Cricket, Lovely Cricket!

[David Lee's Hair]

Oh Daryl....... you fecking idiot.

The mans a walking disaster, I mean not having the volume up on your TV FFS!

[TANGODANCER]

48 for 3. Who said cricket was lovely?

[Tombwfc]

You'll not be saying that after the KP double hundred tommorow.

[TANGODANCER]

You'll not be saying that after the KP double hundred tommorow.

I'll be very glad to not be saying it then.

[superjohnmcginlay]

Well that were shit weren't it?

[Worthy4England]

Well that were shit weren't it?

The record book will show we drew the series 1-1.

How? Is a thread in it's own right.

[superjohnmcginlay]

England just managed to lose to England A in that 20/20 nonsense.

http://www.cricinfo.com/engvpak2010/eng ... 43095.html

[superjohnmcginlay]

http://www.cricinfo.com/australia/conte ... 49682.html

Brett Lee retires from proper cricket. Body too f*cked.

[Dujon]

Damn shame that, superjohn. It does seem to happen with the quicks, despite the best that current sports medicine can do.

Players do come and go, of course, but most national teams seem always to come up with decent replacements. Australia's performances without Lee would indicate that the selectors have a reasonably good filter system in place. Mind you, they did poorly against South Africa in Australia - but they recovered well when the team played them again on the Protea's home turf.

Who knows? I don't. I think the test will come during the Ashes series when the players of both teams as a general rule treat any defeat or poor performance as a personal failure.

[jimbo]

Brett Lee - great guy but a bowler of great spells rather than a great bowler. He lacked the control to be considered up there with the best, something shown by his record. Still, a shame he has finished - one of the good guys definitely.

[Worthy4England]

Brett Lee - great guy but a bowler of great spells rather than a great bowler. He lacked the control to be considered up there with the best, something shown by his record. Still, a shame he has finished - one of the good guys definitely.

Yeah especially that tender moment with Flintoff when Freddie put an arm round him and whispered in his ear.

"The Ashes have come home you Aussie t*at"

[Dujon]

True, jimbo, but statistics don't always show the full information.

With the fast bowlers in particular there seem to have been combinations which have worked extraordinarily well. Take Trueman and Statham - what a team they were. Statham would pin down the batsmen with accuracy and Trueman from the other end would simply terrify them. You could probably say something similar of the pairing of Lillee and Thomson in the Australian team. No doubt there are others which evade my memory at the moment.

The point is that Lee combined with McGrath was a formidable opening attack. Facing McGrath with his accuracy and Lee with his extra yard or so must have been a worry for any top order batsman.

[superjohnmcginlay]

True, jimbo, but statistics don't always show the full information.

With the fast bowlers in particular there seem to have been combinations which have worked extraordinarily well. Take Trueman and Statham - what a team they were. Statham would pin down the batsmen with accuracy and Trueman from the other end would simply terrify them. You could probably say something similar of the pairing of Lillee and Thomson in the Australian team. No doubt there are others which evade my memory at the moment.

The point is that Lee combined with McGrath was a formidable opening attack. Facing McGrath with his accuracy and Lee with his extra yard or so must have been a worry for any top order batsman.

I think there's something in that.

What I do know is I was very fooking happy when he got injured before the Ashes. The other aussie bowlers were relatively unknown so there was none of that sort of fear factor.

[superjohnmcginlay]

Although he loses quite a lot of credibility for this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48eHkZfnGug

Deary me.

[jimbo]

Gillespie and McGrath's partnership was better IMO. Lee and McGrath were good, but there have been better. Whether there will be again though with the decline of fast bowling is another thing, and another discussion completely.

[Dujon]

[superjohn] That made me laugh - I hadn't seen it before. If it is his voice and not some dubbed clip I have to admit that his is better than mine, even when I'm singing in the shower.
[jimbo] I would tend to agree with you. Then again, I wouldn't have liked to open against them.

[superjohnmcginlay]

Someone remind Alistair Cook he's a batsman and should probably leave bowling alone. 111 off 5 overs againt Bangladesh A!

[jimbo]

Someone remind Alistair Cook he's a batsman and should probably leave bowling alone. 111 off 5 overs againt Bangladesh A!

Someone remind Kevin Pietersen that he's a batsman full stop.

Both must read TW in their spare time. Both have been duly reminded.

[jimbo]

First day of the season for me tomorrow and the sun seems to be shining. Happy days.

Lancs seem to be making a decent fist of things today after yesterdays shambles as well.

[Athers]

I'm told that someone texted in to Any Question Answered about how does ash affect swing bowling