[the saint]

MickyB, on Dec 17 2006, 04:35 AM, said:

99-1

On our way to a glorious victory

260-3

Still on our way!!

[nickf]

nickf, on Dec 15 2006, 05:37 AM, said:

Is there anyone out there who sincerely believes Australia arent a lock to win this inside 4 days ?

No I mean, sincerely - in your heart of hearts. What was that? Oh yes, I just had a flashback from Day 5 Adelaide.

nickf
sydney

I am embarassed to admit I was wrong. Very wrong. The poms may even bat past drinks in the first session on the fifth day.

nickf
sydney

[akhare]

Congratulations to the Ozzies!!! Hopefully there will be a little more than pure academic interest in the next two tests...

[nickf]

On the 12th day of Christmas Punter gave to me:
12 champion aussie cricketers
11 disconsolant poms
10 more days for duncan
9 catches for gillie
8-fer for pidgeon in melbourne
7-hundred Warnie wickets
6-teen clarkie wickets
5-0 after Sydney
400 runs in a day
300 for hussey
2 easy victories
and a little urn called the Ashes

and a very merry christmas to all cricket fans, whereever you are and whoever you support.

nickf
sydney

[jikl]

Assuming they leave Fletcher in until the end of the tour, (which might be a very big assumption), how many days do you think it will take the ECB to sack him? I'll take 4 in the sweep.

Sean

[EricK]

nickf, on Dec 18 2006, 07:17 AM, said:

On the 12th day of Christmas Punter gave to me:
12 champion aussie cricketers
11 disconsolant poms
10 more days for duncan
9 catches for gillie
8-fer for pidgeon in melbourne
7-hundred Warnie wickets
6-teen clarkie wickets
5-0 after Sydney
400 runs in a day
300 for hussey
2 easy victories
and a little urn called the Ashes

and a very merry christmas to all cricket fans, whereever you are and whoever you support.

nickf
sydney

The Aussie's hardly have 12 champion cricketers. They certainly have more than England, but they aren't really a patch on the some of the teams when Steve Waugh was captain - in those days a world XI would be almost totally Australian, nowadays you would have Ponting, of course, and still probably Warne (but for how much longer?) and maybe Hussey.

[jikl]

Quote

The Aussie's hardly have 12 champion cricketers. They certainly have more than England, but they aren't really a patch on the some of the teams when Steve Waugh was captain - in those days a world XI would be almost totally Australian, nowadays you would have Ponting, of course, and still probably Warne (but for how much longer?) and maybe Hussey.

Gilchrist is on the scrapheap already?

Sean

[EricK]

jikl, on Dec 18 2006, 11:52 AM, said:

Quote

The Aussie's hardly have 12 champion cricketers. They certainly have more than England, but they aren't really a patch on the some of the teams when Steve Waugh was captain - in those days a world XI would be almost totally Australian, nowadays you would have Ponting, of course, and still probably Warne (but for how much longer?) and maybe Hussey.

Gilchrist is on the scrapheap already?

Sean

I would play Sangakkara ahead of him as batsman/keeper.

[FrancesHinden]

jikl, on Dec 4 2006, 01:53 PM, said:

There is no doubt in anyone's mind that Giles can't bowl, especially against Australia; he is simply not a test bowler. Pietersen spun the ball more than Giles did and actually attacked the batsmen, all Giles did was try to contain.

Mat Runs HS BatAv 100 50 W BB BowlAv 5w Ct St

unfiltered 53 1394 59 20.80 0 4 141 5/57 40.12 5 32 0
filtered 8 226 59 16.14 0 1 18 4/101 55.00 0 7 0

Who has someone with a bowling average of 40 on their team? (filtered is against Australia) To claim he is an allrounder is just a waste of time. What I find absolutely unbelievable is that a test spinner with 141 wickets has never had a stumping!!! This should tell a story also.

No Test stumpings? Actually Ashley Giles has 9 wickets through stumpings, plus whatever chances have been missed (GOJ has been the keeper for many of Giles' Test Matches).

One of the victims was Sachin Tendulkar, another was Australia's best player in the 2005 series.

As for "all rounder", nobody claims that Giles is the best allrounder ever. However, the standard mark is 1000 runs and 100 wickets.

It took Giles 43 matches to achieve this landmark, exactly the same number as Andrew Flintoff!

Shane Warne has also got 1000 runs, but it took him 58 matches to achieve the feat.

Of course England should have played their best bowler in every Test Match - that's what the whole country was crying out for - but a couple of years ago before England had a spinner available Ashley Giles did perform a useful role.

[jikl]

30 minutes until Shane Warne announces his likely retirement after the 5th test. Speculation is that McGrath is going as well.

Sean

[jikl]

It's offical, Warne has retired from all international, dmoestic and club cricket. There is a counterpoint though, he will honour his contract with Hampshire through to 2008.

Sean

[Walddk]

Warne in photos

http://news.bbc.co.u...ket/6196235.stm

"I'd like to go out on top. It's been an unbelievable journey... but my time is now."

Warne is one wicket away from becoming the first bowler in Test history to claim 700 wickets, with the fourth Test starting on 26 December on his home ground in Melbourne. The Test is expected to break the previous attendance records of 90,800 for a single day and 350,354 for the whole match.

Roland

[jikl]

Wow! We overtook the Book Review thread

Sean

[GeeGee]

just to add, as an Englishman who has been very irritated from time to time, we are losing the best test cricketer of all time, IMV. Not just for his bowling abilities.

Geoff

[the saint]

jikl, on Dec 21 2006, 02:07 AM, said:

It's offical, Warne has retired from all international, dmoestic and club cricket. There is a counterpoint though, he will honour his contract with Hampshire through to 2008.

Sean

No more Warney? Or McGrath?

We're gonna win the Ashes, we're gonna win the Ashes (in 2009)!!

*Dances around his room*

On a more serious note. Since this thread is now the longest running on the forum, it is apparent what the most important things in life really are!

[EricK]

Do people think that Australia will remain on top of the tree once Warne (and McGrath) retire?

[jikl]

Quote

Do people think that Australia will remain on top of the tree once Warne (and McGrath) retire?

Well, Warne is irreplaceable. We have a short term replacement in Stuart MacGill, however he is no Warne, he usually averages a 4-ball per over so doesn't maintain the pressure that Warne can. Whilst MacGill's figures seem impressive, they are inflated; when he played in Australia it was always on the spin-friendly pitches, likewise overseas. The long term replacement is most likely to be Dan Cullen, a leg-spinner that Warne rates as a very good prospect and that is coached by Terry Jenner. Whether he makes it or not we will have to wait and see. This may sound strange, but we will also miss Warne's batting as he averages about 17 and in recent years has been quite dependable rather than the slogger he was in his early years. Another possibility is a name that the English will know well, Cameron White, but his bowling would need to improve considerably, although he would provide an allrounder option.

McGrath is an interesting problem since we now have a ready-made replacment in Stuart Clark who has had an outstanding "start" to his career (he is 30 years old). Some of the question about losing McGrath is closely related to Brett Lee. When is he going to start taking wickets? In some ways losing McGrath and Warne may also prove Lee's undoing. When they are both in the team they can afford to "carry" Lee, with them gone I think he may have a problem. So let's look at the prospects:

Shaun Tait
Mitchell Johnson
Ben Hilfenhaus
Nathan Bracken

These are probably top of the list, but yet again it comes back to Warne, with him bowling non-stop from one end they could afford to maintain 6 batsmen, Gilchrist, 4 bowlers. Maybe they will now need 5 bowlers. I have a feeling they will cheat here and start praying Shane Watson gets over his hamstring problems, this will allow them to have a 140-145kph (85-90mph) as their 5th bowler.

I haven't really answered the question, have I?

Luckily we have the strongest first class cricket competition in the world, and the recent strength of the test team means that there are some excellent cricketers that are yet to play test cricket despite having years of experience. Hussey is a very good example of this, about 15,000 first class runs before making his test debut.

In conclusion I think we will still be the best team in the world, but, we will draw a lot more matches than we do now. Declarations with a 300 lead won't happen etc. There will be a lot more safety first cricket when you can't throw the ball to McGrath and Warne. It might also mean Australia will be less cavalier with the bat and that the run rate in test cricket will fall.

It has been an interesting time with these two in the test team, what happens after noone knows.

Sean

[jikl]

And now confirmed, McGrath gone after the World Cup.

Sean

[GeeGee]

One just for the Brits

At least Mark Ramprakash won 'Strictly Come Dancing'

Lots round here really pleased about that. His Mother plays at our bridge club.

Geoff

[the saint]

GeeGee, on Dec 24 2006, 01:10 PM, said:

One just for the Brits

At least Mark Ramprakash won 'Strictly Come Dancing'

Lots round here really pleased about that. His Mother plays at our bridge club.

Geoff

As for the dancing, I wanted Mark and Karen to win because the were letter than Matt and Lilia. Having said that, I'm still totally smitten with Lilia Kopylova...