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summerbayexile - Beaten paths are for Beaten men

Listed below are comments made by summerbayexile - Beaten paths are for Beaten men between Tuesday, 30th June 2009 and Wednesday, 2nd September 2009.

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Cricket misses the point again 12:55pm on 02 Sep 2009 Didn't have time to trawl through all the comments, so apologies if someone else has said this, but the John Player League of the 70s/80s restricted bowlers to 10 yard run ups. As 20/20 is just hit and giggle cricket wouldn't that have solved the problem?
Flintoff a very English hero 4:43pm on 24 Aug 2009 Here we go again!! Flintoff has been a bit part player all summer but he has chased the media so assidiously that it has become all about him. 7,22, a wicket and a runout followed by his I'm Jesus Christ pose. Thank god we'll never see that again on a test match field. At least the new England team will be a proper team not ten players plus someone who thinks he is the equivalent of the rest.

Sorry, he wasn't a great. He was a good who had great days.
Flintoff denied century that means so much 5:06pm on 03 Aug 2009 Now I'm no fan of Flintoff and I'm on record as saying that, but even his supporters must be able to see now that he's finally given in to his own cult of personality.
Everything he has done in these last two tests has had two sides to it. The 5-92 and the 74, undoubtedly brilliant. The celebrations, the sudden sledging thats never been part of his game before - awful to watch. He now sees himself as the only important player in the team. He is playing up to the crowd to boost his post cricket coffers and to create, retrospectively, a myth of the great warrior.
He has been a solid servant over 10 years and had 2 years of brilliance but the time has come for Andrew Strauss to take him to one side and tell him that enough is enough. He is part of a team and Strauss needs to make that clear once more.
Oh and one final thing. Wanting to get smashed every night does not make him a good bloke!!
Misfiring Australia consider their options 4:48pm on 23 Jul 2009 The usual interesting blog, thanks Oliver. As an Aussie fan I am very concerned that they could fall apart in at least one of the next two tests. My concern is not just with the quality of the top 6 in ENGLISH conditions. Katich, Ponting and Clarke have the experience of the swinging or short pitched bowling of Anderson/Flintoff but Hughes is too early in his test career to adjust in the heat of the series. Hussey is totally out of form but there's no one to replace him. The real problem is that Ponting does not inspire the team like Taylor or Waugh so these problems are just getting worse and worse. A captain needs to help his side through these problems but with his lack of ability as a leader the side is falling in a heap. I now see this series ending up 2-0 or 3-0 and Ponting getting sacked.
Second Ashes Test - player ratings 08:25am on 21 Jul 2009 #37.go away and watch croquet!
Jovialstelladave - go and watch Borat to understand concept of wind up in last line!! However my original point stands.
Second Ashes Test - player ratings 3:26pm on 20 Jul 2009 I wrote on another blog that Flintoff hardly ever gets 5 wickets in an innings! Good for him for doing so in what sounded like a superb spell of bowling. Marks about right though Strauss had a shout of a 10 for carrying England in the first innings. Australia's bowlers a 5 and three 6s not 7s.
Personally though I would take a mark off Flintoff for his bloody egotistical celebration after every wicket!! 'Look at me I'm just the most brilliant cricketer who ever lived' screaming out of every pore!! Mind you I just want to see a quick handshake/pat on the back then back to your mark. Far more fitting IMHO.
Aussies collapse to revitalised England 3:16pm on 18 Jul 2009 I hope you are not basing this statement on one bowling session!

Why do you say that? He has been far more incisive than Flintoff as 6 five wicket hauls in 38 tests proves compared to 2 in 76. 46 in 11 matches in 2008. 21 in 4 and a half matches this summer. I'd say that adequately proves my point especially as he is improving and Flintoff is deteriorating.
Aussies collapse to revitalised England 2:27pm on 18 Jul 2009 Just caught up with this blog. I usually wholeheartedly agree with your observations, but I fear you may have got a touch of Flintoff Fever. Yes, he bowled very well according to reports - I won't give in to Sky but thats another story! However, Anderson is now the man who makes things happens far more than Flintoff ever has over his 71 test matches before and after the Ashes 2005. I won't miss him because he will allow England to build a much better balanced team. Maybe we will be able to move on from the 2005 team when the 2009 team win the Ashes back, but don't be surprised if in 2013 the selectors try to patch up this team and bring them back!!
A nation holds its breath for Flintoff 3:50pm on 04 Jul 2009 I have to confess before typing the rest of this opinion that as far as I'm concerned Flintoff is the most appalling off field example for any aspiring sportsman. His disgraceful behaviour on the day of the (ridiculous) Ashes beanfeast at Trafalgar Square was a new low for English cricket and his subsequent behaviour proves that he has little respect for himself or his sport.
In terms of his on field impact.... I had bought into this destabilising influence idea but on further consideration I believe that it is just an excuse. When he's playing well he galvanises the team but when he's playing badly why does no-one else step up to the plate?
Yes, he's a dominant personality but so was Warne. He didn't destabilise the Australian side. Why? He was playing with other greats who believed in themselves and would have been ashamed to use someone else's talents as an excuse for their own lack of performance. I'm not saying that the other English players are as talented as that once in a generation team, but you only have to look at Swann or Pietersen to see that a true team player backs themselves as an individual.
There is probably a reluctance to accept Flintoff's apparently fireproof status but when all is said and done that is not the team's problem, it is down to the management. As they proved with their rather childish ganging up on KP this side has a long way to go before becoming a mature group of individuals.
Flintoff is coming to the end of his career. Only when the dust has settled will we really be able to judge his influence for good or ill, but my opinion for what its worth is that while he acts like Botham off the pitch he's not a patch on him in the middle.
Vaughan leaves lasting legacy 2:54pm on 30 Jun 2009 While I agree with all the above comments I feel disappointed that Vaughan didn't see his way clear to giving Yorkshire one more season. In the ridiculous era of England players not representing their counties, which he was at the forefront of, he and the other players have lost touch with their counties and almost completely rendered the county game moribund. As a Kent fan in the 70s I frequently saw games with Underwood, Knott, Woolmer and Asif Iqbal. They didn't need the rest and nor did he but he was so obsessed with Team England that the Tykes came a poor second.

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