The biggest hindrance to English Cricket is not the quality of the players but the selectors. Take the selection of Amjad Khan to the ODI squad as cover for Sidebottom as an example. There are few things in cricket that are dead certainities, one of which is that Amjad Khan will be a failure in ODI cricket. Heres a bowler that bowls with his head facing the ground, he can barely land 2 balls on the line and he goes at almost 4 runs an over in FC cricket, and we dont even need to get started on his record in List A cricket and yet somehow hes expected to contribute to the England ODI side? This is a clear example of the kind of clouded decision making that we see from our English selectors.
In my opinion England have the players to be amongst the top 3 teams in the world. If Panesar can consistently bowl like he did in the final test at Port of Spain, we might just have the 2nd most potent spin attack going around in International cricket outside of M&M. Our pace battery should really involve Hoggard, Flintoff, Anderson, Broad with Harmison on standby. I am sick and tired of this Sidebottom rubbish, the fact of the matter is that hes never proven to anyone in the world that he can take wickets when the ball aint swinging, and even when it is swinging, Ive never been convinced that hes the best bowler going around in England. If he wasnt fit, as people go on claiming that he wasnt, he should never have set foot to play any of the tests that he has played over the last 12 months. Our selection policy with the bowlers, seems to remind me of Indias a few years ago, where they would pick two of Zaheer, Nehra, Pathan, Balaji, RP, VRV out of a hat and then come up with a different 2 for the next game.
