Fuck me Billy Bowden’s a useless cunt
Complete inability to play the short ball.
[quote=“Fitzy”]Evo Morales:
Watson going well again at the top of the order. From an Australian perspective, a key turning point was dropping the out of his depth Hughes. Much better balance to the team now. Keen students of the game, had figured out Hughes a long time back, even if the yobo types who fall for that 20/20 style of batting thought he was the real deal.
England just have to dig in now and slow down that run rate. Its a 5 day game, it can rain alot in Leeds and they have come back from an even more impossible position at Headingly before to win an Ashes test.
Er, Evo, you were in the wrong thread there, schoolgirl error.
Keen students of the game will also know that Hughes doesn’t play 20/20. Keen students of the game will also know he scored over 400 runs against SA. Though I’m sure in the years to come when Hughes has scored thousands of test runs for Aus, some keen students will refer to him as a “flat track bully”.
It is a 5 day game, though this one won’t be.[/quote]
And any student with basic reading skills would be able to decipher the nuances of the English language, that subtle distinction between playing 20/20 cricket and a 20/20 style of batting.
Was there a mention anywhere of your pal Hughes playing 20/20 cricket?
As regards Hughes in South Africa. Good batting conditions to his liking. The really good batsmen adapt and thrive in all conditions. Applying your rationale, on the back of all those test centuries in the Carribbean, Ravi Bopara is a top class batsman, just like Hughes going through a temporary blip of form.
You have a real bee in your bonnet about Pietersen playing for England. No doubt you were similarly vociferous when Kepler Wessels was playing for Australia back in the 1980s.
Or did Kepler Wessels pre-date your arrival in Australia and discovery of cricket?
And in this you are completely correct. He’s 20 though, that too will come.
[quote=“Manuel Zelaya”]And any student with basic reading skills would be able to decipher the nuances of the English language, that subtle distinction between playing 20/20 cricket and a 20/20 style of batting.
Was there a mention anywhere of your pal Hughes playing 20/20 cricket?
As regards Hughes in South Africa. Good batting conditions to his liking. The really good batsmen adapt and thrive in all conditions. Applying your rationale, on the back of all those test centuries in the Carribbean, Ravi Bopara is a top class batsman, just like Hughes going through a temporary blip of form.[/quote]
I’m glad you have acknowledged its just a temporary blip of form Evo. Naturally you will confirm your admiration of the man when he starts scoring big time.
Manuel, will you be contributing to the rugby threads in here when the season starts up again, no doubt dancarter would love to hear your thoughts…
[quote=“Manuel Zelaya”]You have a real bee in your bonnet about Pietersen playing for England. No doubt you were similarly vociferous when Kepler Wessels was playing for Australia back in the 1980s.
Or did Kepler Wessels pre-date your arrival in Australia and discovery of cricket?[/quote]
Given that we are into semantics, when did I mention Pietersen?
Kepler? Have you anyone else?
Trott the latest soft option for England
Peter Roebuck
August 7, 2009
ENGLISH cricket might as well close down its numerous academies and replace its large collection of coaches and assorted cream-lickers and start over again.
Vast resources have been invested in setting up institutions that fail to produce players of high calibre. Huge sums of money are bestowed upon smooth-talking impostors with vague job descriptions and most of it is wasted. As much was confirmed by the selectors as they added yet another player raised overseas to their squad for the Headingley Test.
Jonathan Trott is the fourth South African to appear this summer - an extraordinary statistic calculated to give coaches, educators and even pseudo-intellectuals pause for thought. Success has many fathers but the facts suggest that Trott’s emergence was due in no small part to his background.
Meanwhile, Ryan Sidebottom’s return shows that cricketing families can survive even the weakest systems.
Trott was raised in Cape Town and educated at Rondebosch Boys’ High, a school that tries to turn brats into citizens. He joins Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior and Andy Flower in the growing African contingent.
Nor is that all; Stephen Moore is a contender for a position as an opener while Ryan McLaren and Craig Kieswetter are longer-term candidates. Before long, a batch of second-generation Africans will be pressing. Among locals, Paul Collingwood is the son of a factory worker and comes from Durham, the main source of English cricketing talent. In its pomp, English cricket depended on blue blood and blue collar, nowadays these sources have run almost dry. Luckily, settlers have filled the gap.
According to a rough count, there are 119 foreign-born players on county books. Surrey and Kent, founding members of the championship, lead the way with 19 between them. At the other end of the scale, Glamorgan has four and Nottinghamshire two.
Of course, the figures are slightly artificial. As with Ted Dexter and Colin Cowdrey, some families merely happened to be away at the time of birth. Nevertheless, the numbers brook no argument. English cricket has experienced an overseas invasion.
And the reason is simple: these players strengthen the team. Despite all the spending and clipboards and vogue phrases, England is not producing cricketers to match them.
Incidentally, the 119 does not include the 23 locally born Asians signed by counties, most noticeably in the Midlands and the north-east. Their rise is welcome and long awaited and England will be richer for it.
Already several members of these communities have represented their country, including batsman, pace bowlers and spinners. Along the way they have helped to break down barriers. Furthermore, a team consisting entirely of Patels plays in a minor league in Yorkshire!
The vast majority of the 119 belong on the second rung. Thirty years ago most top cricketers joined counties. For some it was a finishing school, others appreciated the extra income. Times have changed and these days counties search not for great players but good ones. Some are Kolpak players, taking advantage of lax European employment laws. An English grandparent is enough to allow them to seek contracts on equal terms.
Others, especially white Africans, belong to settler families seeking to avoid crime and skewed selection policies. If England was turning out the right sort of cricketers, they’d not be needed. Instead, 119 gain places. Does anyone any longer suggest that it is just a coincidence?
Of course England’s gain, if it can be so described, is another’s headache.
South Africa is strong and changing and not unduly concerned about its losses. McLaren and Kieswetter are the main worries. The continent’s numerous outstanding schools will keep producing fine cricketers of all colours and most will stay.
In any case, South Africa cannot match the distorting money that television-rich counties throw at talented youngsters. It happens in rugby, too. Eventually South Africa will think up a way to stop the exodus. Reducing the murder rate will help.
Australia is just starting to notice its predicament. English-born, Australian-raised Darren Pattinson’s surprise Test debut for England last year was a warning. Now Stewart Walters, a handy cricketer from Perth, is captaining Surrey. More pertinently, Sam Robson, two years ago an Australian under-19 player, and a fine batsman and leg-spinner, is opening the innings for Middlesex. Cricket Australia needs to monitor these developments.
Unable to produce players of their own, the Poms seem intent on pinching everyone else’s sportspeople.
Instead, English cricket ought to seek its own excellence and to that end could study Spain, Sweden, South Korean women’s golf, and local rowing and cycling. It can be done. But it won’t happen so long as soft options are taken.
Somehow, I doubt that…
Again, the nuances of the English language are lost on you. I was inviting comment from you on Ravi Bopara, as we have a very similar situation with Bopara as regards that which pertains to Hughes. Both prospered on their first tours on foreign shores in their first test series in batting firendly conditions and both are now struggling very badly in more testing batting conditions.
My own views on Hughes, I watched all three tests in South Africa and he did amass big scores on good batting tracks which South African wickets invariably always are. I certainly wasnt getting carried away that we had a new Donald Bradman on our hands the way you evidently were, as there signs in South Africa that he didnt have the variety in his game to prosper.
He is only 20, he may go away and work on his glaring technical deficiencies and come back a better player. Id have my doubts though. One man whos opinion I would value and respect, and who knows a thing or too about opening the batting, Geoffrey Boycott has long held the view that Hughes is an empty vessel. Boycott is firmly of the view that Hughes is technically bereft in too many areas of his game and wont hack it at test level.
[quote=“Manuel Zelaya”]Again, the nuances of the English language are lost on you. I was inviting comment from you on Ravi Bopara, as we have a very similar situation with Bopara as regards that which pertains to Hughes. Both prospered on their first tours on foreign shores in their first test series in batting firendly conditions and both are now struggling very badly in more testing batting conditions.
My own views on Hughes, I watched all three tests in South Africa and he did amass big scores on good batting tracks which South African wickets invariably always are. I certainly wasnt getting carried away that we had a new Donald Bradman on our hands the way you evidently were, as there signs in South Africa that he didnt have the variety in his game to prosper.
He is only 20, he may go away and work on his glaring technical deficiencies and come back a better player. Id have my doubts though. One man whos opinion I would value and respect, and who knows a thing or too about opening the batting, Geoffrey Boycott has long held the view that Hughes is an empty vessel. Boycott is firmly of the view that Hughes is technically bereft in too many areas of his game and wont hack it at test level.[/quote]
Boycott’s long held the view? Christ, the guy only debuted yesterday for fucks sake.
Look, I’ve watched Hughes play for a couple of years and technically, from my limited knowledge, he is very good. He’s been targeted with the short ball by EW and this is one of the things they have done very well in this series, and all credit to them for taking out an Australin opener. Its a common enough thing for a test batsman to be dropped after a few tests and then come back stronger and I have no doubt this will be the case with Hughes. Look at Michael Clarke for instance. The incredible debut in India, the subsequent dropping and he comes back as vice captain.
Ravi Bopara? Why are they persisting with him? He’s clearly out of his depth. I’m sure he can come back in the future as a good test batsman, but at the moment, he’s a liability to EW. He’s No 3, FFS, this is a very important position. Australia took action, even though I didn 't agree with it (likewise pretty much every cricket journo in Australia). But Watson, in all fairness to him, has worked out brilliantly.
They’re going well. I’m very surprised that EW’s bowlers haven’t had anything approaching the success of the Australian attack earlier.
It is notable therefore that our EW supporter friends here have not acknowledged some terrific bowling by Australia today.
[quote=“Fitzy”]Given that we are into semantics, when did I mention Pietersen?
Kepler? Have you anyone else?
Trott the latest soft option for England
Peter Roebuck
August 7, 2009
ENGLISH cricket might as well close down its numerous academies and replace its large collection of coaches and assorted cream-lickers and start over again.
Vast resources have been invested in setting up institutions that fail to produce players of high calibre. Huge sums of money are bestowed upon smooth-talking impostors with vague job descriptions and most of it is wasted. As much was confirmed by the selectors as they added yet another player raised overseas to their squad for the Headingley Test.
Jonathan Trott is the fourth South African to appear this summer - an extraordinary statistic calculated to give coaches, educators and even pseudo-intellectuals pause for thought. Success has many fathers but the facts suggest that Trott’s emergence was due in no small part to his background.
Meanwhile, Ryan Sidebottom’s return shows that cricketing families can survive even the weakest systems.
Trott was raised in Cape Town and educated at Rondebosch Boys’ High, a school that tries to turn brats into citizens. He joins Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior and Andy Flower in the growing African contingent.
Nor is that all; Stephen Moore is a contender for a position as an opener while Ryan McLaren and Craig Kieswetter are longer-term candidates. Before long, a batch of second-generation Africans will be pressing. Among locals, Paul Collingwood is the son of a factory worker and comes from Durham, the main source of English cricketing talent. In its pomp, English cricket depended on blue blood and blue collar, nowadays these sources have run almost dry. Luckily, settlers have filled the gap.
According to a rough count, there are 119 foreign-born players on county books. Surrey and Kent, founding members of the championship, lead the way with 19 between them. At the other end of the scale, Glamorgan has four and Nottinghamshire two.
Of course, the figures are slightly artificial. As with Ted Dexter and Colin Cowdrey, some families merely happened to be away at the time of birth. Nevertheless, the numbers brook no argument. English cricket has experienced an overseas invasion.
And the reason is simple: these players strengthen the team. Despite all the spending and clipboards and vogue phrases, England is not producing cricketers to match them.
Incidentally, the 119 does not include the 23 locally born Asians signed by counties, most noticeably in the Midlands and the north-east. Their rise is welcome and long awaited and England will be richer for it.
Already several members of these communities have represented their country, including batsman, pace bowlers and spinners. Along the way they have helped to break down barriers. Furthermore, a team consisting entirely of Patels plays in a minor league in Yorkshire!
The vast majority of the 119 belong on the second rung. Thirty years ago most top cricketers joined counties. For some it was a finishing school, others appreciated the extra income. Times have changed and these days counties search not for great players but good ones. Some are Kolpak players, taking advantage of lax European employment laws. An English grandparent is enough to allow them to seek contracts on equal terms.
Others, especially white Africans, belong to settler families seeking to avoid crime and skewed selection policies. If England was turning out the right sort of cricketers, they’d not be needed. Instead, 119 gain places. Does anyone any longer suggest that it is just a coincidence?
Of course England’s gain, if it can be so described, is another’s headache.
South Africa is strong and changing and not unduly concerned about its losses. McLaren and Kieswetter are the main worries. The continent’s numerous outstanding schools will keep producing fine cricketers of all colours and most will stay.
In any case, South Africa cannot match the distorting money that television-rich counties throw at talented youngsters. It happens in rugby, too. Eventually South Africa will think up a way to stop the exodus. Reducing the murder rate will help.
Australia is just starting to notice its predicament. English-born, Australian-raised Darren Pattinson’s surprise Test debut for England last year was a warning. Now Stewart Walters, a handy cricketer from Perth, is captaining Surrey. More pertinently, Sam Robson, two years ago an Australian under-19 player, and a fine batsman and leg-spinner, is opening the innings for Middlesex. Cricket Australia needs to monitor these developments.
Unable to produce players of their own, the Poms seem intent on pinching everyone else’s sportspeople.
Instead, English cricket ought to seek its own excellence and to that end could study Spain, Sweden, South Korean women’s golf, and local rowing and cycling. It can be done. But it won’t happen so long as soft options are taken.[/quote]
So youre not even arguing anymore, resorting to cut and paste jobs from the likes of Roebuck. This is the kind of piece alright that would play well to Roebucks gallery in Australia. On any objective analysis, its nothing, short of lazy journalism from Roebuck, a man whos bitterness towards English cricket knows no bounds since he fell out with Somerset in the 1980s and decamped to the Antipodes.
Strauss & Prior were indeed born in South Africa. Both moved to England at a young age with their families who made a conscious and brave decision as white South Africans to leave behind the appalling regime of that country at the height of the apartheid era during the 1980s. Both Strauss & Prior were educated in England, learned their cricket in England and are very much products of the English cricket system.
Jonathan Trott has not played test cricket for England.
For someone who emigrated to Australia, a country that was build on immigrants, who has clearly embraced Australian culture and its cricket team in such a major way, and who evidently as a young father harbours the understandable and commendable ambition of seeing his young fellow excel at the national sport in his new home, your cruel baiting of Strauss & Prior beggars belief. To cast such slurs on Andrew Strauss & Matt Prior and to question their Englishness is well below the belt.
E&W finally starting to make some headway, Ponting clean bowled by Broad for a masterful 78 , 140-3…
Good.
Now, rain.
Fuck you fitzy and all belong you and the convict lineage you married into and rocko and Special Olyp, E&W battling back, 151-4 now…Can’t beat that indomitable bulldog spirit…
Michael Clarke out for 93. Super innings for him just came in as Australia were rocking a bit and he’s taken them past 300.
304 odd for 5 now.
Will the Aussies look to get to about 425 and then declare or will they just play away and try and get as much as they can?
325-6 now…
There’s so much time left in the game that they really should bat and bat and bat some more until they’re all out. Basically, they’ll be looking to ensure that they only have to bat once in the game. They’ll still have the guts of three days to bowl England and Wales out. Rain now, please.
North hits a superb 6 to bring up his century…