posted Jan 6, 2007

giles is finished at the international stage.fletcher only picks the players that fit his mentality.he picks players that listen to every word he says while players like flintoff don't have the same relationship as vaughn has with fletcher.it wasn't fletcher that made that winning side it was the bowling coach that got our bowlers in the right frame of mind

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posted Jan 6, 2007

This wives & girlfriends business although valid ignores the fact that all the cricket team plus Gerrard, Rooney etc all go home to their wives & girlfriends almost every night of the week while they play their sports here in England & it doesn't do them harm here.

I'm sure it hinders some players, but trying to put myself in that position I don't think my perofmance would alter regardless of whether my Missus was travelling with me or not.

It'd be interesting to know whether Woods, Federer & Schumacer had their partners accompany them. It didn't do Lance Armstrong any harm.

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posted Jan 6, 2007

Why has so little been made of this point.

In the final ball of the 3rd Test, Australia needed ONE RUN to regain the ashes and we had a man fielding at Deep Point on the boundary SAVING FOUR.

Alright, it wouldn't have made the slightest bit of difference, but it gives the image of defeatism and ineptitude.

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posted Jan 6, 2007

everyone is responding to this loss with valid points. We are picking bones and hopefully ECB are too. This loss could be godd news ofr England. I think they were just too good for us. If it was 1-0 after 2, I think it could have benn at best 3-1. But, it wasn't.

Messages to Cook and Strauss:

If you were out once or twice to the ball outside off stump in the series at 35-1, we wouldn't have minded. But it was every single time. Why didnt you look at videos and takea guard and walk across to off stump and just work every thing to the leg side. THINK!

Bowlers:
I thought that the bowlers bowled well. They were ket down by Mahmood and Anderson in tests 1 and 2. Hoggard 7-109. But we didnt bowl well enough for long enough

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posted Jan 7, 2007

In response to the Cook and Strauss message, If you take a middle stump gaurd or off stump gaurd u are leaving yourself open to LBW shouts and your leg stump would be visible. There many things to consider when battin, but the best option for Cooky and straussy would have been to leave anything outside off stump.

But the series is over now, we have to look at moving on, bring in some NEW YOUNG fast bowlers, mainly the likes of Graham Onions etc, also to rid of the stupid Central contract system, it doesnt work, the players on central contracts dont play enough county cricket, the teams should be picked with several key players that will stay the same, then the rest made up of county players that are in form and playin well.
There is alot of young quality players that cant get a look in due to the central contracts.

Hopefully we can produce the goods in the ODIs next week!!!

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posted Jan 7, 2007

What a massive disappointment the Ashes were. 5-0 is not what I was expecting. As an expat here in Aussie, my Aussie mates are really giving it to me big time. Well done Barmy Army for sticking with the team in their hours of need. How do we put it right? Very simple really. We do what the Aussies did after their demise in the 1981 series. We stop allowing the Aussies to play in our domestic leagues. How many English players play in the Australian domestic leagues? Zip, Zero, Nowt, None. Appoint Ian Botham as manager to give the team some real backbone, or are we going to do to Botham what England football did to the late, great Brian Clough & never use his undoubted belief in his beloved England & the 3 Lions. Come on MCC, wake up! How much worse does it have to be to realise what is required.

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posted Jan 7, 2007

I don't mind being beaten by the aussies, even 5-0, it's the manner of the defeats that really hurt.
Why were our players so uncompetitive? I believe that the management was at fault in most cases.
Strauss must have been demoralised to lose the captaincy after proving his abiity in the series against Pakistan, how else do you explain his mediochre performances? Andrew Flintoff is a great player whose commitment to the cause is beyond doubt, he gives 100% whatever he is asked to do, but he doesn't have the aura of a great captain.
Am I the only person who believes that Pietersen plays for himself rather than the team? Ego is a very neccesary trait for any great sportsman but it should be tempered and guided by the dressing room staff for the effect to be maximised, otherwise frustration may cause him take his huge talent elsewhere or worse still, it could wither on the vine before realising it's full potential.
Harmisson just needs to get his head together, does he want to play cricket at the highest level or not? It strikes me that he has been handled too gently by the management.
As for the rest of the players, they are a good bunch, some of them will develop into great players but only if they are handled correctly. I am fed up with hearing them told to "go out and enjoy yourself", believing that a more appropriate instruction would be "go out and APPLY yourself" this will bring success which will be enjoyable.
Duncan Fletcher has done well, but I think his time has come.
Finally I am not convinced that Central Contracts are used correctly and bring too much pressure to use the contracted squad to the exclusion of in-form non contracted players.

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posted Jan 7, 2007

I feel that the powers in cricket, ie the ECB know what needs to be done to make English cricket a major force in World cricket. But, it comes down to whether they are prepared to change the structure of cricket in his country.

1) School / University level. Are the facilities and opportunities there for talented young cricketers to be spotted and recruited for the next stage.

2) County system. How many people actually watch the 3 day county game? Is this the correct structure for breeding Test level players? I don't think so. The step from county cricket to Test is massive compared to the step from Aussie state cricket to Test.

Merge some of the counties would seem to be one option.

3) Pitches. We will breed bowlers suited to the type of pitches available. I'm not usre of the solution here but a variety of pitches nationwide at the 1st class level that will breed spinners and spinners. At the same time, we will give our BATSMAN the opportunity to play good spinners and seamers on bowler friendly pitches.

As I said at the beginning, it is all a matter of taking the action. The ECB know what to do. Question is will they or will they just sit back and take the future embarassing defeats?

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posted Jan 7, 2007

Its fine to go back to fundamentals like this - yes they will bring improvements. But there are also more mundane reasons for the loss.

1. Aus had 10-11 good players this time whereas last time they had at least 2-3 weak players in every match. The relative decline of Warne and McGrath was compensated for not just by this but by improvements from pre-existing players - notably Lee and the batter Clarke.
2. England did not have a neet gain in class players - we lost 3 to injury beforehand and had gained 3 - Colly, Cook and Panesar. We could ill afford not to play the latter especially when only Bell out of our previously weak players had improved with Giles and GJones going so dramatically in the other direction that they should never have been on the plane.
3. Picking Flintoff as skip was nonsense when Strauss had averaged 60 when overseeing a good series against PAK and had helped to bring on Panesar, Mahmood and Bell nicely. The tactic of declaring at Adelaide was clearly misguided. We were going at 8 an over - Flintoff playing himself into form and McGrath and Warne being further deflated - a perfect opp to turn the screw with another 150 quick runs was eschewed in favour of trying the bowl them out twice for about 650 with a toothless attack. This was the turning point of the series - England could have got back in, avoided the whitewash or even done well enough to draw the series.
4. Typical Harmison ambivalence.
5. Poor judgments on numerous occasions from the opening pair.
6. Backstage stuff - Cooley loss, lack of prep, too much defensive thinking, too many non-match fit players touring etc..

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posted Jan 8, 2007

It comes down to hunger. Hunger breeds application and desire. Dont just simply compare averages, compare attitudes.

I hate the Aussie ego's but really admire the way they go about their sport. Better prepared, better attitudes, more proffessional, tactically superior, greater knowledge, more aggressive and so on...they have a quarter of our population ut beat us at everything, cricket, rugby league, rugby union, tennis, athletics, swimming and even football the last time we met.

Its time the English moved on, get rid of the old farts running our sport, get real people in who know the game and can take us forward.Not those who wants to retain all the old traditions and in doing so keep us stuck in the dark ages.

Are there no bright, modern thinkers in England who can rise to the top?

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