Balls to the Aussies the cricket thread (Read 385960 times)

Jaspersharpe · May 08, 2015, 03:16:44 pm

After a thoroughly depressing day with the one day game in Ireland rained off,(and it seems Raf's cricket academy this evening going the same way

) here at least is a great bit of writing.....

http://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/668721.html

DaveC · May 09, 2015, 07:03:58 am

That is a superb bit of writing Jasper. I saw Thomson for the first time 40 years ago at the MCG in a state game just before the 74/75 Ashes series of infamous memory. He was unbelievably fast, you could tell some batsmen had no idea where the ball was, it was scary to watch from the stands!

Jaspersharpe · May 09, 2015, 08:31:00 am

The bit about the bowling machine brings home how quick he actually was! Terrifying.

DaveC · May 09, 2015, 11:14:30 am

I have vivid memories of nervous laughter amongst the spectators when one of his bouncers really took off and hit the sight screen on the first bounce. One or two of rgw later batsmen appeared to be taking guard half way to square leg after that.

Richie Crouch · May 09, 2015, 10:52:35 pm

Great article jasper, cheers for the link. Thompson no doubt made the Mitchell's appear pedestrian in comparison... And they will tear through England later this year!

GraemeA · May 11, 2015, 06:18:51 pm

KP gets his highest ever first class score the day before the new supremo faces the press. Interesting

andy_e · May 12, 2015, 08:55:35 am

...and then gets rejected!

butters · May 12, 2015, 09:44:25 am

I have probably mentioned this before but I will do so again anyway as the Thommo article reminded me of it.

Fire in Babylon - the story of the West Indies cricket team from the late 70's and early 80's which starts with the tour of Australia where IIRC they came up against a young Thommo and Lillee and got comprehensively battered as a result.

No idea how to embed a YouTube video (sans soundtrack) so have an old fashioned URL instead. Worth getting with the soundtrack on

Enjoy

DaveC · May 12, 2015, 11:24:20 am

I saw two days of the Melbourne test in 75/6 against the Windies, I was 12 and like every kid my age down here I wanted to bowl like Dennis Lillee, I don't think anybody could figure out how Thomson bowled the way he did, he was from a different planet.

Jaspersharpe · May 12, 2015, 11:55:11 am

Quote from: andy_e on May 12, 2015, 08:55:35 am

...and then gets rejected!

Feel that Strauss was always going to be on a loser here. There was no way he was going to attempt to shoe horn KP back into the side against the wishes of the captain and presumably most of the other players. But whatever he said people were always going to assume that the decision was based on the history between the two (and the fact that Strauss thinks KP is an absolute cunt

).

Not sure how you square having "massive trust issues" with someone and then offering them an advisory role with the one day team though (although clearly he was always going to turn this down).

Jaspersharpe · May 13, 2015, 10:31:25 am

....and I basically agree with all of this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/32705910

andy_e · May 13, 2015, 10:39:55 am

Hmm, Root touted as the next captain? He's only twelve years old...

Jaspersharpe · May 13, 2015, 10:48:55 am

Root will be captain but it's too soon to burden him with all the shit that goes with it at the moment. The last thing we need is to fuck up our best player right now!

butters · May 13, 2015, 11:13:09 am

Quote from: Jaspersharpe on May 13, 2015, 10:31:25 am

....and I basically agree with all of this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/32705910

That's on the money - it does make me wonder how we manage to make such a pigs ear out of things at times.

Re: Root as captain - it will happen eventually and maybe after the end of the summer. Depends largely on how we fare against NZ - we are borderline certainties to get dry humped by the Aussies but if we can get away with an draw at worst against a rejuvenated kiwi side then I suspect that will be enough to keep Cook in the job following his century in the Windies. Having said that this is England we are talking about....

DaveC · May 13, 2015, 11:48:51 am

Australia's game is now built around two things; the batting of Warner and Smith (and Clarke if he is fit) and a very strong fast bowling line up headed by two left armer's called Mitchell. Warner is an unknown quantity in English conditions but if he gets his eye in you will be fully entertained! Smith has been in almost Bradmanesque form recently but can he keep it up is the question.

andy_e · May 13, 2015, 11:52:04 am

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/england-cricket-team-decides-against-picking-only-one-who-can-hit-the-ball-2015051398253

DaveC · May 13, 2015, 12:06:20 pm

There is a disturbing element of truth to that. I can quite understand why they won't pick him, he is still a good player but can that make up for him being a narcissistic twat? In many ways he is like Shane Warne but the latter never badmouthed his team mates to the opposition or the press while he was in the side and there were several who he famously did not get along with personally (Steve Waugh. Adam Gilchrist)

Jaspersharpe · May 13, 2015, 12:29:51 pm

The one thing the bring back KP brigade (Moron in particular) conveniently forget is that his batting had gone downhill before he was dropped (that stat that he was our highest scoring batsman in the last Ashes series being irrelevant considering what went on there). He says it's all down to his knee but it would take more than one big score against Leicestershire to convince me that he deserves a place in the England team purely on merit, without all the other crap. As that BBC article says, it's not middle order batsmen that we're crying out for anyway.

butters · May 13, 2015, 12:50:37 pm

The thing that KP brings with him is potential. However what most people forget is that it's the potential to make a big and possibly game changing score (infrequently) or make a few runs and then charge down the wicket to a spinner looking to thrash him out of the ground and get stumped (more frequently). There is a fair degree of generalisation there obviously but personally speaking it's much easier listening to TMS now than when it was when KP was playing. England would have something like 127 runs on the board and wickets had fell cheaply and the next man in was KP - cue my already jangled nerves to jangle some more while awaiting the next seemingly inevitable dismissal.

Great player of that there is no doubt but he has had his time and if it hadn't been for some spectacular displays of fuckwittery by the ECB it really wouldn't be much of an issue.

Jaspersharpe · May 13, 2015, 12:54:03 pm

Exactly.

butters · May 13, 2015, 01:57:34 pm

Once again Simon Barnes comes up with some excellent writing. He has to be up there as one of my favourite sports writers.

Jaspersharpe · May 13, 2015, 02:00:36 pm

andy_e · May 13, 2015, 02:04:20 pm

Jaspersharpe · May 13, 2015, 04:39:06 pm

Quote from: butters on May 13, 2015, 01:57:34 pm

Once again Simon Barnes comes up with some excellent writing. He has to be up there as one of my favourite sports writers.

Yes, very good. Some superb stuff on the cricinfo site recently.

EDIT - speaking of which....

http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/870395.html

rich d · May 13, 2015, 09:41:44 pm

Problem for KP apart from him being a cunt in a lot of the existing test team is that his natural batting positions are already taken in the test team.
But he should be in the 2020 and one day side. Maybe if he could have proved himself again at international level in these two he could have worked his way back into the test side.
We're probably going to be embarrassed by the kiwis and convicts this summer (especially as I've got tickets for both)