The Ashes Discussion Thread

[polecat]

watson
warner
rogers/usman
hughes
clarke
smith
haddin
agar
siddle
harris
bird/starc

Watson is a joke, absolutely no desire to knuckle down and play true, hard test cricket.
His overwhelming ego is also obvious in the way he plays and refuses to accept when he is obviously out.
The fact remains however, for this series at least, we have no alternative unless the coach, or katich,
feel like having a hit.

If Agar is unfit, i would go with 4 quicks, Lyon cant bowl against quality opposition ever again surely.

Usman, in my opinion, is not up to test level despite his 50 last match. If he is to stay it has to be for Rogers
who continues to struggle at the top level as well.

Phil Hughes remains the enigma, certainly one of our most talented batsman but is
constantly chopped and changed around the order. Find him a spot and stick with him there
for at least 3 tests in a row. In the last 8 tests he has occupied every batting position.
If he can consolidate his spot i see him as one player who could build large partnerships with clarke.

I also think Bird should play with conditions tailor made for him, as with Harris, who is our most
threatening when fit.

I only hope we can save face a little in the last 3 tests and play with some pride in the cap.
Then we can continue to work hard under Boof and put some "Australian" values back into our performances
before the home series because bugger me, I am tired of staying up watching gutless, inept batting.

 

[pillow]

Gather round the campfire lads .... Uncle CK has a story.

Back when 'CK' was an 10-year old tacker emulating classic catches in the backyard, Aussies were delicately placed on the world ranking, and we were on the brink of emerging into world superpowers. The key to it all, was the players they chose. It wasn't just their on-field talents. 'Mentality' went along way towards selection.

Allan Border - Hard as nails. Sick to the back teeth of losing.
Dean Jones - Brash, "dont-giva-fugg" mentality with the bat. 110% in the field.
David Boon - "F*ck you, I'm staying at the crease all day" mentality. 110% with the bat.
Craig McDermott - Pathological hate for batsmen. 110% with the ball.
Merv Hughes - Pathological hate for opposition. 110% with the ball
Steve Waugh - Tenacious as a pit-bull with a rope between his jaws as a junior, complete with a bag of tricks. 110% all game, every game.
Ian Healy - Fitness fanatic. Mentally agile gamesman. A thinker. A planner. A nuisance. 110% all game, every game.

These players were the basis of our future dominance.
We saw some 15+years of excellence and execution as a result.

Mark Taylor, Mark Waugh, Matt Hayden, Justin Langer, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting, Darren Lehmann, etc, etc ... all cut from the same template. Hard-nosed gamers who knew how to win, knew how to bunker down and defend, knew how to smell blood and attack.

You look around at the line-up we got, and there simply isn't enough of the right 'mentality'. Just like 20+ years ago when we were battlers on the world stage, it's the starting blocks for a future generation of competitive types.

Find me a 6 batters who walk out with a "f*ck you I'm gonna be here all day" frame-of-mind, and "value" their wicket ... There's none in our upper-order at the moment. Maybe Clarkey ? The rest are more "let's see how we go".

Find me bowlers who have a pathological hate for their opposition ... Siddle fits the bill. Ball #200 is coming down with the same venom as ball #2. He treats every single batter as some d*ckhead who's in his way. (Side-note : Siddle reminds me of an old team-mate at indoor. He once took 4 wickets off 4 balls at the end of a pairing, and upon clean bowling the batter for the 4th wicket on the last ball of the pair, he told both batters " ... (*points*) You can f*ck off, and (*points*) YOU can f*ck off as well !")

Starc and Johnson are likely types but need an extra gear when the going gets tough. Bird looks the goods, but hasn't been asked to get cranky. Patto and Watto are brittle boned batsmen-come-bowlers and need proper conditioning via repetition.

Spinners are the icing on the cake of a good attack. Try as we might to replace Warne, types like him are once-in-50 year occurrences. Stop looking for game-breakers. We need tradesmen.

All well and good..but we've enjoyed the sun for a long time, back then the rest of the world sucked a bag of dicks, it was inevitable that they would get better (or in England's case, claim a bunch of Saffa's as their own ) We didn't have to work for wins when we had the greats of the past. Australian Cricket is in a low point, only way is up lol.

btw Siddle is all heart but can't back it up, he breaks down too easily and can't play back to back tests...3 wickets in the second test, total..

 

[Stoofy]

All well and good..but we've enjoyed the sun for a long time, back then the rest of the world sucked a bag of dicks, it was inevitable that they would get better (or in England's case, claim a bunch of Saffa's as their own ) We didn't have to work for wins when we had the greats of the past. Australian Cricket is in a low point, only way is up lol.

btw Siddle is all heart but can't back it up, he breaks down too easily and can't play back to back tests...3 wickets in the second test, total..

Vegetarians?

Eat some meat son!

 

[Horse]

I'd go with..

1. Watson
2. Rogers
3. Khawaja
4. Clarke
5. Warner
6. Hughes
7. Haddin
8. Faulkner/Lyon
9. Siddle
10. Harris
11. Bird

 

[The 2nd Spitter]

Holy f*ck, DRS is tragic..,.

 

[Rodzilla]

drs failure but for 150 years of cricket that would have still been out

this is exactly the problem i said would happen with the new nrl system of video referee, in that the human element still comes into play regarding figuring out how much evidence do you need to overturn the decision

because there was clearly enough evidence here but not enough because there must be a retard as the 3rd umpire

 

[Indiandog]

Holy f*ck, DRS is tragic..,.

Its not the fault of DRS, it is the idiot who can not see, can not hear, can not umpire in the box!

some one should ask him on what evidence did he gave that out??

Noise ? hot spot? deflection off the bat? love for Swan?

FMD!

 

[The 2nd Spitter]

Its not the fault of DRS, it is the idiot who can not see, can not hear, can not umpire in the box!

"The idiot who cannot see" is part of the DRS system.

They need people with technical audio/visual analysis (like the kinda people who work in forensics) to be sit next to "the idiot who cannot see."

 

[Rodzilla]

Its not the fault of DRS, it is the idiot who can not see, can not hear, can not umpire in the box!

some one should ask him on what evidence did he gave that out??

Noise ? hot spot? deflection off the bat? love for Swan?

FMD!

he gave it out based on the original decision only, he shouldn't be going into that review looking for a reason to give it out but reasons to give it not out

the problem is he had every reason to give it not out

 

[Rodzilla]

"The idiot who cannot see" is part of the DRS system.

They need people with technical audio/visual analysis (like the kinda people who work in forensics) to be sit next to "the idiot who cannot see."

no simply replace the idiot who cannot see with me or another person who can see

 

[Indiandog]

he gave it out based on the original decision only, he shouldn't be going into that review looking for a reason to give it out but reasons to give it not out

the problem is he had every reason to give it not out

what happened to the benefit of the doubt going to the batsman???

Is that rule scraped?

DRS used to be so good but now in every other match you see video umpires stuffing it up.

standard of umpiring in general has just gone down in recent years

 

[The 2nd Spitter]

what happened to the benefit of the doubt going to the batsman???

Is that rule scraped?

This was never a rule enshrined in the Laws of Cricket.

It's a presumption based on the fact cricket is a game played between gentlemen <cough, cough> .

In any case, when the on-field umpire says it's out, benefit of the doubt goes to the fielding team.

 

[Horse]

England 238 all out.

We're currently 4/127. Buck & Watto fighting hard here lets hope they can go on with it.

 

[Papa Emeritus]

It is very nice having someone of Watsons calibre so far down the order

 

[CroydonDog]

It is very nice having someone of Watsons calibre so far down the order

He looked quite uncomfortable for much of his innings.

Rogers took 19 balls to score his century shot.... man that was getting boring, but good on him (and he's even older than me).

 

[Stoofy]

We have got little chance based on our performance thus far. We just cant bat!

 

[col of birchmen]

We have got little chance based on our performance thus far. We just cant bat!

Amen to that. Went to bed with Aus 0/80, couldnt say i was surprised by another batting collapse though.

 

[GREAT SONG]

This is the worst australian test side in over 100 years. Michael Clarke might be a fine batsmen, but as a leader of men, he's garbage. Was the reason Katich and Hussey, don't play for Australia .
His quote that...."on a positive, we did get to within 74 runs of winning"
England will win the fifth test and the series in Aus.

 

[Rodzilla]

this side is doing better than the last ashes team

at least this is 3/4 competitive, but that team would have lost 3-2 even if england were handicapped to batting once

 

[Berries]

Old boys still doing the best