Behave yourself try telling Sa they don't take it serious, this is the ultimate form of cricket, you have to be on top of your game for 18 months at least to be anywhere near the best, I agree india are awful or is just england are brillant? If anything one day cricket will be dead with twenty twenty being about, which england are also the best at.
are you serious? who told you that, the evening standard?
check out the crowds at test matches except in England and Oz when the ashes are over there. Compare & contrast with the worldwide crowds @ 1 dayers. How many go to watch the county championship? .. compare with the crowds @ 20/20. People want instant stuff nowadays, they want baseball not endurance lessons in fielding and batting & bowling under a under a hot sun. The old forward defensive just dont cut it anymore
Sachin gone for 91, lbw bowled bresnan....feel sorry for the little fella.
Pfft.
Glad he didn't do it here. The Tendulkar love-in has been pissing me off all summer. I note that on TMS the other week, Geoff Boycott went on about Eoin Morgan's century being 'not very good' because he got dropped twice. Well, by my reckoning, before Tendulkar's dismissal for 91, he was dropped twice, plumb LBW twice and stumped once. What did Geoffrey have to say about that? Not a lot. (And yes, I know Tendulkar and Morgan are completely different players and completely different talents, but it's still not right.)
To my mind, Tendulkar, Laxman and Sehwag have epitomised India's failure on this test tour. Established and talented? without doubt. The trouble is, the really good players in the sub-continent become so worshipped by the fans that they become essentially un-droppable. When you look at the physical state and the lazy attitude in the field of these three in particular on this tour, they looked like they simply couldn't be bothered because they're under no pressure to play for their places. Setting this sort of example then in turn rubs off on the younger players. I wouldn't be surprised to see a big overhaul of the Indian test team in the very near future - (although Tendulkar will still play for a while yet.)
Tendulkar is a fabulous cricketing talent, no doubt about it, but I don't understand why people wanted him to succeed this summer when his lack of effort and form suggests he didn't deserve to.
look at the reaction when england won the last two ashes and the ashes in 2005. then look at the reaction when they won the twenty20 world cup. not even close.
real cricket fans know that test cricket is all that matters. the other forms are for beer boys and people with the attention span of a baked bean.
Indeed do check out the crowds at 20/20. They are falling at such an alarming rate next year’s 20/20 competition has been basically halved. Different people got to Tests than to ODI/T20's. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Test cricket will go on forever.
Leroy! Go and wash your mouth out. If it was so easy for The Don how come his average was virtually twice that of his contemporaries.
Sachin gone for 91, lbw bowled bresnan....feel sorry for the little fella.
Pfft.
Glad he didn't do it here. The Tendulkar love-in has been pissing me off all summer. I note that on TMS the other week, Geoff Boycott went on about Eoin Morgan's century being 'not very good' because he got dropped twice. Well, by my reckoning, before Tendulkar's dismissal for 91, he was dropped twice, plumb LBW twice and stumped once. What did Geoffrey have to say about that? Not a lot. (And yes, I know Tendulkar and Morgan are completely different players and completely different talents, but it's still not right.)
To my mind, Tendulkar, Laxman and Sehwag have epitomised India's failure on this test tour. Established and talented? without doubt. The trouble is, the really good players in the sub-continent become so worshipped by the fans that they become essentially un-droppable. When you look at the physical state and the lazy attitude in the field of these three in particular on this tour, they looked like they simply couldn't be bothered because they're under no pressure to play for their places. Setting this sort of example then in turn rubs off on the younger players. I wouldn't be surprised to see a big overhaul of the Indian test team in the very near future - (although Tendulkar will still play for a while yet.)
Tendulkar is a fabulous cricketing talent, no doubt about it, but I don't understand why people wanted him to succeed this summer when his lack of effort and form suggests he didn't deserve to.
Boycott is a 2faced wife beating, money obsessed twat. My mate Sachin .. get to f*** Boycott. The BBC should sack him and the other 70+ year old useless duffer Blofeld. God knows what the TMS commentaries will be like when Martin-Jenkins retires or drops dead.
The Indian batsman are all old men or callow youths brought up on flat as a pancake Indian mud wickets. They lack both the technique and bottle to face very fast bowling. The Indian bowlers are unfit trundlers. I'd fancy England women to beat that lot.
Sky Sports will soon get fed up with broadcasting one-sided 'test' cricket and will demand more and better quality one dayers .. wait and see. Having said all that, I am pleased that England now have a seriously good side, unfortunately, they will soon have no one to play with over 5 days rather than 1
It is impossible to compare players from different eras but you can compare players with others from the same era and as Chirpy says, Bradma's average was just ridiculous. I am sure he wouldn't have averaged nearly 100 if he played now but it's almost impossible to consider anyone else as the best batsman of all time, although I'd go for Sobers as the best cricketer of all time.
Lincs is on a wind-up - Blowers is an institution. Test cricket will outlast all the cheap imitations.
Lincs is on a wind-up - Blowers is an institution. Test cricket will outlast all the cheap imitations ....
An institution? .. so is Broadmoor funny farm and soppy old Blowers should err umm err .. book .. errr um I say .. in there a s a p .... my ... umm dear old errr thing . Him and Stuart -Daft Old Duffer- Hall ..
Sachin gone for 91, lbw bowled bresnan....feel sorry for the little fella.
Pfft.
Glad he didn't do it here. The Tendulkar love-in has been pissing me off all summer. I note that on TMS the other week, Geoff Boycott went on about Eoin Morgan's century being 'not very good' because he got dropped twice. Well, by my reckoning, before Tendulkar's dismissal for 91, he was dropped twice, plumb LBW twice and stumped once. What did Geoffrey have to say about that? Not a lot. (And yes, I know Tendulkar and Morgan are completely different players and completely different talents, but it's still not right.)
To my mind, Tendulkar, Laxman and Sehwag have epitomised India's failure on this test tour. Established and talented? without doubt. The trouble is, the really good players in the sub-continent become so worshipped by the fans that they become essentially un-droppable. When you look at the physical state and the lazy attitude in the field of these three in particular on this tour, they looked like they simply couldn't be bothered because they're under no pressure to play for their places. Setting this sort of example then in turn rubs off on the younger players. I wouldn't be surprised to see a big overhaul of the Indian test team in the very near future - (although Tendulkar will still play for a while yet.)
Tendulkar is a fabulous cricketing talent, no doubt about it, but I don't understand why people wanted him to succeed this summer when his lack of effort and form suggests he didn't deserve to.
Very astute post, the main problem with the Indian team is that the "Superstar" culture means that you get to be virtually undroppable and that leads to a very lazy culture within the team.
Just look at the state of Zaheer Khan in the 1st Test, he was nearly as fat as me and in no condition to be bowling at that level of the game, his injury was so predictable.
I remember them walking out at Lords for the 1st Test and they all came out in dribs and drabs, there was no feeling of them being a team at all, just a bunch of blokes who happened to be on the same side.
I played cricket with a bloke here in Oz who has done work with all of the major cricket teams (he is an ex-copper and now a "security consultant") and he told me that the Indians pretty much do what they want in terms of training/fitness and that whatever coach is in place is well aware that they only have limited powers.
How a team can slump from 262-3 to 283 all out on that pitch - after Tendulkar and Mishra had just put on 144 for the 4th wicket is beyond me but surely points to a complete lack of fight and desire.
Sehwag only played in the last two Tests having had a shoulder operation after the IPL, I thought at the time that it would be tough to come straight into the Test team (ok he had one warm up innings) and prosper. Also his batting style is not going to work that often on English wickets where the ball swings and seams early. He plays on eye and rather than getting behind the ball he plays adjacent to it - with the result that on wickets where there is a true bounce and little or no lateral movement he often gets away with it, but more often than not he's a walking wicket in English conditions, but that's the way he plays.
India's problem was that the players looked totally knackered, their body language when fielding said to me that they would rather be anywhere else rather than playing cricket and were going through with the motions as though they were fulfilling a contractual obligation rather than doing something they were enjoying. In the spring they won the World Cup and then had the IPL and it's worth noting that Rahul Dravid, the only batsman to live up to his reputation and in fact enhance it barely played in the IPL and I think wasn't picked for the ODI World Cup side. So the freshest player in their side was the standout performer.
Zaheer Khan came back from a long injury lay off and was clearly unfit, but then I've never seen him look fit.
Definitely the worst Indian side I've ever seen and probably the worst Test side too considering they entered the series as number one in the world.
India didn't get to Number 1 by losing Test matches. The series they played and lost over here (in OZ) a couple of years ago was superb.....then I think they went on to beat the Aussies in India. India just didn't perform, but they will recover as they have so much talent. Full credit to the England team
Why talk about India, why not just praise the England team they deserve it after 9 consecutive test series victories
True enough, but the India situation is an interesting topic in it's own right surely? Certainly worthy of debate.
This isn't a forum for England only and, apart from anything else, what can you say about the England team? They played brilliantly? They're there on merit? Err.. that's it. All very lovely, but not a lot up for debate I'm afraid! It's the way of things that we admire things that succeed and dissect things that fail.
Comments
like 11-a-side 90 minute football is football. one day and twenty20 cricket is pretty much 5-a-side football.
look at the reaction when england won the last two ashes and the ashes in 2005. then look at the reaction when they won the twenty20 world cup. not even close.
real cricket fans know that test cricket is all that matters. the other forms are for beer boys and people with the attention span of a baked bean.
Indeed do check out the crowds at 20/20. They are falling at
such an alarming rate next year’s 20/20 competition has been basically halved.
Different people got to Tests than to ODI/T20's. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Test cricket will go on forever.
Leroy! Go and wash your mouth out. If it was so easy for The
Don how come his average was virtually twice that of his contemporaries.
Boycott is a 2faced wife beating, money obsessed twat. My mate Sachin .. get to f*** Boycott. The BBC should sack him and the other 70+ year old useless duffer Blofeld. God knows what the TMS commentaries will be like when Martin-Jenkins retires or drops dead.
The Indian batsman are all old men or callow youths brought up on flat as a pancake Indian mud wickets. They lack both the technique and bottle to face very fast bowling. The Indian bowlers are unfit trundlers. I'd fancy England women to beat that lot.
Sky Sports will soon get fed up with broadcasting one-sided 'test' cricket and will demand more and better quality one dayers .. wait and see. Having said all that, I am pleased that England now have a seriously good side, unfortunately, they will soon have no one to play with over 5 days rather than 1
It is impossible to compare players from different eras but you can compare players with others from the same era and as Chirpy says, Bradma's average was just ridiculous. I am sure he wouldn't have averaged nearly 100 if he played now but it's almost impossible to consider anyone else as the best batsman of all time, although I'd go for Sobers as the best cricketer of all time.
Lincs is on a wind-up - Blowers is an institution. Test cricket will outlast all the cheap imitations.
Lincs is on a wind-up - Blowers is an institution. Test cricket will outlast all the cheap imitations ....
An institution? .. so is Broadmoor funny farm and soppy old Blowers should err umm err .. book .. errr um I say .. in there a s a p .... my ... umm dear old errr thing . Him and Stuart -Daft Old Duffer- Hall ..
Very astute post, the main problem with the Indian team is that the "Superstar" culture means that you get to be virtually undroppable and that leads to a very lazy culture within the team.
Just look at the state of Zaheer Khan in the 1st Test, he was nearly as fat as me and in no condition to be bowling at that level of the game, his injury was so predictable.
I remember them walking out at Lords for the 1st Test and they all came out in dribs and drabs, there was no feeling of them being a team at all, just a bunch of blokes who happened to be on the same side.
I played cricket with a bloke here in Oz who has done work with all of the major cricket teams (he is an ex-copper and now a "security consultant") and he told me that the Indians pretty much do what they want in terms of training/fitness and that whatever coach is in place is well aware that they only have limited powers.
How a team can slump from 262-3 to 283 all out on that pitch - after Tendulkar and Mishra had just put on 144 for the 4th wicket is beyond me but surely points to a complete lack of fight and desire.
Sehwag only played in the last two Tests having had a shoulder operation after the IPL, I thought at the time that it would be tough to come straight into the Test team (ok he had one warm up innings) and prosper. Also his batting style is not going to work that often on English wickets where the ball swings and seams early. He plays on eye and rather than getting behind the ball he plays adjacent to it - with the result that on wickets where there is a true bounce and little or no lateral movement he often gets away with it, but more often than not he's a walking wicket in English conditions, but that's the way he plays.
India's problem was that the players looked totally knackered, their body language when fielding said to me that they would rather be anywhere else rather than playing cricket and were going through with the motions as though they were fulfilling a contractual obligation rather than doing something they were enjoying. In the spring they won the World Cup and then had the IPL and it's worth noting that Rahul Dravid, the only batsman to live up to his reputation and in fact enhance it barely played in the IPL and I think wasn't picked for the ODI World Cup side. So the freshest player in their side was the standout performer.
Zaheer Khan came back from a long injury lay off and was clearly unfit, but then I've never seen him look fit.
Definitely the worst Indian side I've ever seen and probably the worst Test side too considering they entered the series as number one in the world.
Full credit to the England team