JKL - dead right. The morons seem to have found a new home that they're getting all excited about so not to worry. The better ones are doing the TMS taverners thing.
Wow. TMS troll! Never mind. Look forward to discussing the big issues. As they arise.
Many posts I've read say that Glenda is a good guy. At Middlesex, he worked very hard with the younger players in his short time there. So they say. I'm happy to accept that he's just a pantomime baddy.
But as Mike Selvey overstated in the Guardian, he doesn't quite carry the threat that he once did, re targeting. Given his performance against South Africa. Or is that just wishful thinking?
Due to turn 37 this winter. That has to mean something. That's old eh?
Anyway. The 5-0 doesn't mean anything. The main thing is that he's been one of the greats.
Does this message board never shut?
And why does it take 30 seconds for the page to compose?
Pigeon's 37 and getting on.....Hasnt played for about a year....bowled rubbish in the recent DLF Cup......Its time for England to finish him off for good
Id say it reflects a Champions attitude more than anything else:
I think it will be 5-0 this time," McGrath told reporters after the team touched down in India for their Champions Trophy campaign. "I am never going to predict that Australia will lose a Test. England is not the same team as it was and I am disappointed in them.
"To say anything else would be negative. If we're going to win 2-1, or 3-2, which games are we going to lose?"
The problem is that people expect an analyst's opinion from McGrath, they get a proud Australian champion instead.
Originally posted by Kartikeya: Id say it reflects a Champions attitude more than anything else:
Quite. He's saying "if I say it will be 3-2 (say) it means you think I'm going into games with a 40% chance of losing". McGrath thinks you should always think you're going to win.
I suspect he's mocking the question as much as anything. And having a bit of fun at everyone's expense.
Brett Lee, over his test career, has tended to do worse when McGrath hasn't figured. He averages a lot more without GMcG. Last summer, often it seemed that there was no one to put on at the other end from Warney, when Glenn wasn't fit.
So apart from losing an all time great player, if Pigeon proves past it, there is the knock on effect on the rest of the attack.
Lee tends to go for runs. As do Tait and Johnson. And, these days, Gillespie. Clark and Kaspa aren't fit. Kaspa's getting on a bit too, and has slipped out of the picture anyway. Clark is no more than decent, but might be more difficult to score off. There is opportunity for carnage.
Not that we haven't got problems. I tend to think that we're not good enough to retain the Ashes, and Australia aren't good enough to regain them.
Getting back to Glenn. The 5-0 was a laugh last time and this. Only last time, no one laughed.
Lee tends to go for runs. As do Tait and Johnson. And, these days, Gillespie. Clark and Kaspa aren't fit. Kaspa's getting on a bit too, and has slipped out of the picture anyway. Clark is no more than decent, but might be more difficult to score off. There is opportunity for carnage.
And yet in South Africa in March there was little carnage carried out by their batsmen (at least in the tests). So I would not underestimate Clark and his ability to play the McGrath role of containment if needed.
He was effective in very seamer friendly conditions though fromwhat I read- his last game on a somewhat flatter pitch, he found the going somewhat tougher?
TBH I am more than happy to bide my time on a McGrath assessment.
Some Eng comments I read seem totally convinced that either : a) he won't last the 5 tests; OR b) if he does he will bowl pies throughout that KP and co will smash through mid wicket all day.
(I even read a surpringly high number of comments that seem to think a re-occurrence of his freak cricket ball stepping on incident is likely)
Whilst neither scenario is totally out of the question I think there is more than a large slice of wishful thinking going on.
McGrath has not been out injured as so many have suggested. He has had a long lay off and in the past he has always had to ease his way back into international cricket. (At the moment he suggests he is 80% of his usual self). Yet he has a shown a tendency to get better and better in previous comebacks.
I certainly would take no comfort from his DLF Cup performances if I was the opposition. Very few bowlers in the world game today can deliver 6 overs for 6 runs in any conditions in any JAMODI.
This is also not the first time his age has been held up against him (since say 2001) and yet there has been no real sign of any decline when he has had a decent amount of cricket behind him. Admittedly this last decent run was probably July 2004-July 2005.
We will all just have to wait and see. However I am sure many Aus fans will delight in ramming anh good McGrath performances down Eng fans throats such as been some of the big pres-series talk on this matter.
One further point to consider about McGrath and his advanced cricketing age.
He might now be at an age where he cannot dominate as he has in the past.
Equally though he might perform to the level of Ambrose and Walsh in Eng in 2000 where at similar ages they excelled throughout and were in no way to blame for their sides ultimate 1-3 series loss.
