Men Against Boys
The Full Monty - A Rare Celebration
We lost the five test matches, then we lost the Twenty20 and this morning we’ve lost the first match in the Commonwealth Bank, one-day series, I say “lost”, I mean “been thrashed”. If that wasn’t bad enough, we’ve also lost our best player after Kevin Pietersen broke a rib during his top-scoring 83*. As Michael Vaughan said in his post-match interview “it never rains but it pours”. For years now, since the comprehensive defeat in the last World Cup, the ECB have been saying that they have had a plan and a strategy for how they are going to approach and be challenging by the time of the next World Cup. Someone should tell them that the World Cup is now only a couple of months and even the most casual of armchair viewers can see that there is no discipline, planning, or ability in the team’s approach. There is undoubted quality in there but they are very lacking in some key areas. The bowling is too erratic and the batting is not big hitting enough for the modern game. I suppose, in the disappointment, it’s easy to be overly critical and you shouldn’t take anything away from the Aussie team, they really are a class act. However, someone has to take the blame for this and I don’t know whether it’s Duncan Fletcher, the selectors or the powers that be in the ECB themselves. Once the World Cup is over and before the West Indies come to Lords in May, I imagine heads will roll.
Tags: Andrew-Flintoff, Ashes, Aussies, Australia, Barmy-Army, Commonwealth-Bank, Cricket, Kevin-Pietersen, Michael-Vaughan, ODI, Sport, Twenty20, World-Cup
January 16th, 2007 at 8:39 am
England win a match, whatever next? Well it was a close scramble against New Zealand but we made it with one ball to spare! However, we get to play Austalia next, so, in answer to my question… a defeat!