Anyone for Cricket?

Ian Botham recently said England will win the 2009 ashes easily - unless we're going to play their under 10s this is not going to happen.
The honeymoon period well and truly over the real task that faces the ECB is coming to light.
Under Fletcher and Vaughan they were accused of picking "friends" and those Freddy wanted - nothing has changed under KP.
After another embarassing defeat which leaves us 5-0 down in a 7 match series against a side where Tendulkar has only come in the last 2 games England are on the verge of one of the most humiliating defeats in cricket.
The constant selection of Samit Patel, letting Broad open the bowling against a top order good enough for anyone, not sacrificing number 3 spot for Owais Shah and a host of other errors is showing the cost of letting a man with little captaining ability - captain a side.
He doesnt know his bowling order and he sure as hell doesnt know his batting one. I only ever saw one good point in appointing KP captain and that was his individual performances would not drop - it wasnt going to hinder him personally anyway. The guy is still in the top 3 batsman in the world for me - and when in form is almost impossible to get due to his concentration abilities. It has been rumoured that Vaughan will be drafted in to the test squad to play the 2 tests in India after this 7 series ODIs finish to "help" KP. I dont want to come out of India having lost 9-0...Australia will have an easier task than last time round.
Still no idea how to play ODIs, which means Moores is doing sh*tall...KP's ego is just too big to make him captain.
(well England usually go on a winning run after my rants - so fingers crossed)
And who in their right mind takes the day off before a professional cricket match???
Truly pathetic.

remaining 2 ODIs have been postponed due to bomb attacks in Mumbai.
Champions League has also been postponed and Middlesex have postponed their trip to Mumbai - the worrying thing here is that Middlesex were planning to leave 36 hours ahead of schedule and were planning to stay in one of the hotels which has been directly affected by the attacks.
No decision has been made on the 2 test series which will follow with the second test match being played in Mumbai.
BCCI vice pres says Test series will go ahead.
England coming home with no decision on test series.

I have to say I really havent been taking much of a interest in cricket lately.

I was very anti the million dollar challenge - and the way 20-20 is taking over is going to kill the game i onced loved as much as football.

We have a south african captain - which takes us back to the days of Tony Greig - not saying Peterson is going to be as bad (although greig did make the endland team of the time more professional and stronger backbone) but its just not right to have him as captain.

I hear they are going back to India soon - strange - felt they would have stayed away

Yesterday, Domonic Cork did say that he knew of "5 or 6" players who are not going to play because of the recent events in India.
England are travelling to Dubai on Thursday to begin training with their Performance squad, a decision by each player will be made there if they wish to travel to India. The interesting thing here is that England will be taking players "to add to their performance squad", and it is rumoured that these players are back up for any 1st team player who does not wish to play.
Whoever England take, I fear another hammering is on the cards in this series, partly down to the recent events making them unprepared. Imagine this series if they had played after having lost and ODI series 7-0.
This "sexing up" of cricket" is risking losing all traditional values once held by cricketers and its supporters - that surely cant be a good thing - but then ask any of the IPL players if they think different.

Only cricket i love is England, will always watch us when we are playing if i can.

You say Botham said we will definitely win the Ashes?

I hope bloody so

JoshBrfc wrote:

Only cricket i love is England, will always watch us when we are playing if i can.

You say Botham said we will definitely win the Ashes?

I hope bloody so

So do I as i would hope that would rekindle my interest in the game again.

I am very proud of them returning as a full squad to India - Just have my fingers crossed everything turns out well.

I have to say I am very suprized they have named the team for the first test match a full day before the game.

Strugling to remember when that last happened - normally a 12 or 13 or the morning of the match - then the 11 before the toss.

Am I wrong in thinking this is a strange move?

It isnt that rare to name your team sheet a day before the match, I think KP wants to show us that he is serious about winning by saying that he is naming 2 spinners and will attack India. I worry about the strength of the batting line up and how the likes of Gambhir and Sachin batting aggressively - hopefully that is where the wisdom in picking 2 spinners will kick in. I expect to los 2-0, but I expect us to go down fighting - something which we didnt do in the ODIs.