***Official*** England in South Africa 2015/16

[Zinzan]

Yeah, but you know. He was a Kiwi and all. It's hard to get excited about it. Though the Astle > Ponting/ Waugh/ Border/ Gilchrist thread which will no doubt arise because of the mention of his name as dinner time approaches in the Shaky Isles should be pretty amusing.

lol @ your utter cynicism towards NZ cricket these days. Am I right that this has only manifested itself in the last couple of years? Just I can't recall it from you previous to that.

 

[Daemon]

It's coincided with the prolific increase in the number of kiwi posts here

 

[91Jmay]

People still remember Sehwag's triple against South Africa in awe (rightly so), no reason they won't remember Stoke's innings in similar regard.

 

[Zinzan]

It's coincided with the prolific increase in the number of kiwi posts here

Right, I seem to recall India was the hobbyhorse prior to that.

 

[Daemon]

Right, I seem to recall India was the hobbyhorse prior to that.

Sri Lanka received it's fair share as well

 

[Stefan9]

I think the assumptions about him not wanting the captaincy are related to him stepping down from the ODI and Dolphins roles.. Plus wasn't there some drama whereby Amla was a late entrant to the captaincy race? # expressed interest only after ABDV said he wanted it or some such..

He was a very very very late entrant. AB and Faf immediately entered as did duminy.

I also remember an instance where he was the vice captain of the side and refused to take up the captaincy when De Villiers was injured or something.

He never refused but he resigned the odi vice captaincy immediately following the 2 games. Said he didn't want to do the captaincy when AB wasn't around.

Citation needed.

You won't find a citation for this as no one will ever admit to this while they are still playing. Wait for the bio's when some of the guys involved are done.

I think this is better for the Test side though. I get the feeling Amla is a good leader, but more of a behind-the-scenes, advisory type of guy, rather than the face, if that makes sense. AB is a bit more similar to Smith, which will serve the team better I think. Having AB be the skip also hopefully means they'll stop asking him to keep.

A middle order of Amla at three, AB at four, and Faf at five is pretty solid I think. If Bavuma can keep up his work from CT and we can solve the opening problem SA will have a solid batting unit.

Think Cook should open in the short-term with Elgar, and Van Zyl and Rossouw should be the first reserves for the batting spots.

Think Duminy should be sent back to his franchise for a while, he hasn't done anything in Tests for ages now.

Duminy's test career is done imho. He is nearly 32 with a very average test record , don't see any way back for him.

 

[Burgey]

lol @ your utter cynicism towards NZ cricket these days. Am I right that this has only manifested itself in the last couple of years? Just I can't recall it from you previous to that.

No I'm not cynical about nz cricket at all. I think they're very much on the rise. But you'd think they were the Windows side of he 80s the way certain sections of the kiwi fraternity here have been of late.

 

[Zinzan]

No I'm not cynical about nz cricket at all. I think they're very much on the rise. But you'd think they were the Windows side of he 80s the way certain sections of the kiwi fraternity here have been of late.

FTR we don't all think Southee & Boult are absolute world beaters and that Craig is a good test offie. Do we really have so many extreme fans compared with others? I always thought the spread was relatively even across the respective fan-bases.

 

[Black_Warrior]

No I'm not cynical about nz cricket at all. I think they're very much on the rise. But you'd think they were the Windows side of he 80s the way certain sections of the kiwi fraternity here have been of late.

Come on!

 

[Fuller Pilch]

No I'm not cynical about nz cricket at all. I think they're very much on the rise. But you'd think they were the Windows side of he 80s the way certain sections of the kiwi fraternity here have been of late.

Perhaps Bill Gates put together a very useful workplace XI but I reckon NZ could beat them

 

[harsh.ag]

"When Graeme stepped down, it gave an opportunity for me to explore my captaincy. I thought at the time I could add value and I'd like to believe that I have added value. I am really surprised some people have suggested it was not my choice. You don't look like me in this world without being firm on what you want to do."

What a magnificent line. All hail Hashim Amla.

Sigging for a day.

 

[Furball]

No I'm not cynical about nz cricket at all. I think they're very much on the rise. But you'd think they were the Windows side of he 80s the way certain sections of the kiwi fraternity here have been of late.

Careful, you'll make Flem cry again.

 

[hendrix]

lol @ your utter cynicism towards NZ cricket these days. Am I right that this has only manifested itself in the last couple of years? Just I can't recall it from you previous to that.

What cynicism?

Let's be ****ing honest here, clinging to Astle's innings and a sprinkling of Iain O'brien (much respect to both) is quite unnecessary.

Can we drop the John Key/insecure teenage girl excited that Obama mentioned him once at a party thing now, finally?

Please?

 

[Howe_zat]

No I'm not cynical about nz cricket at all. I think they're very much on the rise. But you'd think they were the Windows side of he 80s the way certain sections of the kiwi fraternity here have been of late.

Agree about Windows in the 80s. It's all gone downhill since the 3.0 came out.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

FTR we don't all think Southee & Boult are absolute world beaters and that Craig is a good test offie. Do we really have so many extreme fans compared with others? I always thought the spread was relatively even across the respective fan-bases.

Our bad posters are really bad.

 

[cnerd123]

Man the Kiwaahs being the new Indians of cricket forums is such an apt analogy. They got a tiny, supremely talented young batsman who they revere like the messiah, they got thrashed in Australia despite tons of pre-series hype and high expectations, the 2015 WC for them was like the 2003 WC for India...

Its perfect.

 

[Adders]

Cept we like the Kiwis

 

[harsh.ag]

Cept we like the Kiwis

Only cause they never threw you out of their country

 

[hendrix]

Only cause they never threw you out of their country

didn't need to

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Waitangi

 

[Flem274*]

Careful, you'll make Flem cry again.

haha eh? A+ for effort during the last 6 months but you're not going to get anywhere with following me around or mentioning me all over the forum. You're not getting a rise bro.