England Cricket 2015

[littlebabyjesus]

That's just shit, I wasn't a fan of Moores but treating him that way is cuntish.

Add him to the list. Face doesn't fit, so fuck off.

I'm not exactly sure what Andrew Strauss's qualifications for his job are. Former player, sure. But what's he done since? Called Pietersen a cunt on tv. What else?

 

[redsquirrel]

Yeah I don't see Strauss as a good fit for this position.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

It's a bullshit position anyway. First an ex-banker, who did what? What did Downton do? Now Strauss - again, what's he going to actually do?

 

[gdubz]

And a bit too pally with Cook and some of the other senior players, so unlikely to be the new broom that we need. The remit seems to be limited anyway, which is why Vaughan ruled himself out.

 

[gdubz]

Sooooo....KP.....

 

[SpookyFrank]

Sooooo....KP.....

If we bring him back for the Ashes it will still probably be his last test series, and he'd be taking up a spot that a younger player should be settling into. We know Pietersen can score silly amounts of runs in low-pressure games, but we also know he's got a terrible record of choking at vital points in vital test matches. Add to that the length of time he's been out of the England side, and the circumstance in which he left, and the mental problems that have always plagued him are unlikely to have gone away.

Realistically, the Australians will most likely beat us with or without Pietersen. That being the case, better to use the ashes as a chance to build a team for the future and get the younger lads playing against world class opposition.

And who would we drop to make way for KP? He can't play as an opener and Bell, Root and Ballance are all doing well. You shouldn't drop an in-form player for an unknown quantity.

 

[gdubz]

Yeah I completely agree. However, on the basis that we know Aussie are going to give us a hiding anyway, I'd quite like him get the chance and fail, then he can be told to eff off once and for all. I'm no fan of KP the person, and I didn't want Surrey to spend money on him instead of young players, but I have increasing misgivings about the England set-up. Maybe it would be simpler to give him another go like Trott got, and show that the england management isn't all about toeing the party line.

 

[Ted Striker]

No dice

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/32699465

Not enough facepalms or sadfaces.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Yeah I completely agree. However, on the basis that we know Aussie are going to give us a hiding anyway, I'd quite like him get the chance and fail, then he can be told to eff off once and for all. I'm no fan of KP the person, and I didn't want Surrey to spend money on him instead of young players, but I have increasing misgivings about the England set-up. Maybe it would be simpler to give him another go like Trott got, and show that the england management isn't all about toeing the party line.

He's not being paid much, and is giving whatever he is paid by Surrey to charity. I'm no Pietersen fan either, but this really isn't about money for him now. I guess he's rich enough. This is a pure sporting challenge for him.

Trott's second chance was a mistake because he was gone as a player.

 

[twentythreedom]

England cricket is fucked

 

[DrRingDing]

Strauss and KP are both cunts. Little sympathy for either.

 

[gdubz]

England cricket is fucked

It's just embarrassing - the Aussies must be laughing their arses off.

 

[DrRingDing]

England cricket is fucked

As much as I loathe the idea of an Australian coaching England Dizzy would be a breath of fresh air to these stale farts in management.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Before we go overboard about Pietersen, this was against Leicestershire, one of the weaker teams in the 2nd div. Players do make triple hundreds in the CC sometimes.

But England continue to blunder. There's no opening in the Eng middle order at the moment anyway. Selectors don't have to sack players - they can simply drop them for good if they like. Did it, and pretty brutally, with Matthew Hoggard, for purely cricket reasons.

It's all very puzzling, and this is personal for Strauss - we know that - one of the reasons he seems a poor choice for this job, whatever the job actually is.

 

[Casual Observer]

Pietersen is a tremendous arsehole but that's not a good enough reason for him not be be selected. Had Michael Vaughan or Alec Stewart got the job instead of Andrew Strauss, Pietersen would be in the side for the first New Zealand test.

Blocking Pietersen's selection is one thing but offering him the meaningless nothing role of England's ODI adviser underlines what a nasty and bitter man Andrew Strauss is.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Cack-handed handling of the whole thing, yet again. Pietersen might well be (is) a nob but as Vaughan pointed out he's turned down the IPL money and played for Surrey on the strength of being told he could potentially get back in, only for that to turn out to be bollocks. Then the statement from Strauss seems to indicate that he would be in the side but for nebulous 'trust issues,' not with the team but with the ECB and specifically with himself. Fucksake.

 

[DrRingDing]

Pietersen can't keep his gob shut

The best form of revenge is success. He should have kept his trap shut and carried on playing for Surrey this summer scoring 100 after 100. England will inevitably lose against Australia and it would the biggest Fuck You to Strauss much bigger than strops in the media.

 

[paulhackett]

Pietersen can't keep his gob shut

The best form of revenge is success. He should have kept his trap shut and carried on playing for Surrey this summer scoring 100 after 100. England will inevitably lose against Australia and it would the biggest Fuck You to Strauss much bigger than strops in the media.

Another spectacularly ill advised piece from Princess Kevin. If he'd just shut the fuck up for once.

As he says, he realises he wouldn't get picked for the first Test, so what did he expect? and back to the ipl..

Egotistical twat.

 

[gdubz]

Pietersen can't keep his gob shut

The best form of revenge is success. He should have kept his trap shut and carried on playing for Surrey this summer scoring 100 after 100. England will inevitably lose against Australia and it would the biggest Fuck You to Strauss much bigger than strops in the media.

That is fucking incredible. Presumably he got a 12 year old girl with a penchant for drama to pen that for him. Every time you think this whole sorry debacle couldn't get more absurd an pathetic. Christ alive.

 

[redsquirrel]

Cack-handed handling of the whole thing, yet again. Pietersen might well be (is) a nob but as Vaughan pointed out he's turned down the IPL money and played for Surrey on the strength of being told he could potentially get back in, only for that to turn out to be bollocks. Then the statement from Strauss seems to indicate that he would be in the side but for nebulous 'trust issues,' not with the team but with the ECB and specifically with himself. Fucksake.

Agreed, it's not so much the decision to leave him out - after all this is just one score - it's the appalling way it's been handled.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Pietersen is a tremendous arsehole but that's not a good enough reason for him not be be selected. Had Michael Vaughan or Alec Stewart got the job instead of Andrew Strauss, Pietersen would be in the side for the first New Zealand test..

That's not quite true, I don't think. In place of whom? He'd be back in the reckoning, but who do you drop for him, Bell?

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Pietersen can't keep his gob shut

The best form of revenge is success. He should have kept his trap shut and carried on playing for Surrey this summer scoring 100 after 100. England will inevitably lose against Australia and it would the biggest Fuck You to Strauss much bigger than strops in the media.

Yeah. Unfortunately lacking in class, as he always was. Agree to play for Surrey for free - good thing. Bring up the fact that you're playing for free as some kind of justification? Not a good thing.

 

[Casual Observer]

That's not quite true, I don't think. In place of whom? He'd be back in the reckoning, but who do you drop for him, Bell?

Apologies for my confusion. I mistakenly thought that Ballance started his test career as an opener so was thinking replace Trott with Ballance at the top of the order and bring in Pietersen in the place vacated by Ballance. In fact, Ballance made his debut at the same time or thereabouts as another debutant at the top of the order (whose name escapes me but who is now out of the picture). It's difficult to keep up with precisely who is who and what they've done when you only have TMS and an hour of domestic test highlights on the telly in the evening - that's my excuse.

 

[kabbes]

England team decide against picking the only player that can hit the ball

 

[Santino]

So, some match has started in north London somewhere.

 

[BandWagon]

Root and Stokes have steadied the ship, now 149-4. Bell now has scored 2 in the last 4 innings, which is an average of...can't quite work it out.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Excellent fight-back. Pleased to see Stokes at six - that should be his batting place imo.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Where's Moeen?

 

[Santino]

Where's Moeen?

Batting at 8

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

200 up, 5 down - 4 rank failures and a superb 92 for Stokes. Still hope for a score here - Buttler just starting out and Root playing like the game's easy, still with Moeen Ali to come in at 8.

Question - if the two glaring problems from a selection point of view are an opener and Ali as front line spinner, what would be wrong with putting Moeen at the top of the order and picking a proper spinner (probably Rashid)? Cook and Ballance are both grinders, taking a bit out of the bowlers and the new ball when they get it right - Ali would offer something as a proper stroke player and it would give us 2 very different spin options with Rashid as a leggy.