Yes, very good, Mr Mellons but what about The Andersons?

They seem to rate Mike Yardy(Made him England A Captain), so I wouldnt be surprised if he's there or there abouts for a call up to the middle order next Summer if he's amongst the runs in County Cricket.

quote:

Originally posted by Mr Watermelon:
They seem to rate Mike Yardy(Made him England A Captain), so I wouldnt be surprised if he's there or there abouts for a call up to the middle order next Summer if he's amongst the runs in County Cricket.

Really don't think he's a test player, might get back into the ODI squad at some point.

I dont think Yardy is an England player full stop. Showed the classic signs of being a County Pro on vacation during the ICCCT.

Unfortunately, Graveney and co seem to rate him. Probably because he's said nice things about Gloucstershire or something.

What shoes does he wear?

losing this series 5 nil should not cause england to panic regarding their future

they should just accept that a combination of injuries, bad decisions(flintoff captain, panesar etc etc) and playing against a magnificent team (who were intent on humiliating england for having the audacity to beath them) led to this result

they still have a very decent pool of talent available to them

however, this is now a big mental test for england
it took england a long while to "recover" from their ashes victory 18 months ago and they must now bounce back from this humiliation

quote:

Originally posted by kkzs:
losing this series 5 nil should not cause england to panic regarding their future

they should just accept that a combination of injuries, bad decisions(flintoff captain, panesar etc etc) and playing against a magnificent team (who were intent on humiliating england for having the audacity to beath them) led to this result

they still have a very decent pool of talent available to them

however, this is now a big mental test for england
it took england a long while to "recover" from their ashes victory 18 months ago and they must now bounce back from this humiliation

Was Panesar a bad decision?

I think he means not picking Panesar straight away Deeej.

Panesar has had several bad decisions go against him in this series.

yea, i meant not picking panesar and making flintoff captain

Who knows what will happen regarding the coach and the whole shambolic selection issue?

Personally, I hope Fletcher - who has, by and large, done a great job with England, and has far more 'form' than such uninspiring names as Tom Moody and Peter Moores - gets the chance to redeem himself, as I don't think England will find a better coach for a good while.

He made it clear last summer that he didn't want to have a vote on selection, so it's easy enough to change that particular policy and allow him to concentrate on his primary job, clearing up the whole coach-has-too-much-power issue.

However, this means that the utterly spineless David Graveney would have to take some responsibility for team selection and be accountable for his decisions - there'll be nowhere to hide, no bucks to pass - so I imagine he'll have to employ another couple of sacraficial selectors to pin the blame on (as he did with Gatting and Gooch) should things go tits up in the future.

Ideally, I'd get shot of him, but his entire reason for living is to hang on to his position of 'power' by whatever means possible, so it might not be that easy.

As for the team...

The whole batting line-up's been horrible. The reason they're banging on about getting more runs from the tail is because the top order's failed so miserably.

Cook needs to go back to Essex and tidy his game up. He's talented, but he's looked really limited technically and temperamentally on this tour.

Strauss needs a kick up the backside. After getting out to his favourite shot - the pull - a few times early on, he seemed to lose confidence and has been on a downward spiral since. He's got enough history behind him to suggest he's a quality player, though - but that's two failing winters in a row now.

Bell I don't really rate. His talent's fine - he's a tidy, compact little player with sweet timing. But he's mentally frail. Can't cut it under pressure. Goes into his shell, gets himself into a negative mindset and spends his time in the middle desperately trying to survive rather than trying to bat. And then, when he's firmly stuck, he's easily panicked into stupid shots (mainly that poweder-puff pull shot that he always plops up in the air). Two fifties in his first Ashes series, in which he was useless. Four fifties this time around. So he's been twice as good - or half as bad.

Might make it as a Test player eventually. But he's no number three.

Collingwood has come a cropper on this tour. Since his double hundred, his lack of talent and off-side strokes has been ruthlessly exposed by Australia and he's looked awful. Seems crazy to think a guy who scored two hundred only a couple of weeks ago could have his place in the side questioned, but Rob Key only got three or four more games for England after his double-ton against the Windies before England realised that he maybe wasn't very good after all.

A great trier and a great fielder. Collingwood, that is. Warnie's right, BTW, his MBE is a joke. And the fact that he reckons he deserved it for all his hard work behind the scenes as a squad player is also laughable and suggests he's a bit of a knob too.

Flintoff can't bat. He can hit. Slog. Club. Whack. But he can't bat, and shouldn't be anywhere near a specialist batting position.

And if his ankle if giving him such gyp that he can't even bowl the same number of overs as the rest of the bowlers, he shouldn't be in the side full stop.

Forget about the captaincy.

Wicket-keepers are rubbish. That's been well covered. Move on.

No need to prolong Giles' career - probably should've done the decent thing and retired him after the Ashes win of 2005 when his stock was oddly high. But that would've been clear-thinking and ruthless - not exactly in keeping with England's selection policy. Now Giles will be remembered always as that useless lunk who ruined the 2006 Ashes.

Mahmood's got great attributes - pace, aggression, natural athleticism. Now he just needs to learn how to bowl. Send him back to Lancashire to get some proper experience.

Send Jimmy Anderson back too. Same reason. Less ugly, though.

Harmison has actually pulled his action together surprisingly well since the first Test. Shows how pathetically unprepared England were that his action, which had been obviously deteriorating for a long time, could've been 'fixed' with no more than a week's hard graft and some game-time.

Too late now, of course. His confidence won't come back as quickly as his action did. The horse has bolted. He remains an enigma - and surely there's only so much patience England can have with such an up-and-down performer.

I agree with his decision to give up ODIs and concentrate on Tests, but could ironically lose his Test place for next summer should his ODI replacement Chris Tremlett perform to any kind of level in the tri-series and the WC.

What for the future? I don't know. England will probably take such progressive steps as recalling Vaughan, Trescothick, Butcher - maybe - Jon Lewis, and then spend the rest of the time with their head in the sand going "la la la, there's nothing wrong with us, la la la, we would've won if it wasn't for injuries, la la la, Simon Jones would've taken fifty wickets at three, la la la, the umpires screwed us, la la la la la la laaaaaaaaaaa...."

We have a problem in our batting order. Most of the batsman are batting too high:

Cook - number 3, currently batting at 1/2
Bell - number 6, currently batting at 3
Pietersen - number 3/4 - halfway there
Collingwood - number 5, not Test class
Flintoff - number 7, currently batting at 6
Read - number 8, currently batting at 7
Mahmood - number 9/10, currently batting at 8
Harmison, Panesar and Anderson/Hoggard - number 11s, currently batting at 9, 10 and 11 respectively.

The bowling is an absolute shambles, end. Monty and Freddie are good, but the latter's fitness will come under scrutiny, forever. Harmison doesn't merit a place. Hoggy obviously does, but he's walking-wounded at the mo'. Jimmy and Sajid aren't ready.

I don't know how you can argue Cook is a number three.

He's opened for all of his career, at FC level and coming through the ranks. He started his England career opening. He has two of his four Test hundreds opening.

What makes him a number three, all of a sudden?

His problem isn't his batting position - it's about his technique and mental strength under pressure.

Just needs more cricket under his belt.

Anyone for a bit of drastic county cricket reform? It's not producing much in the way of bowlers (granted that young promising ones are taken away from the game before they can learn the trade properly and end up getting injured and carted for England), not much in the way of batting keepers and while there's always a decent enough half-dozen bastmen out there- they don't seem to have the mentalist hunger to go out there and score consistently and hugely like the Aussies and sub-continentals tend to do.

England just doesn't produce genuinely great players- there's been nothing like a Lara, Tendulkar, Ponting, Warne, Murali, Mcgrath etc. etc. since WW2 at least. County cricket just isn't the school of unbridled excellence it should be.

All the same England should be able to compete against every team aprt from Australia. The current team- Fletcher's starting to stink the metaphorical fridge out, Shine and Garraway reek of amateurism, Flintoff shouldn't captain England again even if was the last living Englishman.

As for the players- I'd drop one or two of the high profile ones just to see it can fire them up and get them to take their game up a level. Worked for Thorpe & Stewart in the 90's I remember. Cook's a very good prospect still- but he's only 14 and he was always going to struggle against the fanatics.

Simon Jones needs to get and stay fit- if miraculously that doesn't happen, some other bowlers really need to push on in the next year- one or two with batting ability would be nice as well.

I could go on- but my quiche is ready.

Ooo quiche, Lorraine, egg and bacon, leek and mushroom or something fancy?

Spinach and Ricottah served with some curly leaf khale.

Man food.

firstly I think England need to get the right capatin, hopefully Vaughan will return soon but I think this series has proven that capatincy is too much for a Flintoff who expected to give match winning performances with bat and ball while recoving from injury.
The keeping problem is still a major factor, Jones is definalty not good enough and his selection was a complete mistake, and although Read is more reliable behind the stumps he will rarely contribute with the bat. The best solution is probaly to give nixon a go, he has lots of experience and can do a job untill I young keeper of test quality emerges.
One problem that England are concerned about is the length of the tail. Austrailas batting strength seems to be endless while Englands quicky depeleted at number 6, one reason for the is that Austraila only play for bowler. Now that England have a spinner to occupy to one end, only playing four bowlers is possibly, surely having an extra batter would make more sense than having mahmood and hardly using him?

Interesting title of this thread. What on earth is there to presume about a 5-0 whitewash, going into the 4th and last day of this match?

quote:

Originally posted by Toga:
Spinach and Ricottah served with some curly leaf khale.

Man food.

There's a lot of extra aitch's in there, Tom. Sounds tasty though.

quote:

Originally posted by yorkiebb:
firstly I think England need to get the right capatin, hopefully Vaughan will return soon but I think this series has proven that capatincy is too much for a Flintoff who expected to give match winning performances with bat and ball while recoving from injury.
The keeping problem is still a major factor, Jones is definalty not good enough and his selection was a complete mistake, and although Read is more reliable behind the stumps he will rarely contribute with the bat. The best solution is probaly to give nixon a go, he has lots of experience and can do a job untill I young keeper of test quality emerges.
One problem that England are concerned about is the length of the tail. Austrailas batting strength seems to be endless while Englands quicky depeleted at number 6, one reason for the is that Austraila only play for bowler. Now that England have a spinner to occupy to one end, only playing four bowlers is possibly, surely having an extra batter would make more sense than having mahmood and hardly using him?

I think it is how cricket is played at the grass roots level in England which breeds bowlers who are bunnies with the bat all the time.

quote:

Originally posted by Rowman:
I think it is how cricket is played at the grass roots level in England which breeds bowlers who are bunnies with the bat all the time.

Cripes - England didn't lose the series because their bowlers didn't make enough runs.

Try having a look at the specialist batsmen.

If guys like Strauss, Cook, Bell, Collingwood (for the final four Tests), Flintoff, Jones and Read are all getting out cheaply what do you expect from the tail? Hundreds?

If they could score hundreds, they wouldn't be batting in the tail.

quote:

Originally posted by BGR:

quote:

Originally posted by Rowman:
I think it is how cricket is played at the grass roots level in England which breeds bowlers who are bunnies with the bat all the time.

Cripes - England didn't lose the series because their bowlers didn't make enough runs.

Try having a look at the specialist batsmen.

If guys like Strauss, Cook, Bell, Collingwood (for the final four Tests), Flintoff, Jones and Read are all getting out cheaply what do you expect from the tail? Hundreds?

If they could score hundreds, they wouldn't be batting in the tail.

I realise that Jay.

Great analysis above, Jay.

On the whole a rational analysis but again it seems that many English forummers have some bitter bias regarding Collingwood.

The man can do no right, I reckon I could go back to the Adelaide match thread and point out far too many posts questioning Collingwood place even after his double ton.

Sure he hasn't done anything since, but let's wait for his performances against SL and WI before giving him the flick and for what?