Be Excellent To Each Other

You know it's spring when Onions gets the ball - he's running rings round them, etc.

BBC Site..

rofflemaw

Ooooh!

Despite bitter experience, hope springs eternal. And for the game.

I actually went back and played EA Cricket 2002 on the PS2 when I was sans-Xbox. I... *gulp*... think it's better than the Brian Lara games.

Anyone excited about this yet? Do you think we've got a chance?

My money's on South Africa.

Im excited about my comp tickets to the opening ceremony and England/NL.

After that, I'm a bit unexcited and more interested in (losing) the ashes.

I'm going to Ireland vs Bangladesh/Australia vs Sri Lanka, which should be good.

Yes, I'd agree the Ashes are the top billing, but some biffage should be a nice opening act.

Ireland are set for a fairly comprehensive defeat to West Indies, having made 130-7. West Indies are currently 59-1 off eight overs. There's hardly any serious T20 cricket at domestic level in Ireland and the Associate countries have little experience of the format, so I doubt they'll do that well. Death bowling is particularly inexpert. Ireland did tie with the Netherlands and win on the Super Over yesterday, but each team only scored 135.

Well if you put your money on England to win then kiss it good bye on the basis of that bloodless performance against Scotland.

What were you doing putting money on England to win for anyway?

Following my stunning success with this statement, allow me to say that England's batting lineup is far too stodgy and brittle for any sort of success in the 20-over game. Also: they have no chance whatsoever in the Ashes.

Disagree with that, but agree with your points about T20. We just don't have the players suited to the shortest format.

Funnily enough, even though the problem in T20 is the bat, what's going to screw England in the Ashes is the bowling. Where are 20 Australian wickets going to come from? Would any of the English seamers have gotten a game in the 2005 team?

Swann over the King Of Spain I might give you.

I think Sidebottom when fit is an equal to Hoggard, if not better. If Flintoff is fit then he'll be as good as Flintoff.

Broad is definitely getting better and better, and Anderson is bowling the best of his career. Granted not as well as Simon Jones was in 2005, but he's definitely a matchwinner on his day.

Surely he was only saying it for the reverse-jinx?

I think we've got at least 4 potential match winning batsmen in Shah, KP, Collingwood and Morgan (I really rate him), and a bludger in the Pirate. So you never know.

The Ashes should be interesting, as the Aussies are good, but without Warne and mcGrath their attack is a lot weaker. We desperately need a good start to the series, so it's just as well we've moved the first Test away from Lord's!

It's roughly 50% reverse-jinx, 50% actual opinion.

Also: Flintoff 2009 < Flintoff 2005.

And: We still need to get some multiplayer BLC07 sorted at some point.

Oh please, we're going to get stuffed.

I hope we don't obviously but we are going to get stuffed.

Best chant ever:

How abotu Tuesday 16th June at 7pm for a myp/curiosity/riles/rodafowa cricket-fest.

I may have picked that date as it's the next available one I have where the missus is working a late shift!

Oi, what about me?

Didn't know you had the game, sorry!

We might have to have some sort of round robin tournament.

Poker night Tuesdays, sorry. Really, Thursday to Sunday are the only times I can get at the telly.

I've got rid of it as I decided EA Cricket 2002 was better (doesn't say a lot).

I guess I'll have to wait until we've all got Ashes 2009.

From an internet thingummy



I'm not creaming myself in anticipation, given that.

BLIC07 was about as intimidating and complicated as a jam sandwich.

And only 1v1 online play. Wankers.

I guess we'll just have to wait for EA Cricket 2010 then.

So, Curiosity. It would appear that I am free on the 16th.

Hmm.. can't seem to find the Brian Lara 360 game on Goozex. I was hoping to offload it to some mug share its joy with someone else.

According to the Codebastards forums, their QA dept have been playing five-day test matches on the highest difficulty that have lasted "2.5 days in real life", whatever that means.

Which is more than England will manage. Arf!

That is absolutely ridiculous. If they could get a test match that lasted beyond lunch on day two in game time, I'd be interested, but with length of play like that it suggests that after every ball you get cutscenes showing the bowler waling every step back to his mark.

Apparently there is 10 times more commentary than in the previous game. Great. David fucking gower rabbiting on about the West Indian test bowling attack in 1963/64 for ten minutes, when I'm playing England vs Pakistan 20/20.

You absolute bloody plank.

So, riles/morte/rodafowa/curiosity it is!

I (mostly) really liked the commentary, actually. A rambling discussion that only tangentally relates to what's happening on the field feels about right for a cricket game. Would have been better if the commentators had started discussing buses going past the ground or what sort of cake they were eating, though.

On the other hand, I could have done without the bloody wickky doing that weird werewolf impression every time the batsman played and missed.

Well I've played it a grand total of once in the last year, and was feeling guilty about having too many games I don't play. You should've said four days ago.

Good cricket commentary has nothing to do with cricket. Talking mindlessly about other teams and cricket facts not relevant to the game in hand gets tedious.

I forgot the werewolf thing. Me and Myp were playing it a month or so ago at my place, and it had us virtually crying, and ripping the piss out of it for a good 48 hours afterwards.

I've pre-ordered the new game anyway. I don't want to be cricket gameless during the Ashes.

Here's hoping that they got Billy Birmingham to do all the voices. Those not familiar with Mr Birminghams work cannot consider themselves cricket fans. Go have a look for his '12th Man' stuff.

I love 12th man, but lost it all as a result of my last computercrashtragedy.

Goodness me, Ravi Bopara and Luke Wright have just completely taken the West Indies apart.

This is classic England. Get into really good form just as a big tournament starts, just so it can be even more disappointing when they inevitably balls it up.

Rf ireland tied with the netherlands. We are in this????

Shame on you for not knowing that! Your boys beat Scotland in the latest warm-up, they'll be playing England and Pakistan in the tournament proper.

I see the Ashes game will do away with rain stoppages. They were great, especially when you were playing a series.

This is going great so far.

Um... KP is far too fond of the flashy forty instead of the game-defining innings. Sidebottom's one good summer is going to be shown for the fluke it was. Plus, Anderson and Broad are nowhere near as good as a gutless, disinterested Windies side made them look.

Could you please categorically state that I won't be getting a bonus of any kind next month, let alone the full potential discretionary bonus which I clearly deserve?

Quelle surprise.

Pah, if a touring cricketer can't get drunk, snort coke, smoke a spliff and fall on top as many women as possible then I don't know what the world is coming to.

ah great, we beat Scotland also at the last ODI-world cup..

just today the press seems to have picked it up, as both the Volkskrant and the free newspaper i read had an article about it..

I watch the 2007 world cup wuite a lot, as the games were often on at night when i gave my son his bottle. After Holland will be out (no I don't have any illusions of beating Pakistan or the perfid albion), I'll support as usual the west indies (of which on dutch island, st. maarten is part off) and the RSA (who we can pretend are dutch, because the speak it..)

which tv netwrok carries this?

Sky Sports over here...

Malc

OMG, I did not think Holland had a chance after the England Innings, but they are neck and neck here...

Malc

Although that's not gonna' hurt

Malc