Somewhere, on the other side of the world, there was an important cricket match in a very important tournament being played. However, as England’s interest in this tournament ended prematurely in humiliating circumstances, we’re left to discuss off-field shenanigans and the usual political crap.
So what’s happened in the last 48 hours? We know Paul Downton was summoned to Lord’s for a meeting with the ECB top brass on Tuesday. George Dobell suggested the dark lord’s job was on the line – it might well have been – but as yet we’ve heard nothing. Those of us who wanted immediate blood will have to be patient.
In today’s Telegraph, Nick Hoult suggests that Colin Graves and Tom Harrison will bide their time before making any decisions about Downton, James Whitaker and Peter Moores. This is probably wise – although it’s also a bit frustrating.
Apparently Graves wants to do a holistic review of England’s problems before making any big decisions. Translation: Giles Clarke would lose too much face if the imbeciles running the England team are sacked, so change is unlikely while he’s still clinging to power at ECB HQ.
I imagine reform will only come when Graves officially takes office and Clarke skulks off to the ICC … leaving a silvery trail behind him no doubt.
The current situation is therefore this: England lost the Ashes 0-5 and were knocked out of the World Cup at the group stages, yet absolutely nobody has been sacked … except for Kevin Pietersen.
I’m not sure how many of you listen to TalkSport, but Piers Morgan was a guest on their Drive programme yesterday afternoon.
Whatever you think of Piers – and I happen to find him quite amusing as long as I agree with the points he’s making (otherwise it’s a different story!) – he knows a thing or two about rattling cages.
He made an interesting point I’ve not heard before. He said it was nonsensical that Jonathan Trott, who famously withdrew from the Ashes tour after the first test, has been rewarded with an international recall whereas KP, who played through injury and stuck out the whole tour, remains on the sidelines.
Piers’ argument was based on the premise that Trott, by his own admission, did not actually suffer any kind of mental illness (he claimed he was simply ‘burned out’); therefore he didn’t necessarily deserve the sympathy he received. He stopped well short of calling him a quitter, but said Trott was rattled by Mitchell Johnson in Brisbane and would presumably have the same problems again this summer.
Although I don’t agree with Morgan’s position on this – although Trotty says he was simply burned out, I believe there were other problems too – I think it’s a decent point.
Graeme Swann also fled the tour when the going got tough, but the ECB didn’t demonise him. Their bile was reserved especially for a player who cared enough to stick around and tell the captain and coach where they were going wrong.
Ok, I admit that KP is probably about as diplomatic as Vladimir Putin with a hangover, but it’s an interesting angle. Is it better to pack your bags and go home or stick around and complain? Neither are ideal but the ECB’s response couldn’t have been more different.
Just for the record I’m glad that Trotty has been recalled and I wish him all the best. There is a vacancy in England’s top order, so why not fill it with a man who has scored almost 4000 test runs at an average of 46.5 (an average that’s higher than the captain’s)?
Although Trott has occasionally been exposed against genuinely quick bowling, he’s not alone in this regard. And who’s to say that he can’t improve? Steve Waugh once struggled with the short stuff.
Trott has also proved himself to be a prolific accumulator at test level. England’s cupboard is pretty bare at the moment, so why not bring a known quantity who can cash in when the opportunity arises?
In other news, Alastair Cook popped up with a few interesting comments on Wednesday. It seems the ECB’s pussycat has claws after all.
Cook criticised the decision to drop him before the World Cup and said the selectors got it ‘wrong’. He then took an apparent swipe at Eoin Morgan – who as far as we know did absolutely nothing to betray Cook or undermine him – and Peter Moores by arguing the side lacked leadership.
Presumably Cook would have provided this ‘leadership’ had the ungrateful idiots not taken the chance away from him … the rotters!
I’ve never pretended that dear old Alastair is my favourite person or batsman – although I have felt sorry for him at times – but I found these comments absolutely remarkable. He came across as a bitter brat with a hugely inflated sense of self-worth
I was immediately reminded of Pitt the Younger in Blackadder The Second: the insecure teenager with a pout Posh Spice would die for.
Let’s just look at the facts for a second. Cook was dropped precisely because he was unable to provide kind of leadership he’s talking about. He was also failing miserably as a batsman – something he’s done for two years now.
In my opinion Cook has been mollycoddled somewhat throughout his career and been given extra chances that other players (who aren’t model ECB cricketers) would never get. He should be grateful. Stamping his feet like a toddler who’s had his bag of sweeties confiscated does him no credit whatsoever.
I wonder who Cook thinks he should have replaced in the side? Moeen was one of only two English players to score a century (we might have lost to Scotland had he failed in that game) while Bell averaged fifty in the World Cup.
Although Bell failed to convert his fifties into tons, and often stagnated in the middle overs, at least he actually made some bloody runs. Cook hasn’t scored a century since Pitt the Younger was just a glint in William Pitt, the first Earl of Chatham’s eye. Get over yourself mate.
Cook’s words not only revealed a dark side to his personality – which seems more Marty Ziff than Ned Flanders – they also seemed foolish from a strategic standpoint.
Downton, Moores and Whitaker have been Cook’s staunchest allies. Annoying them might come back to haunt him.
James Morgan
@DoctorCopy
Cook makes me ill – bringing up my dinner kinda ill. There are better batsman in England, and better leaders. Maybe not too many, but at least enough to put into a test team. Everything he’s done of note is now historic. That interview threw everyone else under a bus whilst conveniently forgetting his own big and recent failures. What a narcissist, or did I hear him wrong?
James! Cross face! Perhaps dear Cooky was mollycoddled because he had the potential to be a prolific run scorer. Which turned out to be the case. Ungrateful lot that we have on here. Never the less, enjoyed the post and had to agree with most of it. :-)
nevertheless! :-)
There can be no mollycoddling in international sport. Teams should be picked on merit. Cook has an identical test record to Bell and Trott, who have often been much maligned and would never stay in the side if they batted terribly for two years.
Cook has been a good player for England, but he’s gone missing in four Ashes series out of five, and he always gets a longer rope than other players because he’s the ECB’s model cricketer – which is also why he was made captain despite showing zero aptitude for the job. Right sort of family etc.
I much preferred it when Cook was one of the quieter unassuming players in the rank and file. He just got on with his job. The favouritism shown towards him – all this guff about him being world class when he averages considerably less than the 50 benchmark, and various journalists swooning etc – just makes the rank and file dislike him. His comments this week aren’t helping.
Does averaging 50 as the benchmark for a world class player still apply when the player is an opening batsman? Have there been that many great opening batsman, who would still qualify as a world class batsman? The role of an opener is different to your middle order players, so I don’t know if the same criteria should still apply
I thought this was an interesting point that you raised so I did a bit of research. First things first, Alastair Cook averages 45.61 as an opener, with 23 hundreds. If you take averaging 50 as the yardstick for world class though, then very few people have done that while batting as an opener (average only as opener, not career average!), and even fewer still have done so over a career as an opener as long as Cook has had.
In fact only 3 in the last 40 years or so, Sunil Gavaskar (50.29), Matthew Hayden (50.73) and Virender Sehwag (50.06).
As it happens I don’t think Cook has been a world class batsman, but not because he doesn’t average 50. His technique is flawed and he can’t dominate an attack like you would associate with a world class player. But still he has been a great opener for England, even when taking into account his recent form struggles the last two years. But a world class opener isn’t necessarily the same as a world class batsman. Exhibit A being Geoffrey Boycott.
Some good points here. I think it’s appropriate to bring no3s into the equation too though, as they’re often batting within the first ten overs.
A lot of teams are currently unsettled at the opener position, and although I certainly think Cook has been a good player for england, the technical issues are my main problem. I’ve looked at all his test tons in detail, and only 3 (or maybe 4) came against top quality bowlers at the top of their game. I think both Trescothick and Vaughan (when the latter was opening) were much better players than Cook. They even faced better bowlers (mcgrath, Warne, Murali etc). Vaughan’s run in the 2002 Ashes (have I got the year right?) down under was astonishing. Best I’ve seen an england opener play. Shame his batting regressed when he became capt and moved down the order. Cook simply doesn’t have the talent to play innings like Vaughan’s in that tour.
Right on James. But Cook has been mollycoddled for all the wrong reasons.
I feel suitably chastised. :-(
I’m now going into rant mode. It is not personal Jenny. I’m just pissed off with all this stuff.
Cook probably was mollycoddled because his potential was seen and yes he did become a good batsman. However despite all that he has now chosen the worst possible time to throw all his toys out of his pram whilst flinging his rattle at the very people who did “mollycoddle” him. “Ungrateful lot we have on here?” It is Cook who has been damn ungrateful to those who have propped him up over the past year of excessive failure.
Moreover! Cook has acted like a spoiled brat since the Ashes Tour. He’s a damn useless captain and because of his damn huge ego — built up primarily by Flower, Downton, Clarke and Gooch and later by Whittaker and Moores — he allowed himself to be manipulated by these people to get rid of KP, whilst Cook blamed everyone else for his own failure. After all this stuff Cook still doesn’t get it, does he?
I have swung from being bloody angry with the selfish, self-absorbed prat to feeling sorry for him and now I am most seriously pissed off with Cook.
If anyone is ungrateful it is Cook. He is now biting the hands that have fed him all the crap for the past year and half. If he thinks he has been hard done by for being the prime failure, what the hell does he think KP feels like? Oh I forgot the failure of the
Ashes was all KPs fault. Why is it that I just cannot remember that little nugget.
Having read Cook’s appalling diatribe I can now see why KP had to go and why Cook was instrumental in that disgraceful and spiteful circus. Cook was jealous, insecure and just could not allow a senior player to tell him that the team were going the wrong way. Flower hated KP and wanted revenge and used Cook to get it. Cook just couldn’t stand a senior player saying what he thought. So Cook screwed KP over along with his mate Prior!
Ungrateful? You betcha. Cook is one helluva ungrateful miscreant. He needs to grow up and stop acting like the brat he has become.
Okay rant over. I feel so much better now.
That’s telling it some Annie. Between you and James I think I should go an stand in the corner. Or sit on the naughty step with Cooky. :-)
cook doesnt get naughty steps look for useless jerk step
Lighten up, it’s only fun.
No you shouldn’t. You have every right to your opinion. I’m just letting off steam. Just really felt so much better after that. Cheers Jenny.
Pleased to be able to bring you a little happiness :-)
Anne consider that firmly hitting the nail on the head! Bravo!
Oh Cheers. I was so despondent and so fed up with the whole damn fiasco. I don’t want to see our team going to the dogs and England Cricket become a laughing stock on a world wide stage, but this is the upshot of a disastrous management “scheme” to effect vengeance. Nothing more and nothing less. The ensuing mess has, as we can all see, caused untold damage to our team and England’s reputation. This stuff may last now for years. So angry with these morons at the ECB. Just hoping that Graves will make the necessary changes that have to happen for England Cricket to move on. If he doesn’t have the bottle then I really do think England Cricket will go into terminal decline.
I share your sentiment and sadly think we have already become a laughing stock. My immediate concern is that a win over a shambolic Windies side papers over the cracks and results in the likes of Clownton, Twit et al clinging to another hollow win as they have done against a disinterested Indian side.
Graves is a fearsome operator and does not suffer fools. If he adopts his usual approach and style I am confident that he will be push through significant change. If the dark powers at the ECB try to neuter him I would expect a fall out and Graves consider his position. His start can’t come soon enough!
Well said Annie, your passion tells me everything I need to know about you, I appreciate that a whole lot more than facetious little quips. Good on you girl.
Deepest apologies Vanessa. Your message has been understood. I must learn to refrain from levity when there are serious matters at hand. Rest assured I am extremely contrite and humbled about this lack of awareness. Will try to do better in future.
‘By this lack of awareness’ Can’t get anything right. Need a sub editor.
loving it Annie, that’s cheered me up on a dullish Sundat!
“Perhaps dear Cooky was mollycoddled because he had the potential to be a prolific run scorer.”
In Tests, absolutely. But ODIs? Cook was never going to be the kind of destructive opener that England need (and still haven’t quite got the guts to go with).
I can agree with that. I have the up and coming test series in mind. Heart in mouth. Not encouraged by the magnificent T/20 35 :-(
A lamb – no, mutton, to his own slaughter – (apparently he scored a cracking 35 off 26 balls for MCC v Sussex as he lead them to T20 defeat in Dubai today…)
I heard. :-(
Hells bells. Says it all aye? Was he captain? No please don’t tell me I think I will lose me dinner.
No I think Compdog was the captain.
you mean he was scoring at a strike rate 130 boy is he feeling the confidence
Another good piece. Piers has a habit of saying things that you can’t help but agree with, no matter how annoying you may find him!
I thought Cooks comments were either naìve in the extreme, or very calculated. My feelings veer towards the latter. He is more on the inside than most. He must know that the new guys will come in and will want to sit down and speak to everyone involved. Read between the lines here, he’s saying that the selectors got it wrong, that he wanted to stay as captain and they removed him. He also implied that had he been captain we would have made it out of the group (I nearly spat my tea when I read that!). He’s distancing himself from the people that made the decisions and positioning himself to jump in with the new guys. If he backs the selectors then his position becomes untenable if they are removed.
Personally I think his time as a relevant player has passed. The game as a whole has moved on light years in just the last year and a half. Run a ball (or less) hundreds are becoming commonplace in tests, double hundreds in ODI’s and strike rates approaching 130 in limited overs cricket are more and more common. I don’t see this trend slowing down any time soon. Quite the opposite in fact. Cook is looking less and less relevant as time passes. Can anyone honestly say that the test team would be worse if Cook wasn’t in it?
If he rediscovers his mojo Cook can still be a good test player for England, even if he’s becoming a bit of an anachronism. What worries me is that his technique has been found out. Pitch it up, outside off, is hardly a revolutionary plan but it’s been working for teams against Cook for a long time now. His international future may well depend on the fitness of Ryan Harris in this summer’s Ashes.
Wouldn’t it be bummer for Cook if KP made the team and Cook didn’t. Final irony of ironies.
I agree with you that this is Cook trying to play politics. It looks as if he thinks Whitaker is for the chop and is positioning an in-tray labelled ‘Blame’ outside the selectors’ door.
Also agree that his day as a player is passed. Even in Tests. But some people inside cricket are obviously still convinced he’s going to be the highest run-scorer ever in the history of the world and the universe.
Piers Morgan should STFU though. Brett Lee had the right idea there.
He’ll have had a chance to get over injuries and work on his game anyway. It isn’ t as though the ecb setup is going to be any better at fixing his problems than anyone else’s.
Still, when is the last time he has done well vs a good attack?
I think it might have been Durban, circa 2009?
Why should Piers Morgan STFU? His comment about the selection of Trott is correct. Brett lee showed a huge lack of sportsmanship when he bowled like he did at Morgan
Go read LCL’s Being Outside Cricket posts titled ‘Soap’ and Shower Gel’ – pure class!
Yep, big time classy. The total lunacy of it all summed right up.
SOAP REDUX is an absolute corker.
Cook’s comments are in some ways even more hilarious than Whitaker’s recent interview. The consensus is virtually universal in the English press that “something needs to change”. but I haven’t seen a single one saying “We need to revert to Cook’s style.”
I’m sure he’s taking the chance to distance himself from Downton & Co before a fall, but that hardly makes his comments any less naive or risible. PR is no more his thing than captaincy.
…and the sheep (hearder) shall inherit the (ECB) dearth…
Yay!
Guardian headline:
Alastair Cook lets bat do the talking for MCC against Sussex in Dubai
he scored 35
Ron – 35 off 26 balls, yet he still captained MCC to a T20 defeat
and lead the team to a loss?
Personally think Morgan’s comments about Trott were disgraceful. It doesn’t matter whether Trott was burnt out, depressed, weary or various other badges you could pin on him. The bloke had mentally gone, he admitted it and did the best thing. He removed himself from the battle. To bring it into the KP argument is nasty.
I think it was unfortunately phrased. Trott should not have been sent out there, if he had a manager of any competence to look after his welfare. KP was pushed out by the same incompetent because, as we all know, he didn’t like him.
I agree. I have absolutely no time at all for someone who thinks Jonathan Trott is a suitable candidate for a kicking, yet can put the likes of Rebekah Brooks on a wholly unwarranted pedestal. Basically I think he’s a fatuous gobshite I have the misfortune to agree with on one particular subject.
On the flip side, I wish some cricket writers would address what clivejw and myself were saying for over a year on the Guardian forums: Trott had a phenomenal first year and nine months, but had been very ordinary for two and a half years before the 2013/14 Ashes. His highest score in a home Test since May 2011 is 76, and his average basically goes from “better than George Headley” (66.77) to Mike Gatting (36.29) if you take May 2011 as the cut-off point. I think people are in danger of getting very nostalgic about Cook and Trott this summer: the former has a truly lousy home record against Australia (his home Ashes average as an opener is – genuinely – lower than Mike Brearley’s) and the latter just hasn’t done it in England since the peak Flower era, and certainly not against strong bowling attacks except in the tainted Lord’s Test against Pakistan in 2010.
Those who posit arguments against Pietersen based on his most recent Test form seem to be many, even though *his* average merely went from Denis Compton to Graham Thorpe after January 2009 (i.e. not much of a dip at all, historically speaking). Yet those who point out Trott’s precipitous decline are few, and those who know Cook has comfortably the lowest home Ashes average of the seven England openers to play at least two full series since 1972 even fewer. Strange.
Spot on re: Cook and Trott. But I’d broaden the debate slightly and remind people that the vast majority of England’s batsmen where somewhat in decline during the last 18 months or so of Flower’s tenure.
James, it wasn’t only their averages that declined but their SRs. I can’t remember the exact figures but there is a table in Simon Wilde’s ‘On Pietersen’ (very good book by the way) comparing SRs before and after the away Ashes’ win. Trott and Pietersen remain almost the same – the rest (Cook, Bell, Prior, various replacements for Strauss) decline and in some cases like Prior decline massively.
Whether this was a result of circumstances (form, better oppositions, match circumstances) or team orders it would be intriguing to know. I thought at first it had to be the former – now I’m not so sure. If it is the latter then Pietersen’s great later knocks (the 149 and 186 especially) become even more remarkable.
I agree with that James.
Teams like Empires rise and fall. It’s the way things go. Not sure that any one person could be held entirely responsible.
To be picky, Gooch was also sacked, as were England’s fielding coach and the leg-spinning coach. Don’t know if their masterchef is still there
Another good read James. I find Piers’ comments re Trott difficult to agree with but I can understand the argument and would rather focus on Swann’s appalling actions.
The inconsistency in the treatment of KP is beyond embarrassing for the ECB. I hope Graves brings out a very large broom and sweeps away the crew of incompetent buffoons in Clownton, Twitaker, Moores and Cook.
Cook’s comments this week were self indulgent, arrogant, deluded and finally disrespectful to an England captain. Correct me if I’m wrong but I recall these were accusations that led to the sacking of a certain batsman who top scored in a shambles of an ashes series led by captain fantastic. I await the news that Cook has received the similar punishment of being sacked.
As we know the ECB’s love of Cook will protect him and we will continue to suffer with a captain who will never be a leader and is a spent force as a batsman who was long since found out.
I can’t bear to comment on Twitaker’s interview other than Pat Murphy should be applauded for sticking to his guns and giving the fool a hard time. Shame more journos can’t be more like that instead of being in the ECB’s pocket….
Amen to that!
237*
Difficult to imagine the ‘wrongly sacked’ Alastair batting through an innings quite in that manner….
and mildly surprising that such a score came from McCullum’s opening partner, and not the man himself.
Not a bad opening pair to have.
Let’s not forget that begore this World Cup Moores was very public in his assertion that 270 would be a good score. Those who are Moores apologists conveniently forget this. England were light years behind in their approach, and this WAS A DELIBERATE STRATEGY. Yes the players must take some blame, but perhaps they took their foot off the has in the middle overs because they were playing to Moores’ plan. For the england coach to get things so horribly wrong is an embarrassment. He should be sacked immediately for this alone. How is he qualified for the job when so obviously out of touch?
There is no case for retaining Moores, period.
Looking at the NZ innings, they did take their foot of the gas for a few overs. It was their ability to accelerate (to around 13 an over in the last 10) which was remarkable.
Strategy be damned – you play to the pitch, something that preprogrammed England just don’t seem able to do.
Even the guy who scored a double hundred today said it took a bit of getting in at the start – and his opening partner showed what sometimes happens when you throw caution to the winds.
“Let’s not forget that begore this World Cup Moores was very public in his assertion that 270 would be a good score. ”
Maybe he meant per player??? – foresight???? – ouch!!!!!!!!!!
I agree with Vaughan: the ECB’s political bullshit has turned English cricket into a soap opera.
I wonder if they’ve done it deliberately because they don’t actually know how to run cricket in England and they’re desperately trying to distract people from realising that by any means possible?
Absolutely right. Lord Cannis has been writing his daily Soap opera on the ECB this week. Corkers, every single one of them, especially Soap Redux.
Great post James.
I have total sympathy with Trott, and he was honest to admit he needed to go home. I have no problem with his actions. Perhaps if Flower had spent less time with 87 page diet sheets he might have noticed there was a huge problem. I have no truck with Swann however. The rumour has always been that he got wind he was going to be dropped and retired before it happened, and then buggered off home.
However both of these incidents are relevant to KP. He stuck it out and finished the tour, despite injury. His reward? To be shat on by the ECB and demonised for not showing enough interest. How much interest did Swann show? This brings home the double standards that the ECB uses to judge players. If your face fits you can do and say what you like and no grudge will be held. If your face doesn’t fit, then you will be punished.
As for Cooks stupid comments, Iam glad he has done so. It proves him to be the petulant , self obsessed, brat we all thought. I was always suspicious why the media kept having to tell us over and over what a nice man he is. Usually a sign they are lying.
I said last year after England beat India that Cook doesn’t no it yet, but his usefulness to the ECB was over. Had England not turned around that series Downton, Moores, and Cook would have been sacked. He saved their bacon, and in doing so killed off any real chance of KP coming back. But he also made his own job more insecure. Cook not being the sharpest knife in the draw could not see this, and so it came as a big surprise when the ECB dumped him from the ODI side. They could do it because KP was safely out of the picture.
Some have said he is playing politics to align himself with the new regime. I don’t think so. He’s too stupid and arrogant to play those kind of strategy games. Just look at his unimaginative captaincy . No, Cook believed his on media image, and was then shocked to discover he was not undropable after all.
with gayle resting out due to back injury, WI team is bound to be one more xfactor less so guess it will be 3-0 win for eng mainly exploiting their batting where apart from chanders cant see others putting much of a fight,So moores will be praised again and at worst will be made a test only coach, Cook will probably once again be THE leader who turns it around with a iron rod atleast till boult and southee turn up.
Gayle’s best days are way behind him and I would take Brathwaite, for instance, ahead of him in everything but T20.
Given that the Caribbean is coming off its first class season and also that the board and selectors seem to be feckless and at odds with the senior players, there might be a pretty different team. I hope to see at least some players who had good PCL performances play.
Just please no Marlon Samuels.
As far as I know West Indies have never been whitewashed at home. Even against South Africa and Australia (most recent tours), they did manage to sneak in a draw (2-0 losses in 3-Test series). So to expect England to do what no team has done, is a bit optimistic, I’d say.
yet the present WI are the weakest after that tuffle with their board. More than talent which their newcomers may have they are way too inexperienced.Thats the reason i feel an undeserved whitewash is possible
I would take absolutely nothing for granted. We performed dismally against Bangladesh and to my mind that could happen again at any time. We still have fitness issues with Broad and Anderson and we are missing Woakes and Ali. I hope Stokes comes good and i am pleased to see Plunkett in the team. We have talent in the batting but no one needs reminding of our lack of consistency and fragilty, not to mention the doubts surrounding Alistair Cook. I like to look on the bright side and I’m hoping the best but I would not put money in the result.
Very interesting read:
http://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket-world-cup/2322850/martin-guptill-five-unknown-facts-about-the-talented-right-hander/
For example, Guptill is one of only a handful of batsmen who has made a century in all international formats. Yet he has never attracted a bid in the IPL – good evidence that being successful in the IPL auction isn’t easy (or necessarily that logical) and that the comments in the English media about Pietersen’s supposedly lowly price are both churlish and clueless.
Guptill comes from humble origins and has overcome considerable personal misfortune (especially a childhood accident). Very good luck to him – and I hope the IPL wake up to him next year!
Guptill has struggled a bit over the years, Tried in tests, he was a bit up and down, fell out because of injury and didn’t do enough to force himself back in. Its not entirely surprising the IPL havent noticed him. Most NZers would rate him well behind McCullum, Williamson and Taylor.
From an England point of view though its interesting to see a good (but not great) batsman really come on as a ODI player. England have plenty of players around about the same class as he is but could you really see them making ODI double tons. And oh yes, expect to see him next year in the BBL and IPL. Good luck to the Guppie.
We should whitewash the Windies fairly easily. They only have one world-class Test batsman (Chanders) and bowler (Roach).
The only real advantage they have over us is express pace in their attack (although I’m encouraged to see Plunkett back in our squad – it’s time we started picking genuine quicks again).
The differing attitude to Trott and Pietersen is due to the ECB`s especial bile towards those who impinge on the hierarchical perogatives of it`s bosses-the ECB is one of the most self interested and self regarding organisations in the country and Pietersen has his own opinions which he`d like to share- as if he doesn’t have a right to them, and a right to be heard ,as one of England cricket`s greatest match winners of the last 10 years.
I can`t see why he`s bothering to engage with the ECB- after the West Indies series the England team will probably lose every game and the ECB should be left to stew in its own juice.
Alistair Cook just out for 3 vs. Ryan Sidebottom (MCC vs. Yorkshire)
To be fair, Yorkshire would give any England team (other than one which fielded all, rather than half a dozen of their best players) a pretty good game at the moment.
QED actually – I don’t know if any of you have read the front page of the Sunday Times’ Sports section – apparently Cook has been “given an assurance” that KP will not be in the England set-up by Graves of all people.
Apart from words failing me, it seem s with Cook’s latest performance, he won’t be around much longer to have a veto over such matters – and good riddance too seemingly!
Straight from cook’s kitchen
http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/jim-holden/565532/Kevin-Pietersen-Alastair-Cook-England-cricket
‘scuse me, I’m gonna throw up ….. uuggggghhhhhh
Who is Jim Holden? How delusional can you get.How is English cricket ever going to be sorted when we have journos writing total rubbish like that.?Even Cookie must be rolling on the floor with laughter.Wonder what KP did to Mr Holden.Yes I could understand how you felt Ron
I thought it couldn’t get any lower than Selvey but this Holden takes the biscuit. What a truly awful piece of writing. I can only imagine its a wind up to get his name talked about. Will not be reading that paper anytime soon if that’s the quality of journo it employs.