If taking two wickets and piling on about 300 runs is a good day, I dread to think what a bad day looks like.
Sir Geoffrey tells it as it is. 4 fast-medium bowlers and a batsman who bowls a bit of spin won't win matches in Australia. Candy from a baby.
At the end of this Tour: Cook & Broad - retired Ali, Vince & possibly Stoneman - not good enough Root - sh1t, sh1t Captain - take it off him Bayliss & Farbrace - fvck off
I know it sounds obvious, but it seems that in Cricket (far more than most other sports) local weather conditions and the way pitches are set up has a huge effect on how tours turn out. For those who love the game this adds layers of complexity to the whole experience, but to the wider world I think this is a fatal weakness - especially when it comes to Test cricket. Australian conditions, pitches, even the ball, are apparently so different from what English players are accustomed to, the visitors are already at a massive disadvantage. Granted this is no secret, but for decades now nobody who runs English Cricket seems to have addressed it. Key players getting drunk and beating people to a pulp in the street outside night clubs also does not help. Maybe Cricket is just on the long term decline over here, apart from in Yorkshire presumably. 20-20 seems to be the future, though I would not really call that Cricket at all.
Not sure who is more irritating - Swann or Bumble. At least we don’t have to endure both, but the women commentator is unbearable. I like Gilly, Ponting and Boycott, though.
Swann is blatantly trying to make a name for himself & to ramp up the lucrative after-dinner speech bookings. Lloyd has been doing the same for years.
I am one for the ‘good old days’ but when it comes to TMS, I think I am right. I grew up in the era of Arlott, Jim Swanton, Johnson, Trueman, Don Mosey & CMJ all in their pomp as cricket broadcasters. Every one of them knocked the current lot into a cocked hat. They were proper wordsmiths & descriptive journalists of the highest order.
