An open letter to Duncan Fletcher

[Scmods]

Dear Duncan Fletcher,

I hope you are enjoying your last few months in the job, for this is surely your last series as coach of the England cricket team. So far on this tour you have shown nothing but incompetence and downright stupidity; You have shown that you are too stupid to study last years Ashes victory and the keys that led you to it. The main factor was that you ATTACKED. You didn't play this piss weak, pathetic game style you've shown in the first 2 tests. The way you're picking your team, with excuses for test players such as Geraint Jones and Ashley Giles, it's obvious you're playing safe in hope Australia makes a mistake, then your "strengthened" batting line up will be able to take advantage of it. This is Australia playing in Australia, we DON'T make mistakes. And if we do we have the depth to recover from them. You need to take risks and pick match winners like Panesar and Read if you want to retain the Ashes. Think, on a spinners pitch, bowling last, would you prefer Panesar or Harmison spearing the ball sharply down to fine leg? What would win you the match?

For crying out loud Duncan, get your ****ing act together, show some god damn intelligence, some guts and some ****ing back bone so we get the series we could have, not some pitiful excuse for the English line up we're seeing presently.

 

[GIMH]

I agree with parts, but your timing is kinda odd

 

[Scmods]

It took nearly 2 full days, on a batters DREAM pitch to score 551 against a bowling lineup that was bowling pretty badly. So they have to bowl out a strong Australian line up in 3 days on a flat pitch. This is where Fletchers stupidity will cost England.

 

[GIMH]

It was a slow outfield. Our run rate was around 3, which is hardly disgraceful

 

[steds]

ou need to take risks and pick match winners like Panesar and Read

Match winners like an overrated wicketkeeper who doesn't dive to his right and who's batting is non-existant?

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

It was a slow outfield. Our run rate was around 3, which is hardly disgraceful

Plus the bowling was certainly not bad, especially in the first two sessions. In fact it was very good, given the pitch.

And referring to Read as a "match winner" is just stupid. Even if you think he's the best glovesman in the world, which is a pretty huge stretch, he's not going to win you matches with the bat or by taking catches.

 

[_Ed_]

Match winners like an overrated wicketkeeper who doesn't dive to his right and who's batting is non-existant?

+GO Jones c Martyn b Warne 1

Just thought I'd slip that in there.

 

[BingLeeElectric]

It was a slow outfield. Our run rate was around 3, which is hardly disgraceful

You blocked every ball for the first two sessions of the match.

 

[steds]

You blocked every ball for the first two sessions of the match.

Funny how we managed 144 runs with nothing but blocks. Do Australia really suck at fielding that much?

 

[Shoggz]

You blocked every ball for the first two sessions of the match.

Are you "AussieShaneWarnie" from the late (and not very lamented) BBC TMS cricket forum perchance?

Back on topic, Jones vs Read is a close thing but I really do struggle to understand the selection of the King of Spain over Monty.

However, I'd say there was a little bit of 'loyalty over hard-nosed pragmatism' in the selection choices of both camps....

 

[marc71178]

He's certainly Shane Warne from here in the last series.

And I thought duplicate accounts weren't allowed...

 

[techno t]

+GO Jones c Martyn b Warne 1

Just thought I'd slip that in there.

sooooooooooo much evidence, when will the penny drop


*

 

[Matteh]

+GO Jones c Martyn b Warne 1

Just thought I'd slip that in there.

Should be discounted considering the context of when he came in and England's aims.

 

[greg]

Back on topic, Jones vs Read is a close thing but I really do struggle to understand the selection of the King of Spain over Monty.

However, I'd say there was a little bit of 'loyalty over hard-nosed pragmatism' in the selection choices of both camps....

You obviously didn't watch today's play. There was nothing in it for the finger spinner. Giles' runs give him the edge.

That is the excuse that will be given - Giles didn't turn it and offered no threat, ergo Panesar would have made no difference. The same misguided logic that almost had Panesar left out for Dalrymple last summer, and has had him being left out thus far in the series. A failure of imagination to believe that a finger spinner who is arguably, and certainly potentially, better than any other finger spinner for 20 years, won't do any better than those who have gone before.

 

[silentstriker]

You obviously didn't watch today's play. There was nothing in it for the finger spinner. Giles' runs give him the edge.

That is the excuse that will be given - Giles didn't turn it and offered no threat, ergo Panesar would have made no difference. The same misguided logic that almost had Panesar left out for Dalrymple last summer, and has had him being left out thus far in the series. A failure of imagination to believe that a finger spinner who is arguably, and certainly potentially, better than any other finger spinner for 20 years, won't do any better than those who have gone before.

Not that I rate Harbhajan very highly, but surely he's better than Panesar, no? He has taken a hat trick against the aussies you know (which included Ponting).

 

[shortpitched713]

You obviously didn't watch today's play. There was nothing in it for the finger spinner. Giles' runs give him the edge.

I suppose his fielding gives him an edge too... oh wait.

Anyway, top post, its ridiculous that England haven't shown the confidence to play Panesar thus far. I think they'll probably realize their mistake and pick him for the next Test, but the damage will have been done and Panesar will always be looking over his shoulder whenever a half-decent spinner who can hold a bat comes around, and that can't be good for Panesar's bowling.

 

[techno t]

Panesar will always be looking over his shoulder whenever a half-decent spinner who can hold a bat comes around, and that can't be good for Panesar's bowling.

and the survey says......................................




























top answer!!

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[greg]

What's really good to know is that spinners require lots of bowling to really excel, and it appears as if England are planning to play Monty at Sydney - toss him the ball and say "go on then, win us the Ashes" on the back of him having had no significant match condition bowling for well over month.

We saw last summer that he took time to really find his groove and rhythm - he wasn't the "best finger spinner in the world at the start of it", he was by the end. (which is why, if it is true that he "bowled himself out of the side in the warm up games" - where he didn't come close to embarrassing himself even if he wasn't as much of a threat as we would have liked - then it is an absolute disgrace)

 

[PhoenixFire]

It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Monty didn't play any tests. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

I think Giles and Panesar will both play in Perth. Fletcher will never drop Giles.

Anderson has to go though.