Wow I haven't posted on here for a long, long, long time. One might say that I have better, more productive things to do but that would be a blatant lie. I just can't be bothered. However I feel that my laxical behaviour can be interrupted by a topic close to my heart. One which I probably know most about, This topic would of course be... cricket. Once the noble national sport now naught but a dwindling flame. It's extremely sad in many ways. Your average Lancashire (my team) Frizzell county championship (the Arsenal and Premiership of cricket) home match draws a daily crowd of about 500 to a stadium that can seat around 16,000. It's depressing really. At least the one-day form is more successful and with the advent of Twenty20 full houses are often. It's just such a shame that less and less people are watching and playing such a fine game. I think that it's just about the only sport in the world that is both entirely a team and individual game. You play for the team and bat to get more runs or bowl to get more wickets but at the same time it’s the Batsmen versus the bowler and vice versa. I think there's more significance in a Batsmen getting a century or a bowler getting a 'five for' than, say, a footballer scoring a goal or a rugby player getting a try. Anyway that’s just my opinion.
My real rant on cricket concerns the England team. I have a few bugbears with England and they are as follows:
1) England bowlers. The hype over Steve Harmison was (note past tense) totally ridiculous. As far as I was concerned the tour of the West Indies proved nothing about his quality as a bowler. I felt that the selection of Harmison, Jones, Flintoff and Hoggard was wrong because I am a strong believer that James Anderson is the future of bowling (slightly biased I know). But seriously my reasoning was thus, I didn’t want to see BOTH Harmison and Jones in the same team as both were unproven. Now anyone in the know might say 'well neither is Anderson really' and they'd be correct apart from two things... Anderson is proven on the World One-day stage and (more importantly) he is respected by the Australians, which, with the exception of Vaughan and Flintoff, no one else in the England team is. Harmison was absolutely hammered by the Aussies 2 years ago. Now after the West Indies my opinion didn't change, ok so all the bowlers, especially Harmison, did brilliantly but it was after all against an appalling West Indies team on bowler friendly pitches. However... after the first test against New Zealand my opinions have changed. I admit now that Harmison is in fact a world class bowler, he tore apart the Black Caps in the second innings with a blinding spell on an indifferent pitch. Likewise I admit that at the moment there is no room for James Anderson. All four seamers hold up there own end for different effects. Harmison is blindingly accurate and very fast, Jones is the only bowler with a real grasp of reverse swing and could develop into an excellent bowler, Hoggard had a bad match for his standards but is still an excellent swinger who will consistently take wickets and Flintoff is brilliantly economical and very unlucky not to take more wickets. Nevertheless I still believe that Anderson will be the bowler in the coming decade. He's still very rough at times but the Aussies respect him and that’s a big thing.
2) The one-day team. Generally not bad but I do have problems. How can anyone justify the inclusion of Anthony McGrath, Ian Blackwell and (to a lesser extent) Ricki Clarke!?!? Ian Blackwell is country material only, Clarke has failed to impress but it would perhaps be fair to give him a few more matches and McGrath?! How on earth could anyone justify having McGrath in a squad ahead of Mark Butcher!? Why has Butcher never played an ODI?! I maintain that, whilst on some occasions there are exceptions, if you are good enough to play test cricket then you are good enough to play ODI's and vice-versa. Butcher is a far superior batsman than McGrath and an equally good part time swing bowler. The logic of McGrath's inclusion defies reason. and England one-day team should be as follows:
1) Marcus Trescothick (One of the Worlds best ODI batsmen)
2) Michael Vaughan c (One of the Worlds best batsman full stop in a lean period at the moment)
3) Andrew Strauss (He has an excellent future ahead of him)
4) Ricki Clarke (Ok give him a few more chances)
5) Paul Collingwood (a lovely ODI batsman with a Test future around the corner, can also bowl effectively)
6) Andrew Flintoff (devastating batsman and worlds tightest ODI bowler, second only to Jacque Kallis as an all rounder
7) Geraint Jones WK (ditto from Strauss)
8) Gareth Batty (English Spinners are dire but I’d prefer him to Giles)
9) Simon Jones (Gough is past it now, he's been a great servant but we should put our faith in this young hope)
10) Steve Harmison (ok so he's proved himself!! Not entirely in ODI's but as I said before, if he's good enough...)
11) Jimmy Anderson (ahead of Hoggard, a genuinely excellent ODI bowler with pace and swing)
So there we go that’s my England ODI team for you :)
3) Finally now... Nasser Hussain. Well done that man. I am very glad he has gone, what a way to go out, a winning hundred at the home of test cricket, you can't beat it. I was very much against him doing a Stewart. I'm afraid that the time is up for Nasser, he's been a great servant, some good innings in the Windies and that century mean that recently there hasn't been call to drop him. But overall I think we should take a leaf out of Australia's book. Once they're going down the slope kick them. Rod Marsh, David Boon, Mark Taylor, Mark Waugh, Ian Healed...all better crickets than Nas and all got rid of for new blood. Just look at Australia now. I think that the process should continue over the next couple of years with Butcher and Thorpe being 'blooded' (literally) out. Collingwood and Kevin Pietersen are my favourites to replace them. Again they are both excellent cricketers who have done really well over the years but at the end of the day they need to go when the time is right for England not them. So yeah, I think Hussain has done the right thing, it's exactly what Michael Atherton (except he didn’t end it with a century) and could you find two better England Batsmen over the last ten years (not including Vaughan who I hope will)? I don't think so.
That’s it. Rant over. Quite a big one too :D
Listening to now: Lucky Man- The Verve
My real rant on cricket concerns the England team. I have a few bugbears with England and they are as follows:
1) England bowlers. The hype over Steve Harmison was (note past tense) totally ridiculous. As far as I was concerned the tour of the West Indies proved nothing about his quality as a bowler. I felt that the selection of Harmison, Jones, Flintoff and Hoggard was wrong because I am a strong believer that James Anderson is the future of bowling (slightly biased I know). But seriously my reasoning was thus, I didn’t want to see BOTH Harmison and Jones in the same team as both were unproven. Now anyone in the know might say 'well neither is Anderson really' and they'd be correct apart from two things... Anderson is proven on the World One-day stage and (more importantly) he is respected by the Australians, which, with the exception of Vaughan and Flintoff, no one else in the England team is. Harmison was absolutely hammered by the Aussies 2 years ago. Now after the West Indies my opinion didn't change, ok so all the bowlers, especially Harmison, did brilliantly but it was after all against an appalling West Indies team on bowler friendly pitches. However... after the first test against New Zealand my opinions have changed. I admit now that Harmison is in fact a world class bowler, he tore apart the Black Caps in the second innings with a blinding spell on an indifferent pitch. Likewise I admit that at the moment there is no room for James Anderson. All four seamers hold up there own end for different effects. Harmison is blindingly accurate and very fast, Jones is the only bowler with a real grasp of reverse swing and could develop into an excellent bowler, Hoggard had a bad match for his standards but is still an excellent swinger who will consistently take wickets and Flintoff is brilliantly economical and very unlucky not to take more wickets. Nevertheless I still believe that Anderson will be the bowler in the coming decade. He's still very rough at times but the Aussies respect him and that’s a big thing.
2) The one-day team. Generally not bad but I do have problems. How can anyone justify the inclusion of Anthony McGrath, Ian Blackwell and (to a lesser extent) Ricki Clarke!?!? Ian Blackwell is country material only, Clarke has failed to impress but it would perhaps be fair to give him a few more matches and McGrath?! How on earth could anyone justify having McGrath in a squad ahead of Mark Butcher!? Why has Butcher never played an ODI?! I maintain that, whilst on some occasions there are exceptions, if you are good enough to play test cricket then you are good enough to play ODI's and vice-versa. Butcher is a far superior batsman than McGrath and an equally good part time swing bowler. The logic of McGrath's inclusion defies reason. and England one-day team should be as follows:
1) Marcus Trescothick (One of the Worlds best ODI batsmen)
2) Michael Vaughan c (One of the Worlds best batsman full stop in a lean period at the moment)
3) Andrew Strauss (He has an excellent future ahead of him)
4) Ricki Clarke (Ok give him a few more chances)
5) Paul Collingwood (a lovely ODI batsman with a Test future around the corner, can also bowl effectively)
6) Andrew Flintoff (devastating batsman and worlds tightest ODI bowler, second only to Jacque Kallis as an all rounder
7) Geraint Jones WK (ditto from Strauss)
8) Gareth Batty (English Spinners are dire but I’d prefer him to Giles)
9) Simon Jones (Gough is past it now, he's been a great servant but we should put our faith in this young hope)
10) Steve Harmison (ok so he's proved himself!! Not entirely in ODI's but as I said before, if he's good enough...)
11) Jimmy Anderson (ahead of Hoggard, a genuinely excellent ODI bowler with pace and swing)
So there we go that’s my England ODI team for you :)
3) Finally now... Nasser Hussain. Well done that man. I am very glad he has gone, what a way to go out, a winning hundred at the home of test cricket, you can't beat it. I was very much against him doing a Stewart. I'm afraid that the time is up for Nasser, he's been a great servant, some good innings in the Windies and that century mean that recently there hasn't been call to drop him. But overall I think we should take a leaf out of Australia's book. Once they're going down the slope kick them. Rod Marsh, David Boon, Mark Taylor, Mark Waugh, Ian Healed...all better crickets than Nas and all got rid of for new blood. Just look at Australia now. I think that the process should continue over the next couple of years with Butcher and Thorpe being 'blooded' (literally) out. Collingwood and Kevin Pietersen are my favourites to replace them. Again they are both excellent cricketers who have done really well over the years but at the end of the day they need to go when the time is right for England not them. So yeah, I think Hussain has done the right thing, it's exactly what Michael Atherton (except he didn’t end it with a century) and could you find two better England Batsmen over the last ten years (not including Vaughan who I hope will)? I don't think so.
That’s it. Rant over. Quite a big one too :D
Listening to now: Lucky Man- The Verve
