posted Nov 5, 2006

It will be interesting to see if Australia take the lessons of this tournament on board. In 2005 the major factors behind their Ashes defeat were complacency and the lack of depth in the bowling reserves. The fact that their defeat is put down to ONE player missing two Tests is a pretty damning indictment of the strength of their reserves.

The biggest danger for Australia would be simply putting the loss down to a minor accident and relying on the same ageing side to sort things out. Experience is a great thing, but conceding 7 years per man to your rivals in a very compressed 5-match series is taking an awful risk when conditions are going to be tough and recovery time short. However, the Champions Trophy has shown that in Johnson and Bracken there are a couple of guys who could ease the retirement of some of their colleagues. That IS a big threat to England (and the rest of the world) when we'd all been hoping for a couple of years respite after a mass retirement of some of the older players!

What is going to be interesting is to see how Glenn McGrath gets through the series. He'll be just about 37 when the Ashes series ends. Courtney Walsh and Curtley Ambrose did manage to play on - Walsh was 38 and Ambrose 37 when they played their last Test - but they were truly exceptional. As Darren Gough has shown, when your pace goes you can quickly go from being predator to prey and Andrew Strauss and Chris Gayle both showed that Glenn McGrath can now be hit. Mind you, we've been predicting Glenn McGrath's demise for a few years now! Given that Brett Lee has also depended heavily on McGrath's straitjacket at the other end, it will be interesting to see how much extra responsability he is able to shoulder without it.

It's as well to remember that, in 1958 a great England side that had won the previous three series went to Australia expecting to win at a canter. They lost 4-0. Right now you can reverse those roles: even most England fans expect the worst, but there are some signs there that might be the basis of a retrospective "I told you so" if *were* to start to wilt in the heat.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Nov 5, 2006

i actually picked a handful of who i thought were the best players before the tournament, not including the prelims, and kept a database of their stats. sad i know! so from that i have a dream team :

Gilchrist+
Gayle
Ponting*
Chanderpaul
Martyn
Pietersen
Bravo
Mills
Taylor
Muralitharan
McGrath

probably not perfect but hey.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Nov 6, 2006

Australia, the World Champs and pre tournament favourites end up winning the final in a canter! And only TWO of their players can make the alleged best eleven? 'D' is for dunce....

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Nov 6, 2006

Gayle
Chanderpaul
Fleming (c)
Martyn
Bravo
Boucher (w)
Vettori
Mills
Bracken
Taylor

Aussies won, but it was a team effort. I felt the windies had more standout players, but more poor performers too.

I definitely rate Bracken above McGrath for one dayers now, and I'm not at all sure about Tharanga. He's proven competent at bashing poor one day teams, but has yet to convince against anyone good. Has a fine temperament, though, so I still rate him.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Nov 6, 2006

Need a Pakistan cricketer to make the list interesting,why not Yousef? Stolid!

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Nov 6, 2006

Gayle has really stepped up this time round. I wonder if he can keep it up and transfer it into test form. WI could start to be a power again.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Nov 6, 2006

Watson for Tharanga; Vettori for Mills. Then i am undecided between Boucher and Gilchrist; and one place between Taylor, Ntini and Bracken. Ideally i would also want to include Sehwag, probably at the expense of Chanderpaul. My squad would also include Jayasuriya. This selection lark isn't easy is it?

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Nov 6, 2006

Baldtree, I'd noticed that. A distinct shortage of Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. However, as none of those teams covered themselves in glory it is a bit like the England situation (only Strauss and Pietersen made any kind of case to be included).

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Nov 6, 2006

I would agree with most of your selections except I would prefer Bracken over McGrath, Ntini or Johnson, his 3 wicket break through in CT final was a key performance

I agree with Mills selection, a fine performance

Also prefer Vettori over Murali in this CT

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Nov 8, 2006

check out http://www.indiancricketfans.com/ICF

We just started a few weeks back and are attempting to build the largest Indian cricket fansite on the net. So far there aren't any proper portals for Indians to express their views...we're trying to put Indian cricket on the internet-map, if you know what i mean.

We've got 400 members already, lots of discussion. We need more passionate fans like you.

add comment | complain about this comment