Cricket

one thing for sure Flower and Cook wont pick monty. It's back to the days of a spinner being able to bat and bowl a bit defensively and field. Wicket taking is not important.

grrrr never ever mention that cunt in my presence again! Negative bowler who dropped Ponting in that much when Aussies were in trouble and they ended up winning 5-0.
My worst nightmare is Giles as coach!

Monty is not the answer to anything at all. He has always lacked any guile at all.

I HATE ASLEY GILES

I reckon England should go all-seam until a genuinely good spinner emerges. Or pick Moeen Ali.

Cook
Root
Taylor
KP
Bell
Stokes
Ali
Davies/Buttler
Broad
Onions
Anderson

imo

Andersons fine at home but does he still have enough in him to lead the attack on tour? He would get crucified in SA if he bowls like he did this past 6months. Hopefully hes just been overbowled and with a good rest and only bowling him in shorter spells he will be ok. but bowling 7+ overs a spell has to end. Hopefully stokes coming through will help with that.

All pace attack is fine in England but not on tour.

Do we have any quickies we can work on and maybe introduce in a year or 2?

They've targeted Tymal Mills because he's fast. Speed alone ain't enough. Work on Finn imo

Oh, and Jamie Overton is the other young speedsta

Like I said. Get to work with them. Prepare them. They did it for KP by identifying a talent and working with him until he was ready.
Fuck knows what the coaches have done to Finn. They really need to go.

Bowling coaches should concentrate on psychology above technique. England's recent bowling coaches clearly not doing this with younger bowlers.

swann and anderson hated KP. now Swann has gone maybe things will improve? Or will Anderson and other players say they dont want KP in and back Flower? I can see it coming to that if the ECB dont back flower to dump KP.

If Flower hasn't denied that Guardian story by tomorrow then it must be true and we will have seen the last of KP (and be a laughing stock to other countries).

Clearly they cant drop him due to form as he still outscored and out averaged the other batsmen and they would need to be dropped too.
As for age clarke/rogers/haddin are all older.

good news :)

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/jan/08/andy-flower-kevin-pietersen-england-future?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

wow
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/25650615

All very Phil Brown

Thrilling Test breaking out between Pakistan and Sri Lanka

Kumar Sangakkara bowling in a Test, y'all

Misbah likes getting out in the 90s doesn't he.

Dead jet lagged today, but I'm sure you'll all be on tenterhooks to hear my Melbourne/ Sydney Ashes thoughts. If you can't wait I was actually quoted in the Guardian in this article:
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2014/jan/04/ashes-2013-14-england

Cook you are a fucking useless captain. resign now ffs

bollocks

i.e. that is bollocks, it wasn't Cook's captaincy that was the problem, just as it wasn't his captaincy that was the problem during the Ashes

he doesnt have a clue

I think that's wrong. Arguably he shouldn't have bowled Stokes in the penultimate over, but what else do you think he did badly?

Bopara had the best figures yet he didnt bowl at the end. Stokes had been flogged all game. He doesnt have a clue. I'm done with him as captain.

you lose a test series 5-0 where everyone knew at 2-0 it was going to be 5-0 and this clown is still captain beggars belief. He is not a good captain. Hes not even been good enough to play in the team this past year yet KP is the one ppl want to kick out.

yes "everyone" knew that. I don't think his form has been poor enough to be dropped. The calls to drop KP are because he's a disruptive influence. Until someone comes along who is better able to lead the team, Cook is the best we have.

you worry that KP is going to be scapegoated, I think dropping Cook as player or captain would be a similar knee-jerk reaction. Sorry to appeal to authority, but not a single commentator has seriously suggested Cook should be dropped.

im talking abut being dropped as captain

and no one, to my knowledge, is currently suggesting he should stop being captain, even one-eyed Aussies

(sorry to any optically challenged Antipodeans who might be reading this)

its affected him. NZ and both ashes series his batting has been poor. Its not a recent thing thats a whole year and 3 series. His averages for those 3 series are worse than any senior batsmen and its because hes captain.
A captain needs to lead. He hasnt been doing that.
If he wasnt captain he would go back to scoring runs.

aussies were a shambles 1st 2 tests in the summer. rain saved us in 3rd.

youre right anyway nothings going to change hes gonna stay as skipper and will hopefully return to form against inferior opposition in may/june. He will have cleared his head by then hopefully.

btw what the hell have the coaches done to finn???

Can we LJ's thoughts on this too. Or is he out celebrating?

It was magnificent work. Faulkner has become a fearsome finisher, was clearly not over until he was out or stranded

it's a shame Stokes served up some nice pies to hit into the stands, but there we go.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/25791500

"England ponder change of tactics"
Finally, a plan b?

Well, winning something would be a change of tactic.

They should just blame the legacy left by the last Labour government and be done with it

Another terrible defeat in the worst tour ever. Could be another 5-0

lost the Carlton Mid Series...is there any hope left for England??

could be some bizarre imbalanced times ahead for the international game

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci-icc/content/story/710707.html

reckon england and australia wdnt be cunts abt it but india completely would, to their own hilarious detriment

India pretty much controls cricket anyway as it is

this is just gonna lead to only 3 countries playing tests eventually

You mean the only three countries that are actually interested in test cricket?

you think south africa arent?

now being "reported" cook may give up the one day captaincy.

would think NZ, Pakistan and SL care a little bit too. WI sadly not a factor and perhaps in need of a kick up the arse. spare them until Chanderpaul goes

haha but of course I am not in favour of reducing the Test roster on principle. tier 2 tests - would these count for one's official stats? Darren Bravo'd make a killing