The Cricket Thread 2016

[PaulWinch again]

England have got pretty ragged here.

[Chris Jameson]

Posts like this only add to my befuddlement about the phrase "nah, I don't like cricket".
My boy's four. If he doesn't like football, I'll be disappointed, but I reckon I'll get over it.
If he doesn't like cricket, I'll be gutted.

My son had a couple of seasons playing cricket but I realised he wasn't enjoying it. I was gutted but wasn't going to force him to play something he clearly didn't enjoy, used to love going along to watch when all you heard was encouragement and support from parents and coaches and opposition players being respectful unless they were playing Harrogate Cricket Club. Nothing like the atmosphere at a lot of junior football matches and some of the parents and coaches you encounter.

[paul_e]

Posts like this only add to my befuddlement about the phrase "nah, I don't like cricket".
My boy's four. If he doesn't like football, I'll be disappointed, but I reckon I'll get over it.
If he doesn't like cricket, I'll be gutted.

My son had a couple of seasons playing cricket but I realised he wasn't enjoying it. I was gutted but wasn't going to force him to play something he clearly didn't enjoy, used to love going along to watch when all you heard was encouragement and support from parents and coaches and opposition players being respectful unless they were playing Harrogate Cricket Club. Nothing like the atmosphere at a lot of junior football matches and some of the parents and coaches you encounter.

Yep, this is the reason why I'd prefer my son (and daughter to be fair) to go into cricket or rugby if they want to play a team, kids football is (mostly) horrible in this country.  The obsession with 'bigger, stronger, faster' starts then and very little gets done to break that until it's too late.

[paul_e]

lovely delivery from Broad to get Chandimal.

[PGW]

England have got pretty ragged here.

Why do you say that - a completely flat wicket all the pace has gone out of it....oh as i type last one gone.....

[PGW]

SL open up with Herath, Cook surrounded 4 required for his goal.

Apparently 11th time opened the bowling in Tests

[PGW]

10000 Test Match runs to Cook....a dodgy misfield to give it him...hearty congratulations

[paul_e]

Congratulations Cookie, hopefully that will clear his mind and he'll be more himself in the next series because it's clearly affected his game in the last couple of tests.

[PaulWinch again]

Congratulations Cookie, hell of an achievement that.

[PaulWinch again]

England have got pretty ragged here.

Why do you say that - a completely flat wicket all the pace has gone out of it....oh as i type last one gone.....

Because they did. Their bowling, other than Anderson, dropped off, as did their fielding. It's sort of understandable, they're mostly a young side and these are the lessons they need to learn to be the best in the world. The areas that need work on are we are still too prone to batting collapses, we drop a few too many catches and there's not enough quality spin pushing Moeen.
We're definitely moving in the right direction and are already a good side, but we still need to work on a few bits.

[Chris Jameson]

The obsession with 'bigger, stronger, faster' starts then and very little gets done to break that until it's too late.

My son is one of the smaller boys at his club, start of the season the coaches had a chat with each player and told him he's the most skilful player they have but he won't play in many matches as he "doesn't track back or tackle". He decided after training that day he'd still go to training but had no interest in playing in matches. Didn't prevent him getting in the school team whilst his Sunday team were getting hammered week in, week out!

Completely different attitude from cricket coaches, they just wanted the boys to enjoy it, although not all junior football coaches are like the ones we've encountered the last couple of years it has to be said!

[Dave Cooper please]

Unchanged 12 for the last test so it looks like Compton stays for now. Wonder if they give Ball a go for Finn? Doubt they'll drop Woakes after that first innings spell of 3-9.

[PGW]

Unchanged 12 for the last test so it looks like Compton stays for now. Wonder if they give Ball a go for Finn? Doubt they'll drop Woakes after that first innings spell of 3-9.

ECB have released Root & Bairstow plus Woakes & Ball to play in the forthcoming round of T20 games. Ball can also play in another couple of games inc 50 over match so i assume looking at him closely
as a possible replacement for Finn.

[spangley1812]

Some great fixtures for Edgbaston next year in the Champions Trophy and hopefully and England v India semi final as well

Event schedule:

Thurs, 1 June – England v Bangladesh, The Oval (d)
Fri, 2 June – Australia v New Zealand, Edgbaston (d)
Sat, 3 June – Sri Lanka v South Africa, The Oval (d)
Sun, 4 June – India v Pakistan, Edgbaston (d)
Mon, 5 June – Australia v Bangladesh, The Oval (d/n)
Tues, 6 June – England v New Zealand, Cardiff (d)
Wed, 7 June – Pakistan v South Africa, Edgbaston (d/n)
Thurs, 8 June – India v Sri Lanka, The Oval (d)
Fri, 9 June – New Zealand v Bangladesh, Cardiff (d)
Sat, 10 June – England v Australia, Edgbaston (d)
Sun, 11 June – India v South Africa, The Oval (d)
Mon, 12 June – Sri Lanka v Pakistan, Cardiff (d)
Wed, 14 June – First semi-final (A1 v B2), Cardiff (d)
Thurs, 15 June – Second semi-final (A2 v B1), Edgbaston (d)
Sun, 18 June – Final, The Oval (d)
Mon, 19 June – Reserve day (d)

[tomd2103]

Unchanged 12 for the last test so it looks like Compton stays for now. Wonder if they give Ball a go for Finn? Doubt they'll drop Woakes after that first innings spell of 3-9.

Could be Compton's last chance.  Could see him being dropped, Vince moving up to three, Bairstow up to five and Borthwick coming in at six.