Road to the Ashes 2021/22

[Starfighter]

Because at @Lillian Thomson insisted.

 

[Victor Ian]

Silly title. Can't get here by road.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

especially not to the past

 

[Victor Ian]

Phone booth to the ashes

 

[Burgey]

Aus 4-0.

 

[Victor Ian]

Can't wait to see how our state governments conspire to **** this all up.

 

[morgieb]

In b4 England can't tour because there's no quaratine spots for them

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Quite good that there can be a prize for the 3rd and 4th teams in the WTC to play for. Perhaps rename the Ashes as the "Bronze".

 

[Starfighter]

https://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/57976072

 

[Victor Ian]

Are modern players weak? In Bradman's day the tour went forever, not crammed into a couple of months with first class games against a host of other teams, combined with a boat trip that took forever? Not a dig at England. (Well, maybe a little bit).

 

[Lillian Thomson]

It's definitely a different age. One of my favourite tours was the 1976 West Indies tour of England. They played First Class matches against all 17 Counties, The MCC and a Derek Robins XI as well as the five Tests, plus matches against a Combined Varsity XI and The Minor Counties. Then finished with 3 ODI's. If they came for a five Test tour these days they'd drop in in August have an inter-squad warm up, play the International fixtures and be gone six weeks later.

 

[AndrewB]

Are modern players weak? In Bradman's day the tour went forever, not crammed into a couple of months with first class games against a host of other teams, combined with a boat trip that took forever? Not a dig at England. (Well, maybe a little bit).

They weren't touring every year, though - afaik Bradman only went on 4 tours in nearly 20 years.

 

[Uppercut]

What happened with Trott and Trescothick has changed the culture for England specifically. But mostly it’s just that gender roles are different now and men are less likely to view spending time with their kids as of secondary importance to the serious business of playing cricket.

 

[GIMH]

Being away from your family on the other side of the world for an extended period is tough. Really tough.

 

[Victor Ian]

Being away from your family on the other side of the world for an extended period is tough. Really tough.

And with modern media, it's not like you can rampage local talent like before.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

As usual, just listen to Fred.

 

[Burgey]

Archer ruled out til 2022 with a recurrence of the stress fracture in his elbow. Bad news for the series, let alone england

 

[Daemon]

Archer ruled out til 2022 with a recurrence of the stress fracture in his elbow. Bad news for the series, let alone england

*letterlone

 

[morgieb]

Yeah if Stokes and Archer are out....very difficult to see Australia even in their current nick being tested. Barring unusual quality of wickets in Australia taking 20 wickets without Archer in particular is going to be tricky.

 

[Victor Ian]

England playing this smart and setting up sending their C team.