I really enjoyed the cricket threads on here over the ashes summer in england, but they died out (understandably) for the last series... So I was just trying to spark a bit of conversation away from the tense issues surrounding norwich city that we have at the moment. What did go wrong for the england cricket team this winter? Is it a problem like Michael Vaughan suggested that the make up of the england team is too dominated by privately educated players and we're not getting the best coming through the systems? Was this just a blip? Are we just a good team in England got nothing away from home? All Alastair Cook's fault? Didn't have a settled batting line up? I personally think that perhaps that was the last hoorah for an excellent test team that made it to world number one, won all those ashes series. James Anderson also was disappointing for me, didn't stand up when we needed him most. But the biggest disappointment for me was the loss of steven finn, having to rush bresnan straight back after his injury problems because he wasn't bowling well enough to play was a shame, cause he is a real wicket taker. That and the batsmen disappeared when it mattered. I don't get to talk cricket much as my friends don't follow it and its usually just checking twitter etc. so I thought i'd post this.
Pick any of these reasons: Under prepared (how many times in recent away series have they started poorly) Prior injury which gave him no game time before 1st test - then no form or confidence Trott illness Loss of form for key players - Cook, Swann, Anderson etc Dropped catches at vital times Failure to bowl out their tail (Hadden was brilliant) A bit of bad luck (funny how that happens when you are not playing well) One or two exposed as not being good enough Last Summer over here was a lot closer than the 3-0 scoreline suggested Also you have to give Australia some credit for playing aggressive, positive cricket.
How about being over-hyped, over confident, gutless and under prepared - or a combo of all four would just about sound right whereas the Aussies were up for it and scared the crap out of us from day one and we had no response.
No excuse, but traditionally, cricket has tended to go in cycles. Windies, India, Aus and England have all had 5 - 10 year spells at the top. Looks like our star is waning, after a narrow - as someone mentioned, series win in the summer, total humiliation three months later. Though as an Essex fan, I did enjoy Ravi's quickfire 60 odd in the first T20. So sad it was in a losing cause, because when Faulkner did similar for them in the one dayers, he went on to win it for them. He took the game away from England in no time - and cavalier fashion!
I'm sad to say that the talent Australia simply played much better throughout and at key moments, e.g. the first test when they were on the ropes and should have been all out for less than 200 and then shackle dragging Johnson nearly gets a century oh i thought I'd let it go, need to go and calm down
Now we've set them a really testing 131 to win in the latest T20 I reckon they'll get those with three overs to spare
I moved there from Norfolk when I was 12, the old man worked for Barclays and got promoted. So I did most of my 'growing up' not far from Chelmsford. Well, as much of it as I'll ever manage!
I used to keep an eye on Worcester, I was a big Graeme Hick fan, I think he was poorly used by England, it's no good pressurizing players by having to succeed to keep their place! I'm not surprised though, I still remember Robin Smith, always picked to face India then dropped against the Windies!
AllOutCricket ‏@AllOutCricket 3m It seems Andy Flower's time as England coach is over. Telegraph reporting that new MD Paul Downton has told him his time is up.
I watched some of the ashes and our fielding was appalling. We have been roundly beaten in all forms of the game by our biggest opponents without winning a single game. No other choice to sack Flower really.
End of an era Going forward... 1. Cook (C) 2. Compton 3. Trott 4. KP (VC) 5. Bell 6. Root/Ballance 7. Stokes 8. Prior 9. Broad 10. Anderson 11. Borthwick/Panesar/Finn/Jordan Fact 1: Since Compton was inexplicably removed due to a vendetta by the ex-Yorkshire cohort (Vaughan, Boycott), Root bar one innings at Lords, has proved to be a complete failure as an opener. Carberry may have got a few half century's but didn't take advantage of any to convert them. Since Compton was removed, England have failed to surpass 400 and there was a damning statistic that said that there hadn't been a century partnership between any of England's opening pairs since Cook-Compton. Fact 2: Taking out England's Rock (No.3 Trott) from the line-up had disastrous consequences. All this bull**** talk of Cook, Compton and Trott and boring...well guess what? They at least got the bloody job done even if it wasn't pretty!!! We were good at that accumulation strategy, let's get back to it. Sort out Trott's issues and wheel him out for the first test this summer. Fact 3: Promoting KP to VC has the benefits of providing Cook with a brilliant tactical mind and also preventing any further disruption or awful shot-making by making his interests aligned more with the teams. Fact 4: Never should we play injury-prone players like Rankin. Fact 5: We somehow managed to ruin the one true standout candidate from our young bowlers, Finn. Who cares if he concedes a few runs from knocking off the bails on his run-in? He has raw pace and sometimes you need to fight fire with fire. Fact 6: England lost their hunger and enjoyment of playing cricket over the last two years of Flower's reign. The only way forward was realistically a new coach; which will have added benefits by forcing the players to outperform in a bid to be retained. Fact 7: England lost their engine room with Prior and Swann out; these two made such a difference in team morale and it showed. Without them, England's heads fell down further
Perhaps I'm being a tad dense here, but the only VC I can think of is Varun Chopra, who opens for Warwickshire?
