England Cricket Thread 2011

[olaftab]

Fair point.

The Pakistan cricket team. Biggest collection of cheats in international sport.

That is an astonishing statement bearing in mind what has gone on  in baseball, boxing, Athletics, Olympic Field Sports  and many football matches every week all over the world!

The Pakistan cricket team have been up to their neck's in it for years,on and off the cricket field.
It's the fans I feel sorry for.

Agreed. There are plenty of cheats in sport but, as sure as night follows day, you can guarantee a whole host of controversy every time we play them.

and that is a shame because it would be good to see them perform competitively without any shenanigans.

[cheltenhamlion]

Totally agree

[taylorsworkrate]

Setting aside the obvious wrongdoings of the players on this occasion, and thinking about the other players who may be involved in this type of thing, I think there are a couple of questions that need answering.

1:  Why are the Pakistani players payed so poorly by the PCB?  Surely this can only encourage players to become involved in shadier things?
2:  Why aren't the PCB protecting their players?  Illegal gambling in South East Asia is a scary business, once these people get hold of players they won't let go.  When players inform the PCB about approaches, aren't they being given an adequate level of support? (Zulqarnain Haider had to flee Pakistan after receiving death threats, due to refusing to become involved in match fixing)

It all well and good castigating the players, but cricket boards have also got to create a enviroment which discourages this type of behaviour.

[Dave Cooper please]

Excellent points twr, and ones that have prompted some people to suggest a rigourous vetting of all Test playing nations, and those that fail on any points should be suspended from first class cricket until they comply.
Unfortunately the ICC are a bunch of toothless, bumbling idiots so it will never happen.

[KevinGage]

To be honest those are worse sentences than I thought they'd get. That is certainly a strong deterrent.

It's ironic that the British Judiciary has done the ICC's job for them.

Question is now how do we prevent an repeat?

The ICC must toughen up and the Pakistani board pay their players a decent salary. As I understand it their players are amongst the poorest paid in world cricket. It's hardly surprising that players heads are turned by, what must be for them, astronomical sums of money.

Got it in one.

TBH -and I'm sure I'll get pelters for this-   I do have a degree of sympathy for them.  Asif and Amir in particular are the probably the equal of many players in other Test nations ability wise, yet their remuneration is far inferior.   I take the point that every delivery could be a potential wicket, but bowling a few no balls is not quite the same as throwing a match. Whatever else they might be, we have to hope that they still had enough drive and determination to believe they could win the game in question at Lords.

The collapse was alarming though -as was their one against Australia in Australia, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.  If it is ever proven that they deliberately underperformed in those games to the extent that they wanted to affect the result, any sympathy I currently have will go out the window.

[PaulWinch again]

Ok this isn't about England(although we are playing South Africa next summer). That day's cricket between SA and Australia is the most insane day ever.

[Somniloquism]

As we seem to be using this as a General Cricket Thread has anyone seen the Scores in the SA v Aus 2nd Test.

1st Innings
Aus 284 (Clarke 151)
SA 96 (only the opening batsmen getting double figures 18 and 37)

2nd Innings
Aus 47 all out (only the last two getting double figures 12 and 14 and at one point being 21 -9. Four Ducks including Ponting)
SA 81 -1 at days close.

Australia almost got the record for the worst innings ever by a Test Side but a closing partnership by Siddle and Lyon spared some blushes. 23 Wickets in total for the day's play.

[PaulWinch again]

As I say, utterly insane.

[TheTimVilla]

I've really enjoyed following it today. If Shane Watson takes 3 wickets in the second innings then he'll have taken more wickets than runs scored. Not bad for an opener!

[VillaZogmariner]

They are going mental about it over here. Demanding that Ponting, Haddin and Hughes are all ditched.

Fan-bloody-tastic.

[OzVilla]

Haddin's shot was particularly poor.  I've been thinking for a while now they need to get Payne in asap - once he's back from injury, I reckon it won't be long.  Average Keeper at best and his shot selection is dreadful for such an experienced Cricketer.

Watson must move down the order to 6, Marsh should open.  They're all to blame though for the 47 - reminds me of a few English performances circa 1993-2003. 

 

[Dave Cooper please]

At 21-9 they were staring at the lowest EVER Test score, now that would have been funny.

[Bernie]

Bizarre indeed, apparently the first time in Test Cricket that all 4 innings have been in progress during one day's play

[cheltenhamlion]

Ha, ha. Poor old convicts!

[Dave Cooper please]

Bizarre indeed, apparently the first time in Test Cricket that all 4 innings have been in progress during one day's play

That is a fantastic statistic.