Be Excellent To Each Other

No. *


* I fell asleep for 30 minutes.

Bloody hell. Night of the Long Handles.

I say the selectors should take a gamble and appoint Rob Key for a 1 year period with Alistair Cook as vice-captain, with the view of taking over when that period ends.

I'm surprised that there's speculation that Pieterson should be captain - I'd rather have someone with a bit more experience there.

He's almost the only person in the team guaranteed a starting spot. Well, other than perhaps Cook and Flintoff (when fit). Even the 'probables' like Sidebottom and Bell aren't any more experienced than him. The only other option was, really Strauss, and I don't think he's such a certainty for the team that he gets the nod; he was left out of the side for poor form very recently. KP was, in effect, the only option.

Personally I still think that Fat Bob Key has been treated very harshly and deserves a spot in the England set-up.

Unfortunately, KP is probably the only player guaranteed a spot in all three forms of the game. If Colly hadn't resigned I expect Strauss would've been given the nod for the Test team instead.

I think Colly was told by the selectors "resign, or we replace you", as they wanted to reunify the captaincy. There have certainly been rumblings to that extent.

I can't believe that they'd discard him from the team, as his ability to bat, bowl and field make him an automatic selection (IMO). So the above seems very likely.

Bloody hell Cook!

He's dropped three catches already today (admittedly, one of them was very hard).

They've actually won one!

Amazing how well Hamison plays when it doesn't matter.

Wow, that was pretty good show, let's just hope the England batsmen do as well as the bowlers!

Malc

Cripes, it was 50-odd for 5 last time I checked!

I think they managed.

WOO! 4-0 now, what a turn up

Apparently if we win 5-0 we go to 2nd in the ODI rankings which is pretty jaw dropping don't you think!?!

World domination is sure to occur now

Or we'll dramatically fall to pieces against the Netherlands or something

Fair bet either way really!

AFAIK we're actually in second now, but will drop back to thrid if we lose the final match. But I could be wrong. In fact, I'm almost certainly wrong.

Still, great signs, Flintoff is back in form, and KP must think that captaining England is the easiest job in the world!

No it's more straightforward, England are 3rd now and stay there if they lose or draw tomorrow or go to 2nd with a win.

Flintoff's averages are absolutely staggering for the series so far now standing at 187 and 12.9. Which is obviously pleasing but it's also really good to see other players standing up in problem areas particularly Prior and Bell opening and Patel as the spinning all rounder (although he does seem to be eating the pies in the dressing room that used to be reserved for Key).

Most relieved man must be Moore though with the Pietersen led resurgence probably just having saved his job, got to hope it all gets backed up with performances on tour next.

Well, they say that a good all-rounder has a higher batting average than bowling average. I guess having one well over ten times higher can only be a good thing.



South Africa are already at home, mentally, it woudl appear. I am hoping for a solid win here today to set us up with fantastic momentum for the Champions Tro...

Oh.

Lol cricketaments. I hit your googly for six over sticky midwicket and all that, howzat?

Not out. Pitched outside leg stump. Unlucky.

Wat?

Are you two living in the future?



Malc

And now it's raining - if they manage to get a 50 over game done today I'll be astonished.

Play starts now! Woohoo!

(there's no way they'll get in 43 overs each... why not just have a Twenty20 and dispense with all the inevitable Duckworth-Lewis fiasco?)

That's what Pollock was saying about the last match, always seems odd how they work on the basis that they aren't going to lose further time.

Seems like a strange decision to bowl given the impact of lights on chasing, have to hope the bowlers go well.

EDIT now 3/1 after two overs, couldn't start much better.

I hope we keep getting regular updates on the state of that guy's umbrella.

Edit - uh oh, I hope he's fixed it.

So thats that, game abandoned

I don't understand why they don't have reserve days for ODI's in this country. In the recent series between India and Sri Lanka they used a reserve day in the 3rd or 4th ODI so can't see why they don't do it here

Away from the stuff that actually gets an audience:

England women are poised to whitewash India 5-0 if they win tomorrow, doubtless this won't get any coverage anywhere apart from Cricinfo.

County cricket still fairly tight, but being knackered by the weather.

Is this thread still about cricket, or is it safe?

Latest England squads and central contracts announced:

Stanford Money for Old Rope Tournament and India ODIs

Kevin Pietersen (capt), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Andrew Flintoff, Stephen Harmison, Samit Patel, Matt Prior (wk), Owais Shah, Graeme Swann, Ryan Sidebottom, Luke Wright

No shocks here - just a swap of Sidebottom for Bresnan from the ZA series. Luke Wright is going to have to actually do something at some point though and I'm slightly surprised they aren't taking Swann as a second spin option in India.

Central Contracts

James Anderson, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Andrew Flintoff, Stephen Harmison, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Ryan Sidebottom, Andrew Strauss, Michael Vaughan.

Hoggard is clearly done in international cricket now, really sad way for such a fine player to just slip away but inevitable really. Also seems a bit of a cop out to keep Vaughan on, saves Yorkshire a few quid though.

Increment Contracts (for regular squad members who aren't guaranteed first teamers)

Tim Ambrose, Ravi Bopara, Samit Patel, Matt Prior, Owais Shah, Graeme Swann, Luke Wright.

Evidently still hedging bets on the keeper, Prior incumbent in ODIs but not guaranteed a test place. Personally I'd rather give Foster another chance than stick with Ambrose but he might come good.

Tendulkar now has most runs in tests, taking the record off Lara today.

India going well after a bit of a wobble 293/4 - come on match with a result in it!

Congrats to the Little Master.

Speaking of England vs South Africa... KP just resigned as captain following a big bust-up with the coach.

Nice.

Well the best thing would be for them both to go. KP wanted too much power and from what I've read, the players and coaches seemed to have split-loyalties. As much as he's a brilliant batsman, he's seemed like a baby throwing his toys out of the pram because he hasn't got his own way.

Moores should still go though, as results speak for themselves.

Moores has gone now. Smart money's on Giles and Strauss to lead England in the Windies.

THE KING OF SPAIN!

Hell yeah.

Not massively convinced by Strauss as captain, but there are no other realistic choices.

I think it's the sort of option where the captaincy will strengthen his all-round game, rather than hindering it.

And there are precious few other options, unless they want to risk it on Cook.

Cook's not ready. Not yet, anyway.

We'll definitely win the Ashes now!

Meh, Graeme Smith wasn't ready when they threw him the captaincy 5234785 years ago. It's worked out pretty well for them.

Still, I'd go with Strauss for the time being. The only problem is that if he has a bad series, he'd be back in danger of losing his spot.

The thing is that Australia are on the wane now, so we had a really good chance of winning them back.

Strauss has done a very good job whenever he's been captain and been one of those players who perform better with the responsibility. Frankly he should have been kept on rather than appointing Flintoff last Ashes.

As pointed out no real options either:

Andrew Strauss - seems likely
Alastair Cook - no signs they've been grooming him or of any particular aptitude - don't think he's captained much at lower levels either.
Ian Bell - not sure of place
Kevin Pietersen - just resigned
Paul Collingwood - didn't like doing it - although suspect he may be ODI captain again as Strauss isn't a fixture in that side
Owais Shah - how many caps?
Andrew Flintoff - for the love of god, not again.
Matt Prior & Tim Ambrose - who's going to play?
Graeme Swann - well it would be one up against Fletcher
Stuart Broad - maybe not
Steve Harmison - ha ha
James Anderson - hmmm
Ryan Sidebottom - fit yet?
Monty Panesar - ha ha
Adil Rashid - not capped

The Australia that just won the last test against South Africa? I'm pretty sure reports of their demise are overstated - the batting is misfiring a bit but has plenty of quality and while they need a new spinner that's hardly the make or break factor in England (and Wales). They could do with a better captain than Ponting though.

The dead rubber, you mean?

I didn't mention their demise - I just said they were on the wane. I don't expect them to drop down too much, but I fully expect them to be third in the rankings before too long.

Apologies, you were quite realistic and I appear to have projected my annoyance with some incredibly premature crowing elsewhere onto you.

Ashes this year could be oddly a much better contest than last time but with much worse cricket given the standards both sides are setting themselves.

I can see Australia going to third in the rankings, although I'm not actually sure how good India are, especially when a few retirements hit them, pretty much happy backing South Africa as currently the best test team in the world though - return series with the Aussies could be a cracker.

Please don't apologise - you'll start me believing I actually know what I'm talking about.

I'm more convinced by India than South Africa at the moment, personally, though both won series when they should not have done so. Both chased down massive totals in the final innings of the First Test - doubtful they would have done so were England and Australia half as good as they used to be. For the rest of the series the teams looked evenly matched, and had that one match swung the way of the first four days of each, then we'd be looking at a very different scenario.

Obviously though, England and Australia lacked a certain something that India and SA had. I'd say that world cricket is very close right now, and anyone could feasibly beat anyone else (of those four, anyway).

Australia will remain top for a while though, won't they, due to their massive points lead?

Also... will Pakistan bother with Test Matches in 2009 or give it a miss again?

They're not actually that far ahead now, if the Proteas had won today they'd have taken top spot.

Start Jan ratings were:

Aus 126
ZA 121
Ind 118
SL 109
Eng 103
Pak 100
WI 81
NZ 81
Ban 0

"There's still a chance!"
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