Cricket

Sarwan out. WI more underprepared than Eng usually are.

LOL at the ECB if the daft wednesday start to the test two days after a bank holiday means they have to offer refunds on saturday.

WINDIES BATSMEN GET FIRST TASTE OF ONIONS - BBC, 6/10

ONIONS SLICES AND DICES WEST INDIES - Telegraph, 7/10

ONIONS HAS WEST INDIES IN TEARS - Times, 6/10

ONIONS MAKES THEM WEEP - Sun, 8/10

STRONGER ONIONS OVERPOWERS WEST INDIES - Reuters, 4/10

ONIONS OFF TO A SIZZLER - Daily Mail, 2/10, must try harder

wow, been out all day and just seen the score. wow again

80-5

delayed for an hour due to rain then the windies lost 3 wickets in the space of 12 mins.

windies fighting back though swann shouldve caught Nash at slip just after lunch, jimmy wasnt pleased that swann didnt get near it.

nuggety little stand this

west indies now thinking of a getting a 200 lead to bowl at england with

Onions dropped an easy caught & bowl to add to swanns miss earlier. Catches not going Englands way this afternoon.

yess

249-9

Bresnan takes a good catch so it's good he's been able to contribute.
Windies lead by 24

all out 256 Nash the last man out

England need 32 to win. I expect a fiery spell here from Fidel Edwards,he always has a good attitude no matter the situation.

Nash was out for 81

LOL umpire just called over after only 5 balls

Who should get MoM? Bopara, Onions or Swann?

England win by 10 wkts

swann iirc

Swann got it

oh for fuck's sake

I'm confident that England can screw up the Second Test.

sidey in for bresnan? i dont mind. Bell is just 12th man, reward him for his form and keep him happy by having him in the squad. Keeps Colly on his toes too, he's gotta deliver or Bell takes his place.
Chances are England will play the exact same 11 anyway so they can get a look at bresnan.
Personally i'd rather pick our strongest side available and just win the damn game.

Bell got a century on the flattest deck in England in a match where an opposition player scored a triple-hundred, got a one-day hundred against the same opposition, and has done *nothing* since then. His form has actually been decidedly off, of late. He hasn't done nearly enough to get in, and this is the price we pay for team unity. Ashley Giles on the board of selectors is a fucking joke.

If the WI had any guts they would sack Gayle as captain. What a leader to have.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/8047374.stm

The way they played in the WI, they certainly tried to kill test cricket. His comments explain a lot.
I hope they get fucked by every team in all cricket now.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/may/12/chris-gayle-andrew-strauss-cricket

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/may/13/chris-gayle-quit-captaincy-west-indies

spoilt money grabbing cunt is what he is.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/may/12/chris-gayle-captaincy-test-cricket

dearie me

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/8047374.stm

I'm pretty distressed about this. Test cricket is about the most beautiful thing sport has to offer, but it's being devalued at every turn.

It wont be long until players refuse to play test cricket so they can play in the IPL.

They've been shunting test matches around for years to accommodate limited-overs, and we've just had one without a weekend day. The adminstrators will probably find a way to have nominal tests continue, but no-one will be watching

I'm pretty distressed about this. Test cricket is about the most beautiful thing sport has to offer, but it's being devalued at every turn.

― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 13 May 2009 21:05 (Yesterday) Bookmark

Same here.

As soon as 20/20 came in a few years back I could sense the writing was on the wall for Test cricket. The thing is though I really don't think that interest in 20/20 will be sustained in the long term, particularly outside of the sub-continent, but it seems like Test cricket will take a bashing in the mean time anyway and we will end up with the worst of all worlds.

They should at least do away with these ridiculous two-match series, particularly when they start in the middle of the week. I mean really it's no surprise that no-one turned up. I know this current series is some kind of fudge because other tournaments have been cancelled, but using Test matches as a blatant warm-up for the Ashes is incredibly wrong-headed. Less frequent but proper 4 or 5 match series with significant honours at stake is what you need to generate interest. Otherwise pretty soon you will have a generation of cricketers that will have very little interest in playing Test cricket at all (I guess kind of like Premiership footballers and international football).

It wont be long until players refuse to play test cricket so they can play in the IPL.

Fuck them, get other players to play test cricket... England might regian the Ashes then!

Yeah but if the best players in the world don't want to play, then where is the "test". Who will want to watch it and who will pay for it? And even if, say, all of England's top players carry on playing Test cricket, what is the point if they have no one to play against?

Anyway here is TMS. They'll know what to do...

Yeah but if the best players in the world don't want to play, then where is the "test". Who will want to watch it and who will pay for it? And even if, say, all of England's top players carry on playing Test cricket, what is the point if they have no one to play against?

It's how England managed to beat Australia in the 70s!

Chris Gayle: This Fuckin' Guy

At least he's living up what would have been a typical May/June second division Test series.

Give him a fucking baseball bat and send him out to play rounders

Hmmmm....sounds like this one might go for the full 5 days...1.25 runs per over...pitch described as a "rice pudding" by Aggers...ho hum.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Sport/Pix/pictures/2009/5/14/1242296496291/England-cricket-captain-A-001.jpg

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Sport/Pix/pictures/2009/5/14/1242296496291/England-cricket-captain-A-001.jpg

The kid's face cracks me up for some reason.

Why's Brendan Nash wearing an England cap?

xps Test cricket has weathered these kind of storms before, not least the Packer period Tom refers to upthread.

I'm concerned for it mostly because there doesn't seem to be any appetite for it in India, which is where the shots are going to called from from now on. Whether Chris Gayle likes it or not is irrelevant really. India seems to like its cricket as vulgar as possible from what I can see

This brought some gentle lols:

http://wisdencricketer.com/blogs/blog/2009/05/14/chris-gayle-another-day-in-my-living-hell/

I’m depressed. This hotel room is freezing. My hotel room in South Africa was a perfect temperature.

I look at my watch: 2.30pm. No rest for the wicked. I managed to snatch a quick 14 hours sleep but I’m still worn out.

He needs Mrs. Alan Stanford there to warm him up a bit

India controls what happens in cricket. It's not looking good for test cricket.