***Official*** South Africa in England

[steds]

And what exactly should they fear from Broad?

Given he said Broad should miss out, I'm not sure he thinks there's anything.

 

[Richard]

Yeah, Patel is an understandable pick. The need for someone to bat and be capable of bowling a few overs whilst taking the pace off the ball is seductive.

Im not sure Ive ever seen him bat, so Im not the most knowledgable guy about him. However, his type of player is what England are looking for.

Patel's been reasonably good this season in OD cricket and had a good 2005 and a decent 2006. But he's not someone who'd strike me as being ODI material.

Saw him stuck on 0 for 15 deliveries earlier this season or something. Certainly was stuck on a low score for a large number of deliveries. Against the might of Phil Eaglestone and Kevin O'Diren too.

 

[NUFAN]

Cook Strauss Bell Pietersen Collingwood Bopara Flintoff Ambrose Sidebottom Anderson Panerser FTL.

 

[GIMH]

Unless I have misinterpreted your post then you are advocating Harmison being selected...

 

[Richard]

And...? 13 man squad, tbh. Only one place for the 3 (unless Anderson or Panesar gets dumped)

Well I seriously hope Anderson isn't.

Hope MSP might be, but wouldn't be terribly optimistic.

Sidebottom it clearly depends on fitness. If he's fit, he plays. If he's not, he doesn't.

Wouldn't surprise me if he's not, TBH. He hasn't looked so on several occasions recently.

 

[GIMH]

Might as well rest him even if he's 99% tbh, seems as the series is dead

 

[Richard]

Unless I have misinterpreted your post then you are advocating Harmison being selected...

Well he's better than Broad. Much as there are other bowlers I rate the chances of doing better in Test cricket currently, no-one has anything more to gain by Broad playing than they do by Harmison doing so.

One more failure here and maybe people might be convinced he's never going to amount to anything once and for all.

 

[steds]

SSN's cricket correspondent (Tim Abrams or something?) is dire in the extreme. In response to the Pietersen-South Africa thing, he just said that Pietersen has already captained against South Africa for England in an ODI.

 

[NUFAN]

Wish sTrescothick was back in the mix, is he any chance of a recall ever?

 

[SpaceMonkey]

FFS, Bopara in for the Fourth Test and Samit Patel in for the ODIs.

Bull**** yet again.

I'd hope not, given that he plays for Nottingham.

Never really rated Hildreth personally TBH, just think good outswing bowlers will always have his measure with the number of shots he plays. A bit like an early Michael Clarke.

Aha i knew that wasnt right and still didnt bother checking it. Serves me right :P

 

[Richard]

SSN's cricket correspondent (Tim Abrams or something?) is dire in the extreme. In response to the Pietersen-South Africa thing, he just said that Pietersen has already captained against South Africa for England in an ODI.

Tim Abraham, I believe.

 

[Richard]

Wish sTrescothick was back in the mix, is he any chance of a recall ever?

No, he retired. And I imagine he doesn't want to risk ever a repeat of his illness.

Can't say you can blame him for that, I presume it was awful.

 

[Langeveldt]

SSN's cricket correspondent (Tim Abrams or something?) is dire in the extreme. In response to the Pietersen-South Africa thing, he just said that Pietersen has already captained against South Africa for England in an ODI.

SSN is pretty horrendous to be honest

 

[Jamee999]

No, he retired. And I imagine he doesn't want to risk ever a repeat of his illness.

Can't say you can blame him for that, I presume it was awful.

Given that he can travel around England for the CC, why didn't we just play him at home?

 

[steds]

Given that he can travel around England for the CC, why didn't we just play him at home?

I'd presume it would be
1) Continuity issues. They'd want two openers to build a regular partnership, rather than one regular opener having to build an understanding with Tresco in the summer, than getting used to batting and running with another each winter.
2) It would look to some that the selectors would be saying to the players "pick and choose the series/games you want to play in, lads. We don't particularly care if you can't be arsed for some."

 

[Marius]

Well done South Africa. I was rather nervous when we were 100-4 but the guys did well to hold their nerve.

Aus vs SA at the end of the year is going to be a cracker, but my money's still on the Aussies.

 

[Napier16]

Yet again England go and make a balls up of it and pick the weakest possible of the potentail Vaughan replacements.

Bopara's obvious a case of a young pretty thing who's face fits, which isn't hard to do alongside Key.

 

[Pup Clarke]

BTW, new-captain press-conferences are the most boring things in history. More cliches and please-new-sir-won't-you-state-the-obvious questions than you could wish for anywhere else.

How else are they going to be?

 

[Uppercut]

How else are they going to be?

Anything but the patented "Mr. Pietersen, you are a god. Discuss." questions.

 

[GIMH]

Yeah, more questions like "Kevin do you think it is fair to see that you are too South African for this job?" would have made for a much better press conference IMO