**Official** England in The West Indies

[marc71178]

I really don't want to name any names, that would make it sound like favouritism.

And would also mean you have to praise players, which seems to be against all your principles...

 

[marc71178]

I could try to give you some figures if you want, but it would involve a hell of a lot of effort and frankly I don't know if I can be bothered.

Or maybe it's because you can't?

 

[marc71178]

Tape evidence, meanwhile, I am not simply referring to accounts of certain games, I am referring to cross-referancing written reports of various incidents. It shows the exact events, so I'd say it reflects what went on pretty well.

But that shows nothing either since you have no guarantee that the reporting of games in the 30s and 40s was similar to that nowadays.

I for one am fairly sure that there is no way the standard of catching can have gone down as players practise more and more.

 

[marc71178]

Professional cricket doesn't neccesarily mean more ability. And catching is every bit as much about ability as about practice.

So do tell how Cricketers in the 30s and 40s were better catchers then.

I mean reports suggest that they would never dive for a ball or do anything like modern fielders do to save runs, so how can you be so sure that standard of catching (and hence number of drops) is that much lower?

 

[marc71178]

What do people reckon the little barney between Lara and Bowden was about?

Lara was getting irate and waving his arms about like a windmill and Bowden pulled him back gave him a talking to from what I could see on Sky.

The ball after Lara hurt himself

I don't like to see anyone injured, but I do wonder if these were connected?

 

[Craig]

Nothing wrong with that... And you have just described Mark Nicholas :!( :!( :!(

I had listened to him when he was in Australia and New Zealand and I dont think he was as bad as what you make him out to be.

 

[tooextracool]

The guy is living on borrowed time.. He doesnt look the real deal anymore, just an ugly flat track bully who wont move his feet....
If Tresco does sod all this tour, who would you guys have opening the batting against the Kiwis this summer???

umm butcher is a genuine opener isnt he?and it would finally open up a place for collingwood who clearly deserves it. although i wouldnt be surprised if tresco failed the first 3 tests and ended up scoring a 70 odd and a 40 odd in the final test and ends up in the side against NZ

 

[tooextracool]

And would also mean you have to praise players, which seems to be against all your principles...

richard does praise players.....not those batsmen who have avgs in excess of 50 or bowlers with avgs of under 25....but he instead believes that non penetrating bowlers(as he himself calls them) like vaas are better than mcgrath and pollock who have taken 800 wickets between them all with pure luck.

 

[tooextracool]

So bruising a batsman black and blue, and hitting them on the hlmet is innocuos, is it?:rolleyes:

yes it is very harmison like....very similar to the steve waugh incident in australia. now u wouldnt call harmison brilliant would u?

 

[tooextracool]

Agreed, I thought he actually bowled fairly well.

i think u need to give giles a break...agreed he didnt bowl well but how many spinners do on a first day pitch? his job should have been to restrict the batsmen which i dont think he was looking to do.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Which is exactly what I was saying.

 

[tooextracool]

Which is exactly what I was saying.

i thought u were being sarcastic because u said that he bowled fairly well when he was barely ordinary

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Oh commom Billy give us a break and raise your finger otherwise we will never break this pair up, it's easy your just have to do this (explains the mad waving of fingers and pointing anyway )

Actually, it was more along the lines of...

The outfield is wet, the ball is getting soft faster than it should because of it.

It appears as though Lara didn't approve of the restart given that the outfield was not mopped first. IMO he has a point.

Regarding Rich's theory, Butcher was more than happy to help out ey? Such a nice man.

 

[Richard]

Nothing wrong with that... And you have just described Mark Nicholas :!( :!( :!(

Amongst plenty others! He's bad, but there are others as bad.

 

[Richard]

So bruising a batsman black and blue, and hitting them on the hlmet is innocuos, is it?:rolleyes:

Did either of them ever look like getting out? Did they constantly play and miss?
I can think of about 5 or 6 deliveries that beat the bat. Amby and Courtney, for instance, would have hit far less helmets and caused about five times the play-and-misses. And given laws of numbers, the chances are there would have been a nick or two in there in addition.

 

[Richard]

sounds to me you have more film archive than probably the BBC even have hold off...interesting...so where does one get hold of all this footage.

sounds to me that you are making assumptions based on probably not that much footage of maybe 50years worth of cricket.

Even if you had hours and hours of footage of one years worth of cricket, what you are saying still wouldnt be proven because it wouldnt be a statistically significantly large sample of what actually happened

I'm making assumptions based on Walter Hammond's reputation for honesty and the fact that, by his own recollection, he dropped 26 catches in his entire First-Class career.

 

[Richard]

Everything is perception then...

Why can't you accpet that other people's views are not rubbish?

Equally, why can't you?
If someone contradicts you, you're going to believe they're wrong. Surely that's a ludicrously obvious observation?

 

[Craig]

Can somebody describe to me Ryan Hinds technique? Good or bad?

 

[Richard]

I thought Bob Simpson was by common consent the finest catcher ever. Don Bradman and Richie Benaud certainly thought so.

Simpson was second-best IMO, purely for the fact that he doesn't recall the number of catches he dropped, and the fact that he took some screamers and Richie and Don recall him so highly.

 

[Richard]

what do they know, they only captained Australia to huge sucess,one was only the greatest batsman that has and will ever live and a respected selector etc, the other was one of the great all-rounders of all time and for quite a while Australias leading wicket taker,and now is the most respected cricket commentator in the world...their opinion counts for nothing...well not compared to Richard and his A-level English

Have I ever said "Bradman and Benaud are wrong that Simpson was a brilliant slipper"?
I don't recall saying anything of the sort.