Cricket......

Tax Paying Poolie · **Joined:** Sat Aug 19, 2006 8:18 am **Posts:** 9053

Theres very little between the teams if you compare them player for player. There are a variety of reasons why we lost this series and many of them were avoidable. I still think we might get a win or two from the last couple of games and given that the Aussies are generally all virtually over the hill and most of the England team are still in their prime, we'll have the Ashes back sooner than we lost it.

LeicesterPoolie · **Joined:** Sat Aug 19, 2006 5:48 pm **Posts:** 1278

It took us 16 years to get them back and 15 months to lose them.
Next series is 2009, when admittedly they will have lost Warne, McGrath,
Gillchrist, maybe Ponting and the openers, but they have ready made replacements.
Were is our new blood coming from ?

Tax Paying Poolie · **Joined:** Sat Aug 19, 2006 8:18 am **Posts:** 9053

LeicesterPoolie wrote:

It took us 16 years to get them back and 15 months to lose them.
Next series is 2009, when admittedly they will have lost Warne, McGrath,
Gillchrist, maybe Ponting and the openers, but they have ready made replacements.
Were is our new blood coming from ?

It's already there; Cook, Bell, Panesar, Pietersen is only 26, Mahmood. There are plenty coming through like the lad Broad, and Plunkett.

They haven't got a replacement for Warne (and never will) and he has single handledly won most of their test match wins against us.

Mr Irrelevant · **Joined:** Thu Aug 17, 2006 8:25 pm **Posts:** 22671

Is Martin Scott running the England cricket team now? the excuses sound frighteningly familiar.

Albatross · **Posted:** Mon Dec 18, 2006 11:04 am

The problem has been consistency, most of the players have struggled to perform for one entire test never mind a series and havent really since we beat the Aussies last time. We've not been helped by Fletcher's "Jobs for the Boys" selections either.... A spinner that hardly turns the ball and who's not played for 10 months, or a bright talent who's had a good summer? Come on in Ashley. A keeper chosen for his batting who's got past 20 once in 20 innings, or a much better keeper who's just ground out some good scores in test cricket? It's all yours, Geraint. Bowlers not looking like getting 20 wickets? Tell you what, rather than picking bowlers that might take wickets, let's pick the ones that are better batsmen.....

Tax Paying Poolie · **Joined:** Sat Aug 19, 2006 8:18 am **Posts:** 9053

MadJohn wrote:

Warne is irreplacable. Australia simply have no-one close. MacGill is a very good bowler, but Warne is a different level altogether, possibly the best bowler ever, certainly the best slow bowler. He's a useful lower order bat too.

McGrath will also be very very difficult to replace. One of the top fast mediums of all time, and one of the most consistently accurate. Stuart Clark is good - you have to be to even get a game for Australia - but he's the wrong side of 30 himself, and he's no McGrath.

In Hayden and Langer you have one of the very best opening partnerships the game has seen. I think only Haynes/Greenidge have contributed more runs and they are right up there with the highest average stands too. A big job to replace those two as well then. Nobody knows how well the likes of Phil Jaques will step up to Test level. Australia have been blessed since the early 90s with the likes of Taylor and Slater preceding the current two, but they haven't always produced top rank openers, and who knows what comes next.

Ponting is probably one of the top 3 batsmen of recent times - along with Lara and Tendulkar - and the best Australian batsman in a long long time. He's another who will be tremendously difficult to replace with someone of the same standard.

Then you have Gilchrist. A wicket-keeper who bats at seven yet would have been good enough to get into the top five of any Test side in my lifetime. They don't even want to think about having to replace him. He's been a phenomenon for them.

If you get into the Australia side you are a damn good cricketer, but they simply do not have ready-made replacements for some of those guys. You are talking all-time greats. I think Australia are reaching the end of a mighty era. The academies they have in place, and their attitude towards perfection means they are unlikely to drop back to their mid-80s level. They are probably going to be one of the best sides for a good while yet. But I think their days of being clearly and unarguably THE best, are coming to an end.

You are spot on, as soon as Ashes tickets become available over here you should snap them up as it's clear even at this very early stage we should have a great chance.

aphemia · **Joined:** Sat Aug 19, 2006 11:02 am **Posts:** 73

Yep - totally agree MadJohn.

The current Aussi team is arguably the most outstanding cricket XI of all time with Warne, McGrath, Gillespie and Ponting all being top of what they do in the game. They are just unbelievable players.

That said, we did manage to beat them all last year!

Oh well, bring on 2009...

Just looking at player ages...

Flintoff 28
Strauss 29
Cook 21
Pietersen 25 :shock:

Bell 24
Read 28
Panesar 24
Harmison 27

This is a pretty decent spine all who should still be around in 2009. Plunkett, Mahmood and Anderson etc are all very young too but I'm not sure they'll be good enough.

Rashid anyone?? Let's hope so.

LeicesterPoolie · **Joined:** Sat Aug 19, 2006 5:48 pm **Posts:** 1278

Don't forget Stuart Broad
but I stick by what I said earlier, they seem to have a much better production line than us.
We'll have to find some more bok defectors, like Pietersen and Strauss

Cricket......

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