England V India ***Clash of the Heavyweights*** Test, T20 and ODI Series

I know you're being facetious sigma, but can we drop the whole thing about Prior and Strauss. They were both nippers when they came over to England, no? Bit harsh to call them saffers :p

I'll give you Trott and KP though. Bet SA feel stupid for not trying to pick them earlier on now.
 
Not with the quota system they have. You'd be a fool to stay there if England or any other country is an option for you to play in. I remember watching a very promising SA youngster called Jacques Ruldoph basically being thrown out of the team because they wanted a black player instead. KP also rebelled against the quota system although I cannot find that remarks now.

I'm happy to have them.
 
platypus said:
I recall seeing that in an interview actually regulus.
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""I was dropped because the quota system was brought into South African cricket to positively discriminate in favour of 'players of colour' and to fast-track the racial integration of cricket in the country," he said. "To me, every single person in this world needs to be treated exactly the same and that should have included me, as a promising 20-year-old cricketer. If you do well you should play on merit. That goes for any person of any colour. It was heartbreaking.

"Even though it was very hard for me to take in at the time, it turned out it was the best thing that could have happened."

Not that that seemed to be the case when he was told that he was being left out so that Goolam Bodi could play. "I flew into a rage," he admitted," flinging a water bottle across the dressing-room and shouting 'I'm leaving here'."

Pietersen said that he and his father tried to reason with Phil Russell, Natal's coach, but got nowhere. And as for Goolam? "I'm not aware he's made much impact ... certainly not with the South Africa team.""

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/story/258181.html
 
Sorry for the long post.

Can I first of all apologise for the manner in which I left.

May I also clear up the reason why I left. I did NOT leave because of the Ian Bell incident. I left because after Tea of 'Bellgate', Bell and Morgan came out and started playing like it was a T20. The Indians simply looked like they didn't care. How the hell am I supposed to care if the team themselves isn't interested? I have watched so much Indian cricket, this was the first time that I had willingly stopped watching them. Ever.

The other reason I haven't been on OcUK is because I was on holiday. I came back today and found out the scores of both the 2nd and 3rd test matches this morning. I'm not gonna lie, I've spent over an hour crying with anger so far. How the hell did we lose by over 300 runs at Trent Bridge?

I have stuck by this team through thick and thin. I have defended their name at EVERY opportunity. I stood by them when they were 88 all out against New Zealand in an ODI. I stood by them when they were 15/5 against New Zealand in a Test match. When they lost 9 wickets for 29 runs against South Africa in the world cup, I was angry, but I stood by them. I have followed them blindly like a sheep since 2009, in EVERY SINGLE match that they have played. I can't believe what has happened this series, it is a disgrace, it is pitiful and I honestly think that India's Test Status should be revoked.

Some of you are wondering why the series has turned out like this. Team India has a disease. The disease manifests itself in strange ways, in the Indian team the symptoms are laziness in fielding. However recently, the disease has spread to the bowling and the batting.

I personally think that on paper, India is the slightly better team. Some of you may disagree. Either way, I think that we can all agree on paper that there isn't really much difference between them on paper. If both teams gave their 100% effort, then in theory there should be a closely fought contest between the two teams. But there isn't, because the effort hasn't been there from the Indians, and it has been there from England. The England team clearly cares.

When you are selected to play Test Cricket for your country, you should do your very best. Getting selected to play Test cricket for your nation is one of the biggest honours in the sport. I think that this is unforgivable for India and I cannot understand why this has happened. I am extremely upset, and I believe the team owes the fans an apology.

I love cricket, a LOT. I am absolutely crushed by this. I'm hurt and outraged, I actually feel lost. Might as well focus on my studies now, after all I do need to prepare my uni applications.

I am outraged that I have hundreds of pounds worth of Oval tickets here, for a POS dead rubber fixture. I was really looking forward to it. I'm going to day 1 with a mate, (on A Level results day, woo!). I'm going to day 4 with my father, I hardly do anything like this with him, and it was going to be a really good day. Not anymore, I'm not really looking forward to an expensive dead rubber match, I'll probably go anyway, I love cricket too much.

I'm going to be taking a sign to the Oval. Not sure what it's going say, any suggestions?

Here's a few idea I've knocked around:

"Team India: You owe the fans big time"
"Team India: We want an apology and a performance"
"Team India: put some effort in!"

Also - congratulations England. The team really deserves to be number 1. Why? Because the players put the effort in. When you put the effort in, you reap the reward.

Ah well, there's still the ODI series.

And please don't call me the Indian Evangelion. It's unfair to me, and to him, and it's simply not true.

Brb, got some more crying to do.

Thanks for reading
 
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Read it all TC and I wouldn't worry, of course it hurts at the moment but sport is full of highs and lows, and unfortunately the highs only feel good once you've experienced the lows. The highs never last as long as you'd hope either.

As an England fan I have experienced some awful moments in cricket and then the false dawn after the 2005 Ashes, so I can only hope that this series spurs India on to improve their set-up top to bottom. Fletcher is a good man to have around for that sort of project. The Indian players are clearly jaded or reaching the end of their careers (maybe both in some cases) so it's time to freshen up and build for the future and see losing the no. 1 spot as a good thing.
 
One More Solo said:
Read it all TC and I wouldn't worry, of course it hurts at the moment but sport is full of highs and lows, and unfortunately the highs only feel good once you've experienced the lows. The highs never last as long as you'd hope either.

As an England fan I have experienced some awful moments in cricket and then the false dawn after the 2005 Ashes, so I can only hope that this series spurs India on to improve their set-up top to bottom. Fletcher is a good man to have around for that sort of project. The Indian players are clearly jaded or reaching the end of their careers (maybe both in some cases) so it's time to freshen up and build for the future and see losing the no. 1 spot as a good thing.
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I hear what you're saying, but with India the effort is what worries me. Before this series, Dhoni had lost 4 tests as captain. All of those tests were HUGE defeats. Not one of them was a close test. That suggests to me that when Indians get it wrong, they get it badly wrong.

Dhoni can talk about bad luck all he wants, but I feel that it's a fact of life that when you work hard, you create your own luck. They didn't put the effort in and they paid for it dearly.

But India is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most supported sports team in the world. It is disgusting and disgraceful that they can put such little effort in when they have passionate and faithful fans.

Us fans have been conned. Completely conned I think. I think that England could stay top of the rankings for a long time. Even if they don't, their performance will be top notch for a long time.
 
I can't disagree with that, the lack of fight from India has been startling. I disagree with your assessment that India are a better side than England as I think that the Indian batters are marginally better than the English, but the English bowling unit is significantly stronger. India have failed with the bat in this series but they haven't taken 20 wickets in one match and that's a far bigger concern for me, they've looked toothless. That puts enormous pressure on the batting line-up when a competitive score is 500+.
 
One More Solo said:
I can't disagree with that, the lack of fight from India has been startling. I disagree with your assessment that India are a better side than England as I think that the Indian batters are marginally better than the English, but the English bowling unit is significantly stronger. India have failed with the bat in this series but they haven't taken 20 wickets in one match and that's a far bigger concern for me, they've looked toothless. That puts enormous pressure on the batting line-up when a competitive score is 500+.
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Like I said, you may disagree that India's better on paper. But on balance, there's very little to separate the sides on paper, which I think you'll agree with. Which is why this defeat is ridiculous.

To me, it looks like the Indian team management went to a sunday league football match, picked up 11 players, painted them brown, and said "hey, you're coming to play a test series against England"

It's been village cricket at its worst. I regret having put the title like I did. This series has been shocking, I am lost and have no idea what to do. All I want to do is cry, smash up my pc monitor and send the bill to the Indian team.
 
Oh and I stayed away from cricket as much as possible - every time they mentioned it on Sky News in my hotel room, I ran away covering my ears. I literally had no idea about the 3rd test or the score of the 2nd test until this morning.
 
Absolutely, I was expecting a far closer contest but I think the bowling attack has been horribly exposed away from home (which is the biggest test for any team). You can't be a number one team with bowlers struggling to push 80mph, never mind 90mph, and struggling to get any movement. Then you have Harbhajan Singh who seems to have been withdrawn to protect his ego rather than his injury.
 
TC one thing that struck me when we were at Trent Bridge was how much fun, even when getting beaten the Indian fans were. Don't be to down beat mate, it happens. Just go and have a massive laugh with the rest of crowd. Chin up though.

PS looking forward the the windies now as well early next year
 
elmuzzy66. said:
Good to see onions back, i thought he was going to be the next simon jones.
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Agreed. He was performing pretty well as I remember it before he got injured. Would like to see Onions come in for Anderson should he not make it. I don't think Finn would be quite right for this match. Too expensive perhaps. We don't want India making 300+ at all do we? :p
 
Tbh our bowling depth is ridiculous, we lose Tremlett and Bresnan comes in a has a stormer. Anderson becomes doubtful and you still have 2 players, one a great prospect who has taken big wickets and another a seasoned pro who is proven at the top level vying for the spot - no wonder the team is playing at such a high level.

I say even things up for the 4th Test, we'll just bring Cook, Pietersen, Broad and Bresnan, between those 3 we should have the beating of India :p

It's a good time to be an England cricket fan :cool:
 
Agree with you Rich on our bowling depth, never have i seen such number of players all ready for the call.
Nice to see TC back, don't be to worked up about the dead rubber at the oval. You got tickets to see what could be tendulkar last test on english soil + the chance of his 100 100
 
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