**Official** West Indies in England 2012

[Manee]

Think you're quick to dismiss Shillingford, the guy bowled pretty well against Australian on what were favourable wickets, and had one Test in England on a surface that in Tests hasn't been very responsive for spin. He's not the worst.

Having seen Miller in ODI cricket, just don't see how he'll ever be effective in international cricket.

Maybe I'm skewed but I just think Shillingford is a specialist for spin friendly tracks. I think he lacks the consistency or poise for unfavourable conditions.

 

[WindieWeathers]

Interesting, always thought testicular fortitude was a wrestling term. Anyway, I think it is a shame that Narine was not given the traditional tour from the start and was haphazardly called up midway. Shillingford is clearly not a Test level spinner, as far as I'm concerned and Narine may just be a great spinner.

Can any West Indian fans fill me in on why Miller and Austin have recieved three Tests between them? Austin has a tremendous First Class record and Miller's is even better. Their records are far better than Shillingford or Benn - so why were the latter two given the shot. Also, how is all-rounder, Bernard doing? I liked the look of his bowling when I saw him play international cricket.

Miller has already played ODi's for us and he was poor to be honest, way too defensive and that's not gonna help when you need wickets, his domestic record is fantastic but he's what i'd call a "regional bully", he's playing in the best team alongside another leggy called Odean Brown who also takes a bunch of wickets each year but they simply aren't international standard imo,

Austin is a tough one because he doesn't play for one of the big teams but each year he keeps taking wickets, him and one of our other most promissing spinners named Kavesh Kantasingh had a great partnership and would murder teams each season but last year Kantasingh went back to Trinidad and it put him off a little, still had a great year though but he's just unlucky that he's playing at a time when Bishoo and now Narine have come on the scene, would like to see him in the A-team though, i also think he's been a little damaged by his poor performance in his test debut vs Bang when our main players went on strike a few years ago and we ended up losing the series.

 

[FBU]

Davies called up as cover as Prior has an eye infection.

 

[WindieWeathers]

Anyway as for Narine, well needless to say all WI fans are really excited to see what he can do in this test, he gives us great hope because we know when he's on the field anything is possible, in the shorter version of the game i'd say he's more defensive, but in the four day version he's a different animal, he still keeps it tight but more of his box of tricks come out, and he'll often bowl around the wicket too like Warne used to do so often,

He's also very calm and knows he'll have to work hard for his wickets, in our last four day competition there were spells where a wicket wasn't coming but then *bang*...out of the blue he'd nick one and then all hell would break loose, England will need to keep him as quiet as possible because when he gets confident he's simply unstoppable, and before you know it he'll have four or five wickets to his name,

Team i'd like to see tomorrow..

Barath
Powell
Fudadin
Darren Bravo
Chanderpaul
Samuels
Ramdin (wk)
Sammy
Narine
Rampaul
Best

And Narine will add strength to the batting down the order too as he really does know how to hold a bat, Kirk Edwards needs to be dropped, he's just been a disaster on this tour,

As for the one day series, well needless to say i'm VERY confident we'll win that one, especially with the main man Chris Gayle back in the top order .

 

[smash84]

nice to see some optimism for the WI but the WI batsman aren't really showing up

 

[grecian]

Davies called up as cover as Prior has an eye infection.

Clearly they don't rate Bairstow's 'keeping very highly, as I would have thought they'd have brought in Patel, Bopara, Stokes or Taylor.

 

[Viscount Tom]

I thought the consensus about Miller was that his record was a product of bowling at crap batsmen on crap pitches? Can't remember if I've ever seen him, which indicates how memorable his performances were if I have.

Wouldn't that qualify for just about every bowler in the Caribbean atm?

 

[wellAlbidarned]

Miller has already played ODi's for us and he was poor to be honest, way too defensive and that's not gonna help when you need wickets, his domestic record is fantastic but he's what i'd call a "regional bully", he's playing in the best team alongside another leggy called Odean Brown who also takes a bunch of wickets each year but they simply aren't international standard imo,

Yeah but it'd be stupid to assume he'd bowl the same in tests. Spinners adapt their games enormously across the different formats these days.

 

[Prince EWS]

Having seen Miller in ODI cricket, just don't see how he'll ever be effective in international cricket.

Did you see him bowl on ODI debut, or the only other game he played in that series?

He looked a far better bowler to me in those two games than he has in virtually every game since in terms of his action and especially his control of flight, even though he wasn't particularly successful in them. I've always had a bit of time for him for that reason (first impressions are lasting etc) but he looked to have regressed massively when I saw him bowl in the World Cup.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Nah, when he was playing in the tour of Australia is where I saw most of him. I would have taken Benn in front of him, and I don't rate Benn at all either.

 

[Flem274*]

Those must be some interesting pitches if someone who supposedly bowls darts has 200 wickets at 16 on them.

I don't think I've ever seen him play, but I haven't heard many flattering accounts.

 

[Prince EWS]

Nah, when he was playing in the tour of Australia is where I saw most of him.

Yeah, he was visibly pretty poor by then. Not even just in a poor bowling kind of way, but in a way that made you question how effective he was going to be even if he bowled accurately. Then in the World Cup he just dished up pies.

He really did look a completely different bowler early on though; had a lot more energy all through his action and got heaps of overspin. Perhaps bowling darts on bunsens against prank batsmen was working better for him domestically than bowling properly - a shame if true.

 

[Prince EWS]

Those must be some interesting pitches if someone who supposedly bowls darts has 200 wickets at 16 on them.

They really are though. Plus, we've all seen the standard of the batsmen just below the Test team.

 

[Burgey]

What's the forecast for today please?

 

[Burgey]

No one?

I'll run with "partly cloudy with the chance of a Caribbean capitulation".

 

[weeman27bob]

What's the forecast for today please?

BBC Weather suggests: "Cloudy through the day with spells of rain during the morning, then a brief drier interlude around midday and early afternoon before more heavy rain returns from the south, along with strengthening southeasterly winds."

 

[Briony]

What's the forecast for today please?

Very bleak.

 

[Flem274*]

Very bleak.

Wanted to hear about the weather, not England's chances of winning the test.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Won't be any play today and possibly none tomorrow.

Not official, just looking at forecast. Raining for most of the next 36 hours.

 

[Biryani Pillow]

Botham chuntering on about how Anderson should be playing "it's his job, it's what he does...."

I can still remember the smile on Botham's face (in his playing pomp) if play was called off for the day.

And if he was on the field and rain or bad light hit he would race off the field like dog after hot chips.

Rather more keen now than when he played I feel

Doubt they'll play today. In fact anyone who lives locally and is now in the ground (and doesn't have to be) is either far too keen or rather foolish.

Lloyd talking sense - as usual.