England Cricket

[trickster]

I said before I’m not a big cricket fan but I do watch the test matches, and England from the first test match have looked scared, embarrassingly scared, I usually watch the first few overs on sky at night and at the moment 5 minutes past midnight England are 17-4, England will take a long time to live this down.

Flower’s seems a nice chap and has said he wants to stay on as England team director, but surely something must be wrong, expectations were so high before the start yet we have been second best in every department, Johnson has terrified our batsmen they all look like scared rabbits in the headlights in front of him, a whitewash looks on the cards and to be honest that’s all we deserve.

[Malabus]

Another wicket gone just as you composed the thread..terrible

[Shade]

Flower built the team that had so much success a few years ago. Now he needs to start again and he is apparently still up for the job. He is going to have to get rid of some of the big names. Captain Cook being one of them if he doesn't perform in the next couple of tests off of Aussie soil, as the captain if not as a batsman.

I think part of the problem is they're stuck in a bubble. Ben Stokes has come in and performed really well with bat and ball, and looks like the only player in any kind of form. Everyone else, they seem to have dragged each other down to a village teams level, playing ridiculous shot after ridiculous shot, trying to play their way into form.

The writing has been on the wall for a couple of winters when it comes to the tours though. Destroyed by Pakistan, draw in Sri Lanka and luckily in New Zealand thanks to the weather. Add to that a 2-0 home loss to South Africa and obviously it's time to bring through and stick with the new generation, a la Stokes.

[trickster]

That's it then 5-0 what a shower.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

Hopeless.

[Malabus]

Apparently a Cheltenham man was rescued by Stuart Broad.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/25650615" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[asl]

I must admit, my first thought was "Alistair Cook or Andy Flower....?"

[ctfc-fan]

Mal. Check your world map and you'll find a Cheltenham in New South Wales... Doh!

[Malabus]

Mal. Check your world map and you'll find a Cheltenham in New South Wales... Doh!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricke ... ridge.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricke ... ridge.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Dooooh

[C.V]

Think the problem is now there are so few true English men to pick from as Mal has said we have lost our identity.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

Think the problem is now there are so few true English men to pick from as Mal has said we have lost our identity.

I know, only millions of them around and just several hundred first class cricketers. How we can find 11 from that I cannot fathom.

[Shade]

Talking about the number of foreign accented players in the England team, some talk of Sam Robson being picked to replace Carberry now - he's got dual citizenship between here and Australia. Was born there but has an English mother and has been playing here for Middlesex since 2008. He hasn't chosen whether he will play for Aus or Eng yet, but he did play for Aus U-19s.

From all forms of the game, current (or very recent) England cricketers who weren't born in this country:
Ballance
Compton
Trott
Pietersen
Lumb
Morgan
Kieswetter
Prior
Stokes
Dernbach
Jordan
Rankin

I've not got a problem with it really, but it is quite strange how most of the England team is from South Africa, with a few from Zimbabwe, New Zealand and Barbados to help.