The Ashes

[TarJak]

Last day's play nearly ready to roll. The match poised for an interesting days play. IMHO we'll see 5 wickets before lunch today and the Ashes going to Australia.

EDIT: Monty has denied me and England have held on until lunch. I'm now looking forward to the Austraian team getting the ashes some time within the next few hours... It's only a matter of time now!

[bookworm_020]

It all over! The Ashes are Australia's again!!! The Poms can now fall back into that rut they were win before they won them.

I do wish them the best for the remaining matches and I do hope they put up a better fight next time round.

Congrats to the Austrlian cricketers!!!

[SteveW1]

So are there any bets who will win the next test match

[TarJak]

Game over England! The Ashes return to their natural home!

Well done Australia and Warne looking down the barrell of 700 test wickets next match.

What a game!

[Konovalov]

The Ashes are back where they belong.

Congrats to all the boys.

The script couldn't be written any better for Warne. On 699 test wickets with 1 more wicket needed to make the magical 700 mark, he will get that chance on his homeground at the MCG. 80,000 screaming Victorians will witness a great milestone for the hometown boy.

[mr chris]

Just want to say conragats to the Aussies. Hopefully the next series will be a tighter one. I look forward to the one day series now, hopefully England can try and salvage some sort of pride in the last 2 matches and the one dayers.

[Konovalov]

Originally Posted by mr chris

Hopefully the next series will be a tighter one.

I hope so too.

Originally Posted by mr chris

I look forward to the one day series now, hopefully England can try and salvage some sort of pride in the last 2 matches and the one dayers.

Again, I also hope that the last two Tests are tight and tough encounters. If there is a Test that I think England can win then it will be at Sydney. It's not all doom and gloom for the Test side. The long term future for England looks good with a young and exciting batting line up that will only get better with experience. They have a world class spinner who should be an integral part of the England team for the next decade. Not to mention they have a world class pace attack when Simon Jones is fit and they have age on their side. So yeah, there are plenty of positives for England.

However, I can't say much though in terms of England's one day team. They are poor and that is being generous. One of their most consistent and best one day players Marcus Trescothick is back in England. Steve Harmison can't bowl for some strange reason with a white ball. The only sides below England in the ICC One Day world rankings are Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. Hardly encouraging for England on the one day front. If England want to be considered the best cricket nation then they will have to seriously address the ills of their one day game. At the moment England are just simply not good enough and lack the disciplines required and skill of one day cricket.

[STEED]

Originally Posted by STEED

Congratulations to Australia for wining back the ashes.

May as well get it over with, England players don't look like they are up to it and there performance has been like a wet weekend in Manchester.

STEED has a big grin on his face and a smug look.

England tried to stop the Australian bulldozer with a pea shooter and lost, they could not even defend the ashes if they tried. Hang on they did the time has come to sack Duncan Fletcher as coach and have two league tables, England top of the second league ahead of the rest of the world and in the first league all on there own and top of the world Australia.

Moving on to the last two games England had better win them or it will be a double blow ending in a white wash.

[horsa]

England tried to stop the Australian bulldozer with a pea shooter and lost, they could not even defend the ashes if they tried.

Come on , they could do with a bit more support than that. Dismissive generalisations sound great for crowd pleasing, but they don't do justice to the likes of Collingwood, Pietersen, Panesar, Hoggard and various others. The balance between winning and losing is a very fine one and in this case it was badly upset by several factors including some bad selection, muddled preparation, untimely absences and injuries, and a very strong Australian team, on song, and playing in their own back yard.

Talk of “sack Fletcher” doesn’t solve anything either . He is still a very fine coach that England could do well to hang on to. Yes he has made mistakes, particularly with selection ( not his prime role) and arguably the preparation, but he has also had to oversee a damaging succession of disruptions which included the loss of its Ashes winning captain.

[Konovalov]

Well said Horsa.

I'm waiting for the panick merchants in this country to sound off again on how English cricket is broke and that there needs to be radical changes made to the way the game is run in the UK. Sack the coach, sack the ECB, and on and on and on. There is no need for all the doom and gloom. Horsa has it spot on. I hope that for the sake of English cricket and indeed world cricket, that the powers that be listen to those with the thoughtful, objective, and accurate opinion such as the likes of horsa and not to the panick doom and gloom types that come out of the woodwork when anything goes wrong.

Can you believe that an Australian living in the UK is saying this?

[STEED]

England faced the best in the world and they should have put up a better fight but they did not and they paid the price for it.

By the way, I am not saying sack the team but it's time for them to improve in there training a good start would be are weak tail end get that sorted out.

[horsa]

Can you believe that an Australian living in the UK is saying this?

Sounds like some very deft diplomacy to me .
I hope for your sake the Australian thought police are not monitoring your posts.

Actually, now I think about it, one of the lesser known English attributes over the centuries has been the capacity to get other nationals to subtlety do their work for them. Churchill was half American, Wellington was Irish, Waterloo was more a Dutch-Belgian/Prussian affair, Brunel was half French, and the famous archers at Agincourt were Welsh, and lets not even begin talking about the Scots. And if we bring it down to our current topic the most successful member of the England cricket team is Pietersen. There’s no end to it. :hmm:

[Konovalov]

Originally Posted by horsa

Sounds like some very deft diplomacy to me .
I hope for your sake the Australian thought police are not monitoring your posts.

I was taught by Dad to be a modest winner and not a bad looser. Add to that a few years back I was the only Australian standing out like a sore thumb wearing my Wallabies jumper in a local pub that was chock full of England rugby supporters. I remember that wet November morning as I, the lone Aussie, sat amongst dozens of proud and overjoyed England supporters as England defeated the Wallabies thanks to Johnny Wilkinson's magic boot. I will never forget that day as there was respect, kindness, and a great comradery amongst all there that morning.

Oh, Please don't get me started on the party pooper policy of the Cricket Australia/Stadium authorities. It was just pathetic. A smile came to my face when on the first morning of the Perth test I heard that distinctive sound of the English supporter with his trumpet as he sent out the first tune of the morning. Could you imagine all this banning rubbish happening in the Caribbean during the next world cup? No drums, no trumpets, no spectators dancing in the stands? Crazy.

[STEED]

Konovalov in your sig

The Ashes and the urn are back where they belong.

On a flight back to England, to be placed back on a shelf in Lord's cricket ground.

[Konovalov]

Originally Posted by STEED

Konovalov in your sig

On a flight back to England, to be placed back on a shelf in Lord's cricket ground.

That's no problem for me Steed. It's just a short 35-45 minute train ride direct into Marlebone station for me followed by a nice little walk to Lord's. Once the little urn returns back to England from it's tour of my home I will be able to pay it a visit whenever I please.