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Post by aussie on Jul 11, 2009 8:20:39 GMT
You choose a ground that we don`t like, doctor the wicket, use a ball that is meant to favour spin, like the wicket favours spin, knowing we have no real spinners, and we still look much better than England. Shame this will probably end in a draw due to the Welsh weather, The Rhonda perma rain, did they honestly think they would get five days of cricket in South Wales with out rain? Bloody loons at the ECB, they can`t even cheat properly! Only joking this could be a really good series, I`m going for 3-1 to the Aussies but it will be quite tight I feel!
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Post by capitalgull on Jul 11, 2009 8:25:17 GMT
The truth behind the 'doctored' wicket is was that it was done to ensure a five day match - a chief executives wicket as Geoffrey Boycott and other pundits have said - and ensure maximum revenue.
Happily now the weather is going to completely screw up today's play meaning the suits have to refund everyone's ticket and probably end up with a tiny crowd on Sunday for a day's play when nothing is likely to happen but a draw.
Serves them right - 80 freaking quid a day is ridiculous for any sport.
What price a 0-0 Ashes draw? Crap weather a probability and two attacks who will struggle to bowl the opposition out. As it is, I'll take the Aussies to win 2-1 if the weather allows since England's attack has been hyped up too much for bowling out the hopeless West Indies a few times.
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Jul 11, 2009 9:39:17 GMT
Can't really add much to this thread I'm afraid as I know so little about the game, but cricket does throw up some interesting questions about my brain. You see if you watched me write with a pen you would say I'm right handed and that might be true. I would say I can play football with both feet but my right one is the stronger so that all fits in well. I did play cricket for a few seasons for the Unigate team in Torquay, I was always put of on the boundary as I had a very strong and accurate throw, only it was with my left hand, I throw like a girl with my right hand. If I play darts I throw left handed, can't even get close to the board throwing with my right hand. Yet when I bowl in cricket I can only do it with my right arm, now thats strange I'm sure you will agree and may go someway to explaining the many word mistakes I make on the forum as I feel its a case that I have a confused brain  |
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Post by jmgull on Jul 11, 2009 11:25:17 GMT
The truth behind the 'doctored' wicket is was that it was done to ensure a five day match - a chief executives wicket as Geoffrey Boycott and other pundits have said - and ensure maximum revenue. Happily now the weather is going to completely screw up today's play meaning the suits have to refund everyone's ticket and probably end up with a tiny crowd on Sunday for a day's play when nothing is likely to happen but a draw. Serves them right - 80 freaking quid a day is ridiculous for any sport. What price a 0-0 Ashes draw? Crap weather a probability and two attacks who will struggle to bowl the opposition out. As it is, I'll take the Aussies to win 2-1 if the weather allows since England's attack has been hyped up too much for bowling out the hopeless West Indies a few times. ...Totally agree, there is an awful lot of pressure put on the test match grounds to ensure that the match will last 5 days so they can screw every last penny out of each match. Bland, easy paced wickets make for dull games in which the bat will always come out on top, especially when the bowling attacks are of the "popgun" variety, as these two sides are. I've had a nice bet on the 1-1 drawn series as i agree with you that their will be a lot of draws, as both sides are strong in batting, very weak in bowling.........plus there's always the weather  Got to go.......playing Barton this afternoon, not a particulary pleasant place to play, compared to some, especially when you're gonna watch the rain for the next few hours  |
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merse
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Post by merse on Jul 12, 2009 18:21:18 GMT
 I lost the will to maintain interest in the England Cricket Team around the time they started paying them so much money the w4nkers playing for them began displaying all the mental toughness of a sheet of toilet paper. Constant batting collapses, players "running out of petrol" and getting to games late were all taking the piss out of the paying public as far as I'm concerned and then to add insult to injury, they started hiking up the prices to the extent that it now takes almost as much money to watch one day of a Test as it did the whole bloody thing 'cos with this load of crap playing for us the games rarely went past the third day  Now they're more interested in chasing the corporate pound than the punter's pound, we see acres of empty seats immediately after lunch because the goons haven't finished with their snouts in the trough, and (I'm told) even still listening to former ex cricketers droning on and on about a game they should be out there bloody well watching. Cricket in this country is pathetic, elitist, middle class and ignores the inner cities where any fool knows the REAL sporting potential exists for ALL sports amongst the hungry, the disadvantaged and more competitive. Mummy taking young Tarquin to "cricket practice" in leafy Finchley whilst he fiddles with his Wii in the back of the Chelsea Tractor will no more produce us World Class winning competitive achievers than mooching around the affluent streets of St Johns Wood looking for diamonds would..................everybody knows you've got to get your hands dirty and dig for them in Africa, and yet how many groups of kids from Islington would they care to accommodate at Lords so they could come and see a Test Match? Precisely NONE I can tell you. If the once fusty old Arsenal can do it, so can the old farts at Lords; but they won't, they never will and they'll hold on to their privileges until they die.......................unfortunately then, there will be plenty of new young farts to take their place. It's the same with tennis, another example of the great English tradition of fragility and failure. Another sport where the only way to the top is for a child to have a mother with time to spare and a car to drive her little precious to the local tennis club to be coached by those who should know better than to waste their time on such soft and over privileged kids. Where I live, Hornsey Vale has the biggest concentration of lawn tennis clubs in the country yet how many kids from Kings Cross and Hackney get the chance to go up there and benefit from the facilities? Again, precisely none, they are confined to the singular Islington Tennis Centre in N1 whilst the middle classes eschew going into the "badlands" where talent and hunger overflows and sip Pymms and chat social chit chat under the shady trees. Losers, the lot of them. THAT'S why we lag behind Australia which has a population little bigger than the whole of London. That's why we'll never catch the Aussie's up and THAT'S why I'd rather cheer an Aussie win than an English one!
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Jul 12, 2009 22:26:24 GMT
So Ponting didn't appreciate our use of 12th Man and Physio. Me too, I reckon Anderson and Panesar would've got a 100 partnership if it wasn't for that. G'day Ricky.
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Post by stuartB on Jul 12, 2009 22:41:15 GMT
So Ponting didn't appreciate our use of 12th Man and Physio. Me too, I reckon Anderson and Panesar would've got a 100 partnership if it wasn't for that. G'day Ricky. Of course they would not have done anything so underhand. Metal bats and under arm balls are okay but it just isn't British to cheat. Must have been that damn KP or Flowers that suggested such a thing ;D Anything goes and we need to compete as hard as these damn foreigners. winning is everything! ( no offense Aussie!!) |
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Post by aussie on Jul 13, 2009 6:36:55 GMT
None taken Stuart, I was cringing in embarrasment when the Pommies decided to try and cheat, I`m not complaining about their tactics, it was just embarrasing. And an insult to the two lads out there that actually save your arses, never mind we will have Brett Lee back for the next game so that particular farce won`t happen again!
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Post by capitalgull on Jul 13, 2009 6:55:08 GMT
I reckon you are better off without Brett Lee, Adam, (and according to the reports I have seen he won't be fit in time for Lord's on Thursday anyway) since Hilfenhaus was a big surprise to me with the quality of his bowling, as was Hauritz.
I won't attempt to defend the actions inside the last 10 minutes of play but I did have to laugh at Ricky Ponting's feeble attempts to try and unsettle Bilal Shafayat when he came on with a second set of gloves and his moaning when Hilfenhaus had a leg before appeal turned down, and his moaning when when he was turned down for a bat-pad catch Collingwood hadn't hit, and his moaning after the game....the boy loves a good moan!!
Better change tack though, or Merse will get upset that I watch and enjoy cricket...baseball, NFL, ice hockey, etc.
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mike
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Post by mike on Jul 13, 2009 7:34:00 GMT
None taken Stuart, I was cringing in embarrasment when the Pommies decided to try and cheat, I`m not complaining about their tactics, it was just embarrasing. And an insult to the two lads out there that actually save your arses, never mind we will have Brett Lee back for the next game so that particular farce won`t happen again! Of course 'moaning' Ponting wouldn't have done the same would he?? |
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jerry
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Post by jerry on Jul 13, 2009 9:09:17 GMT
Where I live, Hornsey Vale has the biggest concentration of lawn tennis clubs in the country yet how many kids from Kings Cross and Hackney get the chance to go up there and benefit from the facilities? Maybe if the apathetic folk of sleepy old Kings Cross/Hackney got off their arses and did something about it, instead of just moaning, things would be different! ;D |
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tufc01
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Post by tufc01 on Jul 13, 2009 11:57:11 GMT
None taken Stuart, I was cringing in embarrassment when the Pommies decided to try and cheat, I`m not complaining about their tactics, [glow=Yellow,2,300]it was just embarrassing[/glow]. And an insult to the two lads out there that actually save your arses, never mind we will have Brett Lee back for the next game so that particular farce won`t happen again! Aussie i agree, it was embarrassing.  It was also totally pointless. It saved them about 3/4 minutes, which in reality meant next to nothing. At the very best if the Aussies got a wicket with the next ball it would still have left just 1 over to get the 13 runs needed to win it. Now if were were not capable of restricting them to less than 13 in that 1 over we don't deserve to be there anyway. Thats not to say the wicket would have fallen in those 3/4 minutes anyway, as it didn't look close to falling in the previous minutes. I thought the press were harsh on Ponting, 5 live sport this morning said that he was really unhappy with what went on and that he was severely critical of England's tactics, however if you listen to what he actually said, it was more mild disappointment. I think we would all be naive if we didn't think that the same wouldn't happen if the boot was on the other foot. Ive lost all confidence in thinking we had a chance in this series, we were completely outplayed, outfought and out thought. We were VERY forunate to scape a draw, not something we should be cheering. Good job we have such a good record at the next venue, Lords. |
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Post by chrish on Jul 13, 2009 12:20:36 GMT
A lucky facesaving draw when we were outplayed and out-thought by a team that actually plays test cricket. When are our batsmen and bowlers going to realise that test match cricket actually requires some thought and patience. The batting was woeful given the nature of the picture. There's absolutely no point picking KP for a cameo 50 when he should be knuckling down and getting a big 100. Cook's technique is hopeless (his dismissal to the poor Johnson in the second was awful), Bopara is a good one day player but hopelessly exposed to the new ball in test cricket, Prior is a very streaky batsman. Collingwood, at least showed a bit of ticker, Flintoff was a mixed bag, Broad is a better batsman than a bowler, Anderson was disappointing and the two spinners were poor. I have to question Strauss's captaincy as well. Is the only plan we have against Australian batsmen, just to bowl bodyline to Hughes? Getting rid of Allan Donald was a huge mistake!
I suppose the only positives to come from this is that the no matter how woeful and spineless we were over the last 5 days, the Aussies still couldn't quite get us out. Mitchell Johnson is a chucker as well, or is he born with a Sri Lankan arm?
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Fonda
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Post by Fonda on Jul 13, 2009 14:54:35 GMT
What an amazing end to an eminently forgetful Test Match. We got out of jail, and Strauss can thank Colly, Swann, Jimmy and Monty for saving his blushes. We batted wastefully (generally), and bowled seemingly without purpose. Strauss’ captaincy was pretty average throughout.
Cook and Bopara looked completely overawed. KP even appeared unsure of himself, and definitely has some technical issues to iron out. Broad looks less and less like a test quality bowler as the months go by, and I’m afraid some heroics with the bat wasn’t enough to paper over the cracks in Monty’s bowling either.
As for the stuff at the end with the 12th man and physio, that did us no favours either. If anything, it detracted from the achievement of the last pair, and after their efforts, they deserved better. If anything, the interruptions were more likely to hinder them than help, as it could have caused a vital break in concentration. Let’s play hard, but play fair.
Onions has to come in for Monty. I’d personally dispense with Broad in favour of Harmy too. And the pressure is on the batsmen to perform at Lords as well, if not there might need to be some changes at the top of the order too.
Before this test, Strauss was quoted as suggesting ‘we might not win, but we’ll give it a good go’ (or words to that effect). And now he’s suggesting that ‘hopefully’ we’ll perform better at Lords? He’s going to need to be a bit more positive than that if he wants to win the fight against these Aussies. Where’s the bulldog spirit?!
It's a funny old game though. The Aussies outplayed us throughout, yet it's us that will go to Lords smiling...
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merse
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Post by merse on Jul 13, 2009 15:50:25 GMT
Where I live, Hornsey Vale has the biggest concentration of lawn tennis clubs in the country yet how many kids from Kings Cross and Hackney get the chance to go up there and benefit from the facilities? ;D On a serious note, these tennis clubs do NOT take their sport to the underprivileged or any of the kids in the state schools down there. A one eyed blind man walking into the local sports centres of the area could see the natural athleticism and competitiveness of so many of the kids, they should be gagging at the prospect of harnessing that natural potential. My son is eight years old and neither he, nor his school mates have ever seen or heard of mini cricket and as for tennis..............there's more chance of him growing up to recognise "Wimbledon" as a dog track than a tennis venue. These sports make no effort whatsoever to compete with football, athletics and boxing for so much latent sporting raw material other than in "their own" middle class enclaves because they don't want to see their precious little offspring taking a back seat to more competitive, hungry and dare I say it; more naturally athletic children. Go down to the Islington Tennis Centre and take a look at the kids there, and then ask what happens to them when they don't have a parent who can devote their whole time to driving them about from tournament to tournament. Of course they're lost to other sports which DO offer them a democratic chance of competing on an equal footing, where progress and success equates to the ability and effort they put put in rather than how much money mummy or daddy has got. THAT'S why these particular sports struggle, and that's just plain wrong. Mind you, at the end of the day it is those who watch and play those sports who are the losers....................in more than one sense! |
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It was also totally pointless. It saved them about 3/4 minutes, which in reality meant next to nothing. At the very best if the Aussies got a wicket with the next ball it would still have left just 1 over to get the 13 runs needed to win it. Now if were were not capable of restricting them to less than 13 in that 1 over we don't deserve to be there anyway.