CRICKET!! breaking news, gossip, lies, whatever etc..

benjybars said:

however we NEED cricket on terrestrial tv!! Remember last summer when literally everyone was talking about cricket and there actually some kind of national mood? that would never have been so strong had the cricket not been on C4. Even though mark nicholas is possibly the smuggest man on television, i've really missed him being a ubiquitous presence on my screen this summer..

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absolutely agreed. without a national consciousness the sport becomes a sideshow.

imagine if the football world cup was only shown with late night highlights - i should think that then we would have a lot less jubilation/desperation in the streets

up until recently trescothick has always been poor off english soil, his home average is 52.45 compared to 36.2 away. however this is much improved since the last ashes - in the past two winters he has averaged 46.5 against south africa and pakistan, certainly not the weakest sides in the test arena, it would have been good to see him against india. finally, you CAN'T drop him. strauss and him are brilliant brilliant openers and i rate trescothick as our most brilliant batsman and he WILL prove himself in the forthcoming ashes.

who will be dropped?

middle-order averages since ashes:
ian bell 53.50
alistair cook 53.16
paul collingwood 49.44
kevin pietersen 46.72

ian bell i still fear is in the weakest position, but this may be my own personal negativity because i really like him as a player and have been angered by lots of stuff that was said about him when he wasnt really given a chance. he's been widely critisised for his odi performances when he's been playing in a losing side, averaging 45.87 (since last years last summer odi). unfortunately i'm not given a strike rate with that stat, since it's probably lower than a few odi players, but the difference is that he's one of the only players who rotates the strike and keeps the runs ticking over which is constantly a problem for england. ian bell may have had his faults during the ashes, but he is a top class fielder shown by some stunning catches in the ashes, plus he can add a little bowling if required, although strauss hasnt appeared liable to call on him in the same way that michael vaughan would last year.

you seem certain that collingwood will be dropped, but he's played equally as well as the others for me. also collingwood is a steady fixture in the odi team - he has nearly 100 one day internation caps, in englands insistence in keeping a close side between the test team and the odi team he fufilled the slot of graham thorpe and then suddenly he had a test slot for himself. he has a central contract whereas bell and cook do not. he is widely recognised as one of the best fielders in the world, plus he can contribute a bit with the ball.

ali cook appears to be secure, but for me it's him who should be watching his back, although he will almost certainly be taken to australia. during all this chat about monty panesar we have been told that duncan fletcher demands three-dimensional cricketers - where is cook's third dimension? he's the first man in the current team to be stuck down at third man, hardly the most demanding position. then again, maybe batsmen should just be there to get runs, but whereas collingwood, bell, strauss, pietersen and trescothick are all frontline fielders.

it's just such a shame that pakistans bowling attack was so weakened this series, when they have their best fast bowlers in they are a joy to watch.

What do we reckon to the four-man attack option? That way you can keep all the batsmen. The argument is that this weakens our attack from the awesome foursome of last summer, but I don't buy that; with Harmison, Hoggard, Flintoff and Panesar we've got as threatening attack as before, and with greater variety. With Collingwood (even Pietersen) in the team, there's enough spare to give the main men a rest for a few overs when needed. With Chris Read coming in to bat at no.8 we've got a very short tail too, which helps cover for Panesar, and takes some of the pressure off Flintoff. Thus:

Trescothick
Strauss
Pietersen
Bell
Cook
Collingwood
Flintoff
Read
Hoggard
Harmison
Panesar

This may not be ideal, but with the alternative of squeezing in Mahmood (eg, who I like) and taking out probably Bell we suddenly look very flimsy with the bat.

i was actually at the test that day. it was a complete farce. for 2 and a half hours we were given no information regarding what was going on, and then were abruptly told that we had to leave as there'd be no play.

anyway. i'm not sure what i think about the liklihood of cheating having gone on. the ball was reverse swinging when Cook got out, so the ball must have been pretty messed up then- as well it might, given the abuse pietersen was giving it. the umpires inspected the ball at that point and they gave it the OK. but then, three (i think?) overs later, when the umpires inspected the ball once more, the ball must have been in significantly worse condition (unless Hair and Doctrove are just liars). BUT few forceful shots were played during these overs, and so i just don't see how the ball could have got significantly more worn in those overs, without the ball being tampered with.

but then it's very dodgy that none of the tv cameras picked up any evidence of ball tampering.

well according to the daily mail fletcher had questioned why the sky cameras werent following the ball more closely at headingley, plus the umpires inspect the ball at the end of each over, so i'm not sure what was so dramatic three overs before?

also, before the penalty runs pietersen had hit two boundaries in the previous ten overs. cook had hit a few more, but there were no sixes which are the shots which would usually damage the ball.

simon silverdollar said:

but then it's very dodgy that none of the tv cameras picked up any evidence of ball tampering.

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Maybe they did, it's just obscured by a massive, over-designed Sky caption...

it was actually quite a quiet crowd, until the play stopped and people got more and more drunk, and more pissed off. then the atmosphere got pretty ugly- lots of pissed up men shouting, 'get yr tits out for the lads' at female security guards.

benjybars said:

That's a shame.. I've heard some genuinely witty chants at The Oval.

Simon - don't suppose you're going to FWD>> tonight? we could chat about grime and cricket for hours

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fraid not- am taking it easy tonight to prepare myself for the mighty three of cross central + Lost + carnival this weekend--
would be very up for going to another fwd soon though- haven't been for ages.

Was in France when this happened and got all my info from the world service.

My feeling is that whatever happened you can't just decide not to play. If my seven year old had done that i'd have put him in his room till he saw how unsporting his actions were.

Whether the cricket teams owe it to the fans or to the game itself you put up with the umpire's decisions - both bad and good. Players make mistakes and so do officials - it's part of the process.

If Hare has done anything wrong it is in the manner he dealt with the situation - compounded by his offer to resign for half a million (he is about to lose a lucrative job and asked for redundancy fee, is that so bad?) [where has the other umpire been in all of this?]

The Pakistanis are unhappy because they are accused of cheating, they claim they didn't but they have compounded the problem by not coming out after tea. If Inzi orchestrated this the he should be punished and all talk that the umpire was racially motivated should be quashed straight away. The Pakistanis missed a perfectly good opportunity to win a test match and entertain thousands of fans of the game.

yeah i think strauss should have been chosen as captain- just leave flintoff to play, and provide the kind of talismanic presence that Warne does for australia without actually being captain.

i think the big doubt is over trescothick. if he plays in the ashes, it could be a real disaster, both psychologically and competitively- imagine the sledging! if we manage to fill his place OK (shah, may be?) then our batting line up looks pretty solid. bowling i'm not too sure about- it's way too unpredictable. only monty and flintoff can be relied upon to consistently deliver, and flintoff's might not be at full fitness. still, as everyone keeps saying, we only need to draw the series innit.