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granitestephenmason

Listed below are comments made by granitestephenmason between Sunday, 3rd August 2008 and Friday, 21st August 2009.

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A glimpse of life after Freddie 9:26pm on 21 Aug 2009 Please do not mention bad decisions, as all the commentators highlight the ones for England. Two England batsmen were out off no-balls, which would have been bemoaned had they been aussies. It really is poor that commentators have to belittle a performance by this.

When the English are out its a bad shot, Aussies never are according to the media.

Also Broad was lambasted for bowling badly early on in the series, but he actually bowled exactly what he was told to do, it was just that the plans weren't effective.

Its time that England set up a rotation policy for players, like the good football teams do, so that they have a squad of good players to call on dependent on form and situation. Otherwise how are others to get experience. Dropping Strauss was what he needed, and why on earth should any player continue to play if they don't perform. We need to find competitors rather than replacements for people like Collingwood, Bell and Cook, so that they know that if they don't perform they will lose their position.
Can sorry South Africa fight back? 01:18am on 30 Aug 2008 Good stuff England. Lets not be negative or over the top. It is nice to see people putting in performances like Flintoff with the bat, Bell, Broad with the Ball and an all round effort by the team.

People are so expectant that batsmen should get 50s or 100s, but it shows that if everyone chips in with good innings (like wright and prior) then you can build a good total.

It is obvious that Pietersen has shown the players that he values them, but also expects performances from them. I don't think he will tolerate people underperforming.

The right professional attitude is that you should expect to fight for your place and expect to be dropped if you aren't performing. This has shown with Prior, Broad and Harmison and needs to be evident to the players.

I hope that Pietersen will reign in any future expectations. He has a great start, but we saw that the problem was after the Ashes that we were complacent and just reliant on those Ashes Stars to do everything.

Rubbish to those that say that SA weren't up for the one dayers. They built up their side on one dayers. Even if they couldn't summon up the willing, hard luck to them - the great thing in cricket is that the rankings count whether or not you can be bothered.
England future brighter with Harmison back 9:36pm on 11 Aug 2008 Yeh, moan moan moan..

We aren't Australia. You blokes on here couldn't bat with a piece of your mother's rhubarb so why do you protestesth so much.

We won well today, but I am sure you moaners will still say that Cook should have got a hundred, that the sun doesn't strike England at the right angle.

At least Kallis isn't English else the middle-class rotweilers would be at his neck because of his awful batting performance.

Maybe every now and again we should pick some wally (with the biggest mouth) for England to show how difficult actually having skill is (rather than a beer belly).
Pietersen hides cracks in England batting 10:02pm on 08 Aug 2008 Predictably, the comments are moaning again, even though England are 122 runs ahead. OK it could be more, but it could be less. There are no teams on earth that get their top 7 batsmen to score 50 or 100 each, so why do we constantly expect all of ours to do that.

Strauss has scored the 2nd highest amount of runs by an English batsmen this summer. People are griping about Cook not performing when he chips in with 60s and 70s. If 4 more English batsmen had reached 20 we would be 200 ahead and well in command, so we shouldn't knock 20s and 30s as long as people are scoring 50+s every few innings.

Ambrose got a good ball, so did Flintoff - they could have played better shots, but that is the art of good bowling to tempt the batsmen - if our bowlers had bowled those balls we would be just praising our bowlers

Typical, when we are winning, its only cos the SA team aren't playing properly!
Harmison and Anderson shine for KP 10:57pm on 07 Aug 2008 We've decided at the BBC to give a pro forma to save you time tommorrow.

1. Isn't it about time x was dropped. He just can't build the big innings.

2. Ambrose is not a batsmen wicketkeeper he should be scoring (x + runs scored tommorrow)

3. I always thought/never thought KP would make a good captain.

4. It is obvious that the captaincy is effecting KPs batting (if score less than 40).

5. I know more about Cricket than all these professionals even though I score barely 12 in my back garden when I was 8.
Harmison and Anderson shine for KP 8:11pm on 07 Aug 2008 Its amazing how if England have the opposition in problems then it is because they are rubbish. I am sure Graeme Smith and the others are keen to win this one - 192 is pretty humliating against KP.

Yes, good to keep Broad on, he is potentially a superb bowler so needs the support.

If we can live with a system whereby players don't sulk if they are dropped then they will one day realise that it is worth it.
Bold Pietersen puts faith in Flintoff and Harmison 5:34pm on 06 Aug 2008 I wonder sometimes whether anyone ever is honest with the players and comes out with the things they need to hear. Has anyone ever said to Steve Harmison that he is a great bowler but he just lets himself down by his carefree attitude?

Has anyone ever said to Ian Bell, come on Ian, your a great player, but you need to prove that you've got bottle?

Likewise surely people could say to players, look you need to score runs to keep your test place or bowlers, you must take wickets.

I really think players should be set targets, for example averages that they should exceed over a period of time. Compare the averages of the two teams here and you will see why SA won.

I do think we need to give Shah, Bopara, Kabir Ali etc a chance, by playing a series of tests, not just single ones, but explain that they've failed to impress so far, so they've got to start doing their stuff otherwise that's it. Its usually pretty clear whether people are going to make it in the long term after 10 tests or so. Our English past selections are littered with batsmen and bowlers averaging 30 something and that aint good enough.

I think KP will want new players on the tours, since he knows he can't beat the Aussies with the present team. He will be given a chance up to the Aussies, but a heavy loss against them would be the end, and I don't think KP will want that.
Pietersen will bring a new style of leadership 1:20pm on 05 Aug 2008 I can't afford £38 a month to watch Sky. I am not pretending to be poor but it is a massive expense.

Surely I have the right to watch my own national Cricket team for a reasonable fee? Without me and 50 million other English they wouldn't be able to call themselves England.

When will the ECB realise that they need to get more people watching the game, rather than going for short term gain.
Pietersen revels in his coronation 10:48pm on 04 Aug 2008 I think we should brace ourselves for a few lean years. We have to accept that we don't produce more than a handful of exceptional cricketers at one time in England at the moment.

The couple of years leading up to the Ashes we benefitted from young players playing beyond their potential. Unfortunately nowadays any chink in the armour is honed in on by the oppostion, through endless analysis.

We need to find the guys with real class and bring them on, rather than going for mediocrity. We also need to be gentler on our players, give them a chance. We seem to expect players to score 50s and 100s every innings. Look through the test averages and work out how many people have ever scored a high percentage of these.

Even though the Bangladeshis come into the equation, all our batsmen average over 40, but you look at the batters of the past (i.e Atherton, Hussain) and they were only in the high 30s.

Pietersen has the 10th best test average of all time.

I hope the guys like Cook, Strauss and Bell turn it around and get more 100s but the real problem is finding penetrating bowlers. Look at Morkel - he's barely played 1st class cricket but is the SA leading wicket taker because he has pace and invention.
Lack of runs costs emotional Vaughan 9:38pm on 03 Aug 2008 I was pretty moved by Michael Vaughan's speech today. He has shown great character to do this, since it would be better for his to career to be in denial.

He has faced up to the fact that he isn't playing the best. He has however a lot of passion and loves English Cricket. If he had more to work with (or somehow those players could be more consistent), he would still be there.

I know people on here think we should be as good as the Aussies, but we are a minor cricketing nation really. It is not a high priority sport in schools or with the young in general. It isn't played anymore in the streets like it is in India or the West Indies.

Vaughan and the others gave us a great time for 2 or 3 years, acheiving a lot with a limited squad. When the Aussies get out of form they just pick another, when we are out of form, we have no-one.

Thanks Michael, you are a fine man.

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