*Official* Second Test (Lord's, London) 28 June–2 July

[Burgey]

Anthony Clayden gets it.

It's done. Stick a fork in it.

 

[Adders]

This subbie is unreadable during Aus daylight hours.....what a bunch of dire ***** you all are.

 

[Adders]

Gagf Shri.....you're the direst

 

[the big bambino]

Australia have 4 bowlers capable of Mark Wood pace...
We also have the 1st and 2nd best spinners...

It doesn't matter. They can cover all conditions with him. Btw Wood's quicker than our bowlers. Their spinners are bad though they could take a punt with Rehan.

 

[Starfighter]

I've seen comments elsewhere along these lines, it feels almost like the ridiculous statements from BMac and the racist etc. are trying to bait Australia into attempting to play BazBall (which of course England is better at). Resisting this temptation will certainly improve Australia's chances.

 

[Starfighter]

didn't Stokes get the get the pitch he wanted?

Well there was a complaint it was too slow. I think they want something comparable to the old school West Indies pitches that you got in the sixties. Flat as a billiard table and polished like marble, so the ball comes off the surface quickly.

 

[Anthony Clayden]

Bowler	Fastest Delivery	Country
Mitchell Starc	160.4 km/hr (99.7 mph)	Australia

His fifth ball to Asad Shafique touched 156.6 kmph which is Mark Wood’s fastest ball in international cricket.

 

[Spark]

Starc hasn't been that quick in years.

 

[Starfighter]

His fifth ball to Asad Shafique touched 156.6 kmph which is Mark Wood’s fastest ball in international cricket.

Starc hasn't bowled a comparable pace to that which Wood regularly does now for a while.

 

[the big bambino]

Bowler	Fastest Delivery	Country
Mitchell Starc	160.4 km/hr (99.7 mph)	Australia

His fifth ball to Asad Shafique touched 156.6 kmph which is Mark Wood’s fastest ball in international cricket.

Smh

 

[andruid]

There's some astonishing stuff in there, probably McCullum's quote being the peak.

The thing that irks me about all this talk from the English camp is that their implicitly saying that without Bazball Test cricket is heading the way of the dodo.

To imply that Test cricket can only reach it's full potential when it's played ultra-aggressive all the time is laughable.

To play the devil's advocate, the thing that caused me to fall in love with test cricket is how pro-active Steve Waugh's Australia were in forcing results. Bazball appears to be in the same philosophical realm, but a poor man's version of it

 

[Shri]

Ricky Ponting was offered England coaching job before Brendon McCullum

Aussie icon Ricky Ponting has finally publicly admitted that he turned down the job of England coach last year. The former skipper has instead concentrated on his commentary work.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

Baz was the fallback option

 

[SteveNZ]

Makes me laugh all the noise coming out of England, most notably their big dumb 125km/ph bowler but others about how Australia are running scared, the home side made all the running but cost themselves etc.

I'd rather be on the side who's 1-0 and defending the urn, with a greater variety in their bowling line up, a world class opener who was MOM first up,and the 1-3 ranked batsmen in world cricket who all missed out first up but don't do that too many times in a row. England can improve by catching better but Australia to me have more in them.

 

[peterhrt]

A key part of what the ECB is trying to achieve is to increase participation at grass roots level. There's a genuine concern about where the next generation of fans is coming from.

That's what the 100 is all about - it's being played during the school holidays with many matches on free to air TV.

The hope is kids will go with their families, enjoy the game and as they get older start watching the longer form of the game.

I don't think the 'great and the good' of English cricket got together and said we need to play very positive test cricket to get more people interested in the game.

However, once they found out MuCullum fancied the test job, they fully embraced the way he wanted the team to play.

FWIW, I think all test teams will end up playing this way in the coming years as it's what people want to see. Maybe not cricket aficionados like us, but the average punter.

Every major change that's happened on the game since the 1960s has had the same aim - get more people watching the game. To achieve this, the game has been shortened and quickened up to produce more action.

One day cricket was ridiculed when it was introduced in the 1960s. The same with the Packer revolution of day night cricket, coloured clothing and white balls. Fielding restrictions, power plays, T20, franchise cricket, Impact players etc etc. Now we even have 10 over games FFS.

All frowned upon by cricketing traditionalists - all designed to speed the game up and put bums on seats.

Bazball is partly just an extention of that. Score quickly, take risks and entertain the crowd. Yes we want to win but its nit just about the winning, its also about how you play.

After we got beat in the last test, one of the 1st things Stokes said was something like 'if that doesn't get people interested in cricket, nothing will.'

The message for me is pretty clear.

Much of this is true.

However, poor cricketing decisions are being made in order to uphold the new image and generate publicity. Handing the gloves to Bairstow, recalling Moeen Ali and declaring too early all fall into this category. So does picking another attacking batsman as backup spinner. There is a reason why Jacks' off-spin averages 49 in first-class cricket, and Root's 46 in Tests.

It is the second time in four months that England have thrown away a Test match and come off the field smiling.

 

[Spark]

Tbf I wouldn't put too much stock in "better on paper". Australia have looked better on paper pre-series for I think four out of the last five English Ashes and got an outright series win in exactly zero of them.

 

[the big bambino]

I saw an ECB source saying there are 1.4m participants in cricket in England and most are young. Could be concerns about where the next generation is coming from are slightly over stated.

EDIT. The source says its 2.6m with 1.4m under 16. However participants might not be the correct word as it refers to people who played cricket in 2022.

 

[Adders]

Makes me laugh all the noise coming out of England, most notably their big dumb 125km/ph bowler but others about how Australia are running scared, the home side made all the running but cost themselves etc.

I'd rather be on the side who's 1-0 and defending the urn, with a greater variety in their bowling line up, a world class opener who was MOM first up,and the 1-3 ranked batsmen in world cricket who all missed out first up but don't do that too many times in a row. England can improve by catching better but Australia to me have more in them.

You didn't get the memo mate? Try and keep up.....that was so last week

 

[TheJediBrah]

Well there was a complaint it was too slow. I think they want something comparable to the old school West Indies pitches that you got in the sixties. Flat as a billiard table and polished like marble, so the ball comes off the surface quickly.

So a pitch that would have suited Australia perfectly? Like close to Australian pitches that they keep losing 4-0 and 5-0 on? Yeah that would have helped

 

[Spark]

I saw an ECB source saying there are 1.4m participants in cricket in England and most are young. Could be concerns about where the next generation is coming from are slightly over stated.

EDIT. The source says its 2.6m with 1.4m under 16. However participants might not be the correct word as it refers to people who played cricket in 2022.

The link betwen youth participation and the health of the elite team is a complex and not at all linear phenomenon anyway. Otherwise Australia would be a behemoth in soccer compared to every other sport, as its junior particpation rate dwarfs every other sport in this country. And NZ would barely ever win an international cricket match due to its small population and cricket being a secondary sport.

As best as people can tell, you have to get kids interested, then you have to make sure the interested kids are actually playing at a competitive organised level in a decent structure that rewards talent and progress, then you have to identify that talent and then you have nurture it. There are a hell of a lot of steps in that process, most of which England are well above average at (I suspect that their talent identification structure these days the best in the world) and honestly "getting kids interested" probably isn't the first or maybe even the third most important step.