posted Jan 14, 2007

my england 20/20 team

J.Benning
D.Maddy
A.Brown
A.Flintoff
K.Pietersen
P.Nixon
M.Vaughan
P.Collingwood
T.Murtagh
N.Doshi
D.Gough

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posted Jan 14, 2007

Alrighty then, let's get whacky!

1) Benning
2) Loye
3) KP
4) Blackwell
5) Flintoff
6) Vaughan
7) Colly
8) Prior
9) Dalrymple
10) Tremlett
11) Broad

The top 5 can all hit big, 6 and 7 I'd hope won't have to bat much but can hit some crisp shots at the end, 8 and 9 can conceivably be considered allrounders and even 10 and 11 can swing a bat.

Broad and Tremlett are accurate, nippy and have quality. Flintoff should be a decent Twenty20 bowler, and Dalrymple and Blackwell have shown themselves to be excellent in this form of cricket with changes in flight (usually!). Finally, Colly can chip in if one of the bowlers is seriously off form - Vaughan would be my next bet with the ball and I wouldn't bowl KP unless none of the others can land it on the cut strip - he bowls too many 6-balls!

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posted Jan 14, 2007

There is one very key player everyone seems to be forgetting, a player who is the best reverse swinger, our very own Simon Jones!!!!!

My squad for any sort of short forn of the game would be as follows:
1. Mal Loye
2. James Benning
3. Darren Maddy
4. Kevin Pietersen
5. Michael Vaughan
6. Andrew Flintoff
7. Matt Prior (Wikie)
8. Darren Gough
9. Monty Panesar
10. John Lewis
11. SIMON JONES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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posted Jan 14, 2007

My team would be

1.Prior (wk)
2.Benning
3.Irani (c)
4.Maddy
5.Pietersen
6.Flintoff
7.Dalrymple
8.Yardy
9.Broad
10.Doshi
11.Jones

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posted Jan 14, 2007

First of all, Gilchrist is right about 20Twenty. It's a bit of fun for the crowd but it is not proper cricket - the bowlers are like cannon fodder and that is not what cricket is about - a contest between bat and ball. With this in mind I don't think there should be a 20Twenty squad and I hope Twenty 20 specialists don't emerge.

As fot the World Cup a balance between top cricketers and one day cricketers playing for England in the World Cup may sound attractive but in the past this has not produced much reward. Australia typically play their strongest side irrespective of competition. Of course England cannot do this, first because Harmison has retired. He's 28 for heaven's sake. Who else retires at that age? Apparently it is so he can concentrate on test cricket - like he did in the Ashes series when he bowled with the accuracy of a Scud missile! Secondly except Pietersen and Flintoff no England play can take his form into the one day format, now Trescothick has gone. And of course you can't win a world cup with two players, however willing Colly and co are to do their best.

The greatest indictment on Duncan Fletcher must surely be that 8 years after becoming England coach we are still debating whether specialist one dayers or test class players are the answer - and even more worryingly we still don't know. Part of me shares his disdain for one day cricket, but the effect on any cricketer of constantly losing, particularly when new test players often emerge through the one day team, must really be remedied.

A lot of correpsondants to 606 talk about Fletcher's prejudices against certain players such as Owais Shah and favourites like the lamentable Geraint Jones. The balance between loyalty and poor selection has been transcended and I think and unfortunately hope that Fletcher calls it a day after the World Cup.

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posted Jan 15, 2007

Yes yes yes yes and yes. Twenty20 will change the shape of one-day cricket and in turn test match cricket. Sri Lanka used one-day cricket to establish their foothold in test cricket. If I were involved in the Bangladeshi, Kenyan or Irish boards I know where I'd be putting those resources I have available to me at the moment. England has so much more resource, it can afford to do all three. The best Twenty20 players will change 50 over cricket for the better and in turn take Test Cricket to a new level of intensity. As aggressive intensity is Twenty20's key characteristic and what England have so dismally lacked and Australia have in godzilla-sized spadesful, it seems a reasonable aspect of cricket to develop and a good place to start. Especially as it's an English innovation! What about a County/State level International comp for the national T20 champions? That'd make good TV!

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posted Jan 15, 2007

Can I also say that I think Vaughan should be skipper in the Twenty20 side. Creativity and authority from the captain is a vital element of T20, as I see it. This applies in the field and in the middle. No one is better than Vaughan at this. I think he's the best thinking captain England have had for donkey's years. I can see Vaughan successfully playing the same role as Stephen Fleming has for Nottinghamshire in the last two seasons - and Notts have been quite successful in T20. His on field captaincy is excellent. Both have the complete respect of their players and both can open the batting, working the strike to the pinch-hitters early in the innings so keeping the pressure on the fielding team. T20 is a young masn's game though and the big question is whether the Vaughan knees are up to it...

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posted Jan 15, 2007

1.Darren Maddy
2.Mal Loye
3.James Benning
4. Kevin Pietersen
5. Andrew Flintoff
6. Ronnie Irani (capt)
7. James Foster
8. Glen Chapple
9. Ian Blackwell
10. Darren Gough
11. Nayan Doshi

This would be a very fluid batting order with plenty of 6 hitters in there.

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posted Jan 15, 2007

That would be my side:

1. Maddy
2. Loye
3. KP
4. Freddie
5. Collingwood
6. Vaughan (c)
7. Nixon (wk)
8. Broad
9. Lewis
10. Gough
11. Monty

I think we realy need Paul because he can hit a cricket ball, he can bowl and his fielding... JUST BRILLIANT!!

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posted Jan 15, 2007

1. Mal Loye
2. J Benning
3. M Vaughan (c)
4. K Pietersen
5. A Flintoff
6. P Collingwood
7. M Prior (wk)
8. I Blackwell
9. J Lewis
10. D Gough
11. S Jones

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