Cricket

[Whistler40145]

Well...the Captain hasn't made sufficient runs in this series, how long is this to continue?

 

[muddythefish]

As far as I am concerned, the batting slump shown above after such a good start in the England first innings, where the last seven wickets then only added a further 54 runs, was the reason why England lost this match. They should have gone on to post a total of 500+ in their first innings.

Correct. England's batting has been poor for 2 years or more. Their consistent failure to post 400 plus scores is the principal reason results have been so disappointing. At 300 for 3 England should have gone to win this match but the batsmen let them down badly in both innings.
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Well...the Captain hasn't made sufficient runs in this series, how long is this to continue?

I think he should consider resigning. His form alone at present isn't good enough to warrant selection.

 

[Whistler40145]

I agree, plus we need a front line Spinner.

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

Glued to the TV today, initially I was quite happy for Sri Lanka to win, after Englands abject performance the previous day, but gradually........brilliant knock from Moeen Ali, I felt that the last five wickets tried - and nearly succeeded - to make amends, all sold themselves dearly.
Yesterday, I wanted Cook to go, but on reflection...who could replace him? It's been asked before on these pages, can't really see the captaincy sitting on the shoulders of any of the other senior pro's, and thankfully a godson of the Chairman of the Selectors isn't a county captain (Chris Cowdrey - 1989, I think)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I heard a short part of the Radio 4 news there Cook made the statement that, in his mind, he is the right man for the job as England captain.

I too regard myself as the correct person to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, so this goes to prove that personal opinions on one own ability "count for nowt"...

 

[Whistler40145]

I think Cook is in his own little world, not seeing what everyone else is seeing, therefore he thinks nothing is wrong!

 

[muddythefish]

Glued to the TV today, initially I was quite happy for Sri Lanka to win, after Englands abject performance the previous day, but gradually........brilliant knock from Moeen Ali, I felt that the last five wickets tried - and nearly succeeded - to make amends, all sold themselves dearly.
Yesterday, I wanted Cook to go, but on reflection...who could replace him? It's been asked before on these pages, can't really see the captaincy sitting on the shoulders of any of the other senior pro's, and thankfully a godson of the Chairman of the Selectors isn't a county captain (Chris Cowdrey - 1989, I think)

Broad or Prior are the obvious alternatives. Broad might be interesting.

 

[ainsworth74]

Going on his captaincy in T20s I don't think it would be an improvement...

 

[Whistler40145]

IMHO Broad is too much of a big head & is full of himself.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

A pity that there is no-one around these days with the single-mindedness of the famous Douglas Jardine in the 1930's, when out of the 15 Test Matches he was the English captain, he led the team to 9 outright victories.

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

IMHO Broad is too much of a big head & is full of himself.

It's rare to have a bowler as Test Captain - Bob Willis was the last for England, I think. lots of talk about Broad still carrying an injury, anyway.

 

[muddythefish]

I have to say there are no obvious alternatives to Cook, who himself only seems to be captain by default and with few apparent leadership qualities.

Perhaps England need look in the counties for someone in the Brearley mould, ie a good albeit not the highest class player but an outstanding captain and leader.

 

[Buttsy]

I have to say there are no obvious alternatives to Cook, who himself only seems to be captain by default and with few apparent leadership qualities.

Perhaps England need look in the counties for someone in the Brearley mould, ie a good albeit not the highest class player but an outstanding captain and leader.

How about trying a county captain who's getting some runs like Mitchell of Worcestershire or Lyth of Yorkshire?

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Meanwhile, back in the County Championship, Lancashire won their match by an innings and 200 runs.

Lancashire...650-6 declared

Northants...180 and 270

Just to think that Lancashire were having difficulty in accumulating 200 runs in an innings in the earlier stages of the season.

 

[DownSouth]

It's rare to have a bowler as Test Captain - Bob Willis was the last for England, I think. lots of talk about Broad still carrying an injury, anyway.

It's generally rare because of that very issue - bowlers spend a lot of time out of action due to injury. Anderson is probably the only first-choice bowler for England in the last ten years who has been fit consistently enough to be counted upon - but there are other reasons that he shouldn't captain England.

Matt Prior could be a decent interim captain, he's a smart cricketer and he has, even more importantly, that natural competitive instinct common to hard-nosed South Africans like Graeme Smith, Dale Steyn and Jacques Kallis. He's already doing the job as well - when England are in the field and they don't get a couple of wickets in the first 60-70 minutes of a session, Cook diverts his attention to feeling sorry for himself and it usually seems to be Prior who takes responsibility for directing traffic and trying to keep the team active in the second half of the session.

 

[muddythefish]

Matt Prior could be a decent interim captain, he's a smart cricketer and he has, even more importantly, that natural competitive instinct common to hard-nosed South Africans like Graeme Smith, Dale Steyn and Jacques Kallis. .

Dear Ned,

Pathetic little dig again as it's been pointed out to you before that Prior has an English father, has lived in England since the age of 11, attended Brighton College and has played all his cricket in this country.

 

[Whistler40145]

Should Alistair Cook move down the batting order with Moeen Ali opening with Sam Robson?

It might take pressure off himself if he's not having to open & face the new ball.


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[Arglwydd Golau]

Should Alistair Cook move down the batting order with Moeen Ali opening with Sam Robson?

It might take pressure off himself if he's not having to open & face the new ball.


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No, don't think so - tinkering with the batting order hasn't served England well recently, Joe Root being the obvious example (scored runs initially at 5, moved up to open against Aus and failed). Cook is an opener, Moeen isn't.

 

[Whistler40145]

How is Cook going to get back into good form, because at present, he's only in the team because he's Captain.


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[ainsworth74]

He's going do the right thing and resign the captaincy to enable him to focus on getting back into form with Essex and playing his way back into the side.

Oh sorry? You wanted a serious suggestion? Well I guess he'll continue to scratch around at the top of the order wasting a spot in the batting line up and being an sub-par captain.

 

[ExRes]

How is Cook going to get back into good form, because at present, he's only in the team because he's Captain.


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A very pertinent point, thanks to this ludicrous 'resting' of players many of the England players go into a Test Match with no form at all, before the 1st Test Chris Jordan hadn't bowled with a red ball since the end of April other than a Sussex 2nd XI fixture that he himself asked to play in, how players are supposed to find form is beyond me

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

A very pertinent point, thanks to this ludicrous 'resting' of players many of the England players go into a Test Match with no form at all, before the 1st Test Chris Jordan hadn't bowled with a red ball since the end of April other than a Sussex 2nd XI fixture that he himself asked to play in, how players are supposed to find form is beyond me

I think these days they find it in the nets. You can be sure that Cook is hitting the ball sweetly there!
but seriously, I can't see any alternative to Cook as captain. I've never seen any of the other senior pro's as captaincy material (except as a one off if the captain is injured). I think Ian Bell is a classy player, even an Australian friend drools over his text-book drives, but somehow he has never struck me as a skipper.
...and DownSouth has mentioned Matt Prior as the one who keeps things ticking over when the going is tough, but he wasn't doing that on Monday!
So...I have to conclude that, currently, there is no alternative to Cook. Oh, wait a minute, what about Pietersen? Oh, just remembered , he's been sacked! .....and will never be 'unsacked' now that Moores is Coach.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Doesn't it say much for the current state of the English County Championship cricket game that from what a reading of recent threads would appear to state, there appears no outstanding candidate to replace Cook as the England team captain.

 

[EM2]

He's going do the right thing and resign the captaincy to enable him to focus on getting back into form with Essex and playing his way back into the side.

Except his county form was exceptional at the start of the season, including 181 v Derbyshire and 127 against Surrey, which suggests that your idea is unlikely to make a lot of difference.

 

[ainsworth74]

Except his county form was exceptional at the start of the season, including 181 v Derbyshire and 127 against Surrey, which suggests that your idea is unlikely to make a lot of difference.

Hmm true. Perhaps he should move to a county that has slightly stiffer opposition than bottom of the 2nd Division Derbyshire?

 

[Oswyntail]

From what little I could gather from Greek media, this test match went much the same way as the first - their No10 lasted, ours didn't. Two sides with reasonable batting and suspect bowling. The England batting has been reasonable over the two matches, the bowling much less so. Broad and Anderson, who should be strike bowlers, have had to do long spells and have been drained. Why pick both Jordan and Plunkett, who are neither of them long spell bowlers, especially if you under-use Moeen? IMHO, it was the balance of the attack that lost the series.
As for Cook, there are no obvious captaincy replacements, and his batting will get better. All batsmen have lean spells, and IIRC, one of the strengths of good test teams has always been that you don't drop players for a bad run - you drop them when someone better is available, and there isn't.
Where I would make major changes (and this applies to the football team as well), is in the assessment of "experts". Vaughan and Boycott seem to have forgotten their own periods of difficulty, in favour of self-praise at the expense of the current team. But the public lap this up, and form their opinions based on the rose-tinted blinkers that make everything from 10 years or more ago seem great.

 

[Whistler40145]

I was pretty annoyed with Andrew Strauss ripping England apart, saying that we had forgotten how to win, it didn't take him long to stick the knifes in, he shouldn't forget that he was once England Captain & that not always did he perform well or win every Test match!


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[Whistler40145]

I've just read some sad news, Damian D'Oliveira has lost his two year battle of Cancer.


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[Xenophon PCDGS]

Just been looking at the BBC Cricket web site. On the list of fixtures, why are the second division ones shown higher in the text than the first division ones ?

 

[balne-wonderer]

From what little I could gather from Greek media, this test match went much the same way as the first - their No10 lasted, ours didn't. Two sides with reasonable batting and suspect bowling. The England batting has been reasonable over the two matches, the bowling much less so. Broad and Anderson, who should be strike bowlers, have had to do long spells and have been drained. Why pick both Jordan and Plunkett, who are neither of them long spell bowlers, especially if you under-use Moeen? IMHO, it was the balance of the attack that lost the series.
As for Cook, there are no obvious captaincy replacements, and his batting will get better. All batsmen have lean spells, and IIRC, one of the strengths of good test teams has always been that you don't drop players for a bad run - you drop them when someone better is available, and there isn't.
Where I would make major changes (and this applies to the football team as well), is in the assessment of "experts". Vaughan and Boycott seem to have forgotten their own periods of difficulty, in favour of self-praise at the expense of the current team. But the public lap this up, and form their opinions based on the rose-tinted blinkers that make everything from 10 years or more ago seem great.

I don't mind Vaughan because his dry humour is superb on the radio, makes long journey's very entertaining.

Boycott however is an embarrassment to Yorkshire in many ways. Get rid and give Ed Smith more air time.