England Cricket 2021 (excluding Ashes)

kentaddick said:

Addick Addict said:

No State game so Travis Head, man of the match in the final Ashes game, is back playing for his club this weekend:

https://matchcentre.premier.saca.com.au/match/25-3752456/scorecard/

He's not unique either in doing so. No ego or desire to count the money derived from his non existent Central Contract!

"lets improve the england test team which is performing it's worst since the 1990's by making conditions identical to the 1990s!"

Nope. Central contracts = good

shitty scheduling of red ball cricket = bad

What is good about not having to play for England and going to the IPL 'til June despite the fact that you're on a Central Contract? What is good about having someone like Burns on a £700,000 Central Contract for the rest of the year and him not being picked for England? We are rewarding mediocrity.

Re-scheduling and ridding us of The Hundred is vital but make the appearance money substantially more and encourage players to play for their counties. It's the only way they are going to get better. Those that are successful white ball players will always want to play in the IPL 'til the beginning of June. The likes of Buttler, Bairstow, Billings plus the likes of the constantly injured Archer who end up just playing white ball anyway are hardly going to be missed by the Test side are they?

kentaddick said:

Addick Addict said:

kentaddick said:

Addick Addict said:

No State game so Travis Head, man of the match in the final Ashes game, is back playing for his club this weekend:

https://matchcentre.premier.saca.com.au/match/25-3752456/scorecard/

He's not unique either in doing so. No ego or desire to count the money derived from his non existent Central Contract!

"lets improve the england test team which is performing it's worst since the 1990's by making conditions identical to the 1990s!"

Nope. Central contracts = good

shitty scheduling of red ball cricket = bad

What is good about not having to play for England and going to the IPL 'til June despite the fact that you're on a Central Contract? What is good about having someone like Burns on a £700,000 Central Contract for the rest of the year and him not being picked for England? We are rewarding mediocrity.

Re-scheduling and ridding us of The Hundred is vital but make the appearance money substantially more and encourage players to play for their counties. It's the only way they are going to get better. Those that are successful white ball players will always want to play in the IPL 'til the beginning of June. The likes of Buttler, Bairstow, Billings plus the likes of the constantly injured Archer who end up just playing white ball anyway are hardly going to be missed by the Test side are they?

Archer has been dreadfully missed by the test side, bairstow was the only ashes centurian and billings has only just broken into the test side... what are you talking about? The only other alternative to central contracts failed miserably, central contracts directly led to 2005 and 2010 ashes victories, it also directly led to winning the world cup in 19. It's an absolute success, whilst not having them has been an obvious failure. I don't know why you keep banging this drum. 

Archer has been missed but he will not have any longevity in Test cricket because he is so injury prone. In the 30 months since he made his debut he's played in 12 Tests. It will be far less taxing on his body and far more lucrative for him to bowl 4 overs two or three times a week around the world.

Bairstow did score a hundred in the Ashes but, even with that, he averaged from 19 innings 29.72 last year for England, But you reckon that makes him an indispensable success and worthy of £700,000 a year AND you want to allow him to play in the IPL too!

You also clearly think that paying Burns that is money well spent when he won't even get in the side now. If Billings were so unmissable, why has it taken him so long to play Test cricket? Might be something to do with his CC average of 33.90? That doesn't make him indispensable. In fact, the only reason he was picked was because he happened to be in Australia playing in the Big Bash.

This, in a year, when we are THE bottom team of the Test playing nations. Seriously, what planet are you on? If that's not the biggest failure of all time then what is? And I don't know why you keep banging the drum to suggest that central contracts are such a success. The only reason they were put in place was to stop players from going to the IPL. And it's been proven now that they don't because those players will choose to miss April and May to play in the IPL and the next thing they will do is to say that they can't play for England in August because they want to play in The Hundred instead!

You said central contracts = good. Well what is good about wasting all that money on players who will put their own interests first and mean that they will only play for England if they haven't got something else to do as well. It's a bit like a doctor working for the NHS and then earning from their private practice. The difference is that doctors don't get paid if they don't do their NHS work and are usually exceptionally well qualified to do that work. Averaging less than 30 does not make them exceptionally well qualified!

But you carry on supporting the ECB and their central contracts. In fact, I don't why you don't apply for one of the top jobs because there are plenty available:

They might have stuffed us but it is all kicking off in Australia. Following a massive bust up before the Ashes between Langer and the players (the NSW ones in particular) Langer was told to take more of a back seat. Langer has now resigned and Strauss hasn't ruled out him taking over here. Langer's relationship with England goes all the way back to when he broke the then Kent League record for runs scored in a season when playing for the now non existent Dover CC. That was record was surpassed a few years ago, ironically, by one of the players in the current Aussie team - Labushagne for Sandwich.

Langer is very much old school. Everything is based on hard work and no excuses. That doesn't seem to have gone down too well down under.

North Lower Neil said:

I'd prefer Jason Gillespie to Justin Langer if we go for an Aussie.

Gillespie will already have a good relationship with some of the players from his time coaching at Yorkshire and Sussex. The reason he left here was because he had a young family and didn't want to be away from home so much. He is both the South Australia and Adelaide Strikers coach so it would be a question as to whether he wants to uproot again. The job of England coach isn't just for our summer but involves overseas tours too and that would impact even more on his home life.

killerandflash said:

Addick Addict said:

They might have stuffed us but it is all kicking off in Australia. Following a massive bust up before the Ashes between Langer and the players (the NSW ones in particular) Langer was told to take more of a back seat. Langer has now resigned and Strauss hasn't ruled out him taking over here. Langer's relationship with England goes all the way back to when he broke the then Kent League record for runs scored in a season when playing for the now non existent Dover CC. That was record was surpassed a few years ago, ironically, by one of the players in the current Aussie team - Labushagne for Sandwich.

Langer is very much old school. Everything is based on hard work and no excuses. That doesn't seem to have gone down too well down under.

"Justin your performance in the Ashes was unacceptable. We expected a 5-0 and you only delivered 4-0, you're fired"

Although the most influential players are claiming that it was because Langer did take a back seat. CA offered him a short team extension and he told them where they could stick that! Perhaps that's because he's already been tapped up by us!

I have started a new thread for 2022 with the announcement that Paul Collingwood has been named interim coach