England & the future

josjoslyn · Joined: 05 Jan 2007 Posts: 1 Location: UK

Well you have to have a "base-line" before you can build anything...

English cricket is pathetic, and has been for more than 20 yrs. When was the last time England could consistently "take-out" the tail end of a test side. The reason I start with bowling out tale-enders, is that to bowl them out all you need is "line & length". England bowlers - with one or two exceptions - have been pathetic, utterly pathetic, line & length has hardly ever been present.

Batting ................. deplorable, utterly deplorable. Wayward shot after wayward shot, lack of concentration, lack of ability to read the ball down the wicket, reaching for wide balls with feet firmly stuck in the crease.

The coach and coaching staff have done little to bring credit to the game of cricket. Ill conceived tour planning did little to help, a fetish for certain players was always going to expose weaknesses.

Captaincy .......... obviously we learnt nothing from the experiment of Botham as captain, making Flintoff captain was always going to be a disaster. This is NOT a critisism of Flintoff, anyone would grab an opportunity to lead their country. To offer it was folly and blind stupidity.

All in all, a test we were bound to lose. The ashes victory in 2005 was always a "fluke", we do NOT have world class players throughout the side, yes we have one or two...... but that is about it. We play too much doimestic cricket, and our test "contracted players" do not play enough high quality cricket. We need to scrap the county system, and play a more Australian style of domestic cricket.

Jos

David · Joined: 03 Oct 2005 Posts: 31 Location: Maidstone, Kent

Hi, and welcome to the board.

Obviously England had some bad luck with injuries and the withdrawal of Trescothick, but this wasn't far short of the best side we could put on the field. Would having Vaughan, Trescothick and Simon Jones in the side have made a difference to the result? I doubt it. I think the writing was on the wall after Adelaide - the team did the best they could for four days, and it all fell apart on the fifth. I think after that they really didn't have any self-belief. And at Melbourne they just seemed to be going through the motions. It's all very disappointing, but perhaps epectations were too high. At least we don't have to play Australia again until 2009!

Aussie1 · Joined: 27 Jan 2007 Posts: 1

(OK, I'm ready to be flamed here but ...)

We're over the loss of the ashes 18 months ago but I think it is a bit simple to compare the two series and therefore look at what England needs to do.

In our Ashes loss the results were very close. If you go back to Kasper's dismissal at the death knell, that could have gone another way (hand was off the bat - not out) and we would have retained the ashes. We had good players out as well (McGrath stepping on a ball etc).

This series it was Strauss who got the wrong end of umpiring decisions, in England it was Damian Martyn. Both suffered at disastrous decisions.

Call it even.

Mike Hussey made a comment that, to achieve good results in County cricket, he can play at 80%. In Australia, if he doesn't play at 100% he'll lose his place. And Mike is a guy I would believe.

So what does England have to do?

Raise the bar of standards at every level of cricket. From the kids to the county sides. Near enough isn't good enough. Stop looking for a Gilchrist and just get a keeper who can keep. (G. Jones only took easy catches, he never made a spectacular save - review the footage) So raise the bar and don't accept 'neat' as 'competent'.

Even one of the English commentators (Agnew?) admitted 1 day cricket isn't taken seriously in England. He lamented the fact, stating it was a vital part of the overall game and then admitted in the next breath he was going home after the Test series! OMG!

I couldn't get tickets to the WACA this weekend but had I done so I was going to make a banner: "Give a contest or P^&% off!" Seriously, the 9 wicket loss may be embarrassing to you but it was BORING to us. So 1 day cricket has become less exciting than Test cricket.

I love belting you guys but I also love close games of cricket. Yes you are the 'Old Enemy' but a one wicket/run win is far better than a belting.

I am sure the wheel will turn and you'll be No. 1 again. But, after the culture this Australian side has built, I really am confident it won't be for a while. You may as well put it in the same bucket as Man U being relegated.

Okay, that was my first post - maybe my last Wink

Regards

William Wallace

BTW, Nixon is Irish? Did he have to play 5 years or whatever the rule is to play for England?