*Official* England in Sri Lanka

[Craig]

This starts in about 2.5 - 3 weeks time. I'm sure you people will give this a good topping by tomorrow.

Enjoy.

 

[luckyeddie]

Yup.

That runny chocolate that goes crunchy - dipped in hundreds and thousands, of course

 

[Richard]

Ed - my mouth is watering at the prospect.
Do you guys have a sort-of competition to create the *official* threads?

 

[gibbsnsmith]

hmm...ive mde 1 that i can remember...

 

[Richard]

Anyway, to the relevant issues:
With their home form, Sri Lanka should be hot favourites. We said that last time, but this was the team they were up against:
Atherton
Trescothick
Hussain
Thorpe
Stewart
Hick - Vaughan (finally)
White
Croft
Giles
Caddick
Gough
Forgive me, but I'd say that has a slightly more formidable look than this:
Trescothick
Vaughan
Butcher
Hussain
Thorpe
Flintoff
Read
Batty \ Anderson
Giles \ Johnson
Harmison
Hoggard
Which I reckon is the likely side.
The SL side is fairly predictable, but there are centuries there for the taking for any of their batsmen worth his salt. Chaminda and Murali are usually a handful, but Thorpe handled Murali well enough last time - just a question of whether Chaminda's hot or cold (and he's due a hot - just as he was last time after a disastrous tour of South Africa [only this time he's had a poor home series against New Zealand in the interim]).

 

[marc71178]

Yup.

That runny chocolate that goes crunchy - dipped in hundreds and thousands, of course

That was the sort of reply an "official" thread deserves this soon

 

[marc71178]

Ed - my mouth is watering at the prospect.
Do you guys have a sort-of competition to create the *official* threads?

An *official* thread should be one that's granted that status by someone who runs the board, ie a mod if you ask me - that means we get the threads when they're relevant, not months before.

 

[Andre]

This thread will be topped closer to the date. It's making it too hard to get to the rest of the topics.

 

[Craig]

Well November 13 isnt too far away (when England arrive) and it will come pretty quick I can assure you and October is nearly over.

The first match starts on November 15 in a one-day match against Sri Lanka A.

 

[Salamuddin]

be afraid sri lanka be very afraid......

England are coming `

 

[Craig]

I think England should play one spinner when in Sri Lanka, I will givem y reasons later.

 

[luckyeddie]

I think England should play one spinner when in Sri Lanka, I will givem y reasons later.

Do you actually think that England could develop a spinner in just 3 weeks?

 

[Richard]

No, but they could pick one.
I'd prefer Brown to Batty anyday, and everyone knows my views on Croft, so no point repeating...

 

[marc71178]

Well November 13 isnt too far away

No, only a Test and a One Day Series away - that's nothing!

 

[Legglancer]

I think this series should be interesting and England should win by quite a margin both in the tests and ODI's simply for the reason that the Sri Lanakens have quite a few problems in their squad. Namely the middle order batting .... Jayawardena is a shadow of his former self and their brilliant Aravinda is no longer in the team. Sangakkara still has work on his concentration on the middle. Bowling wise Murali is no longer the threat that he used to be although he still is the best in the world. International batsman have formulated quite innovative defenses against him (like padding up )

 

[iamdavid]

Bowling wise Murali is no longer the threat that he used to be )

What rubbish , whats his bowling average in tests over the last 2 years again , like 16 or something , compared to a carear average of 23.

The Wisden rankings (which labeled him the best bowler ever) were very wrong , but he is still just as good if not better than he has ever been.

Just on the subject of those Wisden Rankings who do you think are the top 10 bowlers of all time??

Mine-
1.M.Marshall
2.D.Lillee
3.R.Hadlee
4.S.Warne
5.W.Akram
6.M.Muralitharan
7.C.Ambrose
8.R.Lindwall
9.G.McGrath
10.A.Giles (only kidding , Joel Garner)

 

[Craig]

Hard to say david I mean there have been some great bowlers over the years so you cant really compare.

I mean Marshall, Walsh, Hall, Ambrose, Holding, Croft, Roberts, Lilliee, Hadlee, Lindwall, Miller, Ramadhin, Valentine, Gibbs, Rhodes, Grimmett, O'Reilly, Donald, Imran Khan, Warne, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis Kapil Dev, Trueman, Willis, Muralitharan, Gupha (Indian wristspinner and was avery good one too), Bishen Singh Bedi, Venkataraghavan, Benaud, Davidson, Botham, Underwood, McKenzie, Verity (who sadly died too young in WWII), Laker, Lock, Bedser, Tyson (one of the quickest bowlers ever), Straham etc. were all very good or were greats of the game, so cant really say.

 

[iamdavid]

Hard to say david I mean there have been some great bowlers over the years so you cant really compare.

I mean Marshall, Walsh, Hall, Ambrose, Holding, Croft, Roberts, Lilliee, Hadlee, Lindwall, Miller, Ramadhin, Valentine, Gibbs, Rhodes, Grimmett, O'Reilly, Donald, Imran Khan, Warne, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis Kapil Dev, Trueman, Willis, Muralitharan, Gupha (Indian wristspinner and was avery good one too), Bishen Singh Bedi, Venkataraghavan, Benaud, Davidson, Botham, Underwood, McKenzie, Verity (who sadly died too young in WWII), Laker, Lock, Bedser, Tyson (one of the quickest bowlers ever), Straham etc. were all very good or were greats of the game, so cant really say.

Notably absent from you're list of great bowlers is one Glenn Donald McGrath , just wondering did you merely leave him out by mistake or is this another Richard-ism you have cottoned on to?

You might notice my list is distinctly biased to tne last 30 years or so.

 

[Richard]

Tyson (one of the quickest bowlers ever)

one of????
Most people who lived long enough said he was quicker than anything they'd ever seen. Richie Benaud, Sir Don, Woodfull, Fingleton. And I don't care what some obscure frame-calculation suggests, david - if it was a valid calculator it would be in much wider use!

 

[Richard]

Regarding the Wisden bowler stuff - there have been many, many good bowlers, something suggests to me that Marshall and Hadlee were a bit of something else to the rest, but I think we can fairly safely say there wasn't that much between any of the bowlers in Craig's list and plenty besides.