This is without doubt the weakest ever England batting line up. Even when we were getting steam rollered by the great West Indian and Australian sides we put up more of a fight.

ClaretTony wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 16, 2022 10:57 am

When I got up this morning we’d started well and I though there might just be a chance. We’ve just lost ten wickets in under two hours. Absolutely appalling.

You woke up to watch the 5th Test Match and I woke up and checked the transfer news.


I don't know which of us is more deluded CT.

RVclaret wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 16, 2022 10:47 am

Get them home, get Silverwood out, take Root off captaincy, bin the awful 100 and restructure the county game. What a shambolic year for English test cricket.

Well they are definitely coming home.
Silverwood might get the boot.
If you depose Root of the captaincy who takes over?
Agree 100% the 100 nonsense has to go.
County game need a radical over haul, starting but playing 4 days games in the height of summer, instead of shoehorning them in to the early days of spring, and then late summer.

All that said there's no excuse for these constant collapses, Australia had only played 4 tests in 18 months leading up to this series, so it's not like they've enjoyed an ideal build-up either, yet their batsman managed to put runs on the board.

This was a test where England did have a genuine chance of winning, the bowlers did their part, but yet again the batsman couldn't come close to delivering when it mattered.

A disastrous series in which we managed just 2001 runs in 10 innings and batted for just 711 overs in total.
We did manage to take 73 wickets which is reasonable, if only for the fact that Australia only batted 9 times

In the third test we managed to bat for just 92.5 overs in two innings and we even surpassed that in this last test by batting for just 86.3 overs.

The quest for 'instant' cricket has certainly had a very big effect on our test players.

Agree with another poster on here the awful “100” needs binning fast .

Ashingtonclaret46 wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 16, 2022 1:04 pm

The quest for 'instant' cricket has certainly had a very big effect on our test players.

I'd suggest it's choking the life out of Test cricket as a whole & our ability to play it here.
There will be 'umming & arring' along with 'intentions' to reform things.
But in a week, they'll be just platitudes and all be forgotten by the ECB as they'll slink on with their cushy, well paid jobs and nicely cooked business dinners.

Silverwood has to go. Never ever the right man for the job. We should go all out to get Shane Warne in charge.

He's a highly intelligent man, knows the game inside out, knows English cricket inside out, has won everything there is to win pretty much, has had to deal with several personal problems and has come through, all of which is relevant experience for managing a group of players, he would be highly respected by the players and he's a fierce competitor and wouldn't settle for anything else other than maximum effort.

I think he would be the perfect man and we should give him the blank canvass to re shape English cricket whilst it's at his lowest point.

Buxtonclaret wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 16, 2022 1:55 pm

I'd suggest it's choking the life out of Test cricket as a whole & our ability to play it here.
There will be 'umming & arring' along with 'intentions' to reform things.
But in a week, they'll be just platitudes and all be forgotten by the ECB as they'll slink on with their cushy, well paid jobs and nicely cooked business dinners.

Quite right Buxton, sadly this is very much a reflection on our modern society where people just want to add water and things will happen instantly.
The ECB see the 'short game' as a way of getting people into the matches and they have hyped everything up, with the help of the media, and the younger end want this type of game, both to play in and to watch. No great concentration levels needed, very much like 'reality television'

This is what should happen : -

1. County Championship. Two divisions of nine teams, with two up two down. Each county plays the others home and away, 16 four day games in all. Two games in April May and September, and three in June July and August.

2. 50 over competition. Three divisions of six counties, playing each other home and away. Ten games in all. The three top teams and the best second places go into the semifinals, with the final at Lord's at the beginning of September.

3. T-20. Two divisions of nine teams, playing each other home and away. 16 games in all, the top two in each division going to finals day.

4. Get rid of the 100.

Andreshotboots wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 16, 2022 1:57 pm

Silverwood has to go. Never ever the right man for the job. We should go all out to get Shane Warne in charge.

He's a highly intelligent man, knows the game inside out, knows English cricket inside out, has won everything there is to win pretty much, has had to deal with several personal problems and has come through, all of which is relevant experience for managing a group of players, he would be highly respected by the players and he's a fierce competitor and wouldn't settle for anything else other than maximum effort.

I think he would be the perfect man and we should give him the blank canvass to re shape English cricket whilst it's at his lowest point.

Interesting idea, I quite like it.
Might help develop our spinners as well

lakedistrictclaret wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 16, 2022 2:06 pm

This is what should happen : -

1. County Championship. Two divisions of nine teams, with two up two down. Each county plays the others home and away, 16 four day games in all. Two games in April May and September, and three in June July and August.

2. 50 over competition. Three divisions of six counties, playing each other home and away. Ten games in all. The three top teams and the best second places go into the semifinals, with the final at Lord's at the beginning of September.

3. T-20. Two divisions of nine teams, playing each other home and away. 16 games in all, the top two in each division going to finals day.

4. Get rid of the 100.

Agree completely with this. I do believe that the report after this is going to be a repeat of the last time down under. Silverwood surely has to go, in terms of captaincy I think Stokes should replace Root but it’s a difficult one.

The Championship is a shambles atm the way it’s set up. When you’ve got players like Darren Stevens and Tim Murtagh churning wickets that’s just no preparation for players like Starc, Cummins et al.

I’d like to see the West Indies tour be an opportunity to give these guys a break and see what new talent has to offer. They’ll be mentally and physically shattered from this tour and it does need a huge reset.

Milltown1882 wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 16, 2022 3:02 pm

Agree completely with this. I do believe that the report after this is going to be a repeat of the last time down under. Silverwood surely has to go, in terms of captaincy I think Stokes should replace Root but it’s a difficult one.

The Championship is a shambles atm the way it’s set up. When you’ve got players like Darren Stevens and Tim Murtagh churning wickets that’s just no preparation for players like Starc, Cummins et al.

I’d like to see the West Indies tour be an opportunity to give these guys a break and see what new talent has to offer. They’ll be mentally and physically shattered from this tour and it does need a huge reset.

Totally agree, it says it all to me that our bowling coach is John Lewis. Can imagine the conversation now. " No Woody, you don't need to bowl at 95 mph, slow it right down, bowl dibbly dobbly crap at 70 mph like I did and you'll put 10 years on your career".

They have been blaming county cricket and green pitches.
But we got bowled out on green pitches by medium fast bowlers.

Quickenthetempo wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 16, 2022 3:42 pm

They have been blaming county cricket and green pitches.
But we got bowled out on green pitches by medium fast bowlers.

Yes, but facing Cummins and his chums on those type of pitches is a whole lot different to facing county attacks bowling at 75mph.. All the Aussie bowlers are minimum 130s KPH, which is early 80s in MPH. Anybody who's faced quick bowling will tell you and extra fee MPH makes a massive difference to reaction time and exposes technique.

kentonclaret wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 16, 2022 12:32 pm

You woke up to watch the 5th Test Match and I woke up and checked the transfer news.


I don't know which of us is more deluded CT.

I’d read all the transfer stuff before going to bed

Andreshotboots wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 16, 2022 3:46 pm

Yes, but facing Cummins and his chums on those type of pitches is a whole lot different to facing county attacks bowling at 75mph.. All the Aussie bowlers are minimum 130s KPH, which is early 80s in MPH. Anybody who's faced quick bowling will tell you and extra fee MPH makes a massive difference to reaction time and exposes technique.

I know what you're saying but Scott Boland picked up 18 wickets at 9s.
He's not quick, it was his accuracy and consistency. Like you get in county cricket.

ClaretTony wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 16, 2022 10:57 am

When I got up this morning we’d started well and I though there might just be a chance. We’ve just lost ten wickets in under two hours. Absolutely appalling.

82/1 at tea when i turned off the computer.
Two whole days to get less than 200........all out for 124...beyond belief!

Taffy on the wing wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 16, 2022 4:42 pm

82/1 at tea when i turned off the computer.
Two whole days to get less than 200........all out for 124...beyond belief!

Not when England are batting it isn't sadly. This lot needs a total clear out, though who the heck replaces them I haven't a clue TBH, but something needs to change, because to steal Chris Wood's phrase, they're all in their comfort zones.

Yet again as at Melbourne the bowlers drag us back into the march, only for the batsman to meekly fall over like a set of dominoes, they say in cricket one brings two, when England are at the crease it seems one brings ten.

Should have got Novax to open the batting for us,it took two weeks to get him out.

conyoviejo wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 16, 2022 8:36 pm

Should have got Novax to open the batting for us,it took two weeks to get him out.

Brilliant

conyoviejo wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 16, 2022 8:36 pm

Should have got Novax to open the batting for us,it took two weeks to get him out.

Yes I've seen that one doing the rounds.

He certainly put up more of a fight than most English batsman did that's for sure.

Thank god its over, the last couple of months has been relentless p1$$ taking by the Aussies. Most of them I know thought the series was going to be a tough, close one. We have a predictions board in the office, I said we wouldn't make 250 in any innings, we'd be 40-3 in 5 innings and would suffer 3 heavy defeats. They thought I was way too pessimistic, but it wasn't far off. There's a big difference in the profile of the sport here in Australia than in the UK. When we lived in Coventry, my boys played cricket at one of the biggest clubs in the city but we only had 11 or 12 players and usually had to get a couple of younger kids to play up. Here, its a completely different story, we joined a local club when we came to Perth, they had 5 teams at under 13 level and there are probably a dozen clubs within 10 miles all with healthy participation levels. Participation, profile and interest in the game is so much more than the UK.

Sending over sides to play without warm up matches has made a huge difference to the chances of touring sides. Only exceptional teams win away from home, and England have a side with only one world class batsman, one world class all rounder and a couple of world class bowlers in the very twilight of their careers. Add to that the fact that few schools outside the private ones focus on cricket, that cricket isn’t on terrestial tele, and you can see why so few youngsters see cricket as their game. There probably is still a lot of talent their but not the pathways or facilities to take.

claretandbluesky wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 17, 2022 9:46 am

Sending over sides to play without warm up matches has made a huge difference to the chances of touring sides. Only exceptional teams win away from home, and England have a side with only one world class batsman, one world class all rounder and a couple of world class bowlers in the very twilight of their careers. Add to that the fact that few schools outside the private ones focus on cricket, that cricket isn’t on terrestial tele, and you can see why so few youngsters see cricket as their game. There probably is still a lot of talent their but not the pathways or facilities to take.

Agree. And unfortunately the ECB are more interested in making a quick buck than improving the test side. Therefore they’re ploughing money into the T20 Crap, and this stupid 100. Both games were the only batting technique required, is to slog it as hard as you can. Players now earn their money playing IPL, Big Bash and whatever it’s called in England. While county cricket as become the poor man’s game. Also central contracts should be scrapped. Earn your test place. Not have it guaranteed because of how good you were the previous season.