posted Dec 22, 2007

not good enough. playing for your country is an honour. selecting random players like bopara and broad will not get it done. Class players are needed, e.g Trescothick and strauss. the ashes in 2009 will be interseting. if england play with the squad they have now we will have no chance. please comment on my thoughts.

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posted Dec 22, 2007

Serious questions need to be asked.
How come we are now winning in ODI cricket and now starting a slump in Test Cricket??
To drop from 2nd to 5th in the rankings of Test nations is horrfying!
Sri Lanka deserved to win, they batted us out of each game when given the opportuinity and we kept picking players based on their status rather then on form.
KP is off form, Harmy was off form from the word go and should have waitied for New Zealand.
Moores may need a long look at the team over Christmas because never has New Zealand become more important.
We dont want to do what happened under Fletcher..excel at one form and then go awful in the other format....forget the Ashes and World Cups, we need to get the team winning on both fronts and fast, thats why the Test and ODI teams should have different players from time to time.
So if KP is off form like he is now, how about we drop him and allow him to regain form? if we do that, then players regain form and start hitting big scorers.
Without dropping players, we are only allowing them to think that they are safe.
Well done anyway to Sri Lanka, you did very well and you must be very proud.

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posted Dec 22, 2007

England fans, get real. Why do you think England should always win? Just as in Football, England is just one of many countries with no special ability or right to win.

We gave these games to the world and they have learnt how to play.
The players need to learn this lesson too and work at the game, not expect to always win.
England will win when they deserve it and not before.
Too much cricket is no excuse as all Test class players in the world play all year around.

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posted Dec 22, 2007

Well just returned from a business trip to Brussels and heard the news which I couldn't believe, that the test had been drawn in the end! Flippin' 'eck.

SL played extremely well and completely out-manoeuvred England - hats off to Jayawardene and co. In mitigation, if I remember my statistics right, they've only lost 3 or 4 test series in SL over the past 20 years so quite a few teams over the years have met their doom on that beautiful island.

My hope is that ECB do not go back to the pre-Fletcher days of the revolving door; too many people on this site give the usual knee-jerk reaction of drop this one drop that one, and it doesn't work. There are a few players there who have put in good performances who aren't now and maybe like Andrew Strauss the ECB should negotiate to get them playing with good club sides elsewhere in the world which would get them away from the media attack dogs for a while.

I don't think Clarke's bright wheeze of a cash bonus for good performance would make the slightest difference. It's a typical Clarke money-based idea.

Glad that the Galle pitch held up - it looked like a mud-bath ready to break everyone's necks but in the end all went well from that point of view - a real tribute to the indefatigable groundsman and his staff.

Happy Christmas and a good New Year to all!

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posted Dec 22, 2007

Great! A draw because of rain. Maybe England should plan their assault on the Ashes during a Biblical downpour.

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posted Dec 22, 2007

What the England team lack is someone that can sling the ball down the wicket, as all the best teams it the minute have a thucker don't they?
Craig White, Simon Jones were close, but we need another to complete.

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posted Dec 22, 2007

Can anyone answer why Harmmy is now bowling at about 80 mph?
I remember in the ashes he was sending em down at 95ish.
We need something more than just medium pacers

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posted Dec 23, 2007

Obviously rain is not ideal! However it is a test match in the allocated time span and it is an outdoor sport where rain comes into play and it does stop play.
Personally I think England would have made Sri Lanka bat again when the only result would have been a draw!
Let them come home sit down pick out the bones and move on!
It is a sport so lets accept we had a bad series and move on. 2008 is around the corner things can only get better!

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posted Dec 23, 2007

comment by Brit-exPat-In-USA

posted 18 Hours Ago

England fans, get real. Why do you think England should always win? Just as in Football, England is just one of many countries with no special ability or right to win.

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Who ever said that England should always win? Try to look for real arguments instead of arguing just for the sake of it.

As for the cricket, there can be no complaints. England have been thumped. However, if Sri Lanka deserved to beat England at Galle then England deserved to beat India at Lords (and thus draw the series). Such luck with the weather comes and goes all the time, so there's no need to dwell on it.

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posted Dec 28, 2007

I am struck by Simon Highes blog http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/tms/2007/12/england_series_rankings_1.shtml - scoring all the England players for thier performances across the series, and most of them got 7 out of ten!

The world has gone mad. These scores are complete and utter twaddle. Sidebottom (have to feel for him!) and Hoggard alone deserve to be above 5. The rest pour shame on the three lions.

There is, however, one key name missing - Moores - his comment that went something like "the boys played their best and so are very bouyant" betrays where the malaise is in this side.

If this were rugby union or soccer everyone would be calling for the coach's head, and with comments like that his situation would be rocky to say the least.

What is so different here? Moores is a strategy free zone. What a hapless lot they were throughout the series! Sri Lanka have us well and truly worked out. We won the Ashes through sheer hard work, a strategy for every opposing batsman (on and off the field) and all-round ruthlessness, inspired batting plus several great players playing to their greatness and this infecting the whole team. What we have now is a shallow 'positive thinking' approach that seems to have infected Simon Hughes too. It's quite simply a conspiracy of mediocrity - and people like Hughes should know better than to validate it.

Get rid of Moores first, feel the full force of the shame at not doing enough preparation, and take a leaf out of Ponting's book - when you go down then pack yourselves off to boot camp.

Moores must go - he's quite simply out of his league.

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