England v Australia - THE ASHES

[toffeejack]

You do yourself a disservice,sir.

and mods removed rep why? cheers lad, forgotten i'd even said it.

 

[Wat Tyler]

Wiz, you are one of my favourite posters on here. What's with the Ponting dislike? He was a fantastic batsman and, as we are now seeing, a good bloke. He was just an Aussie doing his best for his team.

I always liked Ponting, he was a superb batsman, but I think it has to be said once or twice he did overstep the boundaries, pardon the pun. There's nothing wrong with being competitive but there's a fine line between that and going too far, as he has done a few times with umpires, and that time Pratt ran him out.

Having said all that, the booing he used to get in England was embarrasing, a superb player and a decent enough feller I reckon.

 

[The Equaliser]

Where's Aldo?

Or maybe more pertinent

Where's kithnou?

Deflated apparently, and now in hiding.

 

[The Equaliser]

I always liked Ponting, he was a superb batsman, but I think it has to be said once or twice he did overstep the boundaries, pardon the pun. There's nothing wrong with being competitive but there's a fine line between that and going too far, as he has done a few times with umpires, and that time Pratt ran him out.

Having said all that, the booing he used to get in England was embarrasing, a superb player and a decent enough feller I reckon.

He became a hate figure for the English cricketing media and the crowd bought into it.

Mind you the same happened with Broad and the Australian media.

The Ashes is no place for shrinking violets.

 

[Frank Gallagher]

Wiz, you are one of my favourite posters on here. What's with the Ponting dislike? He was a fantastic batsman and, as we are now seeing, a good bloke. He was just an Aussie doing his best for his team.

Well its probly just an annoyance rather than a dislike.. he always seemed to pull one out of the bag against us!

Gotta admit, great player, and hes adding to the commentary now also

 

[Elong]

He's certainly more likeable than Waugh, Hayden, Warne and co that's for sure.

Do love when an all time great gets in the commentary box, could listen to Gavaskar, Holding, Botham and co talk about cricket for days, and then someone like Strauss enters and it just sounds forced, awkward and like you really don't know jack.

 

[The Mighty Quint]

Made up we got Johnson out as he was creeping up to a century, can't stand the prick, great player, but a massive bellend.

 

[The Mighty Quint]

He's certainly more likeable than Waugh, Hayden, Warne and co that's for sure.

Do love when an all time great gets in the commentary box, could listen to Gavaskar, Holding, Botham and co talk about cricket for days, and then someone like Strauss enters and it just sounds forced, awkward and like you really don't know jack.

One of the highlights of yesterday was Gower being egged on by Botham to shout down the mic to wake up a bloke nodding off with his ear radio in.

Love Botham, what a player, what a guy....what a Mullet and Tash!

 

[ToffeeDoug]

He became a hate figure for the English cricketing media and the crowd bought into it.

Mind you the same happened with Broad and the Australian media....

Rather brought upon himself by cheating though.

 

[Minimeister]

He's certainly more likeable than Waugh, Hayden, Warne and co that's for sure.

Do love when an all time great gets in the commentary box, could listen to Gavaskar, Holding, Botham and co talk about cricket for days, and then someone like Strauss enters and it just sounds forced, awkward and like you really don't know jack.

At least you know with cricket commentators that they've been there and done it and are qualified to pass comment or give advice, except for maybe Nick Knight. It makes it much more watchable then say football when you've got Clarke Carlisle commenting on Jagielka's defending or Jamie Redknapp on Messi's merits.

 

[Minimeister]

Rather brought upon himself by cheating though.

and being a generally unlikeable idiot.

 

[rascal]

It's raining all day in Cardiff today. Had the aussies dug in, in the Geoffrey Boycott sense of the phase, they may have taken a draw.

 

[scratchnsurf]

Rather brought upon himself by cheating though.

Nothing in the rules of the game about walking when you know you're out.

The umpire makes the decision. Granted it was unsportsmanlike in the extreme but it wasn't cheating.

 

[wandyr79]

He's certainly more likeable than Waugh, Hayden, Warne and co that's for sure.

Do love when an all time great gets in the commentary box, could listen to Gavaskar, Holding, Botham and co talk about cricket for days, and then someone like Strauss enters and it just sounds forced, awkward and like you really don't know jack.

Same here but there is good fun in there as well, not all serious cricket talk. Easily the best commentating team in sport, Atherton, Hussain, Bumble, Beefy, Gower have all been together for about 10 years and just seem to be having a chat most of the time. They have always selected the foreign contingent well and Ponting now has joined in and again has fitted in just like Holding, Warne, Smith, etc.

The earpieces are getting a bit of good use as well, especially now the players are starting to wear them. Getting a few yes/no 'interviews' between overs.

In regards to the debate on the 05 teams, the England team this time around remind me of that team in that they are looking to score at a good pace and then working out batsmen with the ball, using all bowlers in different ways. I think Cook, Root and Anderson are the only 3 that you could argue strongly in terms of getting in the 05 side. Ali for Giles is a good shout but Giles worked in that team, we weren't looking for a wicket taking spinner. His job was clear and Ali could not perform that role, over 5 tests like Giles did.

 

[Donald Twain]

If it was easy to score 400 plus in the final innings then it would have happened many times over the years. Test cricket has been around for a long time so not sure that your reference to 'these days' is valid.

It was aimmed at players and teams mentality rather than the actual chasing down the win. The Aussies could have kept England in the field and their bowlers another 3 sessions at least and allowed their own batsmen time at the crease. It looks now to me that if a few wickets go blow it!