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gramedgar

Listed below are comments made by gramedgar between Friday, 10th July 2009 and Friday, 23rd October 2009.

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England coaches join forces to talk tactics 8:55pm on 23 Oct 2009 good article, very interesting stuff. capello has achieved nothing yet short of qualification but has clarly forged something england have not had for a very long time, a sense of purpose. as far as flower goes; he was part of the ashes winning team although i think he will be judged on progress as coach rather than isolated results. similarly to capello he and strauss seem to be forging a sense of purpose, or journey, which england had under hussain and vaughan.
Strauss's England worthy winners 9:27pm on 23 Aug 2009 great column, great work all round by the bbc. infact, everything in the world seems great right now. i love cricket.
A glimpse of life after Freddie 00:38am on 22 Aug 2009 oh, how i laughed! i have been a devout england fan for most of my life and though i have believed in the broadside i never thought he would do this. we are on the verge of the rarest of days, an ashes series win. incredible.
England batsmen fail again 10:26pm on 20 Aug 2009 alogside mike atherton's deconstruction of the freddie 'legend', this article seems to point at the fact that england still havent confronted the truths of their shortcomings. i do feel andy flower is the man to help us get there, though we scarcely deserve to win this series. both teams seem to be confounded by the fact that they cant beat such unspectacular opposition...
How England can win the Ashes 8:15pm on 10 Aug 2009 erk! i meant bopara at number #3
How England can win the Ashes 8:14pm on 10 Aug 2009 our batsmen have been poor with the bat, the bowlers poor with the ball, but good with the bat. why dont we pick an extra 2 bowlers and give strauss and cook the new ball?

well - its not as whacked out as most of the comments above, come on people, we didnt learn anything new at headingley, just that players such as bell and harmison are not winners, they are coasters who will be torn apart by hungrier but not more talented opponents.

for the record

strauss
cook
bell
ramprakash
collingwood
frederick
prior
broad
swann
anderson
onions
Ponting left laughing as England get the script wrong 6:38pm on 09 Aug 2009 the reason england fans found that performance depressing is not because it was so poor but it was just so familiar. i am convinced that bopara is exposed by the team as much as by his own inexperience, bell is just not what the side needs as we continue to slumber around post 2005 - we just dont have those gritty fighters like thorpe, robin smith, hussain, atherton - if you replaced bell with a top of his game gp thorpe we would be fine, a decent side.

australia are loving this because they knew that england could capitulate in such a way, and because they probably didnt think they had it in them to break us down.

i am in total belief that, come the oval test, the first hour of play will engulf both sides and what happened up to that point will become irrelevant, apart from the fact that it is up for grabs.
Morning of mourning for shell-shocked England 09:36am on 08 Aug 2009 I can imagine it being pretty grim watching that performance live. I feel for anyone who had tickets for one days play and had been counting down the days all summer.

The most positive thought i have is...we are still ahead in The Ashes, and if we lose this test we are still able to win them in the final test. Sadly Bopara has lost the plot and looks like he needs to go back to county cricket as he did after losing the plot in Sri Lanka. Our numbers 3 & 4 should be enforcers, cold aggressive innings builders, not boyish stroke-makers without the experience or nouse to make an impact on the character of the team. Whatever happened to sticking new players in at 5 and 6 and then promoting them once their time had come?

One final thing; Giles Clarke should spend more time considering how he has lowered the moral standing of English cricket and less time telling the supporters [who have to pay £40 a month to see their team on tv and £60 plus for a live ticket] what they should and shouldnt say and do of a day at the game. He is a disgrace and probably the least pleasant man to have stuck his nose into British sport since Colin Moynihan.
Broad's Ashes spot no longer secure 11:07pm on 03 Aug 2009 i can see both sides of the argument, broad has bowled some really high clas spells for england and is definately the type of self sufficient player we have been looking for since the nasser hussain / duncan fletcher revolution, someone who has the talent and the heart. id prefer him ahead of harmy, a man who consistantly failed to achieve fitness levels you would expect of a world class athlete despite being on a lucrative contract. i do think sidey, jimmy and onions would be too similar in height and pace though.

the bigger concern is ravibop, he looks like he has lost all of his confidence. i suspected that his confidence was nothing but bravado to begin with and can now see why mikey holding was telling everyone he was not a number three - even when the runs were flowing. i hope ravi gets the chance to settle and play a defining knock to build real, test level self belief - im reminded of de villiers or duminy in that they announced themselves as mature, self contained international athletes, with big performances under the highest pressure. has ravi got the calibre?
Patchy England left searching for inspiration 9:32pm on 10 Jul 2009 nice article. i did find it hard to enjoy clarke stroking the ball around and being so fleet footed due to the fact that a wicket never looked likely to fall for the second day in succession.

im not going to join the ranks demanding changes, hold steady england, but i agree that broad causes concern. england have blooded bowlers before they have developed sufficiently in the recent past several times, saj mahmood, kabir ali, liam plunkett all spring to mind, but stuart broad seems to have the heart and mind for the job - but here is the key; i asked a friend before the series began if he would wager on broad getting his wickets at under 35 and he said no. i dont blame him. i really hope to be proven wrong and am glad his batting will buy him time.

swann? lets see, he has been fantatic for england and is he type of player who will come back from this doubly hungry to do his bit for the team.

well, its back to the winter of watching bowlers have their hearts and bodies slowly dismantled whilst batsmen with patience and insatiable appetites make for the high numbers.

come on england - stick with the aussies and dont give them a sniff, go to lord's at a blob each and start again!

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