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MickGatting

Listed below are comments made by MickGatting between Thursday, 19th February 2009 and Friday, 21st August 2009.

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A glimpse of life after Freddie 11:06pm on 21 Aug 2009 Stuart Broad showed how good he was in the 4th Test, as the only England player who actually played well, and he waited patiently today to get a bowl and then showed everybody that he can bowl like Glenn McGrath and is ready for a future as England´s new all rounder.
I agree with some of the previous writers that the poor umpire decisons have evened out - today Shane Watson had and extra life and Michael Clark didnt.More rubbish from Collingwood with the bat, not my choice to captain England or even be in the one day games to follow.And Andrew Strauss doing a good job and I believe going onto yet another century on saturday.Looking forward to the next 2 days play!
England batsmen fail again 00:46am on 21 Aug 2009 This is a big improvement on Headingly, and I expect Broad & Harmison to get us close to 400 tomorrow morning. I think our bowlers will be encouraged by the pitch and fancy their chances to bowl Australia out for 300.Strauss should not be reluctant to call upon Collingwood´s medium pacers if the others make slow inroads into the Australian batting.
Good start to Trott´s career,Ian Bell´s & Siddle´s lucky day, excellent fielding from Australia.
Odd that Australia chose to leave out proven match winner Brett Lee who is feared by the english,& would have been able to blast England out cheaply today had he been selected.IF Australia doesnt win the Ashes,it will be largely down to the fact that Lee didnt play the last 2 Tests. IF England does win the Ashes with only 1 century so far in the series, it will be a most welcome surprise.
The game after day one is still evenly balanced,Australia have held their catches although England have batted carelessly with much more luck than in the last test
Edgbaston ratings 09:29am on 04 Aug 2009 Watson & Clarke & North had the easiest day of the match with fine batting conditions so deserve 8s rather than 9s.Anderson´s 5 wickets were brilliant,worth at least 8 if not 9, he was underbowled on the last day,maybe could have bagged some more early on and would have been my choice for man of the match.
Broad was underused but delivered when he was belatedly given the ball, and his match figures as an all-rounder are well worth 7.Strauss earned his 7 with a solid batting performance in the first innings and effective captaincy on all but the final day (worth 8 if he hadnt dropped a catch),but Bell was just plain lucky which certainly doesnt deserve more than a 5 - Swann was a more valuable player for England on the scorecard than Bell,and he didnt get lashings of luck!
Misfiring Australia consider their options 09:32am on 27 Jul 2009 England would be wise to bring in Harmison for either less than fit Onions or struggling Broad because England is unlikely to induce the Aussies to play so many daft shots to throw away their wickets so easily again,so we need another bowler in the Flintoff league of aggression to blast them out and make it 2-0.
If Australia dont want to be 2-0 down then they have to shake up the bowling department - no 1 choice Lee isnt likely to be fit, so Clark & Watson should come in for Johnson & North.I expect a lot more discipline in the shot department from the Aussie top 5 for the rest of the Ashes
75 years of hurt are ended 08:48am on 21 Jul 2009 It has been a joy to listen to TMS over the past 5 days, and the famous guests add greatly to the sense of occasion - well done TMS team!
There have certainly been some howlers from the umpires that went against Australia, and they balance out the poor decisions that cost England wickets at Cardiff.Umpires need more technology to get decisons right,and it is up to the teams to agree to the use of all that is available, including player referrals, in order to get as many decisons correct as humanly possible
Ashes player ratings - First Test 11:59pm on 12 Jul 2009 Ricky Ponting deserves a 9 for giving England a test match batting master class and setting brutally efficient fields.His only mistake was in his choice of bowlers on the last afternoon - he didnt realise that Hilfenhaus 8 & Hauritz 8 were by far the most dangerous bowlers he had against those english batters- he even forgot that Fred has a habit of getting out to spinners!
Well done Paul Collingwood 9, and Anderson 9 sure showed he has nerve to hang around when needed!
Peerless Ponting steamrollers England's hopes 11:43pm on 09 Jul 2009 Very sensible batting from Ponting and Katitch - this is exactly how to bat in a test match.England´s tailenders this morning surely did wag very effectively after yesterday´s throwing away of certain wickets.
I predict this will be Monty´s last Test unless he manages to grab at least 5 wickets which looks very unlikely after today´s performance.I expect in the 2nd Test England will bring in Harmison for Panesear,and Australia will drop Siddle & Hauritz for Lee & Clark making a much stronger side to challenge England in the rest of the series.
Ashes preparation starts here 10:52am on 05 May 2009 I , and the selectors, expect Bopara to do very well against the Windies so he must be given a chance rather than recalling players who are out of form and have perhaps taken their places in the England team for granted given runs of poor scores.
Bell will get a lot more cricket playing for his county and that is the best place for him to regain his best form,and the same goes for MPV.
Prior,excellent bat that he is, has conceeded an alarming number of byes in recent Windies matches and it is likely that Foster would not have given the same balls.
The general lineup from the Moores era has been proven by many Tests and ODIs to be uncompetititve against the best sides in the world at the moment, although with Flowers now running the show I believe we have a good chance of regaining the Ashes if the groundsmen prepare spin friendly pitches.
IPL move takes shine off India 10:21pm on 27 Mar 2009 This move to SA is very sensible.As well as making the IPL even more the global event Modi wants it to be with it own hole in the ICC calender, it is the safe way to avoid terrorists looking to disrupt the Indian elections.
As an Englishman I also know that our weather would disrupt the IPL schedule greatly because we dont have grounds that can be roofed over when the rain comes.......
Costwise, England is a very expensive place to come so SA wins out over the UK on all fronts except perhaps local Indian population to support the event - hopefully low ticket prices will enable Africans to enjoy the IPL spectacle!
I look forward to a second chance to see Shane Warne & his team Rajasthan beat the world´s biggest cricket players in their IPL teams without rain interruptions!
ECB hit for six by Stanford 09:05am on 19 Feb 2009 I must agree that Stanford has only been charged, not yet convicted of any wrongdoing,so it is morally objectionable to assume guilt before the trials.

However, I do not think the cartel of national cricket boards that collude under the auspices of the ICC to enrich themselves deserve a world monopoly of 1st class cricket.The ICC champions trophy for me ranks as the least interesting event on the first class calender
The ICL has shown the cricketing world that BCCI & ECB needed to be inspired by the ICL before allowing star players a reasonable share (compared to soccer,basketball or ice hockey) of the wealth generated by international cricket.
I am delighted that the West Indies players each have their Stanford million $. Twenty20 is finally shifting the balance of power more in the favour of the players, and giving them a fine incentive to perform at a higher level than ever before.
Administrators not elected by players or fans need to be much more accountable if they wish to have their monopolistic cartel supported by players and fans.
If Stanford is found innocent, I hope he will link up with the ICL to give us more and better cricket featuring multi-national sides

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