The Ashes 2021/22

[RileyOBlimey]

Racial insurgent David “Bumble” Lloyd says Livingstone and Mahmood should be included for the test series against the Windies…and he’s not wrong.

Lloyd names two uncapped players England must pick after their Ashes humiliation

David Lloyd has called for Liam Livingstone and Saqib Mahmood to be named in England's next Test squad

www.mirror.co.uk

 

[RileyOBlimey]

Stokes is showing some leadership by fucking off the tacky IPL.

Ben Stokes set to join England captain Joe Root in missing this year’s IPL

Ben Stokes is set to join Joe Root in making himself unavailable for this year’s Indian Premier League auction following England’s Ashes defeat in Australia

www.theguardian.com

 

[RileyOBlimey]

Atherton, Hussein and Rob Key on the need to reduce the volume of red ball cricket played on the county level to increase the quality: https://www.skysports.com/cricket/n...session-how-do-england-fix-their-test-cricket

 

[GarveyLives]

English cricket is in disarray – and it’s a metaphor for the whole country

(Source: Mark Thomas/REX)

(Source: Mark Thomas/REX)​

"By far the most important thing that happened in English cricket this year was not the Ashes defeat but the exposure of the game’s institutionalised racism ..."

"So we have a director of cricket who has absolved himself of all responsibility for this car crash of a tour, been unable to articulate even one change that might help England in future and who admits he doesn’t actually have the power to change much anyway. At this point we shouldn’t be asking ourselves whether Giles should be sacked but whether there is any point in his job existing at all?"

Ashes 2021-22: England should sack Ashley Giles and then scrap his pointless job altogether

(Source: as stated in image)

(Source: as stated in image)
​

'Fat shaming', drinking culture and not enough talking: the inside story of England's Ashes disaster

 

[RileyOBlimey]

NoCookies | The Australian

www.theaustralian.com.au

A bender until 6am was England’s best performance.

 

[RileyOBlimey]

NoCookies | The Australian

www.theaustralian.com.au

A bender until 6am was England’s best performance.

It’s alleged that Thorpe took this video AND leaked it (sold?) to the he press. Wtf?!

 

[Balbi]

Video not behind a paywall.

 

[RileyOBlimey]

Graham Thorpe is on the brink of the sack as England's assistant coach after it emerged he filmed police breaking up a team drinking session hours after the end of the final Ashes Test.
Furious English cricket chiefs have launched an investigation in the wake of the all-night party, which involved players from both England and Australia and which was ended by Tasmanian police shortly after 6am on Monday morning.
It is understood that Thorpe filmed the incident and sent it on to friends. It was then circulated more widely and ended up in the hands of the Australia media.
In the footage, four police officers can be seen arriving at the party to confront players including captain Joe Root, veteran bowler James Anderson and three Australian players – Alex Carey, Travis Head and Nathan Lyon – some of whom are still in their playing whites.
Police, accompanied by hotel staff, ask the partying players to quieten down and stop drinking. “Too loud,” a female police officer is heard telling the group. “You have obviously been asked to pack up, so we’ve been asked to come.”

Speaking from behind the camera, Thorpe, is heard to say, "this is for the lawyers." He also goes on to name every player present.
Telegraph Sport understands that a noise complaint, as the group played music from the balcony on the fourth floor of the building, was made to the team hotel, where both sides were staying for the fifth Test.
The players and management had stayed at the ground in Hobart until 2.30am because the fifth Test ended late and they had media duties to perform as well as sort out kit bags. They started drinking in the dressing room and while some went to bed when they returned to the hotel, others went to the Australia team room, which had a balcony, and carried on.
English cricket authorities are understood to be more angered by the fact the incident was filmed and then somehow entered the public domain, rather than the fact that players were drinking. No Covid regulations are believed to have been breached.
Thorpe and other coaches were already under pressure after the team’s performance in the Ashes and this has only exacerbated fears of a drinking culture - first revealed by Telegraph Sport on Monday - within a squad that was one wicket away from a whitewash and had been bowled out in just 38.5 overs only hours before.
“During the early hours of Monday morning, members of the England and Australia men's teams shared a drink in the team areas of the hotel in Hobart,” the ECB said in a statement.
“The hotel management received a noise complaint by a hotel guest, and is commonplace in Australia, the local police attended the scene. When asked to leave by hotel management and the Tasmanian police, the players and management in question left and returned to their respective hotel rooms.”
“The England party have apologised for any inconvenience caused. The ECB will investigate further. Until such times, we will make no further comment.”

Tasmania Police have also released a statement, confirming that they were called to the teams’ hotel after a complaint regarding “intoxicated” individuals.
“Tasmania Police attended the Crowne Plaza Hobart on Monday morning after reports were made of intoxicated people in a function area,” the statement read. “The guests were spoken to by police, just after 6am, and left the area when asked. No further action will be taken by police.”
Crowne Plaza Hobart general manager Linda Collis told the Sydney Morning Herald and Age: “To the best of my knowledge there was some noise complaints from outside.
“We’re in the middle of the city and there is noise and other things. We get all sorts of random things and police will turn up. There was nothing untoward. No one was removed from the hotel. It’s not uncommon to get people complaining about noise.
“Everything has been pretty smooth sailing, and we were happy for Hobart to have the cricket down here and have the teams down here.”
With two days to spare before England’s players return home, most of the squad have remained in Hobart until their scheduled flight on Wednesday.
The restricted environment under which this tour has unfolded, and which has prevented both sets of players from visiting public spaces for much of the series, has meant that instead alcohol was more readily available at the teams' hotels.
However, with no more immediate fixtures to protect, members of both England and Australia’s squads have been seen out partying around Hobart both throughout the day on Monday and deep into the night.
Another party involving England players at the team hotel continued into the early hours of Tuesday morning, the day after the leaked footage was filmed.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Pah. Who cares if they got pissed at the end of the series after being locked away for weeks?

Non-story for the tut-tutters.

 

[RileyOBlimey]

The story is how the fuck did the video get to the media?

 

[RileyOBlimey]

Hopefully this will be the last influence Thorpe has on English cricket.

Never forget: Unlikely triumph tinged with regret

 

[Balbi]

Thorpe absolutely emblematic of England's malaise...

Graham Thorpe’s cigar lit the fuse for police shutting down post-Ashes party

 

[Petcha]

How did that video end up in the papers? all very odd. And why the hell were the aussie players still in their whites?

 

[RileyOBlimey]

Thorpe absolutely emblematic of England's malaise...

Graham Thorpe’s cigar lit the fuse for police shutting down post-Ashes party

Classic entitlement.

 

[RileyOBlimey]

Mahmood is hopefully coming to the test side. He would be sweet relief from nice guy Woakes.

If any Australian-based England fans were seeking some solace away from the dismal Ashes series at least they did not have to look too hard.
Every evening, Australian TV was showing the Big Bash and, whenever the Sydney Thunder were playing, it was an Englishman who caught the eye. Lancashire's Saqib Mahmood took 13 wickets in six games for the Thunder, including four in his first 11 balls on a remarkable debut, and regularly broke the 90mph barrier.
It all raised a rather obvious question: given he had been part of the Lions squad, why had he not been retained for the Ashes, rather than sent to the West Indies to prepare for the T20 series which starts on Saturday?
Quick, accurate with good change-ups in pace, Mahmood showed his potential last summer as player of the ODI series against Pakistan when England were forced into naming a whole replacement squad after a Covid outbreak.
Mahmood was in the 12 to play the Headingley Test against India but England were cautious and selected Craig Overton instead. Picking the Somerset bowler at Headingley on a green seamer was understandable but the decision to stick with him on a flat deck at the Oval the following week was less so, and Overton was predictably ineffective. Mahmood knew then his Ashes dream was over.
“The Headingley Test, I felt like in my head I was preparing to play," said Mahmood, speaking to The Telegraph before last week's fifth and fateful Ashes Test. "I thought I was going to get a go. I was named in the 12 the night before and found out in the morning I was not going to play. It is the closest I have come to playing Test cricket.
“When I didn’t get picked I knew my chances for the rest of winter were gone. It was public that they were not going to be giving any debuts during the Ashes so when I was not picked for that Headingley Test I knew that I was not going to get much of a go in Australia.
“But before I came out to Australia with the Lions the carrot was dangled again that I could still be part of that squad. Bowling with the red Kookaburra for the Lions, I wanted to maximise my experience and break into the Ashes squad."
The good news for England is that Mahmood has not been deterred and, after a week of agonising over the future of the red-ball game in this country, the following words should warm the hearts of cricket fans up and down the shires: "Missing out has not changed anything. For me, Test cricket and red ball cricket are my top priority.”
Mahmood joined the Big Bash, with an eye on the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia later this year, and breaking into England’s white ball side permanently. But after such a poor Ashes tour he could well find he is fast tracked as a Test cricketer as part of the rebuilding of the team for the West Indies tour in March.
If that happens he has the ideal mentor, James Anderson, to turn to for advice. His Lancashire team-mate is a big supporter, and a walking Wikipedia of tips about bowling.
“Jimmy has been a great help for me - an example of that this year was playing at Lord’s," said Mahmood. "We opened the bowling together for Lancashire at Lord’s in 2019 and I bowled at the Nursery End because he likes the Pavilion End. But last summer we had the ODI against Pakistan. Chris Silverwood and Ben Stokes [who was captain] thought I would be more effective from Pavilion End but it was something I had never done before. On the morning of the game, literally Saturday morning, I texted Jimmy for any pointers he had bowling from that end. I didn’t want to phone him in case he was still in bed.
“He gave me a couple of things to keep an eye on with the slope and it worked for me. I bowled great that day. To have him on the end of the phone, to count on his experiences is great and I am lucky to be able to do that. Even that day I had one of my best spells in an England shirt.”
Mahmood, 24, has learned the hard way not to try and copy Anderson and be himself. “I am my own bower. A lot of my wickets are from balls that go on to hit the stumps, lbw or bowled. I am not that bowler who bowls pretty outside off stump, swinging the ball away. It has taken me a while to come to terms with that.
"You have a stereotype of an English bowler who bowls outside off and swings it away. As much as I wanted to do that, I have accepted it is not the way I bowl. For me it is about hitting the stumps, being versatile. I can be someone who can be a seam bowler one day and a swing bowler on another and when nothing is going on I can crank the speed up. I watched a lot of guys growing up but I am trying to get the best out of my skill sets and improve those rather than be something I’m not.
“Over the last couple of years I have improved every year and 2021 was my best calendar year. I progressed well with Lancashire and did well for England when I was subbed in for the Pakistan series and finished the year doing well in the Big Bash as well so it was massive for my confidence.
“It is hard to be consistent in white ball cricket and that was my main aim. Before, I was seen as a speed merchant. But I wanted to show what I can do with the new ball and that I’m not just all about hurling it down as quickly as I can but there is also skill and accuracy in there too.”
There will be new caps in the West Indies. Mahmood will join the bowling group, and England also like Warwickshire’s Liam Norwell and Brydon Carse of Durham, although he is recovering from a serious knee injury. Alex Lees, the Durham opener, has a good chance, too, along with Lancashire batsman Josh Bohannon.
Change is inevitable after England's winter of discontent and Joe Root needs fresh players to work with. An Ashes hammering never results in the preservation of the status quo. Mahmood is ready and Anderson could soon be passing on the baton to his protegee.

 

[RileyOBlimey]

A pretty damning illustration of Thorpe’s coaching incompetence.

 

[RileyOBlimey]

A curiously right-on piece from the torygraph…

Who was the last England batsman who did not get himself out in a crisis? Who was the last regular England batsman not to attend a fee-paying school? Same answer: Paul Collingwood.
Now it may be that regional characteristics are also at play here. Collingwood was born and brought up in Durham. So was the most spirited cricketer England had on this last Ashes tour, Mark Wood. Ben Stokes, who plays for Durham, is another renowned for not buckling at the knees, although his knees and ribs were troubling him almost throughout the Ashes so he was not the player he was.
This debate has been highlighted by two players in England’s last team to win the Ashes in Australia, Matt Prior and Graeme Swann, who have complained that young talent is being priced out of English cricket - unless they are affluent enough to attend fee-paying schools. “The cost to parents is huge and it just creates another barrier into a game that already has many,” Prior tweeted.
Fifty years ago we had club kit: few individuals could afford a bat. Perhaps cricket ran in families because kit did too. Now you have to cough up to compete: almost £500 for a top-of-the-range bat, helmets, clothing, all the other equipment, match fees, club membership fees, and the charges that counties make for a youngster to attend trials and academies. Prior estimates the cost is “nearly £1000 per season per kid.”
What used to bug me most was the bribery and corruption. Coaching by a Level 3 coach cost £50 per hour, one on one. The Level 3 coach would be a selector of the county’s age-group sides. Pay him £50 an hour and, lo and behold, your son would be selected for the Under-15s! No such thing as bribery and corruption in England, old boy. Ha, ha.
And, surely, this whole process is self-defeating. If every batsman comes from the same background and goes through the same coaching process and the same academies, they are going to react the same way under the greatest pressure - and collapse, like lemmings. To find a way, every team needs a mix of characters, not just the well-coached - or over-coached - and well-heeled.

 

[strung out]

Incredible finish in the women's Ashes test this morning.

Going into the final over, England needed 12 runs to win, Australia needed one wicket. All four results were possible.

Shame that'll be it for women's test matches for God knows how long.

 

[two sheds]

You didn't say what the result was so I had to go and check