The England Thread

[Prince EWS]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think anyone was calling for Ealham's selection now - rather discussing the possibility of picking bowlers in the Ealham mould.

 

[grecian]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think anyone was calling for Ealham's selection now - rather discussing the possibility of picking bowlers in the Ealham mould.

No Ealham is just far more accurate than Plunkett.....but England don't need that do they ?

Well sounded, like yer actual Ealham to me.

Anywhoo, I'm against Ealham and Ealham imitators.

I think Ealham is getting far too many mentions anyway, and I vow never to post the name "Ealham" again.

 

[Salamuddin]

Salamuddin doesn't think Trescothick's any good, I wouldn't pay his opinions on England any mind.

I never actually said Trescothick wasn't good. In ODIs yeah he is good batsman.
In tests I think he is overrated because he is relatively poor away from home.

That's all I ever said about him.

 

[Salamuddin]

Well sounded, like yer actual Ealham to me.

Anywhoo, I'm against Ealham and Ealham imitators.

I think Ealham is getting far too many mentions anyway, and I vow never to post the name "Ealham" again.

Did I actually call for Ealham's selection per se ?
No I was merely pointing out that he was a better ODI bowler than Plunkett or Mahmood....

 

[Salamuddin]

I don't give a flying **** about accuracy to be honest. You can be as accurate as you want, but at that pace on a flat, slow deck in the West Indies, you are going to get smashed if you don't do anything with the ball.

Who said Ealham was just a one trick pony ? Ealham could swing the ball and he had good changes of pace, apart from his accuracy.

PLunkett and Mahmood may have pace but the what'
s the use if you can't marry that with a good line and length ....Plunkett and Mahmood clearly haven't been able to on a consistent basis

 

[Goughy]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think anyone was calling for Ealham's selection now - rather discussing the possibility of picking bowlers in the Ealham mould.

Sounds like the below are doing just that.

Because the likes of Ealham,Mascheranhas and Tom Smith actually bowl with accuracy and control which totally elude Plunkett when he bowls.The problem is that there is no chance for these types of bowlers playing for England as they are deemed either to "defensive", not fast enough or are not "wickettakers"."County trundlers" is a pretty pathetic way to describe some very skilled bowlers and I'd certainly rather have Ealham or Tom Smith compared to the rubbish Plunkett bowls.He had a good half dozen matches in the CB series but I'd be extremely surpised if he reproduces that sort of form for a while.

I'd have Ealham over Plunkett. Ealham was a very decent bowler from what I remember......

Plunkett is far too inconsistent

If I had to pick a side right now, with everyone in the country who played last season available, I'd pick:
Trescothick
Loye
Afzaal
Pietersen
Bell
Flintoff (c)
Read
Mascarenhas
Martin-Jenkins
Ealham
Gough
Plenty of calibre in the top-order and all four bowlers can bat a bit, too.
Unfortunately, not many of them are going to be available in 4 years' time.

I think, personally, that we need to worry about next summer when that comes round.

Ealham did indeed have his chance - and was treated distinctly shabbily, being dropped in 2001 for no good reason. Even now, he's infinately better at one-day bowling than most in England have ever been and quite possibly will ever be.

This is one-day stuff we're talking about - it's economy-rate, not wickets-per-match, that matter the most.

For England? Mark Ealham, Robin Martin-Jenkins, Dmitri Mascarenhas, to name a few.

Broad's available right now - he's just currently not good enough.

and so on

 

[LA ICE-E]

this may be off topic but is cricket less in popularity than rugby in england? The world cup doesn't get much attention??? http://blogs.cricinfo.com/wc_tourdiaries/

I had to wade through 19 pages of the sports section of a Sunday broadsheet ... football of all kinds, FA Cup, Barclays Premiership, Champions League, Coca-Cola Championship, rugby union, horse racing, motor racing ... before encountering the first mention of cricket. In tabloids, it was merely a footnote, and the only question the gentleman at the Heathrow immigration asked me was if I was going find out who killed Bob Woolmer.

 

[pup11]

When England performed well during the Ashes 05 the craze for cricket was on an all-time high in UK,but its a shame that England kept going downhill with their performances since their Ashes triumph, due to which people have started to lose interest in English cricket.

 

[Scaly piscine]

The Ashes was live on terrestrial TV so everyone could see it, this and everything since is live only on satellite TV because of the ICC/ECB's moneylust.

 

[Richard]

Couldn't agree more about Ealham, I'd rather pick a good prospect from the under-18s, then that past-it, military-medium trundler.

To converse about him now, is utter madness imho.

Similarly mad to converse about the Plunketts of this World, but that doesn't stop people.

It's also mad to make comments like you just made about him, but that didn't stop you either.

 

[Richard]

I don't give a flying **** about accuracy to be honest. You can be as accurate as you want, but at that pace on a flat, slow deck in the West Indies, you are going to get smashed if you don't do anything with the ball.

You might.

You also might not.

Not everyone is Matthew-Hayden-of-the-last-2-months or Sanath Jayasuriya, y'know.

 

[Richard]

It's hard to judge Lewis because of the limited situations he can bowl and he's weak in the field and with the bat. He's played most games at home, in a lot of day-night games and generally speaking he's played in games where the scoring by the opposition has been signficantly lower than on average

And this from Plunkett's chief championer...

Ah, of course, Plunkett's a Durhamer.

 

[Richard]

If you'd rather have all of those than Plunkett you clearly know sweet FA about cricket.

Or it could be said that if you rather Plunkett than any of them then you know such a thing.

 

[simmy]

The Ashes was live on terrestrial TV so everyone could see it, this and everything since is live only on satellite TV because of the ICC/ECB's moneylust.

Moneylust and their incredible underlying stupidity.

Honestly though the youtube thing annoyed me more than the satellite issue.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Who said Ealham was just a one trick pony ? Ealham could swing the ball and he had good changes of pace, apart from his accuracy.

Yes, could being the key word.

 

[TT Boy]

Yes, could being the key word.

It's not considering he still can but only at 65-70 mph.

 

[Richard]

You saw him bowling in front of a speedgun last season then?

 

[burr]

Ok, so are England finally going to get it? Michael Vaughan can't play one-day cricket.

 

[Steulen]

Ok, so are England finally going to get it? Michael Vaughan can't play one-day cricket.

Make that: England don't want to play one day cricket.

A far worse thing than having an excellent captain who's a lousy player.

 

[Richard]

Some England fans don't want to play ODI cricket.

That's different to the country at large not wanting to.