Thought of the Day: Cricket Australia hates New South Wales?

Cricket Australia (CA) made a big change this week, dropping its confusing system for contracting national players for a more baffling one.

The old system provided 25 of the best players in the country with financial assurance to enable them to focus on throwing, catching, bowling and hitting cricket balls.  Seemed fairly simple, but the players selected and the contracts given were not always so simple.

The new system allows for less contracts, only 17 now, and has an even more confusing process for allocation; the vast majority of players with national contracts now are bowlers.

While this has been a positive for South Australia and Queensland, who have gained players that lost their national contracts and have gone in search of more lucrative state contracts, the way in which these contracts reconcile to selection is still a mystery.

For example, Mitchell Johnson (last seen advertising underwear, or chicken, or both), has retained his contract though hasn't played anything close to Test cricket for over 18 months.

Further, Steven Smith (who has never looked like a cricketer), lost his contract though was selected for Australia's One Day match against England last night. Making this more confusing was that he was selected seemingly as a batsman, as he wasn't called into bowl, and this was a game in which the Australian bowlers needed greater support (only taking 5 wickets).

There are many more examples of this, which has made me consider who has benefited from this system most and least.  The players don't seem to have benefited, as there is now less structure and certainty, though many of the states now have due to the Diaspora.  The one state that has suffered the most though, is New South Wales, with Phil Hughes and Usman Khawaja both leaving the state for better deals.

After decades of support from CA, has NSW now fallen out of favour?  Is this just a means of encouraging interest in the Sheffield Shield again, or is something more personal at play?

Question of the Day: Whatever happened to Theo from Die Hard?

Watching Die Hard for the umpteenth time the other night, I suddenly realised that not all of the terrorists in the movie are killed. 

In the climax of the movie, the evil IT geek Theo (able to hack elevators, stop escalators, break safes etc) is getting ready to make a break for it in a stolen Ambulance when he is knocked out by Argyle, the sassy limousine driver.

Sassy limousine driver and inspiration to a young Usher

We know that at the end of the movie John McLane has been shot, blown up and beaten up, so decides to go back to his estranged wife's house for the palliative care that can only be provided by an illegal immigrant - driven by said limousine driver.

I can't administer care right now, I'm on the phone to a sassy limousine driver

But what ever happened to Theo?  Did the police find him, unconscious in a fake ambulance?  Or did he wake in time to flee the scene, only to go on and wreak havoc on elevators everywhere?  And finally, why didn't Argyle let the police know that one of the terrorists was knocked out in the car park?