Cricket

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/02032009/58/study-belgians-invented-cricket.html

lol o rly

Shah out. Bopara for the next test then? Harmison and Khan in for sidey and shah? Gotta go with 5 bowlers and sidey aint fit, shouldnt have played this match. Jimmy not done any better either tbh. Both those guys rely on swinging conditions otherwise they dont do well.

if they do go with bopara hes gotta be at 5 and kp at 3 colly at 4. Shah isnt a no3 either so if hes picked play him at 5. But bopara scored the ton while shah hasnt looked at ease at all. Hes vulnerable and always looking like he will get out.
So shah will probably still play at 3...

No doubt louis will say shah needs a run etc you cant drop him, but why pick a guy who isnt scoring in a couple of matches in place of a guy who scored a ton in 1?
Shah isnt a no3. If he plays its gotta be at 5, and bopara has a ton there so i say go with him.
Whoever plays @ 3 in the ashes is whoever scores the most runs in the county season early on. Rule noone in or out.

ps nothing against shah, but Bopara took his chance.

They can't drop Shah. Well, if they did, it would be ludicrously unfair. It's seemingly counter-intuitive to drop someone after a ton but I'd rather see Shah in there than Bopara. I still think England can prosper with a 4-man attack, though, as long as they're the right 4 men. Khan in for Sidebottom would be the obvious. Anderson's position dependent on the wicket. Rashid or Panesar should really get a game if there's obviously going to be little help for the seamers. We'll see.

Aha, xposts, you anticipate me. Well, Shah got a good 50 in one game before being unfortunately run out, and then gave his wicket away in the second innings, rightfully looking for quick runs. In this game, he's been done by the spinner, which is odd as he's a good player of spin, but you can't drop someone on that basis IMO. Bopara took his chance, but it was probably the easiest chance he'll ever have. Tired bowlers, flat deck, almost no opposition.

but shah failed twice on a flat deck plus didnt make a century in the previous match. Bopara did. You cant drop a guy who made a century. That's far more unfair than dropping shah.

Neither should bat at 3. They're 5s

But Shah has finally been given a chance to prove himself in Tests after a long apprenticeship in the shorter form, prolonged county form, 12th man duties galore...you can't take it away from him after two matches in which the batsmen weren't the problem. Bopara's time will come, and Shah will rebound from this. It's good to have competition, but dropping the senior player will probably show Shah that England aren't serious about giving him a run in the side.

I'd maybe hope to think England will find a way of playing both of them, maybe by dropping Pietersen lolz

Cook finally gets a century! Hurrah for Cook! 3000 test runs too

roll on the ashes

okay wtf?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7920260.stm

Cricket gets interesting shocka!

Seriously fucked up. Bye bye Pakistan cricket.

Indeed.

No doubt they're blaming the Indians or the Sri Lankans or everyone else for this on the streets of Lahore or Karachi or wherever

It's pretty clear this is a home grown job, I would think, and I doubt even the Pakistani government will try to deny that.

Don't seem to be:
http://in.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idINSP50360020090303

A senior Pakistani official said the raid bore the hallmarks of the same militants who attacked India's financial capital Mumbai in November. India and the United States blamed the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the three-day assault on Mumbai.

Bye bye Pakistan cricket.

― Queueing For Latchstrings (Tom D.), Tuesday, March 3, 2009 7:57 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark

yuh byebye any home series for tres longtemps. iirc aussies were whinging about going there way before this happened, so who knows whentf they'll go back now.

Don't actually see anyone wanting to tour Pakistan for a very very long time, and I can't see India and Sri Lanka being too keen on having Pakistan tour in their countries either

hi tom d i wasnt suggesting any particular country should be more worried about going, i'm just recalling how we made a big deal of it.

should be more worried than australia

more than fuck

Goodbye Pakistan Cricket Team, Hello United Arab Emirates Cricket Team!

jesus fucking christ

xp Quite a few Pakistani players have played in Dubai for a while, haven't they. Expect loads more defections to the IPL as well.

Considering that Pakistan looks like they'll be playing all their "home" games there (and Toronto) for the next ten years, they might as well do it.

Oh, and expect a slight change of arrangements for the 2011 World Cup.

OH AND FORGET ABOUT THE CHAMPIONS TROPHY

Thinking that some cricketers might be getting cold feet about playing in the IPL too now

not to devalue the lives of the policemen, but just imagine the response/state of play if they'd actually wiped out a few cricketers

Esp. if it's proved that the authorities knew about the attack in advance

... which seems to be the case

not to devalue the lives of the policemen, but just imagine the response/state of play if they'd actually wiped out a few cricketers

You could forget about any Western side touring anywhere near Asia for a decade.

But a Pakistani minister, Sardar Nabil Ahmed Gabol, reportedly told private Geo TV that evidence suggested the attackers came across the border from India.

He said the assault came in reaction to the Mumbai attacks, and was a "declaration of open war on Pakistan by India".

Aye, right

So basically this is the next Iraq.

This fuckin' guy.

yeah wtf

Sending out a message that Pakistan is effectively ungovernable?

Who's doing this?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/03/pakistan-srilanka

Cricket tours by Sri Lanka to Pakistan being a source of endless rapt fascination to the American people and government

I bet they're talking about little else round the watercooler in US offices today

Obama in Test uniform = photo op of the century

Obama's just released the following statement:

"Once I threw a wobbly for 5/0/i/2220 for after my first chugger caused a Pollyanna; imagine my face when the three tits went up on scoreboard! Lawks, what a shocker!"

too soon but lol

if Pakistan play a Test series against Australia in England, who wants to come watch?

Long way to go for the Aussies, Dubai a better bet

er, Tom, they'll be here already. It'll be like some kind of all-summer Ashes Of Pakistani Cricket spectacular!

Oh right, I see! Too good an idea for the cricket authorities to think of it.