Cricket World Cup thread

Just heard Ian Botham's comments on Englands defeat today and their overall ODI form, and I have to applaud everything he said.
 
Spawn said:
Same here but sadly Ashraf was told not to resign so i dont expect any different cricket from Pakistan for a long time. Younis Khan the other day said hes not interested in the captains role and Yousef, who i think is a great batsman...wants to take over as captain which i think would be the wrong decision tbh. Now rumours are going round saying that Shoaib Malik might be captain.

Anyways England got absolutely hammered out there by the SA's, to me it looked like the SA's wanted to win this game more than the English. Shameful defeat for the English and they are out of the WC now. Wasnt too fussed about the result because SA will be out in the next round anyways...well i hope they are..
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Shameful about sums it up, don't think it was about who wanted it, just that our boys obviously didn't believe they could do a good job today. It was a quarter-final effectively so we should have gone out all guns blazing but we choked instead. They should have opened with Bell and Pietersen and really taken it to the SA's. Pollock went for tons against Aus and SL yet we only managed to get 14 off his first 8. He's ripe for the taking at his age, they should have been walking down the wicket and tonking him all over the place.
 
lets hope this sends the rocket up the back sides of those in power, good knows we need it.

Anyone know if Boyd Rankin has an english grannie, god knows he would be than mahmood.

From my perspective it looks like we dont treat one-dayers seriously, we treat them as a shorter version of test matches, not the seperate displince they are. Players like Mal Loye and Dimi Mascheranous have never been given a proper chance. Vaughn, whilst he is undersputibly a quality test player, he just doesnt have the necessary skills for ODI's, an average of 26 says it all. Flintoff is a shadow of his former-self. Bopara and Pieitersen are the only batsmen i have seen play with any authority. I dont know where to start with the bowling, i really dont And as far as fielding is concerened we are simply not on the same level as the top sides.

On a more general level there seems to be an ever increasing level of underperformance within English sport, Cricket team we all know about, Football team completely uninspiring and the Rugby team are hardly world-beaters.

At least Lewis Hamilton is doing well...
 
Just got in from the Arsenal match, so I can watch our highlights, although reading the scorecard, I'm not sure if that's a wise move, goddam AWFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :mad: :mad:
 
You won't see any highlights from an England perspective :(

You will see England putting in the most inept batting performance of almost any team in the world cup (9 runs after the first 8 overs compaired to South Africas 68!) then getting killed in the field by some proper swashbuckling ODI batting not the 1980's prodding and poking crap we churn out every game.

Still we're out now and the players can come home after the Windies game having spent the last 7 months and millions of the ECB's money on a round the world losing tour:

Lost in India in the ICC trophy.
Lost in Australia.
Lost all over the West Indies.
 
And, much as I'd like to support England, I hope we lose the Windies game too. I'm visiting Kennedy Space Centre soon. Wonder if they'll let me borrow a rocket and shove it up some ECB backside in person.
 
Big Kev said:
Just got in from the Arsenal match, so I can watch our highlights, although reading the scorecard, I'm not sure if that's a wise move, goddam AWFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :mad: :mad:
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Really wouldn't bother mate. One of the most gutless performances I've seen in any sport.

Its just so annoying to keep hearing them come out with the same old rubbish. Vaughan said before the game: "I hope we can entertain a few people". Is he having a laugh? We went and left the first 12 balls, no wait 1 or 2 may have been blocked. Everybody knows you need to attack powerplays, every side does it. Yet for the past 2 years we persist with out pathetically slow start. That builds pressure and we lose wickets. Happens everytime. Everytime they come out and say we've got talent and we have to learn from the game. Well they've had 2 years and not learn't much

Coach has to go, he clearly can't get the best out of the players. Surely he should see we're going about a one day game the wrong way and do something about it unless. Instead we just blindly keep going on with it. Can you imagine us chasing a small target, we'd crawl there. Every other side in the world would go for it. That start was one of the worst I've ever seen. For a side to come out and just let go the first 12 balls in a 1 day game is shocking.

Selectors need shaking up and replacing. Ashes selection was a complete joke and its the same story here. Loye was something different and should have been in the squad as an option at least. Don't know why Lewis was in the original squad, you don't need 3 swing bowlers in a one day competition in the West Indies.

Time for a couple of the players to go to. Personally if we get that top 3 sorted, so they can set a platform for the middle order a lot more often then players like Flintoff Collingwood and Bopara can get us some good totals. Them coming in at 70-3 is never going to allow them to get the scores they can and that runs down their confidence and things stay poor.
 
Platty, I think Bopara should be played up the order as he looks class. Just don't know where we can go from here though, team needs a complete overhaul but i don't think the ECB have the balls to do it.
 
Ireland 49-7 at the moment, Sri Lanka look to be strolling this one.

edit. make that 49-8
 
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Mr Mag00 said:
what utter utter b******s of a performance, too wide and short bowling again..Yawn


fletcher to go alongside vaughan and flintoff as one day captain!!
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I can't see Flintoff being captain after being dropped from the vice-captaincy after the pedelo incident. His form also suffered notably when he had the captaincy last year.
 
Id like to see Strauss as one day captain, hes not the greatest one day batsmen in the world by a long way but hes much better than Vaughan and he did well as captain last summer. Id like to see this team used for the next 4 years to prepare us for the next WC.

Tresco
Strauss
Pietersen
Bell
Bopara
Collingwood
Flintoff
W/K
Simon Jones
Anderson
Panesar

No idea about wicket keeper as I don't know of any young ones around atm, Chris Read would have to do for now. Fletcher out, Bob Willis in as coach
 
Crikey:eek:, The Sri lankans did a demolition job on the Irish....completely utterly destroyed them from the word go.

Makes me mad as hell that the Pakistan team couldnt even come close to inflicting a defeat as heavy as this on the Irish...guess thats one way to play the minnows...:p
 
Can't see Panesar lasting long in the ODI side tbh.. He needs to start taking far more wickets to be of any value to England in the one day game. As it stands he doesn't take many wickets and adds absolutely nothing with the Bat and his fielding is still comparatively poor. No doubt many people would be sad and angry to see him get the chop but to be honest being lovable and a character isn't really enough to earn you a place in a professional sports team.
 
Rosbif said:
Can't see Panesar lasting long in the ODI side tbh.. He needs to start taking far more wickets to be of any value to England in the one day game. As it stands he doesn't take many wickets and adds absolutely nothing with the Bat and his fielding is still comparatively poor. No doubt many people would be sad and angry to see him get the chop but to be honest being lovable and a character isn't really enough to earn you a place in a professional sports team.
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Don't forget he tends to be pretty economical, which is more than can be said for most of the bowlers. Think he needs some more time in the side. He can't have played more than twenty ODIs if that, think they need to stick with him and he'll start taking wickets.
 
Panesar can have a future in ODI....

Mahmood...no chance, he is rubbish. Vaughan needs to go as captain and probably leave ODI altogether.

Its true what the commentators have been saying all along really yet no one listens. Especially how England approach ODI's... bat like crazy in the last part of the innings wont win us anything, by that time we are in the tail end with no big scores from the top.

As they have been saying the teams left go out from the start and the batters take advantage of the power plays.

I think there was a slight relief in many england fans when south africa finished us off like they did, because that game proved everything that has been said and suggested.
 
Mad old tory said:
Don't forget he tends to be pretty economical, which is more than can be said for most of the bowlers. Think he needs some more time in the side. He can't have played more than twenty ODIs if that, think they need to stick with him and he'll start taking wickets.
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Its not right that we have players learning how to play cricket at international level. We've gone through this with Mahmood and it has been an absolute disaster for the team. Panesar isn't going to be as bad for the team as Mahmood, that would be a gross exaggeration because as you say he is economical, but he doesn't have that wicket taking ability that other specialist bowlers have and there is no precedent for him taking one day wickets. The question I ask myself is whether having a specialist seamer in the squad in place of Panesar would serve us better.
 
platty said:
Can you imagine us chasing a small target, we'd crawl there.
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Don't have to imagine. England v Bangladesh was all the evidence needed. We pretty much fell over the winning line by accident.

Sri Lanka mauled the Irish today and if that's not a demonstration of how you're supposed to put lesser sides firmly back in their place, then I don't know what is.

We'll find out later today whose heads are going to roll, maybe.
 
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