Alright who is watching the First Test? Can't wait me like!

Got Sky upgraded today and just about to put some bets on.

I'm thinking Mitchell Johnson top wicket taker and Pietersen top run scorer.

We've got to get a get a win at Cardiff, if it's a turning wicket then we'll be in the driving seat as their part time spinners shouldn't be a patch on Swann and Panesar if he plays. Their inexperienced bowling attack won't fancy our top 4 if the conditions don't suit given they're all in form.

I wonder which tosser is going to be the first to say cricket is boring.

It's going to be close but if we can get a win at Cardiff then it'll be advantage to us big time as we've seen how tempremental the weather could be this Summer which might play a big part...

I love it never miss a ball

England to win the series 2-1 getting the Ashes back

Even our lass loves it!

Cricket is boring

Cricket is VERY boring.

I'll be watching it.

Me too. Cricket isn't boring at all.

Yes it is. It bores me, so to me it's boring.

As sponsors of the competition, I can even watch it at work.

If only those annoying customers would go away.

cant fooooooooooooooooookin wait!!!
watched the headingley test of Bothams ashes just now on ESPN, I'll be honest, I got so excited I wet myself a little bit!

did loads of work today - early start,no dinner - and am going to get an early start tomoz an all so I'm back in for 11.........watch it rain now!!

No dinner...
D'ya still go to the butchers at Enfield Chase shops with the tasty saveloys?

na,not a lot...
hows the pig flu?

You bin stalking me sonny?

Sorry don't know where that came from, its just a cold not full blown piggy-pox. How are you?

BTW do I look like that jock tennis player or what!

Oh and you'll have heard this from me before, but I'm coming to see the idiot savants at Stockton festival......deffo!

smashing!

me and hannah said that too - ugly, big nosed and same surname!!! soz Mur

I'm saying nowt about old Jim!!!!

You old charmer you, you're making me blush.

Oh aye by the way cricket, we've never been the same since Simon Jones got injured, have we? Stay on message you dozy gets.

Cricket is like tantric sex, you've got to understand the subtleties of it before you can really appreciate it fully.

Going to the second day - can't wait....!!!!!

Crickets shit.

Bloke throws a ball & another bloke stops it with a stick
They all stand about for 5 minutes then do it again.
After a few hours they stop for a cup of tea,a prawn sandwich & a joint.
It then rains so they call it a draw.

I want to be a cricketer.

Back on topic.

I think you're right about Lee Mr John, although he does only average 40 odd in The Ashes.

The most damning verdict of cricket ever!!!!!

cant wait :D hope it lasts till the weekend so i can watch plenty of it though. for them johnson has the potential to rip us to bits, saw him do it against someone in the winter in a spell, think it might have been south africa? hes been off the boil a bit lately siddell looks useful from what ive seen of him, what worries me is the aussies seem to have had a very good preperation this time around for the 2005 ashes they got poor preperation and it paid off for us. im going to be miserable and say a 2-1 aussie series win

For the Aussies to take 20 wickets against us more than once in the series we will have to bat poorly in my opinion.

They have a very moderate bowling attack, with Anderson on fire Freddie back and Broad improving every game we have a far stronger seam attack. The Aussies spinners aren't even worth talking about. Yes I think they have a stronger batting line up but if we are at our best with the ball we will win the series.

I was speaking to someone recently who has seen Hughes at close quarters and reckons he won't get a run in the Ashes. He either blocks it, flays it through the offside or slaps length balls over mid wicket! His spell at Middlesex has given everyone a chance to have a look at him it's alright scoring runs in division two of the championship, score as many as you want mate. He could get some real workings over from Flintoff and Broad if we can bowl quick, short, and straight*

*Cue record breaking series from Phillip Hughes.

The only thing strange about this series is the first game is being played on an outground.

It's not even in England FFS.

It's not often I suffer extreme bouts of jealousy but this post really puts the boot in......you jammy get Billingham!!!!!

Was only joking today saying how could we wangle disappearing to a pub somewhere at 11 every "working" test day?

The T20 tournament has re-ignited my enthusiasm a bit - I'm looking forward to us stuffing the Aussies...

What's tantric?
Come to think of it, what's sex?

The English team are representing the England and Wales Cricket Board - that's important as there is a Welsh county (Glamorgan) in the League.

It's still an effing disgrace that Cardiff are hosting this Test.

Durham have put in the hard yards hosting Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, and the West Indies in May and the first test at Sophia Gardens is an Ashes test! The wicket isn't great, the ground isn't great and it's in bastad Wales. If they want test cricket they should get a few smaller games first at least surely? Forgetting that one of the nicest cricket grounds in the World in Trent Bridge doesn't have a test and neither does the ground we have a brilliant recent record at in Old Trafford.

We are playing a vital test in a virtual foreign environment almost giving up home advantage just to line the ECB's pockets with a few quid.

you've thought about this aint ya Peej?!!


I concur btw

That's the first time I've ever seen the words "Wales" and "important" in the same sentence, apart from "People in Wales think they are important, but they fookin aren't."

The fact is that until Wales get a national cricket team of their own, because cricket is still growing in Wales, they will just have to support England until then.

New South Wales & South Wales meeting one another

What a meeting of minds, eh?

Look can we stop this now. We know where this is going. I prefer the racism threads to this.

Where is it going?

Luckily I'm facing towards the nearest screen, but I could do with moving down a couple of rows, for a better view.

Serves you right for living in North Wales or should that be South Liverpool..

I've done a few quid on the following....

Jimmy to take more wickets than Swann

Ponting to be the series highest run maker

Each way on Micheal Clarke being top Aussie batsman.

I will get all 3 wrong.

poks involved......you know how bloody tiresome the exchanges get.

He repeats some stupid statement he's read somewhere then someone (quite rightly) calls him a twat and that goes on for eight pages.

Thats where it's going.

There are more South Africans than Welshmen in the test squad. FACT.

Cant I just say I have been one of the key people in replying to his blinkered thoughts that manifest into utter drivel and bollocks on here and allowing threads to carry on for ages, I will be from now taking all his comments with a pinch of salt and not going to bother replying to them anymore.

Flogging a dead horse comes to mind.

Oh yes.

Some great news (for me anyway). Normally you can't get sport on BBC online outside the UK. Today you can. Just listening to Jerusalem now!

Do you know amything about cricket POK.

"English" cricket is run by the ENGLAND AND WALES CRICKET BOARD.Created in 1997

Rules for you m8 so you understand it better

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in.

Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out.

When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side thats been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out.

Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in.

There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out.

When both sides have been in and all the men have out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!

simples

Bopara looks nervous which shows the difference between playing the Windies and playing these. You only have to look how Ian Bell struggled compared to when he was playing the likes of Pakistan. Having said all that, more importantly, Simon Jones' bird is fcking gorgeous.

So they went for 2 spinners in the end. Lets hope that doesn't backfire.