England Cricket - Spring 2015 (matches against WI, IRE & NZ)

MuttleyCAFC said:

North Lower Neil said:

MrOneLung said:

Bit if you brought him in with his 47 average at the expense of someone with a 35 average you might think great.

But then two of the batsman, dont feel comfortable playing with him and their average drops by 10 runs and the bowlers who he slated in his book drop their averages down and all of a sudden his 47 average is nowhere near making up what his inclusion has cost the rest of the team.

His performances in the test team were not particularly good the last year or so he played.

Sums up my thoughts well.

People are treating it like he's Lara at his peak, whereas the reality is he might get marginally more runs than anyone he replaces but the hassle he'll bring will be bad for the team, and he'll replace someone younger who the experience will help more too.

The decision is the right one its just been handled badly.

This argument stacks up if the team is decent. At the moment it is crap so he is going to have more of an impact. And if the team is crap - I think it takes any member of that team's right away to be precious.

You can still think he won't improve a crap team, let alone a team playing well.

As an aside, I'm sure Colin Graves is kicking himself for his "He'd need to be scoring runs in county cricket" comments. I'm sure he meant that to mean 'Look, he's not even playing county cricket, we're definitely not picking him' but it got instantly construed as 'if he's scoring runs for a county we'd have to consider him' when realistically it's too late, too much has happened and bridges have been burnt by both parties. He was never going to get recalled.

Feel a bit sorry for Strauss in that he's tried to come in, speak to him personally and clear that up but is seen as the bad guy.

I hope Colin Graves has realised that an ECB post is rather more high profile than an run of the mill county position and he needs some training as how to handle nasty little people like Garry Richardson, that's where all this started.

ValleyGary said:

Addick Addict said:

Glad he managed to get over the injury that ruled him out of fielding today in time to make the flight.

lol he doesnt have to push the plane to take off!

Didn't have a problem driving to the airport either.

All this conjecture about him playing again for England and he's injured anyway. But, there again, at 35 and not used to playing a four let alone five day game we shouldn't really be surprised.

He should stick to what he's good at. Chasing the headlines and the money and talking about the subject he knows most about - himself.

cantersaddick said:

lolwray said:

incidentally despite KPs 326 not out ,it doesnt seem Surrey will beat Leics

You say what sir!!

i was proved wrong ...great effort by Davies

The_President said:

lolwray said:

The_President said:

lolwray said:

The_President said:

I

lolwray said:

oh and by the way hes a useless fielder ...which is a 3rd of the game

Imagine what he'd be like if he was a *really* useless fielder...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYcgC3bioj0

so you want me to post a montage of all of his cock ups/drops because there will be plenty !?

Jeez, here we are with someone who is 5th in the all-time list of England run-getters and in top 20 of averages ever....and you want to have a pop at his fielding !!

happy to do so ...its a sign of his inability to play as part of a team ...for example,.if a player makes say 60 runs per innings ,gives away 10 through misfields and drops someone who makes 40 then his contribution doesnt look so good and as i said before fielding is a 3rd of the game ....

What a load of bollox.
Did you read my post? this man is 5th best EVER run-scorer for England and is in top 20 EVER averages for England .
And you want to pick up on misfields and drops !!
Do you go to cricket matches with your mum and a stick of Rhubarb ?? Or maybe you go along with your special scoring book with a pencilled-in column for misfields?

Cricket is a gentlemans game aswell as a team game and you can say what you want but of course youve revealed your ignorance by reducing any debate to profanities you may think me old fashioned but i have standards which dont match yours ...thanks for mentioning mum she passed away 3 weeks ago but she did take me to my first game of cricket at the Oval in 1965 and i have been involved in the sport as a player since 1972 onwards and as a club official since the mid 80s so i think i can safely say how unsupportive fielders/bad eggs affect a team ethic..try not to bully people on the net smacks of someone who is frustrated in other areas of his life

.

Missed It said:

Riviera said:

I hope Colin Graves has realised that an ECB post is rather more high profile than an run of the mill county position and he needs some training as how to handle nasty little people like Garry Richardson, that's where all this started.

Colin Graves does need a slap for not being on the ball with this. I can't stand Garry Richardson on Radio 5 and the way he snides questions at people.

KP is either remarkably dense, he destroyed any chance of playing for England once he unleashed his bile and bitterness in that book, or he is just manipulating the situation to ensure his England cricket martyrdom and show the ECB as the bad guys.

I rather suspect it's the latter. I think he knew that he was never going to play for England again after slagging off virtually all the England dressing room in his book. That is why he had the insurance of the IPL and Caribbean T20 in place.

I also believe that he has used Surrey. Yes I know he has made a big thing that they aren't paying him anything but let's not forget that they paid him handsomely last season to play in 13 T20 games where he managed to amass just 210 runs at a strike rate of 107 - compared to Jason Roy who scored 677 runs at a strike rate of 157.

I know which of those two I would like to see in an England shirt this summer and it ain't the 35 year old.

The truth is coming out that it was Cook that gave the ultimatum – whether direct or hinted. It is ridiculous to assume that he didn’t give an opinion and what that opinion was. If he was a great captain, his opinion would warrant consideration, but he is hardly that so it should count for nothing. A decent number of England players have openly said they don’t have a problem playing with him, and I’m sure that applies to the young upcoming ones too who would learn a lot from him I’m sure. But I say Pierterson should only play if his form deserves selection – but it should be his form at the time and not what it was in 2013!

And as for people telling us what Cricket is with its traditions etc.. Cricket is not the same game it was. We have to learn from other countries and treat it for what it is – a professional sport.

lets hope wood gets a game

Leuth said:

Massive Moeen fan and even I'm wondering why Rashid hasn't been tried yet

I suspect that's probably because they are hopeful that Moeen will prove himself to be a spinning all rounder (who can bat in the top six) especially if they are going to leave out Stokes or Jordan for Wood.

Sir Chrissy said:

England squad for first Test v New Zealand:

Alastair Cook (Essex, capt), Adam Lyth, Gary Ballance (both Yorskhire), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), Ben Stokes (Durham), Jos Buttler (Lancashire, wk), Chris Jordan (Sussex), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), James Anderson (Lancashire), Mark Wood (Durham).

No Pietersen ??

Thanks AA for the spelling correction - I wasn't sure

So Graves is now "backtracking" and says that KP was not given any promises about resuming his England career.

Finishes with 86* off 43 balls.

Off to Mumbai Indians in the IPL now.