Cricket

moeen ali was born in birmingham you fucking idiot

& compton was born and raised in south africa, arriving in england at more or less the same age as chris jordan

ffs

hey no need to go off on one, or to call me names. Compton proves the point I was trying to make- the England team has always been made up of people born all over the world, as well as people born in England

cf. http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/may/27/the-spin-england-cricket-history

no, I refuse to allow your appalling and racist insinuations about Moeen Ali's nationality to pass without rejoinder; you're lucky I wasn't harsher. I notice you didn't even climb down

I'm fully aware that English cricket is drawn from around the globe; colonialist vectors are still prominent in the sport today. It seems odd that Robson has moved against the contemporary gradient of cricketing osmosis, but look closer and you'll still see England cast as the old exploiter. See how Ireland has been denied a Test side!

I have nothing against those of other countries representing themselves in professional cricket in England; I welcome it. And on a personal level, I welcome their inclusion in Test cricket. But I also feel that a nation's Test side should represent and reflect its cricketing culture(s), its way of bringing up its young and its available talent. Young English players, growing up dreaming of Test representation, only to be usurped at the last by an Australian of all people? And an Australian who might not even be that much greater than them? It pains thinking about.

hold on a minute, there's nothing racist in stating that Moeen is English because of Britain's imperial history, which was what I was doing. What exactly do you want me to climb down from?

Moeen is English because he was born in England, raised in England and considers himself English. Everything else is reverse-projection bullshit. I'M only fucking English because my Cypriot grandparents moved here, after the British set up a colony in Cyprus! Imperialist history, you created me too! Wow, I'm an "Empire" ilxor! ISN'T NATIONALITY A SLIPPERY THING

Moeen is a Muslim and has dark skin and a beard. That's basically your argument.

Gonna leave this thread for a bit I think

no it's not my argument, I think you're reading a lot into that (ill-advised, as it turns out) post. to be clear: Moeen is English and is in the squad on merit, and I would never suggest otherwise, I'm sorry if I've given any impression to the contrary.

can we get back to the real issue

I think they were always going to go for Prior, but I agree that his match fitness is a concern.

not just fitness (tho its a double standard re stokes) but his form is why he was dropped. He was fucking rotten with both batting and keeping. He may have a century this season but he has kept ONCE. How is that earning his place back in the side?

don't recall him being bad at keeping over the winter, though his batting was indeed awful. Problem now is he seems to be able to bat okay, but can he keep properly over the 5 days? Cook has come out and said Buttler is not ready, but if not now then when?

his keeping was stinking. from his great form v nz in nz he had a poor home series against them and was awful in both ashes. His keeping got so bad they had to drop him, it wasnt just his batting.
I dont think buttler is ready for it either but it would do no harm in playing him in these 2 tests to find out. Sometimes the only way to find out if someones ready is to play them. Italso helps prior get proper match fit in the counties and get form for india.
it all smacks of prior being cooks mate tbh. Its just double standards.

no proper spinner and an unfit keeper plus how fit is Broad? Its a potential disaster waiting to happen. Tailoring wickets to suit england's pace attack wont do them any good in the long run. Look how out of touch jimmy was in oz. Green wickets that suit him wont tell us his true state of whether hes lost it or was "burnt out".

sri lanka and india grew up with spin. if they bat them out of attack jimmy and broad will be overbowled again and that was supposed to be why they were burnt out.

btw is woakes good enough to bowl at test level?

any of you tightwads bought this yet? 360 or ps3
http://i.imgur.com/NQek0JO.jpg

The pc version is out this week or next i think via steam but you need a controller i think.

I've had the 360 version since it came out. batting is really hard but bowing is easier.
career mode is awesome. I chose to be a left arm fast bowler and its fun working my way up.

was watching in the pub this evening when this happened

https://vine.co/v/MDJbqLnuzhh

yeah saw that. wondrous.

and to think I was tipping him for a Test call-up the other day upthread ;)

Pollard's from a fortnight ago was good too.

http://youtu.be/y_2otJ9wl-Y

sick, hadn't seen that before

yeah that's amazing

this was a good one if you ignore the fact he fell over first

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA0wgDvgwXo

that was some incredible catches

Jermaine Blackwood, WI's new batsman, just made me burst out laughing

On zero, in his first Test innings, he played a Trent Boult over as follows:

Ball 1: Defeated by massive inswing, rapped on pad, lbw appeal turned down

Ball 2: Ball holds line, edge through slips for four

Ball 3: Defeated by massive inswing, ball goes over stumps to keeper

Ball 4: Another big inswinger, on-driven for six

Ball 5: Beaten outside off on the drive

Ball 6: Leave

I approve tbh

yo sharivari, WI in with a chance of pulling off the ridiculous here

Can't see it happening but would be fantastic if it did.

I'm watching it and Holder is playing like a proper top-order player, doesn't look in trouble /jinx

Shillingford a bit ropier but if he stays in another half-hour this is a serious match

Southee with a new ball looms tho, yeah

sorry everyone

watching chanderpaul and brathwaite batting together is v soothing

a sublimer game has not yet been devised

ok now it's quite tense in a perfectly wonderful way. brathwaite, who is one of the most rock-solid batsmen i've ever seen but has no weight of shot to speak of, has been on 199 for 12 balls. he's never scored a FC double ton. the spinners are on. he keeps hitting it at the fielders. it's quite pantomimic by now

to add to the sense of liminal torture, the score is 399 and chanderpaul is on 49

brathwaite smashes a four! tbf it needed such a travesty, it was too deadlocked otherwise, too crystallised in perfect stasis

how many balls is that double off?

434. an opus

marvellous.

sulieman benn @suliebenn
It was an absolute pleasure watching the wizard @K_Brathwaite at work over the last two days https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v1/72x72/270c.png #205no #inspiration #BOOM

you know when praise is just a little too effusive

yes against bangladesh

even the bones of wg grace could get a lazy double century against bangladesh

Geoffrey-Boycott-reveals-how-Feng-Shui-helped-him-beat-cancer.html

lol just like it helped you beat yourr wife amirite

fawad alam bowling in a backwards cap is some of the purest swag I've ever seen on a cricket field

Boycott used to do that.

qed

btw this is on the first line of GIS results for geoff boycott blingee

http://image.blingee.com/images15/content/output/000/000/000/3b4/189210157_843607.gif

an ILX classic

even more so than the Windies, a strong Pakistan is essential for world cricket. today was great :)

of course the Windies are a terrible & sad story rn, and I don't know how they're gonna resolve it

relying on the mercy of the BCCI I suppose, good luck with that

It's Pakistan. WHO THE FUCK KNOWS WHAT PAKISTAN IS GOING TO DO NEXT?

(but maybe it's already time for Pup to hand the reigns over to #DEVEREUX)

xp probably win, given they really like playing in Dubai?

meanwhile a Test of thrilling ineptitude between two teams Ireland could beat!

Everyone at the ICC is going to be so embarrassed when Ireland smash it in that "relegation Test", if that ever happens.