick rocks if you don’t like how I talk,” reads a lyric from Walk My Walk, a seeming double entendre challenging those opposed to AI-generated music
UK firms can win a significant chunk of the AI chip market | John Browne
The UK is in a uniquely promising position, far too little understood, to play a lucrative role in the coming era of artificial intelligence – but only if it also grabs the opportunity to start making millions of computer chips.AI requires vast numbers of chips and we could supply up to 5% of world demand if we get our national act together.Our legacy in chip design is world-class, starting with the first general-purpose electronic computer, the first electronic memory and the first parallel computer. Today we have Cambridge-based Arm, a quiet titan designing more than 90% of the chips powering phones and tablets globally.With such a pedigree, it is not idle daydreaming for British companies to win a significant chunk of the AI chip market; 5% is a conservative, achievable ambition
EU investigates Google over ‘demotion’ of commercial content from news media
The EU has opened an investigation into Google Search over concerns the US tech company has been “demoting” commercial content from news media sites.The bloc’s executive arm announced the move after monitoring found that certain content created with advertisers and sponsors was being given such a low priority by Google that it was in effect no longer visible in search results.European Commission officials said this potentially unfair “loss of visibility and of revenue” to media owners could be a result of an anti-spam policy Google operates.Under the rules of the Digital Market Act (DMA), which governs competition in the tech sectors, Google must apply “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory conditions of access to publishers’ websites on Google Search”.Commission officials said the investigation was not into the overall indexing of newspapers or their reporting on Google Search, just into commercial content provided by third parties
Anthropic announces $50bn plan for datacenter construction in US
Artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced a $50bn investment in computing infrastructure on Wednesday that will include new datacenters in Texas and New York.“We’re getting closer to AI that can accelerate scientific discovery and help solve complex problems in ways that weren’t possible before,” Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, said in a press release.Building the massive information warehouses takes an average of two years in the US and requires copious amounts of energy to fuel the facilities. The company, maker of the AI chatbot Claude, popular with businesses adopting AI, said in a statement that the “scale of this investment is necessary to meet the growing demand for Claude from hundreds of thousands of businesses while keeping our research at the frontier”. Anthropic said its projects will create about 800 permanent jobs and 2,400 construction jobs
Waymo announces that its robotaxis will drive freeways for the first time
Alphabet’s Waymo said on Wednesday that it would begin offering robotaxi rides that use freeways across San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix, a first for the Google subsidiary as it steps up expansion amid global and domestic competition in the self-driving industry.Freeway rides will initially be available to early-access users, Waymo said. “When a freeway route is meaningfully faster, they can be matched with a freeway trip, providing quicker, smoother, and more efficient rides,” it said.Waymo, which already operates in parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, is also extending operations to San Jose, including Mineta San Jose international airport, the second airport in its service area after Phoenix Sky Harbor.The move comes as Tesla expands its robotaxi service with safety monitors and drivers, and Zoox – backed by Amazon – offers free robotaxi rides on and around the Las Vegas Strip
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