England's Summer of Cricket against Sri Lanka and India

[Buzzo]

I thought he actually sounded fairly together when he spoke after the game. Obviously disappointed, but not all over the place.

He needs to go, thats pretty clear now. Go away, regain some form and come in and get back to crushing the ball to those 100s like before.

He defended the hooking by saying that the he bet the people complaining about those shots were not complaining when the same shots were hitting the boundaries A pretty hypocritical stance given Pietersen got so much stock for doing the same.

He looked shell shocked, and sounded shell shocked.

[Shaggy]

Total hypocrite.

[Chris]

He's in the delusional stage now, he sounds like a moron. And seems to think himself scoring 50 runs again or something will solve everything. At the moment he's **** and a ****ing cunt.

[Zapater]

Preposterous. I didn't catch it, but him defending the shot selection is crazy. The match situation didn't call for it. Clearly it's not easy, but it's completely possible to last 2 sessions to save a match with 4 or 5 wickets in hand. Batsmen need to show some discipline, even if it means getting hit a few times or riding some difficult periods. Batsmen going out and playing shots like that...

If England were 9 down and scored less than 50 runs but saved the game, no one would say 'Look lads, well done, but the lack of boundries in this match saving innings was definitely a disappointment, we should take on the short ball next time'.

[Alex]

He defended the hooking by saying that the he bet the people complaining about those shots were not complaining when the same shots were hitting the boundaries A pretty hypocritical stance given Pietersen got so much stock for doing the same.

He looked shell shocked, and sounded shell shocked.

Didnt hear all that. That sounds a bit mental too be honest. Only caught his TMS interview.

IMO Prior was the key there. If he stayed around for one more ball, then the new ball would have been different and it would/could have stopped the collapse as India would have changed tact again.

[Buzzo]

Didnt hear all that. That sounds a bit mental too be honest. Only caught his TMS interview.

IMO Prior was the key there. If he stayed around for one more ball, then the new ball would have been different and it would/could have stopped the collapse as India would have changed tact again.

The shots from Prior, Stokes and Root were insane given the circumstances. It's almost as if they were told to go out and swing for the ropes, but to do it when the field was set predicting they would was crazy.

[Buzzo]

He's in the delusional stage now, he sounds like a moron. And seems to think himself scoring 50 runs again or something will solve everything. At the moment he's **** and a ****ing cunt.

That's just it the problems are so many that him getting a 50 means nothing right now. The whole team aren't performing and his leadership is at the heart of it. It feels like they need a complete overhaul, but where do you start and who do you bring in?

[Alex]

Makes a bit of sense to me that Prior could have been swinging for the fences though. Given he is going for surgery now, maybe he didnt fancy a lot of running.

Its pretty stupid to come back into the side knowing you have an injury though, his form is clearly terrible. Knowing the reason for it but doing nothing was a crazy decision.
Smacks of Cook wanting some of his mates around him.

[Chazza]

As Nasser was saying yesterday something along the lines of...

'When Cook looks at himself can he say he makes a difference, is his captaining making a difference to the team? If Michael Clarke doesn't play for OZ does is make a difference? Yes he does, the same cannot be said for Cook'

[captainfog]

Was Clarke making a difference in the 12 months of terrible results prior to them regaining the ashes?

Lehman changed the game for them, not Clarke. You can be as inventive and as pro-active as you like but if your players are miserable and out of form then it won't make the blindest bit of difference.

Captaincy is not irrelevant, but sometimes I think it's importance is overstated.

[EwarWoo]

Clarke was willing to risk losing if it gave them a chance of winning. I think that did have a big part in their fighting spirit.

Go out there and battle, go out with a bang not with a whimper.

By contrast Cook would whimper his way to a draw every day of the week.

[captainfog]

Clarke was willing to risk losing if it gave them a chance of winning.I think that did have a big part in their fighting spirit.

Go out there and battle, go out with a bang not with a whimper.

By contrast Cook would whimper his way to a draw every day of the week.

And they certainly did a lot of that. That whole Warne quote was a load of **** then and it's a load of **** now.

[EwarWoo]

And they certainly did a lot of that. That whole Warne quote was a load of **** then and it's a load of **** now.

Nah, he'd make declarations which were very dicey, fetch the ring in for catches, leave gaps to tempt slogs.

[Chazza]

Trott has hit his first ton since leaving the ashes.

[captainfog]

Nah, he'd make declarations which were very dicey, fetch the ring in for catches, leave gaps to tempt slogs.

And he lost loads of games doing it. They are number one now because of Mitch, not because Clarke's captaincy style. More than one way to skin a cat and we won 3 ashes series on the bounce and got to number one in the world playing a different but just as if not more effective style.

Warne is just a Clarke cheerleader and successfully got the nation to think he's some sort of cricketing tactical genius which he is not. Captains are overrated.