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overlanddriver

Listed below are comments made by overlanddriver between Monday, 13th October 2008 and Monday, 13th July 2009.

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Getting away with it 09:21am on 13 Jul 2009 Excellent analysis Tom! In every sport, the true greats are cold bloodedly single minded in pursuit of success - look at Senna & Schumaker in F1, McEnroe & Navratilova in tennis, Man Utd, the Springboks in Rugby ... and Australia at cricket. It is much harder in team sports to instill this in each squad member, but the Aussies seem to do this easily. Ponting may not be the greatest charmer in the world - but that's not what he's interested in. Winning - and winning against England especially, is all that matters. He leads by example and every player in the Aussie squad follows his example. It's an attitude which transfers seamlessly from squad to squad (think of Border & Waugh .. not to mention McGrath, Warne, Gilchrist, Hayden etc)Losing is not an option.

In 2005, Vaughan & Fletcher made England believe in themselves. Vaughan was a great captain, because he would not permit anything less than 100% - and all the players knew it.

Strauss simply doesn't have what it takes. His tactics lacked any imagination and there was no evidence whatsoever of passion. (Think Steve McClaren ....) He needed to stamp his authority on the team and earn their respect. If he'd done this, would Petersen have thrown his wicket away twice? Playing for England is a privilage, and has to earned. I would drop Petersen for the Lord's test and bring back Bell. Dropping England's (supposedly) best batsman would send a strong message to every other player in the team - you are not there by right!

Make Colly captain - at least he leads by example ...
More demands expected 10:21am on 13 Oct 2008 I can see all sorts of demands emerging for further nationalisation (rail network, water companies, gas & electricity companies etc) - and in principle, a great idea. One small ... technical problem .... where's the money coming from???? or perhaps the Government will borrow from it's (our) own banks ...

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