***Official*** VB Series 2006

[dontcloseyoureyes]

html don't fly here, boy.

 

[JASON]

You know me - always side with whitey.

Don't humiliate decent fellas on this forum ,by playing your race card you old fool.

Disgusting Man. You are absolutely pathetic.

 

[Pratters]

Don't humiliate decent fellas on this forum ,by playing your race card you old fool.

Disgusting Man. You are absolutely pathetic.

Chill dude..

 

[luckyeddie]

Don't humiliate decent fellas on this forum ,by playing your race card you old fool.

Disgusting Man. You are absolutely pathetic.

Really? I was inferring that it was YOU that was playing the race card - seeing as though you had already accused the Australians of trying to hound you out of here, you then make a sweeping accusation about the English.

That's apart from me being a 'silly old fart', 'old guy', 'foolish' and 'stupid'.

 

[benchmark00]

How stiff is Dippenaar? Dead set. If South Africa made the finals and he made a couple of decent innings, he wouldve gave MOTS a shake. I think the should have man of the series (excluding finals matches), then have man of the finals, because it disadvantages those who didnt make the finals, such as Dippers.

Symonds a good choice though.

 

[JASON]

Really? I was inferring that it was YOU that was playing the race card - seeing as though you had already accused the Australians of trying to hound you out of here, you then make a sweeping accusation about the English.

That's apart from me being a 'silly old fart', 'old guy', 'foolish' and 'stupid'.

Your rubbish is not worthy of a reply . You are dementing pretty rapidly and there are lot of clever doctors in Derby - please go and consult someone urgently !!

 

[JASON]

Even before the start of this VB finals series I felt Moody should go and that has not changed.

Honestly SL are struggling big time with or without him and to continue paying him and his crew a fortune while SL continue to perform poorly is really pathetic and from what has been seen so far of Moody's performances in the past 8-9 months , give little confidance of his ability to do any better in the long term .

He has to go , and the sooner he is replaced either by Dav Whatmore or Roy Dias the better for SL cricket.

He also struggles to gel with this team and relate well with players let alone create infighting . And this has become a pretty bad period for SL cricket .

 

[luckyeddie]

Your rubbish is not worthy of a reply . You are dementing pretty rapidly and there are lot of clever doctors in Derby - please go and consult someone urgently !!

I see rather too much of the doctors in Derby for my liking, thank you very much. Unfortunately, it's not my mind that is in serious decline.

Thanks for the kind thoughts.

 

[Blaze]

These highlights of the summer are awesome. Cricket moves so quickly, I forgot about so many of the Test Match moments! Hussey`s batting with McGrath, Symonds` bowling.

Go Test Cricket.

Lara's 200? Or just Australian moments?

 

[sirjeremy11]

Have to say, listened to the game on the radio last night and turned it off after Murali's first over, thanks to the crowd calling for "no ball". Do they really think it's that funny? I hope that doesn't happen to him everywhere. It made me mad. Can't imagine what he thought. If it were me, I would be breaking the ICC code of conduct and giving them the one fingered salute.

 

[social]

Australia have won the VB series in some style after the initial hiccup. Many weaknesses of the Australian one day team, once invincible, are there for all to see now though.

The biggest problem has been the bowling. A look at the stats - http://ind.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005-06/OD_TOURNEYS/VBS/STATS/VBS_JAN-FEB2006_ODI_AVS_AUS.html is enough. Apart from Lee and Bracken, NO one impressed. With Warne (who I believed would be back for the world cup) not looking in that direction (at least for now) and McGrath is future uncertain with his personal crisis the bowling cupboard is extremely bare. Can we really expect Brad Hogg to perform better than ordinary? He is no great force. And even if we consider him to pass the cut, who play the roles of the 4th and 5th bowlers? Watson, perenially injured, may solve a bit of the problem. But guys like Watson, Symonds can play support roles. If some player doesn't step up, the Aussie team can look to chase big totals against the other strong one day teams.

Regarding the batting - the team has had collapses. With Katich and Martyn not performing at a level required, there have been situations of trouble. It is an area which needs to be strengthened to ensure not losing matches because of collapses. It is an area which Australia can rectify hopefully in the future (with Jacques or some one else stepping up).

But I do not know how Australia can counter the first problem it is encountering.

The VB series showed there are plently of problems for South Africa (specially since the world cup will be played in the slow, low pitches of the Windies) and a lot of positives for Sri Lanka. Without going into those details, the marathon series, often sluggish, has shown a lot regarding the three participating teams.

Cross posted at http://sportolysis.blogsome.com

Good post.

As many have been aware of for some time, Aus bowling is a problem.

IMO, Warne is at least as likely to play in the WC as McGrath. Their participation plus the best batting lineup should see Aus deep into the competition. After that, any team can beat another on any given day.

Aus really needs Watson to step up and will probably give Henriques an early chance.

I'm pretty confident that Dorey can be improved substantially. At 6' 10", he gets bounce and seems to have the ability to bowl much more quickly than he has shown.

Tait continues to be a wild-card.

Bracken, Clarke and Lewis are unlikely to be factors on WI pitches.

SA had huge injury problems and will improve with all hands on deck.

SL improved markedly throughout the series but also has problems with the bowling. Vaas and Murali are getting on and, aside from the odd spell, werent paticularly threatening. Fernando and Pereira were mostly all over the place whilst Bandara needs more variety to be a consistent force.

 

[social]

Even before the start of this VB finals series I felt Moody should go and that has not changed.

Honestly SL are struggling big time with or without him and to continue paying him and his crew a fortune while SL continue to perform poorly is really pathetic and from what has been seen so far of Moody's performances in the past 8-9 months , give little confidance of his ability to do any better in the long term .

He has to go , and the sooner he is replaced either by Dav Whatmore or Roy Dias the better for SL cricket.

He also struggles to gel with this team and relate well with players let alone create infighting . And this has become a pretty bad period for SL cricket .

Yep, got the lowest ranked team into the finals from a near impossible position.

Many players improved considerably during the series.

Fielding was of good standard and enthusiastic.

BUT, he is an Australian, so sack him immediately.

 

[Dixie Flatline]

Yep, got the lowest ranked team into the finals from a near impossible position.

Many players improved considerably during the series.

Fielding was of good standard and enthusiastic.

BUT, he is an Australian, so sack him immediately.

Probably the only decision I reckon Long Tom got wrong was naming Vaas as vice-captain. He doesn't seem to have the authority to control the team when Attapattu went off the field, as it seemed there were about 5 Sri Lankans all wanting to tell Vaas what they thought he should be doing.

 

[JASON]

Yep, got the lowest ranked team into the finals from a near impossible position.

Many players improved considerably during the series.

Fielding was of good standard and enthusiastic.

BUT, he is an Australian, so sack him immediately.

The lowest rank team got itself into the finals, which had nothing to do with Moody.

They got there by winnig one game against the Aussies (which any one following ODIs for long enough can tell you - on any given day any of the top 6 can beat the other in an ODI ) and two games against a very depleted, tired, exhausted and demoralised SA with injuries, poor form of Captain... must I go on.. (and that too on bonus points ...)

There was very little from Moody that took SL to the finals.

Fielding improved due to efforts of Trevor Penney . And I'd say SL will be well advised to try and hold onto him.

Sacking him has nothing what so ever to do with his being Australian.

You are going down Luck Eddie route by taking that line, IMO.

 

[Smudge]

Bull Sh** !! It was 50/50 if you are an Aussie , Blaze you are a Kiwi and its plain for everyone to see it was pretty plumb !!

It wasn't plain for me. Like Top_Cat, I wasn't convinced it had straightened enough. One of those LBWs that the fielders have every right to appeal for, but the umpire has every right to give it not out at first glance - which is all they have.

 

[social]

The lowest rank team got itself into the finals, which had nothing to do with Moody.

They got there by winnig one game against the Aussies (which any one following ODIs for long enough can tell you - on any given day any of the top 6 can beat the other in an ODI ) and two games against a very depleted, tired, exhausted and demoralised SA with injuries, poor form of Captain... must I go on.. (and that too on bonus points ...)

There was very little from Moody that took SL to the finals.

Fielding improved due to efforts of Trevor Penney . And I'd say SL will be well advised to try and hold onto him.

Sacking him has nothing what so ever to do with his being Australian.

You are going down Luck Eddie route by taking that line, IMO.

So blame Moody for everything that went wrong on a previous tour but give him no credit for their improvement on this one.

 

[Pratters]

I see rather too much of the doctors in Derby for my liking, thank you very much. Unfortunately, it's not my mind that is in serious decline.

Thanks for the kind thoughts.

Get well soon Eddie.

 

[lionheart]

Jason:
A coach can only do so much to help a team. Do you really think a "skilled" coach such as Dav Watmore or Roy Dias could actually do a thing to help a team like the West Indies sides of the 80's? No. Why? Because the team was full of players who are amongst the greatest of all time. Similarly do you think a Dav Watmore or Roy Dias could make a team like UAE great? No. Why? Because they have a team of beyond substandard players. Obviously one has to concede that it’s not nearly as hard a journey to get a team from bad to decent, but from decent to great is another matter. The Sri Lankan team has been performing poorly because our players have been playing poorly, forget the coach already. I've been reading your posts about how bad a coach Tom Moody is ever since we lost a match in India, and it’s getting to the point of total stupidity. I don't know how good a coach Tom Moody is, neither do you, but we will all know how good a coach he is by the end of his contract. Hiring a new coach isn't going to make all your problems suddenly disappear, it takes time to see results, and as far as I’m concerned we are beginning to see some small results of the Moody regime. More to the point, we have way too many problems in Sri Lankan cricket, and these problems will continue to drag down SL cricket for years to come no matter who the coach is until these problems are addressed by the SL Cricket Board and Government.

 

[Nate]

Some really hopeless posts in here. Honestly Jason, what the?

Even with it`s 'problems', the Australian Team looks incredible in comparison to others. I don`t think the bowling is a big issue, Clark is a very good bowler, as are Lee and Bracken, and I`m sure some others will pop-up, Dorey is about to hit his stride IMO.

And yes Blaze, they mentioned Lara`s run scoring.

 

[Blaze]

Well the VB series confirmed 1 thing for me - Dilshan is the best fielder in the world.