The Ashes & Hampshire Cricket Summer Thread - II

Can't blame the Aussies, I have absolutely no doubt that England would have done the exact same thing, and we have done in the past. Problem is with the archaic rules by which we are governed and the useless organisation that presides over them.

 

I repeat .Clarke is FILTH !

 

Can blame thee Aussies , do you think Cooke would have been in the umpires face like Clarke was ?

 

Problem is the new rules more like! Until a couple of years ago it would have been the batting side's call!

 

Wasn't great from Clarke but made no difference to the Umpires decision, they were going off no matter what he had to day.

Haha, quite right, though those rules were daft too, but would have stood us in better stead in this scenario.

 

Have to admire the Aussies for declaring and trying to get a result. England finished strongly ...good to carry that into the next series.

 

Cricket is a wonderful, wonderful game but there has to be a complete rethink about the bad light rules. What's the point of playing for 5 days if the result can be determined by a slight loss of light with the game so close to the end and it still in the balance...no wonder Yanks can't understand it.

 

Can't wait to hear what Lehman has to say about gamesman ship etc. Him And Clarke. deserve to get mullered by the press. Faulkner seems a big find for them !

 

I think England would have made less of a scene but they would have been massively time wasting. They were time wasting at Old Trafford so there's no doubt they would have done it in this situation

 

Lol at Aleem Dar

 

Yes fair comment from you and you ( Mikey ) I am calm now, I just really do not like Clarke , nor Lehman now .

 

Yeah, after 5 days the match ends with about 20 minutes play left due to bad light in a ground with floodlights that host day/nighters. It's just not Cricket!!

 

A very sad way to end a test match.

 

What, they don't have a right to express their opinion?

 

How else are they going to vent their anger?

 

Clarke was stalling towards the end and that's why he was booed. The rules are there and can't be broken but they are wrong. Had it been round the other way England would have done the same (and have done in this series) and we would have been up in arms had we lost a test match because the umpires kept the players out, when by the letter of the law they shouldn't have.

Meowth is 100% correct, had Clarke not declared, today would have been one of the most boring days of Test cricket as oppose to what was the highest number of runs on a 5th day in the history of the game. Clarke should be applauded, that declaration it is certainly something Cook wouldn't have done.

Roll on 3 months time and we can do it all over again.

 

I've been out for the last three hours, so missed much of what happened post Root's wicket - but from what I can see, Clarke was wanting the players to come off for bad light, and the umpires did ultimately take them off for bad light. Under current rules, I really can't see any issue with either.

Australia were seemingly heading for defeat. Of course Clarke was going to do whatever possible to avoid that in the end. We'd have no doubt done something similar - indeed, for example, I remember Broad time-wasting like hell recently. Yes that was, from memory, only to try and avoid us having to bowl another over before lunch, when we were looking for the lunchbreak and time to regroup - but even so, it was hardly 'sporting'.

And remember, it's down to Clarke and Clarke alone that we were even in the position to chase something.

As for the umpires, they would have just been implementing the rules. Blame the rules all you want, blame the ICC all you want. But I can't blame the umpires here. It is quite clear to me though, as it has been for some time, that the ICC do need to do something here. Either they need to go back to allowing the batsmen decide when to go off, or change the light level which they deem to be poor enough to come off. Afterall, these days all batsmen wear helmets, all batsmen have played one day/night limited overs cricket (different cricket ball I know), and floodlights are used. You could also say that the fast bowlers around these days are not as fast as in previous years - but that's maybe not worth arguing, because it's not necessary something that will always be the case. Proper fast bowlers may well return one day.

 

The crowd wanted England to win. I'm not seeing the problem really. Unless you're one of these "must be a good sport" people? (Which, incidentally, is the reason British sportsmen and women spent long ****ing decades winning nothing.)