*Official* England in West Indies

[fredfertang]

Just drove home and listened to TMS on the way, its struck me before but is Viv Richards, legend of the game not withstanding, one of if not the worst commentators? Talks absolute garbage and they seem to keep giving him segments where he has to talk on his own for a while, half seems as though the rest of them are taking the piss.

He is truly awful - I was listening yesterday and Agnew made a huge point of letting Viv go for his lunch 5 minutes early even though he'd have to put up with Sir Geoffrey for an extra five minutes - he must have been utterly frustrated because he kept trying to get something sensible out of Viv but all Viv was really doing was repeating everything that Agnew said - their conversation about when the West Indians used to wear blue caps in home series was so dull it became quite comical

 

[Jamee999]

Imagine how much of a better spectacle this series would have been if England hadn't collapsed in the 1st Test..

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

"Simmons replacing Smith". Superb.

 

[wpdavid]

Imagine how much of a better spectacle this series would have been if England hadn't collapsed in the 1st Test..

Or if we'd taken that last wicket at the ARG.

 

[Steulen]

Imagine how much of a better spectacle this series would have been if England hadn't collapsed in the 1st Test..

0-0 instead of 1-0. Yippee Yay Yeeh...

 

[Woodster]

Are the WI not taking this to a bit of an extreme though ? I know they're 1-0 up and series victories do not exactly come along too frequently, but not only do we have another dead pitch, the fields and team selection all geared towards the draw, but Gayle is trying to kill time in the game by farting around at the end of his run-up. I know he still gets through his overs pretty quickly, but, in football terms it's like hanging on for 0-0 and taking your time with throw-ins in the first 5 minutes!

Not to mention little thought being given to spectators.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

Why, why are we just being gifted runs? Surely it's in the West Indies' interests (since they're playing for a draw) to make us bat for as long as possible and therefore work for our runs?

 

[BoyBrumby]

My mind's wandering a bit and two thoughts have occurred, which I'll share with the rest of the class as the post-prandial musings of a drunk can't be any more tedious than the cricket:

1) Is the Windies bowling line up the worst one a serious test nation has put out?

2) Amjad Khan makes 5 overseas-born players in the team. Is this a record?

 

[sammy2]

Are the WI not taking this to a bit of an extreme though ? I know they're 1-0 up and series victories do not exactly come along too frequently, but not only do we have another dead pitch, the fields and team selection all geared towards the draw, but Gayle is trying to kill time in the game by farting around at the end of his run-up. I know he still gets through his overs pretty quickly, but, in football terms it's like hanging on for 0-0 and taking your time with throw-ins in the first 5 minutes!

Not to mention little thought being given to spectators.

WI is ahead of the overate required.

But like every innings of this series so far, i'm sure WI will make more than england

 

[superkingdave]

Hopefully he's out here

 

[BoyBrumby]

Stone dead, surely? Taking middle and leg out.

Interesting to see what Dar does.

EDIT: & out. Score one to the referral system. What did Tiffin think that was missing?!?!?

 

[pskov]

My mind's wandering a bit and two thoughts have occurred, which I'll share with the rest of the class as the post-prandial musings of a drunk can't be any more tedious than the cricket:

1) Is the Windies bowling line up the worst one a serious test nation has put out?

2) Amjad Khan makes 5 overseas-born players in the team. Is this a record?

I was thinking to myself that this match may be a record for most different countries of birth in a test match.

England (Cook, Collingwood, Broad, Anderson, Swann, Panesar)
South Africa (Strauss, Pietersen, Prior)
Pakistan (Shah)
Denmark (Khan)

Jamaica (Gayle, Powell)
Guyana (Sarwan, Chanderpaul)
Trinidad & Tobago (Simmons, Ramdin)
Barbados (Hinds, Edwards)
Greneda (Smith)
Australia (Nash)
Monserrat (Baker)

11 different countries amongst 22 players.

 

[wpdavid]

My mind's wandering a bit and two thoughts have occurred, which I'll share with the rest of the class as the post-prandial musings of a drunk can't be any more tedious than the cricket:

1) Is the Windies bowling line up the worst one a serious test nation has put out?

2) Amjad Khan makes 5 overseas-born players in the team. Is this a record?

1) Quite possibly.

2) I reckon 5 overseas-born players appeared for us quite often in the early 1990's - Smith, Lamb, Hick and various WI-born quicks from Lewis, Daffy & Malcolm. Maybe we saw six on occasions around that time.

 

[Jamee999]

Hussain too.

 

[King Pietersen]

Tiffin is the worst umpire currently operating in International Cricket. How could he have given Collingwood not out? =/ Thank god for the Referral System, how did Tiffin get a gig without the referral system in place?

 

[BoyBrumby]

Tiffin is the worst umpire currently operating in International Cricket. How could he have given Collingwood not out? =/ Thank god for the Referral System, how did Tiffin get a gig without the referral system in place?

Trouble is, bloke at the other end runs him a close second. Harper/Tiffin: eeuww.

 

[Jigga988]

WI is ahead of the overate required.

Yeah, the commentators were having a moan about drinks coming on to the field when it wasn't a scheduled drinks brake... clearly they think cricketers are slaves.... I meen come on there are a lot of things to complain about but that is not one of them...

 

[King Pietersen]

Yeh, these 2 are a dream team as far as awful umpiring goes, Tiffin's worse though tbh, 2 absolute shockers in this game. Harper's yet to make a mistake in this game, I think, so he's on form :P

 

[Jigga988]

Trouble is, bloke at the other end runs him a close second. Harper/Tiffin: eeuww.

Exactly, if those two were to be thrown out of international umpiring, how many international umpires would that leave?

 

[King Pietersen]

Taufel......possibly Asad Rauf. Maybe Taufel could do both ends and then run up to the referral box if need be?