***Official*** Australia in England (The Ashes)

[FaaipDeOiad]

Of all the excuses I've heard, this has to be the maddest one yet!

Oh come off it. It's not an excuse and you know it, it's just an observation that Clarke hasn't been able to bowl and he would have been used on several occasions in the series if he could have. It's quite true, but nobody is claiming it cost Australia the series.

 

[marc71178]

I actually think Ponting would have refrained from the "I can't see the ball!" "gee, it's a bit dark out here!" routine after every over personally.

Because he's usually such a nice gentleman who leaves the umpire alone to do his job isn't he...

 

[Craig]

If England lose it now and the series then they will never win the Ashes and the lot of them should would deserve the chokers tag.

 

[Demolition Man]

Of all the excuses I've heard, this has to be the maddest one yet!

Excuse ?? what excuse ???

 

[Zinzan]

What cobblers.

England had everything to lose by staying out there.

And as already said, if the boot was on the other foot, Ponting wouldve been straight off.

Absolutely - He would have been off in a flash.

From a neutral point of view I'm actually getting a bit sick of all the whinging by some of the Aussies on this Forum (not all). If its not the bad light, then its the umpiring decisions. And quite Frankly if any teams has had the better of umpiring decisions in the last 12 months or so, then its definantely Australia. As I've stated before, I think the only reason some Aussie's have been so up in arms with Umpiring decisions in this series is they have been so use in recent times to having most decisions go their way....The NZ and Pakistan series were an absolute disgrace as far a high amount of 50-50 calls going Australias way.

Whilst I accept they have had some bad ones go against them in this series, a few have still gone their way too, particularly in this test. To those Aussie fans constantly moaning about the umpiring decisions, all I can say is.....Welcome to the real world....some go for you, some go against you.....You've had a pretty good run with them in recent years.

Please note, I'm certainly not suggesting that most Australians on this forum are reacting this way, thankfully its only a small minority. Most such as Fiaap,aussie etc have been very dignified.

 

[SteveG]

Lets face it people, England will more than likely draw this test and take the Ashes with them...and they thoroughly deserve it. The are a young, energetic and very talented team who are similar to the Australia team of the mid 90's.

They have out-batted, out-fielded and out-bowled us in 3 out of the last 4 tests, and there are NO excuses for losing the Ashes. I believe it has highlighted deficiencies in Pontings captaincy which will need to be scrutinised.

Changes will have to be made, but not wholesale ones. Lets remember one thing, this Aussie team has been on top for 10 years and are, arguably one of the best sides in history...when England has been on top for 10 years and have achieved what this Aussie team has achieved then they will be entitled to the accolades too, but until then remember one series does not make them great.

They are a fine team and will be good for many years...good luck to then...lets hope they are humble in winning and the Aussies are gracious in losing.

 

[Steulen]

Lets face it people, England will more than likely draw this test and take the Ashes with them...and they thoroughly deserve it. The are a young, energetic and very talented team who are similar to the Australia team of the mid 90's.

They have out-batted, out-fielded and out-bowled us in 3 out of the last 4 tests, and there are NO excuses for losing the Ashes. I believe it has highlighted deficiencies in Pontings captaincy which will need to be scrutinised.

Changes will have to be made, but not wholesale ones. Lets remember one thing, this Aussie team has been on top for 10 years and are, arguably one of the best sides in history...when England has been on top for 10 years and have achieved what this Aussie team has achieved then they will be entitled to the accolades too, but until then remember one series does not make them great.

They are a fine team and will be good for many years...good luck to then...lets hope they are humble in winning and the Aussies are gracious in losing.

It's not over yet. But yes, this is a very good England team.

I see Phil Jacques is doing well in Pakistan (unlike the rest of Aus A). So let Hayden do a Nasser and walk away from Test cricket with a century.

 

[greg]

Lets face it people, England will more than likely draw this test and take the Ashes with them...and they thoroughly deserve it. The are a young, energetic and very talented team who are similar to the Australia team of the mid 90's.

They have out-batted, out-fielded and out-bowled us in 3 out of the last 4 tests, and there are NO excuses for losing the Ashes. I believe it has highlighted deficiencies in Pontings captaincy which will need to be scrutinised.

If only this were true. I think there could be a load of 3 days tests in coming years if we can work out how to catch (or even hit the stumps on runouts a bit more often!)

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Lets face it people, England will more than likely draw this test and take the Ashes with them...and they thoroughly deserve it. The are a young, energetic and very talented team who are similar to the Australia team of the mid 90's.

They have out-batted, out-fielded and out-bowled us in 3 out of the last 4 tests, and there are NO excuses for losing the Ashes. I believe it has highlighted deficiencies in Pontings captaincy which will need to be scrutinised.

Changes will have to be made, but not wholesale ones. Lets remember one thing, this Aussie team has been on top for 10 years and are, arguably one of the best sides in history...when England has been on top for 10 years and have achieved what this Aussie team has achieved then they will be entitled to the accolades too, but until then remember one series does not make them great.

They are a fine team and will be good for many years...good luck to then...lets hope they are humble in winning and the Aussies are gracious in losing.

You'll probably get a lot of praise for this post, and rightly so, it's an excellent one. I still feel there are shortcomings in this England team and that Australia are very much capable of beating them, but it has been England's series, and particularly in the third and fourth tests Australia struggled to remain within touching distance. We'll cop the loss and try and improve over the Australian summer, simple as that.

 

[Zinzan]

Lets face it people, England will more than likely draw this test and take the Ashes with them...and they thoroughly deserve it. The are a young, energetic and very talented team who are similar to the Australia team of the mid 90's.

They have out-batted, out-fielded and out-bowled us in 3 out of the last 4 tests, and there are NO excuses for losing the Ashes. I believe it has highlighted deficiencies in Pontings captaincy which will need to be scrutinised.

Changes will have to be made, but not wholesale ones. Lets remember one thing, this Aussie team has been on top for 10 years and are, arguably one of the best sides in history...when England has been on top for 10 years and have achieved what this Aussie team has achieved then they will be entitled to the accolades too, but until then remember one series does not make them great.

They are a fine team and will be good for many years...good luck to then...lets hope they are humble in winning and the Aussies are gracious in losing.

nicely put...

Totally agree about Ponting's captaincy coming up short. Up til this series, captaining the Australian side was basically going into auto-pilot, and I don't think he's handled the pressure very well.

 

[social]

Here's some more pearls of wisdom (more likely weirdness) from John Buchanan, on the decision to accept the offer of bad light on day two, which cost Australia the best part of a session before the rains came and made play impossible.

""Even with the chance of bad weather intervening, I reckoned there was plenty of time to capitalise on the position we were in at the start of day three," "I've always said we have to control the controllables".

What about ditching the fancy theories and focus on winning the cricket match, John? Is that theory not fancy enough?

It's ridiculous how much attention is paid to the coaches.

Does anyone truly think that 2 failed first class cricketers have that much influence over their teams.

E.g. Give Clive Woodward the best team in the world and they perform as such.

Give him hacks (the British Lions) and they are still hacks.

Everything is in the hands of the players at this level.

 

[howardj]

It's ridiculous how much attention is paid to the coaches.

Does anyone truly think that 2 failed first class cricketers have that much influence over their teams.

E.g. Give Clive Woodward the best team in the world and they perform as such.

Give him hacks (the British Lions) and they are still hacks.

Everything is in the hands of the players at this level.

John Buchanan has a major input into the tactics, and the thinking of the Australian team. Does Buchanan bat and bowl for them? No. But this doesn't mean that his impact is minor.

 

[greg]

Anyone who can't see the influence of Duncan Fletcher has had over the development of the England test team is not looking hard enough IMO.

I think he's clueless about one-day cricket though.

 

[greg]

It's ridiculous how much attention is paid to the coaches.

Does anyone truly think that 2 failed first class cricketers have that much influence over their teams.

E.g. Give Clive Woodward the best team in the world and they perform as such.

Give him hacks (the British Lions) and they are still hacks.

Everything is in the hands of the players at this level.

Also the point about Woodward is IMO somewhat misguided. It took 6 years to build up the England team to win the World Cup and it was by no means a smooth ride. He had 2 months with the Lions. To take another sport - compare Alex Ferguson's first 4 years at Manchester United and see what he eventually achieved.

 

[social]

John Buchanan has a major input into the tactics, and the thinking of the Australian team. Does Buchanan bat and bowl for them? No. But this doesn't mean that his impact is minor.

Get real.

What can he possibly tell any of these guys about batting, bowling and fielding - zip!

They've got there because theyre good enough. Everything else is man management not all the rest of the bs.

 

[social]

Anyone who can't see the influence of Duncan Fletcher has had over the development of the England test team is not looking hard enough IMO.

I think he's clueless about one-day cricket though.

It's all batting, bowling and fielding!

Praise Flintoff, Vaughan, etc as much as you like but to give Fletcher any more than a tap on the head is to grossly exaggerate the situation.

 

[social]

Also the point about Woodward is IMO somewhat misguided. It took 6 years to build up the England team to win the World Cup and it was by no means a smooth ride. He had 2 months with the Lions. To take another sport - compare Alex Ferguson's first 4 years at Manchester United and see what he eventually achieved.

Woodward thought he was better than he was - he's just a coach and a coach is only as good as his players.

Give me Warrington and you have an average team.

Give me Warrington and Andrew Johns and that's different.

 

[Demolition Man]

LOL, the crowd just clapped trescothick hitting the ball.

 

[social]

To take another sport - compare Alex Ferguson's first 4 years at Manchester United and see what he eventually achieved.

And a blank cheque.

How good has he been under pressure in the last 2 years?

Gave away Utd's talisman because he got more publicity than him, fell away in the Premier League, etc

 

[Demolition Man]

McGrath starts with a M.