The Ashes

[EwarWoo]

Windies are going to stroll this. Moores is going to get sacked.

Nah, the win will save him and cook. Unfortunately.

[Buzzo]

Interesting.

I can't see this going down well at all.

Bottom line, England should have won. Blaming it on comments from the newly elected Chair of the ECB, who has made up his mind to come in and stir things up a bit seems absolute folly. Its a weak excuse from a weak Captain who should know England threw that last game away.

Colin Graves' 'mediocre' comments gave West Indies team talk - Cook

Calling West Indies "mediocre" on the eve of the Test series gave them their team talk, claimed England captain Alastair Cook. England were dismissed for 123 in their second innings on the way to losing the final Test by five wickets - and drawing the series 1-1.
England and Wales Cricket Board chairman-elect Colin Graves said there would be "some inquiries" if England did not beat the hosts.

"It's not ideal timing," Cook said. "That's a Yorkshireman for you - they're quite happy to talk a good game," Cook told BBC Sport. "A comment's a comment, and it's his right as chairman to say what he wants, but it's never ideal against an opposition you're about to play. "It gives everyone else a team talk, we know that. But we can't control anything about that. If we'd played to our potential and taken our opportunities it would have been irrelevant."

West Indies all-rounder Jason Holder also referred to Graves' comments after the final Test, tweeting "not bad for a mediocre side". Cook claimed that Graves' comments had not put any extra pressure on him or coach Peter Moores and that they "don't worry about external stuff any more". "For the majority of the series we did a lot of good stuff but when the pressure came on in the third innings we didn't bat very well," Cook said.
"It was a bit of a common theme in the series in terms of absolutely nailing them when we had the opportunity."

However, former England captain Michael Vaughan - who has been linked with the new director of English cricket role - tweeted: "Losing a Test and drawing a series against a very young West Indies team. I can't accept that the team are getting better."
And former England opener Geoffrey Boycott, speaking on Test Match Special, called for an inquiry. After a drawn first match, England took the lead in the series with a nine-wicket win in Grenada. Asked about not playing specialist spinner Adil Rashid in the final match in Barbados, Cook said: "The spinning thing will always be an issue when we don't pick a specialist spinner but that's a bit harsh on Moeen Ali with the amount of wickets he has taken. "He hasn't quite got it right. It's another lesson for him and he'll get better for that."

[RichC]

Yeah I don't think that's going to wash at all. A dismal 3 test performance in reality against a side that is in reality mediocre, Graves was quite right and expecting a win against the Windies was certainly not asking too much.

[Shaggy]

Embarrassing from Cook. I've reached the point where I feel like I hate him.

And Strauss? Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. What a joke.

[Buzzo]

Yeah, Strauss is a company man for sure.

[Chazza]

[ame]https://twitter.com/ShaneWarne/status/595178436395696128[/ame]

[EwarWoo]

Embarrassing from Cook. I've reached the point where I feel like I hate him.

Reached that point ages ago. The whole KP thing has shown him up to be a cunt and he's a **** house bottler of a captain.

Not that KP is a darling, but at least the blokes an honest cunt.

Sack Moore, sack Cook, make Bell captain short term whilst Root is groomed, get KP back.

I've pretty much given up on watching us lately. It pisses me off too much.

[Buzzo]

I can't stand Cook either.

Yeah, I think KP 'tells it like it is' and that seems to have been his undoing on many occasions. He doesn't respect the hierarchy, and at the ECB, you are always going to get slaughtered for that. But his opinions are strong, and ultimately on many occasions he has proven to be correct. England could do worse than listen to him - he is clearly the only representative of Modern Cricket England have, and the likes of Root and Balance could learn loads from him.

There is the makings of a good team there for England, but with an over reliance of miracle spells from either Anderson or Broad you wonder how they will ever take 20 wickets from NZ or in the Ashes.

[dww]

The bowling is a real issue. I think the batting lineup will sort itself out given experience.

I think Strauss will be a lot more adept at the cricket politics. His first job will obviously be to sack or back Moores. Seems to me that a lot of people think he doesn't rate him. So, could be more interesting times ahead than people think.

I thought Moores would do better with a younger team but he doesn't seem to have really sharpened anything up. Possibly better in the field but that's much more icing than cake.

[Alex]

Trott retired.

What a sad way to bow out. Shame we couldn't ease him back in properly, and not in an unfamiliar position.

[Chazza]

Don't think you can get much of an easier re introduction tour than the West Indies at the minute.

Shame for him.

[RichC]

I think in hindsight Trott should never have returned to the side, clearly not up to it mentally.
Real shame but him doing this is for the best

[Vermilion]

@ Boycott.

[Shaggy]

I think in hindsight Trott should never have returned to the side, clearly not up to it mentally.
Real shame but him doing this is for the best

He did score some runs when asked (England A etc), to be fair to him. Would've been much fairer on him to reintroduce him at 3, but Ballance has done nothing wrong so I accept it was difficult. But having him open was pretty unfair.

[Shaggy]