The Cricket Thread

[sweetleftpeg 0]

Never known an Aussie side and press run their mouths off as much as this. Just goes to show how much they're shitting themselves so trying the bravado to try and wind us up.

[Ken 119]

A bit of an implosion there by the Poms. 6/9

 

Just reiterates my belief that this English team aren't as good as they try and make themselves out to be. They've just been playing oppostion that has been poor up until this point, and this Australian lineup is arguably weaker of the lot from recent times. So much for Stuart Broad's assertions from his 'psychologist' about his and his teammates' so-called mental toughness, and I wonder what super-captain Michael Vaughn will be tweeting today?

 

Oh, and Gloomy, Chris Trmlett is the white Shola Ameobi of cricket. Runs in like bambi and delivers piss weak sweet nothings.

[Gemmill 44814]

Fancy that, Ken's found his voice again.

[Tooj 17]

Fuck man. Batsmen letting us down again.

[Tooj 17]

A bit of an implosion there by the Poms. 6/9

 

Just reiterates my belief that this English team aren't as good as they try and make themselves out to be. They've just been playing oppostion that has been poor up until this point, and this Australian lineup is arguably weaker of the lot from recent times. So much for Stuart Broad's assertions from his 'psychologist' about his and his teammates' so-called mental toughness, and I wonder what super-captain Michael Vaughn will be tweeting today?

 

Oh, and Gloomy, Chris Trmlett is the white Shola Ameobi of cricket. Runs in like bambi and delivers piss weak sweet nothings.

 

Embarrassing.

[Meenzer 15518]

Definitely haven't been any Aussies running their mouths off though.

[sweetleftpeg 0]

Ken been sitting waiting for his moment..for 8 years.

[Dr Gloom 21912]

what a spectacular collapse. i went to bed at 2am, with honours about even with England 50 odd for 2. Never saw that coming. The Aussie bowling was looking ordinary and the pitch seemed flat and true. Johnson was spraying down the leg side and Carberry looked comfortable. By the sounds of it, England gave way as many wickets as the Aussies took, but they also roughed us up with some quality pace bowling, the likes of which we haven't faced in a while.

 

to ken, england's batting lineup is over-rated, you're right, but i'd still take them over the aussie top 6. we have players out of form and this series is in your backyard so i expect it to be closer than the drubbing you took at our place but there's a long way to go in the series though so i wouldn't be getting too confident just yet. this england side has consistently recovered from losing starts to win series overseas in recent years.

[David Kelly 1244]

Cook, Trott and Prior need to sort themselves out like. They were poor in the summer and got pulled out of the shit by some fantistic displays by Bell and the odd good innings from Root & KP (along with Broad hanging in a few times at the back end. Ooh er missus). But those three should be big scorers for us and they are struggling badly.

Be interesting to see if the bowlers can make a game of it tomorrow.

[Dr Gloom 21912]

trott's got a big technical problem he needs to fix: he keeps walking across his stumps, trying to anticipate the short ball when he should be keeping his head still. exposes him to lbw too.

 

cook got a good one today but he's out of nick for sure. i thought these bouncy pitches would suit him better than the slow turners he batted on in england in the summer but tbf the aussies know how to bowl to him - don't give him anything to cut or pull and work on him outside off stump, where he's prone to get caught in his crease. he needs to rediscover the way he batted last time out at the gabba, and start leaning his weight into his drives again if we've any chance of saving the match. i think this one could be a get out of jail attempt too far though, this time.

[Ken 119]

Good morning lads. Things are looking even more grim for your lot today if that's at all possible.

 

Been fine viewing watching Swann and Anderson having their spirits ripped out of them as the day has progressed. You'll be able to watch (presumably, if Australia declare) England bat for the final hour of play. Only 6 sessions to defend and avoid a brutal defeat.

[Gemmill 44814]

Get it all out Ken, it's been a long time coming.

[Rob W 0]

we're just lulling them into a sense of security.....................

[Kevin Carr's Gloves 3888]

Tbh England can fuck off for not picking Onions.

[Tooj 17]

They were far more up for this and we weren't up for it at all. A performance that was very reminiscent of the bad old days.

 

I wonder if we've become a bit complacent when playing Australia?

[Dr Gloom 21912]

The preparation for this series has been nothing like it was last time either. Get your excuses in now.

 

We've got to win the next test to keep the series alive as Johnson will get even more out of the Perth pitch. That means winning the toss, batting first and batting big. I can't even remember the last time we made 500. The batsmen have got to get back to basics. These are mostly players with averages in the mid to high 40s. Learning how to deal with proper fast bowling and shot deliveries would be a start.

[Gemmill 44814]

They need to stop being such fucking fannies. Being visibly scared of Mitchell Johnson is not acceptable. Head a couple of his bouncers back to him.

[Tooj 17]

I see Trott's now gone home with a stress-related illness.

[Gemmill 44814]

You have to question the decision to take him, if this was a known issue, which it seems it was.

[Dr Gloom 21912]

not a lot of experience in reserve is there? we could promote bell to 3 i suppose, where he bats for his county but has been mostly shit for england. but then you're looking at bringing in bairstow, found out in the summer, or stokes or ballance, both totally unproven at this level, at 6 and moving root up to 5.

[Tooj 17]

 

 

Another decent man is worn down by the hamster wheel of international cricket, but are the blazers paying attention?

As Jonathan Trott flies home from the Ashes tour to confront the demons which claimed England batsmen Marcus Trescothick and Michael Yardy before him, only bigots and dinosaurs would refrain from applauding his bravery.

Trott's courageous confession to the England management may be a blow to their defence of an antique porcelain urn, but it is a huge step forward for the cause of tackling mental health issues on sport's front line.

Cricket tours are the loneliest places on earth when you are consumed by depression. The nature of the game, and the relentless schedule piled upon players by ignorant administrators, tears at the soul.

The real tragedy of Trott's case is that he won't be the last - especially while pen-pushers in ivory towers agree to the madness of back-to-back Ashes series, with all the accompanying pressures they bring.

In truth, the evidence has been piling up for years, but nobody seems to have taken a blind bit of notice.

Phil Tufnell, the amiable rascal and captain on TV quiz show Question of Sport , spent a night on a psychiatric ward in Perth on the 1994-5 Ashes tour.

Graham Thorpe, his marriage disintegrating and soon to become a public soap opera, became another tormented tour refugee when he flew home from India in 2001.

Trescothick, now the poster boy for cricketers forced to manage the "black wings" of depression, was evacuated from Australia on the 2006-7 Ashes trip and never played for England again.

And Yardy, stressed to breaking point by the sleeplessness and psychological torture of spending only four days at home with his wife and kids in five months, bailed out of the World Cup in 2011.

We don't know all the facts about Trott's case, but we wish him well. His meticulous 'gardening' and scratching out his guard between every delivery has been a constant factor in England's largely successful Test campaigns since his debut in 2009 at The Oval.

But what are the England and Wales Cricket Board going to do about the schedule which reduces highly-trained, professional sportsmen to such unbearable levels of stress?

For years, some of us have been banging on about the sheer lunacy of starting the domestic cricket season early in April and finishing just before the clocks go back - because for every Jonathan Trott, there will be a dozen unheralded county cricketers struggling to make sense of their lives.

Flogging England players to breaking point, with barmy seven-match one-day international series tacked on to the fag end of a long Test campaign, has been asking for trouble.

Back-to-back Test matches place massive physical and mental burdens on all involved, but still they are piled on the slate. And when Trescothick, Trott or another poor sap is overloaded like a glutton's supermarket trolley, nothing is done.

If anyone at Lord's or the ever-useless International Cricket Council is listening, the truth is that Trott's case is only the tip of the iceberg - but on the concert deck of the Titanic, the band is playing on regardless.

The desperately sad case of Jonathan Trott has, at least, put into perspective England's crushing 381-run defeat in Brisbane.

But one aspect of Australia's first win in 10 Tests should not slip by without comment.

There is only one thing worse than sore losers in sport - and that's graceless winners.

Australian captain Michael Clarke's weasel sledging of Jimmy Anderson - "Get ready for a broken f****** arm" - in the dying throes of England's pathetic defeat, was charmless snarling unworthy of a Test captain.

Never mind that it wasn't supposed to be for the consumption of stump microphones - Clarke's words were picked up and broadcast to the world, and it serves him right. It was a cheap shot straight from sledging's Cresta Run school for Aussie bravado.

What are you going to do next to show how hard you are, Pup - get a tattoo?

Clarke can have no complaints about being docked 20 per cent of his match fee after being reported for his 'banter' by umpire Kumar Dharmasena and match referee Marais Erasmus.

The laws of the game, enshrined by MCC, state that captains are responsible for observing the spirit of cricket. There are no references to breaking f****** arms.

We all know Anderson is not short of a choice word or two in the heat of battle, and in Test cricket what goes around, comes around. We all know an Ashes tour is serious business, not a tea party.

But Clarke's macho one-liner was chinless drivel, especially from a captain.

In truth, Australia has always set the bar for trash talking on the pitch. It's only six years ago that the late Peter Roebuck called for Ricky Ponting to be sacked as captain for "turning a group of professional cricketers into a pack of wild dogs" during a fractious series against India.

As far back as 1964, Australian captain Bobby Simpson greeted a bespectacled England debutant called Geoffrey Boycott to the crease by barking to his opening bowler, Graham McKenzie: "Hey Garth! Look at this four-eyed f***** - he can't f****** bat, knock those f****** glasses off him right away."

England are not purer than the driven snow in this regard. After all, we invented Bodyline. It won us the Ashes but nearly cost us an Empire.

Michael Clarke is welcome to set his funky fields, tell Mitchell Johnson to pepper England batsmen or reel off another hundred. But, with respect, when the curtain goes up on the second Ashes Test at the Adelaide Oval, he would serve cricket's image better by refraining from a pub brawler's claptrap.

As they say in thespian circles: Break a leg, mate.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/cricket/ashes-michael-clarke-might-think-2849202?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[Kid Dynamite 7025]

Bad news. I've heard he's a bit of a cunt in person though

[Gemmill 44814]

5Live have got a series of podcasts called 5Live Specials, and they did one yesterday on depression in cricket, which is worth a listen.

 

They've also done one called Project Ashes and an interview with Broad.

 

Not worth subscribing to, cos there's too much rugby shit, but worth checking in from time to time to see what the latest episodes are.

[Ken 119]

England team conspicuously quiet (even to their own media outlet) in transit today. Not sure what is being spoken about over there but I hope the English media would not be trying to blame the sledging on Trott's early departure of the tour.

[Gemmill 44814]

Nobody is Ken. Irrespective of that though, Warner in particular has made himself look a total cunt.