Cricket

australia: the ashley giles robert croft years

morelike richard illingworth

peter such

(case closed)

So LJ, Bell makes the squad. I like Bell, but he must be dropped. He's lacking confidence and needs back in the county championship to make some runs along with Vaughan. Give Shah a chance lord knows he deserves it. But if Vaughan has a good start to the county season he's gotta be no3 unless all the batsmen fire against the WI.

it might win them the Ashes, but what good will it do in the long term?

sentences that contradict/answer themselves, part 4573 in a series

pfunkboy that is all manifest, shah should have been in for india. you are far too cynical about the likelihood of vaughan's inclusion. i'm telling ya, he's definitely played his last game for england

"he's gotta be no. 3"

frankly insane use of "gotta", the man has patently lost it

It's Thorpe all over again. Assuming Bell does play against WI and he does fail, clearly Shah isn't considered good enough. So who will come in if not MV? He has a great record against the Aussies. (all depending what he does at the start of the season for Yorkshire though)
Shah is no Pietersen so I don't see a massive campaign for him to replace Bell or Vaughan unless he hits a few centuries in the Caribbean.

also symonds to be given heaveho not haidoss u_u

And LJ I assume you don't want Monty to play?

Hey, Mark Ramprakash averages over 40 against the Aussies. He's a dead cert, surely.

Thorpe was still run-hungry and his exile from the team was not form-related. The situation is completely different.

Shah is considered good enough to make all the squads. If he wasn't considered good enough, he'd have stayed home with the ODI specialists.

Plenty of young(er) batsmen are making a mark at county level, and would be considerably better bets than a past-it Vaughan. This rhetoric ("who else but Vaughan?") is the wistful pandering rhetoric of the inane tabloid presses.

Don't assume Bell will fail against the Women's Institute. Don't assume he'll start ahead of Shah.

Monty is a terrible cunt and I'd rather see Rashid or even Swann eventually usurp him. Start with Panesar, though, because nothing gives confidence like a West Indies tailender. N.B. the tail starts at 2 and temporarily secedes for Chanderpaul. Maybe he'll get something guileful into that empty skull of his.

N.B. You'll probably interpret it literally, so I'll inform you now that the Ramprakash thing was a sarcastic joke.

Monty is a terrible cunt

A bit OTT even by your standards.

Never seen Withnail And I, have you? Hate having to explain my references.

not for about 15 years, no.

ARE YOU THE FARMER?!

We've gone on holiday by mistake...

sorry i loled at that jesus Withnail!

Victorian all-rounder Andrew McDonald and NSW left-armer Doug Bollinger are set to be called up into a squad of 13 for the Sydney Test.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/cricket/hayden-to-survive-but-changes-imminent/2008/12/30/1230399186421.html

Jason Krejza is the long term soloosh imo

if haydos is gone they should get jaques back in asap. i'd swap hussey and katich too, but that's me.

So KP wants Vaughan in his team and Moores doesn't. KP wants Moores to keep in the background and guess who doesn't. Moores doesn't have a great record.
KP is gonna be the one that comes out on top methinks.
So who will replace Moores? (and be KP's yes man) or will KP resign/get sacked?

Moores is history

So no crappy compromise til after a disastrous WI tour/ashes mauling?

What KP wants, KP gets

Moores doesn't have a great record but at the same time KP is an inexperienced captain(tho i can see that having vaughan there to help him is a good thing from that point of view, but he has to make runs before he can be considered)
I cant see KP getting full power somehow. but they cant take moores side.
Im all for Moores being replaced, but who with?

I'm with KP on this one though. No other England captain would be any different.

Bumble! I don't know, but there must be other guys around who could do as good or, preferably, a better job (xp)

One who can get Harmison, Monty, Vaughan and Bell firing? (since KP insists they get picked)

^^^those four fuckin' players

Mind you, Moores is right about picking Vaughan

yeah in an "it would be flaming fucking madness to pick Vaughan" way

KP going down a little in my estimation over this, sure he's showing himself to be strong-headed but he also needs to LET GO when it comes to inspirational captain-batsmen who are now without a shred of form

Owais Shah is the real loser in all of this tbh.

LJ wouldn't have picked Brearley

it was different in the 80's, nobody was scoring any runs at all except like javed miandad and allan border

also brearley was some sort of great pulsing cricket brain and a jolly decent sort. he had an education, you know

You may as well pick me as pick Vaughan

(and viv richards, and gordon greenidge)

(and some others)

I'd only play if I was above Bell in the order though. I'd have to insist on that.

also brearley was some sort of great pulsing cricket brain and a jolly decent sort. he had an education, you know

so as long as you go to a proper university you're good enough to play for England?

Not sure that Monty's stupid either- he has a degree from Loughborough, and always seems quite thoughtful to me.

― Neil S,

A degree in computer science. His final mark is unsupplied. Let's face it, his cricketing ability probably had a say in his acceptance, especially at Loughborough. Let's just be glad he's an international cricketer rather than a video-store clerk, eh?

just got offed

Also, playing cricket doesn't mean you know how it works;

― Just got offed,

it's time to get English cricket back to where it shone brightest: as the pastime of the aristocracy

Lord Trueman. The Earl of Gooch. The Bishop of Boycott.

Forget recent triumphs? Who was it who spread the game across our glorious Commonwealth, our Empire? The nobs, that's who.

Bloody underarm poofters

Oh dear oh dear oh dear, but on the other hand, lolz:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/7815038.stm

http://weblogs.jupiterresearch.com/analysts/card/archives/nelson-muntz.gif

Morris did a Gallian on him.

RIP English Cricket, Ashes to be taken away, etc, etc.

Just like you Aussies have been pulling a rope-a-dope with your tactical decision to lose to SA, so Pietersen pursues a wily long-game move to make Andrew Strauss captain just in time to lose to West Indies, allowing his triumphant come-back as captain in time for the Ashes!

Not even Strauss could fuck up a series against the Super Stamford XI West Indies, surely?

We'll see, I actually think Strauss would make a good captain, but the dressing room will now be "in turmoil" as sports hacks like to say.

Odds on Pietersen taking Australian nationality?