[the saint]

Well, it may not have mattered, but at least Windies vs England was a cracking match.

[the saint]

Well, my tip Sri Lanka have just stuffed the Kiwis to get into the final!

[FrancesHinden]

I was supporting New Zealand. And I wasn't even watching the match!

Come on South Africa.

[paulg]

Apparently South Africa caught the England disease in their quarter-final match and has decided to take on Australia without any players.

[Dwingo]

Sri Lanka has 50% chance of lifting the Cup, now that they are going to unleash Malinga, Vaas & Murali on the Aussies.

Go Sri Lanka Go!!!!!!!!!


Godwin

[nickf]

an oldie but a goodie.

From the Sydney Morning Herald Sat 28 April.

A helpline has been set up for English cricket. The number is 1800 101010.

That's one eight hundred, won nothing, won nothing, won nothing.

nickf
sydney

[jikl]

All in all, it was a decent tournament. It was FAR TOO LONG though.

Without boasting, I really do think the best team won the cup. The size of the Australian victories is a testament to that.

It was a disappointing finale, but it was made up for with the Gilchrist innings.

Sean

[nickf]

a farcical and totally appropriate finish to the tournament.

the grounds were too small, the pitches were like goat tracks, the crowds were disappoiningly and the presence of the minnows didnt really add much to the standard.

Bring on the real stuff now - the twenty20 world championship later in the year.

nickf
sydney

[the saint]

Still, check this little scorecard out....

Surrey go nuts!

There are openers who can hit in England - Benning has been tipped for a while. We just choose not to pick them. Brown has a one-day double ton to his name already.

[paulg]

Ali Brown played 16 times for England in one-day matches and has an average of 22.

Of course he wasn't the captain and given the opportunity to get it up to 27 (!), but he is 37 now.

[FrancesHinden]

Please note that Surrey are my domestic team (I was born in Surrey) and I wasn't watching that match, because I was playing a Crockfords match.

[the saint]

cardsharp, on Apr 29 2007, 06:22 PM, said:

Ali Brown played 16 times for England in one-day matches and has an average of 22.

Of course he wasn't the captain and given the opportunity to get it up to 27 (!), but he is 37 now.

I knew Brown had played for England. And he hit a century on debut. Rikki Clarke has also failed to shine. There have been a number of people tipping Benning to get a call up this summer for the one-dayers though.

[paulg]

In its current match with Somerset, I see that Derbyshire were 0-2 after the first over (bowled by England veteran Andy Caddick).

A day and a half later and Derbyshire are still battling on with the score at 801-8, a reasonable recovery. Unfortunately two Aussies and a South African have led the way, with Pipe (wicket keeper) the only English centurion.

[Cascade]

Andy Caddick he could qualify for Oz-One - born in New Zealand. Educated at the same high school as me.

[the saint]

I'm sick of all these way too serious threads. Its time to get back to the really important stuff. CRICKET!

Now, I think England are going to tonk the Windies. All our players have been in excellent form for their Counties. It looks like the good old Grievous Bodily Harmison is back!!

But, what you people think about the wicket-keeping debate? I have long been a Foster fan, but as an Essex fan I'm knd of glad he will be helping us get promoted this season. Opinions?

[the saint]

This series is actually in danger of becoming so easy, its boring. Especially now Sarwan might be out for ther series. If we bowl vaguely in the right direction, this should be innings defeats all the way. So sad to see the Windies like this.

But, bring on India.

[GeeGee]

the saint, on May 14 2007, 05:38 PM, said:

I have long been a Foster fan, but as an Essex fan I'm knd of glad he will be helping us get promoted this season. Opinions?

It's an interesting topic, how much should playing for the country interfere with playing for the county.

As a Yorkshire fan since the 1960's, you can guess why I'm interested.

Previously Darren Gough, now Michael Vaughan

Geoff

[the saint]

While I can see why bowlers can suffer from being overworked, for batsmen I think the more time they get in the middle the better. Thus I would like to see all of England's batsmen turning out for their counties when not on international duty. The schedule, however, has become so crowded now, that they simply don't have time to play any of those matches though.

[GeeGee]

From the current Cricinfo bulletin -

'It's been an unequal struggle so far on this tour. No West Indian has yet scored a century; England have compiled seven in three innings, from six different batsmen. '

What's happened to the Windies? As an Englishman, I can recall the days of the so-called 'Blackwash' where Lloyd, Sobers, Greenidge, Marshall, Holding and Garner, and the rest, just decimated us.

It was upsetting to us, but it was also great to see class in action.

Why, after Brian Lara, has Windies cricket descended to become so ordinary, when it was once so exciting?

Geoff

[jikl]

GeeGee,

The important thing to think about when asking this question is to ignore Lara.

Lara was a freak, he would have been an even better player in other teams that were more competitive. All countries will produce players like this from time to time. Think about the fact that a Zimbabwean was once ranked number one batsman in the world.

So, let's remove Lara from the teams of the last 20 years.

If you think back on it there are only a few names that really stand out:
Ambrose
Richardson (I guess, not convinced though)
Walsh

Now the important thing to think about when compiling a cricket team is not the automatic picks, it is the second tier players that come from the domestic competition that have worked hard and earned their spots. Not from pure talent, but pure hard work. How many years did it take Matthew Hayden to get back into the Australian team?

The West Indies domestic competition is crap. The grounds (before the WC) were crap. The pitches used to be like concrete, now they are slow; and realistically they are uniform. Pitches in many countries are so similar you may as well play on the same ground 3-5 times and say screw travelling.

In summary, Lara has made the West Indies worthy of disappointment, without him they would have been bottom 2-3 for last 15-20 years.

Some of it goes back to when Viv was captain. Clive Lloyd was a very good captain, certainly he had exceptional assets to utilise. Viv had the same assets but had to grind out far more wins than his predecessor. Then we had Richardson, he more hoped his assets would perform than believed in them. It has all been downhill since Lloyd. Also they are losing potential players to NBA basketball, they are losing players to athletics. The cricket culture is not set up the right way there, especially with the partisan island culture.

The West Indies will never be a force again unless they can really get their crap together and not rely on a Lara to scrape them to more wins than they deserve. How many years will it be before they have another?

They have no depth at all because they must rely on their star players. With most other cricket teams you can name an able replacement if a key player is injured, probably moreso in Australia since the domestic competition is so strong.

Anyway, I have rambled on far too long.

Sean