Cricket

He's the 1st English batsmen I've got excited by the sight of him walking to the crease since Gower/Botham.

Ah, ok, bit harsh against Flintoff as well then

With Flintoff there wasn't the same confidence that he'd fire. An exciting player, but not a batsman I'd watch purely for his interpretation and expression of batsmanship, merely a big-hitter with a decent technique. Speaking merely of the period around 2004/5 I'd possibly see your point, but Flintoff doesn't force superlatives out of me quite like the other two. Trescothick oozed class and security however he played, and even when defensive, bat met ball thrillingly. He had a positive and destructive style all his own, and a cover-drive of kings; that ball stayed smitten. My favourite England batsman, of all the ones I've seen. His 180 in the Hoggard Test (Jo'burg) is possibly the best Test innings I've seen from an Englishman.

http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/2359541.jpg?v=1&c=ViewImages&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF19390335F8FA9CA92A63329CD19335F6D429930FDCFC4C15FBB
Can't argue with that assessment, but still I'll always love Flintoff best as I saw him do this. Part of a quickfire 143 if I remember correctly.

To be honest, though (and these have been good years for England), these are fairly slim pickings against what a few Aussies can boast over the same period, and nothing at all compared to Lara - his run against Australia in (I think) 99/00 is pretty much the finest sport I ever expect to see

Trescothick deserved a hundred against Australia in Tests. It is the only thing his career lacked. He came close on several occasions but bafflingly never quite cracked it. In 2005 he frequently set the tone for England's innings, though, and for that it cannot be said that he completely failed against the Australians.

Further to this, he's the greatest England one-day batsman ever. It's not even close. Well, Goochie might have a qualm, but no it's not even close.

Lara vs. Australia 99/00 and SL in I think 2001 = utter, unremitting brilliance. Getting bowled round his legs first ball by Craig White in 2000, however = all-time loooooooool

Big ups to Martin Guptill. Great knock, and he turned from Mark Richardson into Chris Cairns at the end, too

Australia batsman Matthew Hayden is set to retire from international cricket, according to reports.

ya good on him
repostig:
youtube.com/watch?v=pLFdUquAfWs

Hayden is expected to receive a rousing farewell during a lap of honour at tonight's second Twenty20 match between Australia and South Africa at the Gabba.

Such is the state of world cricket that a batsmen of this stature is to be farewelled at what amounts to a glorified game of tip-and-run.

batsman

shit is that tonight. I'll be driving past the gabba in baot 2 hours. I should probably think about going to it..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/tms/7861363.stm

Bill Frindall RIP

:-( goodbye bearded wonder

!!!!!!!!

this is getting its own thread

RIP Ian Bell

If the Windies win this series these feckless fucking playboys should never be allowed back in the country. Or South Africa.

o_O

ok you gotta lol sometimes tbh

useless cunts

looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool

kp will rescue them... oh wait a min. They can all fuck off to the IPL for the money. Clearly they have no pride or guts in playing for England.

and before you leap to kp's defence louis, i said all of them

^^^This is a really stupid thing to say, especially given how hard KP fought for us in the first knock.

o xpost

Well, it's not like they have no pride or guts! They're simply collapsing, England-style (albeit even more spectacularly than usual). Surely you're used to it by now? They want it, but too many of them are bottlers. Ahem.

lol at confusing not being very good with not having pride

Yeah, exactly.

Hopefully this will be like a glass of cold water to the collective face

Headingley '81 revisited. Heard it here first.

;-)

RIP big guys

Great game for fans of watching West Indian supporters bogling and laughing.

Flintoff into double figures :)

fred for captain

Headingley '81 revisited. Heard it here first.

;-)

― Robin van Injury (country matters), Saturday, 7 February 2009 18:49 (22 minutes ago) Bookmark

fwiw all the commentators are talking about this, partially because Botham is one of them

there wont be a repeat of that.

"If Flintoff goes across the line, Fidel Edwards is skiddy, it could creep under his bat. Flintoff has to hit it straight"

Awesome stuff Nasser :D

(for those keeping score, Nasser said that 3 seconds before being proven correct)

Ah well, good effort from plucky little England.

Betting suspended on Aus whitewashing us in the summer I reckon.

amazing

I am kind of chuffed for the Windies who on more than one occasion in the last few years I've been worried will vanish as a Test force.

^^^^^^^cosign

Taylor was like some sort of demonic reincarnation of Marshall today

I am kind of chuffed for the Windies who on more than one occasion in the last few years I've been worried will vanish as a Test force.

tbh, that fear of 'cricket will die in the Windies' had only started at the disastrous way the World Cup was handled. Cricket has always run for too long for it to vanish just because of, I dunno, basketball or what have you.

Its like 1995 all over again - the circle is complete...

It's been around for years - maybe when it became obvious that they were going to be less good than Lara deserved, and definitely since it became obvious *just how much* less good that was going to be. The World Cup was supposed to be a last chance to turn it around.

Anyway, I'm stoked for them. I hope that good players and a good spirit were all that was missing all along

Quite a few of this side are of course Stanford Millionaires, which is probably helping their morale tbh

Oh yes, sorry, I know the death of West Indian cricket has been talked about for years, but I don't think I ever really felt it until the shambles of the last World cup.

I guess from my POV it was more the seeming lack of world class players and at times even the sense of flair that ran through the great West Indies sides, that and the "basketball taking over the Caribbean" stories.

LOL at England.

Bell out, Monty out (although he'll stay). Not convinced about Shah replacing Bell. No form and little interest from most of the batsmen, it would seem.

Also well played West Indies.