Furball
Evil Scotsman
Awesome stuff from the Dutch.
Beaten England, should have beaten South Africa and gave New Zealand a decent game. Clearly the way forward for cricket is to ensure that these pesky upstarts don't get to play in further world cups #brokenrecord #notgoingtoletitgo
As for England? The worst part of it is that I'm not surprised at all. It's what happens when you pick a joke squad though. We've picked all these limited overs "specialists" who are actually complete hacks, and we've put class players like Anderson and Cook in the "not for T20" basket. Are people seriously telling me that Michael Lumb or Jade ****ing Dernbach are better players than those two? Because they're not.
What England do have is a scheduling problem though. The IPL clashes with the early summer so England's top players can't play IPL without it impacting the Test side, and our T20 is badly scheduled so that the top Test players don't have time to play domestic T20. Stuart Broad, England's T20 captain, has had a First Class career that's now 9 years old. In that time, he's played 18 domestic T20 matches. James Anderson, who's been playing First Class cricket since T20 started, has played just 21. Ali Cook, who's had the most opportunity to play, has played 26 games. Both Cook and Anderson are entering their 12th season of First Class cricket, those are absolutely pathetic numbers. By way of comparison, Virat Kohli has played 115 domestic T20 games, and Warner's played 114. Is it any surprise that they're much better T20 players when they actually spend so much more time playing T20 cricket?
Then of course, those players that do play domestic T20 cricket in England are playing in a system that has too many teams, too many players and a severe lack of top quality domestic and international players. It's a breeding ground for mediocrity, and it's hardly surprising that England's players who's only exposure to international cricket is via T20 cricket are ****ing woeful.
Beaten England, should have beaten South Africa and gave New Zealand a decent game. Clearly the way forward for cricket is to ensure that these pesky upstarts don't get to play in further world cups #brokenrecord #notgoingtoletitgo
As for England? The worst part of it is that I'm not surprised at all. It's what happens when you pick a joke squad though. We've picked all these limited overs "specialists" who are actually complete hacks, and we've put class players like Anderson and Cook in the "not for T20" basket. Are people seriously telling me that Michael Lumb or Jade ****ing Dernbach are better players than those two? Because they're not.
What England do have is a scheduling problem though. The IPL clashes with the early summer so England's top players can't play IPL without it impacting the Test side, and our T20 is badly scheduled so that the top Test players don't have time to play domestic T20. Stuart Broad, England's T20 captain, has had a First Class career that's now 9 years old. In that time, he's played 18 domestic T20 matches. James Anderson, who's been playing First Class cricket since T20 started, has played just 21. Ali Cook, who's had the most opportunity to play, has played 26 games. Both Cook and Anderson are entering their 12th season of First Class cricket, those are absolutely pathetic numbers. By way of comparison, Virat Kohli has played 115 domestic T20 games, and Warner's played 114. Is it any surprise that they're much better T20 players when they actually spend so much more time playing T20 cricket?
Then of course, those players that do play domestic T20 cricket in England are playing in a system that has too many teams, too many players and a severe lack of top quality domestic and international players. It's a breeding ground for mediocrity, and it's hardly surprising that England's players who's only exposure to international cricket is via T20 cricket are ****ing woeful.