According to Rod Marsh..."If Troy Cooley was the reason England's bowlers performed so well last summer - and I think he was - then I simply don't understand the ECB. I know Troy would have stayed ... he wanted to stay in England." ......Says here
Aye, Cooley may well be the best case of 'right man, right place, right time'. Especially looking at the Aussie situation in recent times.
In many ways, until Ponting's captaincy, I've often wondered if the Aussie coaches post-Simpson actually did that much.
When Drunky took over, I feel it exposed that Flanders was pretty good while things were going OK, but when things went wrong, there was trouble at t'mill, as the captain really struggles to avoid captaincy by numbers.
With the talent Australia has been fortunate enough to have at it's disposal for the past 10 years, almost anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of the game could have taken the coaching job without too much difficulty.
Lee still has problems, as mentioned by please, Clarke has been dropped, and come back with much more self control, but still has the propensity to get out playing a needless cross-bat shot, Ponting still looks lost when the first plan doesn't work, Symonds finally scored a ton, but only after disregarding advice from Ponting (and presumably sanctioned by Ned) to treat Tests like backyard cricket. Langer has always looked susceptible to the short ball, and his technique hasn't improved, the list goes on.
The real bloke england need back is whoever got the ball to reverse after 20 overs in 2005. as they didn't get that sort of swing going until more like 60 overs last summer.
The only people missing last english summer were jones and vaughan so maybe one of them has the "magic touch".
Originally posted by please: The real bloke england need back is whoever got the ball to reverse after 20 overs in 2005. as they didn't get that sort of swing going until more like 60 overs last summer.
The only people missing last english summer were jones and vaughan so maybe one of them has the "magic touch".
"Simon Jones said when you left it was like losing a best mate. We have a good relationship and it was pretty hard not to get wound up. He went through a pretty traumatic experience with his knee. He never thought he was going to play again. When a bloke doesn't look like he's going to make it back and you're thinking he can get back, then you get pretty close."
Originally posted by Mr Watermelon: Whoever it was in the ECB who thought Cooley was dispensible should be sacked without question.
Aye!
My money's on the idiot Morgan-boyo - a suit with limited brains, foresight and boot power, but one who prefers cash-till music and who 'tips forelock' very graciously.
And guess what? He's after Sonn's job at the ICC ! Gawd help cricket.
It was a laugh watching James Andseron sook today after Roy treated his bowling like it deserves. Golly, Jimmy was so serious it was like his future in Test cricket had gone off with the ball that Roy hit to the boundary. lol
a lot of it is down to facing such a high quality batting line up,
This england team created a lot of chances in their last summer but the pitches were better for seamers and the batting nowhere near as good.
The point is largely that England have a great pace attack when all four of them are fit and firing; they have Flintoff as the overall enforcer who can bowl in most circumstances, Harmison as the physical threat, Hoggard as the control bowler and the natural swinger and SiJo as the finisher and best bowler at the tail.
Outside of the untried Broad and Tremlett, they don't have many bowlers yet at that level - Anderson and Mahmood are optimistic guesses at best, though you are right that they do well enolugh against most sides.
Originally posted by Rowman: It was a laugh watching James Andseron sook today after Roy treated his bowling like it deserves. Golly, Jimmy was so serious it was like his future in Test cricket had gone off with the ball that Roy hit to the boundary. lol
Good Golly Gosh... Yikes and be Gads ... Crikey and mazoomas ... Heavens to Betsy ...
So in reality there are too many if's to even worry about how good an attack England would have if all four were fit AND firing as we aren't talking four mcgrath's we are talking very good bowlers but not day in day out great bowlers.
I guess most teams could say that if all their top bowlers fired at once they would have a great attack but in reality that happens very rarely.
The only two attacks Pace wise above the English one in world cricket at the moment have got to be Aus, and Pakistan (but with there drug cheats in). Other than that, most are worse than the one we have at the moment.
In truth, there isn't a lot between them - the more I think about the implications of these retirements, the more I think that Australia will struggle to replace McGrath, whilst Pakistan rely on a bunch of drug cheats who might not even be available and England are pretty injury prone...
...suddenly, the Windies start to look pretty solid!
Originally posted by holcs: The only two attacks Pace wise above the English one in world cricket at the moment have got to be Aus, and Pakistan (but with there drug cheats in). Other than that, most are worse than the one we have at the moment.
South Africa with Ntini, Nel, Pollock, Steyn and Kallis. They do struggle on flat tracks but England seem to as well.
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