The Ashes 2023

[planetgeli]

Yeah, moving on...

We know that:

WhyLikeThis thinks Robinson should go
littlebabyjesus thinks Broad should go
kabbes has no interest in this discussion, no sir, none whatsoever
I think Pope should go
and we all gave up any sense of sanity over Crawley or sense of justice for Foakes ages ago.

Lawrence for Pope. But they won't will they?

Anderson surely will be 'rested'. It's going to be Broad, Robinson, Wood and Tongue isn't it.

 

[WhyLikeThis]

Pope is injured.

 

[planetgeli]

Pope is injured.

Good.

 

[Wilf]

It’s gotta be Broad, Wood and Tongue.

There's got to be a smutty joke there, got to be.

 

[pbsmooth]

The whining hypocrisy of it.
Try coaching your team to win a few more sessions of the next test.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Lawrence is perfect for bazball. It's an accident of timing that Crawley's got his extended chance while Lawrence has missed out.

 

[WhyLikeThis]

There’s a bit of life in the dusty old farts.

 

[WhyLikeThis]

Both PMs are sticking their oars in: Anthony Albanese backs ‘always winning’ Australian cricket team after Ashes controversy

 

[kabbes]

I hope getting the victory they were already heading for anyway was worth it for them.

 

[edcraw]

Prob been posted already or a completely different situation and totally fair but a baseball guy I follow is taking an interest. Not sure England are looking great to the rest of the world.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Prob been posted already or a completely different situation and totally fair but a baseball guy I follow is taking an interest. Not sure England are looking great to the rest of the world.

Once again; a batter adjusting his weight as part of playing his shot/leave, versus a batter who has long since finished playing his shot/leave and has demonstrated that he doesn't have to adjust his weight in any way by an exaggerated scraping of his heel behind the line.

Bairstow = dopey
Aussies = cunts

 

[edcraw]

Once again; a batter adjusting his weight as part of playing his shot/leave, versus a batter who has long since finished playing his shot/leave and has demonstrated that he doesn't have to adjust his weight in any way by an exaggerated scraping of his heel behind the line.

Bairstow = dopey
Aussies = cunts

Fair enough, though looks very cyclical from Bairstow to me. Point is England really isn’t coming out of this well.

 

[kabbes]

Fair enough, though looks very cyclical from Bairstow to me. Point is England really isn’t coming out of this well.

To people who have no knowledge of the game.

 

[kabbes]

Two days later there is increasing invective being spewed, people who never watch cricket are taking sides, politicians are feeling the need to comment and anger is boiling over. And THAT is why you don’t do this kind of thing. It is a textbook example of bringing the game of cricket into disrepute. A completely unnecessary situation manufactured because a team wanted to be clever dicks rather than just play the game. Wankers.

 

[Spymaster]

Once again; a batter adjusting his weight as part of playing his shot/leave, versus a batter who has long since finished playing his shot/leave and has demonstrated that he doesn't have to adjust his weight in any way by an exaggerated scraping of his heel behind the line.

JB scraping his foot behind the crease means bugger all. He can't just make up his own rules "scraping my foot behind the line means the ball is dead".

If Patel had scraped his foot behind the line there to indicate he felt the ball was dead, then walked out of the crease whilst the ball was in Bairstows gloves, we'd agree he'd be a lunatic. That's what Bairstow did on Sunday, but Carey was just further back.

 

[edcraw]

To people who have no knowledge of the game.

And to plenty that do - unless bad losers and braying posh people are your thing.

 

[Spymaster]

Point is England really isn’t coming out of this well.

Nah. There are loads of England fans in the game and in the media who, like me, don't think Carey did anything wrong. Similarly there are plenty of Aussies who think he did. Both positions can be argued rationally but, as ever, it's the partisan voices on both sides that are shouting the loudest. We lost because of the way we batted in the first innings, not because of JB's stumping.

If the boot had been on the other foot, I've little doubt that Bairstow would've affected the same stumping, Stokes wouldn't have recalled the batsman, and it would be the Australians whining like fuck about it.

Unlike kabbes though, I won't be turning off the series because of this. I think it makes it more fun!

 

[edcraw]

Nah. There are loads of England fans in the game and in the media who, like me, don't think Carey did anything wrong. Similarly there are plenty of Aussies who think he did. Both positions can be argued rationally but, as ever, it's the partisan voices on both sides that are shouting the loudest. We lost because of the way we batted in the first innings, not because of JB's stumping.

If the boot had been on the other foot, I've little doubt that Bairstow would've affected the same stumping, Stokes wouldn't have recalled the batsman, and it would be the Australians whining like fuck about it.

Unlike kabbes though, I won't be turning off the series because of this. I think it makes it more fun!

I won’t be turning off but makes it a lot harder to like this team.

 

[Spymaster]

I won’t be turning off but makes it a lot harder to like this team.

I think the only people who would take that line, one way or the other, are those looking to reinforce a pre-existing agenda.

Australia have cheated in the past, as have England, but nobody cheated here and in terms of unsportsmanlike behaviour I reckon it's about even Stevens.

 

[edcraw]

I think the only people who would take that line, one way or the other, are those looking to reinforce a pre-existing agenda.

Australia have cheated in the past, as have England, but nobody cheated here and in terms of unsportsmanlike behaviour I reckon it's about even Stevens.

Yeah - that’s true. Always struggled to like England teams & was starting to like this one. The crowing around Bairstow taking off the JSO protester also left an unpleasant taste. Sure most won’t England fans won’t agree with that take but that’s kind of the point.

 

[pug]

There’s a bit of life in the dusty old farts.

You can hear one of them say 'monkey' in that clip. Fucking disgusting behaviour.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Nah. There are loads of England fans in the game and in the media who, like me, don't think Carey did anything wrong. Similarly there are plenty of Aussies who think he did. Both positions can be argued rationally but, as ever, it's the partisan voices on both sides that are shouting the loudest. We lost because of the way we batted in the first innings, not because of JB's stumping.

If the boot had been on the other foot, I've little doubt that Bairstow would've affected the same stumping, Stokes wouldn't have recalled the batsman, and it would be the Australians whining like fuck about it.

Unlike kabbes though, I won't be turning off the series because of this. I think it makes it more fun!

My initial reaction was 'Bairstow you dopey twat'. It was only after seeing the umpire also being a dopey twat that my opinion shifted a bit. I actually think Stokes would have withdrawn the appeal. That's the McCullum factor - he'll have spoken about this kind of thing with McCullum and I genuinely think Stokes doesn't want to win that badly that he'd employ sharp practices of this kind. It's not a joyous way to win a game of cricket.

I don't like this kind of thing and I very definitely would also be saying this if roles were reversed. I also agree about where this game was lost. Given how Stokes was spurred on by Bairstow's dismissal, I think it's very probable England would have lost even more heavily if it hadn't happened. First innings bowling and batting cost England this game.

TBH the incident in this series that most irks me is still that ridiculous first innings declaration. On the balance of play, we really should be 1-1. Aus aren't really good value for their 2-0 lead, but that can happen. England beat India I think 4-1 a few years ago in a very very close series.

 

[Wilf]

There’s a bit of life in the dusty old farts.

I notice they couldn't manage to muster a decent chant, just mild harrumphing.

 

[kabbes]

I don’t give a rat’s ass about winning and losing, and I’ve been very vocally critical of England teams many times down the years when they’ve engaged in antisocial or unsportsmanlike behaviour. It’s nothing to do with the match result — like lbj, I actually think England would have lost by more had Australia not done this. I just hate to see the game get fucked up.

 

[Wilf]

I don’t give a rat’s ass about winning and losing, and I’ve been very vocally critical of England teams many times down the years when they’ve engaged in antisocial or unsportsmanlike behaviour. It’s nothing to do with the match result — like lbj, I actually think England would have lost by more had Australia not done this. I just hate to see the game get fucked up.

Yep to all of that. And it's quite possible to think that without believing in some public school generated, misty eyed 'spirit of cricket'.

Equally, the whole thing wouldn't have generated all this heat if the on field umpires had taken some responsibility, either by not reviewing and making their own decision, or by nudging Cummins towards withdrawing the appeal. Admittedly, we might still be where we are if he hadn't withdrawn it.

I'm amazed there hasn't been more public comment about the umpires on this. The only thing I saw was a piece by Paul Nixon saying the on field umpires bottled it (can't find the link again, but that was about it).

 

[kabbes]

I’ll tell you what it puts me in mind of. The laws of snooker say that if colours are close together, you have to verbally nominate which colour you’re aiming at after potting a red. But when Ronnie is on a rapid break, you don’t hear him constantly say “black, pink, blue” even if the black is right next to the pink. Because we all understand that professional sportspeople are good enough not to be aiming at the pink and hitting the black. But this is like if Neil Robertson stopped Ronnie half way through a break and said, “hold up, he never said ‘green’ there, that’s a foul”. And then forever after, snooker players constantly had to say every colour they were aiming at just on the off chance that some prick was going to pull them up on it.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

It's also very bad form in snooker not to call fouls on yourself. tbh I would like all sports to be played like that.

 

[Wilf]

I’ll tell you what it puts me in mind of. The laws of snooker say that if colours are close together, you have to verbally nominate which colour you’re aiming at after potting a red. But when Ronnie is on a rapid break, you don’t hear him constantly say “black, pink, blue” even if the black is right next to the pink. Because we all understand that professional sportspeople are good enough not to be aiming at the pink and hitting the black. But this is like if Neil Robertson stopped Ronnie half way through a break and said, “hold up, he never said ‘green’ there, that’s a foul”. And then forever after, snooker players constantly had to say every colour they were aiming at just on the off chance that some prick was going to pull them up on it.

Yep, some of these conventions are not just about being 'gentlemanly' or similar nonsense, they are about a combination of mutual respect and a practicality that allows the game to flow.

 

[planetgeli]

I’ll tell you what it puts me in mind of. The laws of snooker say that if colours are close together, you have to verbally nominate which colour you’re aiming at after potting a red. But when Ronnie is on a rapid break, you don’t hear him constantly say “black, pink, blue” even if the black is right next to the pink. Because we all understand that professional sportspeople are good enough not to be aiming at the pink and hitting the black. But this is like if Neil Robertson stopped Ronnie half way through a break and said, “hold up, he never said ‘green’ there, that’s a foul”. And then forever after, snooker players constantly had to say every colour they were aiming at just on the off chance that some prick was going to pull them up on it.

The analogies are getting worse.

It reminds me of those hundreds of thousands of times batters have leant over with their bat deliberately poked in the crease while they hang around for the fielding side to finish. Y'know, like what's happened forever.

And like LBJ, I'm far more wound up about that declaration.

 

[Spymaster]

I just hate to see the game get fucked up.

It's not getting fucked-up. Not because of this anyway. There've been controversies in cricket since there's been cricket. It survives and moves on.