The International Cricket Thread

[OzVilla]

I’ve some some abject debacles in sport over the years but this tour takes some topping. An absolutely disgraceful effort.

We are so poor it’s quite unbelievable. These are professionals in their sport and they have all the application of a 4 year old reading Shakespeare. Appalling effort.

[olaftab]

Under cooked and totally unprepared a joke of a team deservedly humiliated by the opposition. Not sure why Aussies fans should have to pay to watch this uncompetitive dross. Agreed find a way to bring them hone now.

[tomd2103]

This whole tour so far has been unacceptable and that has just capped it off.  Honestly think the likes of Bangladesh would have given Australia more of a game than we have managed so far.

The ECB need a long hard look at the direction they are taking the game in this country. 

[TopDeck113]

To lose by an innings within three days when the opposition scores less than 300 is arguably one of the most inept sporting "performances" from an England team I can recall.

[Steve67]

Send them some white feathers.  The coach needs to walk for this.  Right man for the job, my arse. 

[tony scott]

I think it might be time to ditch the central contracts, and just pick on current form.

[Rory]

Steven Finn, Former England bowler on BBC Test Match Special: "I'm almost in shock. I don't think anyone saw that coming."

I know he has friends in the dressing room, but is he fucking joking?! We ALL saw that coming.

[tony scott]

Absolutely

[tomd2103]

Steven Finn, Former England bowler on BBC Test Match Special: "I'm almost in shock. I don't think anyone saw that coming."

I know he has friends in the dressing room, but is he fucking joking?! We ALL saw that coming.

Part of the problem Rory.  Many of the media are close to those in the set up, so the appropriate level of scrutiny and criticism has not been apportioned over the past couple of years. 

[PaulWinch again]

Shameful - truly shameful. This does need root and branch fix. But it needs to come from the top.

[tony scott]

Imagine if you had paid top wack for the Sydney Test

[Monty]

Is Cook sure he's retired?

[PaulWinch again]

I think there’s two angles to this. There’s the long-term stuff, which will ultimately make a sustained difference -

- redress the balance so that first class cricket is not marginalised. Things like ensuring it is played in the heart of the summer, incentivising counties to play on good pitches etc-
- better management of promising players - like helping them get first class cricket abroad in the winter.
- this also requires better people in the Exec positions who don’t just look at the short-term. I’m not saying chuck white ball cricket out, it’s an important component. It’s just ensuring there’s a balanced focus. England, with the resources available, should be able to be able to compete in both formats.

Then there’s the short-term stuff that’ll likely bring improvements in the interim -

- Split the roles of coach and selector(s) back out again. It was a stupid decision to merge them in the first place, there needs to be a separation because there’s an inevitable conflict. Also the coach simply doesn’t have enough time to watch enough cricket to be a lead selector.

- Replace Silverwood with a coach with more experience and a proven track record. We also need someone from the outside, because it’s felt too cosy under Silverwood.

- Let Root go back to being a batsman. This does create a problem with the captaincy because Stokes is the only other guaranteed starter, and I’d rather they didn’t put the captaincy on his plate too. They might need to do a bit of a refresh and bring someone like Tom Abell in as captain, but obviously that creates risk.

- Get rid of the likes of Bairstow.

- Plan tours better. I accept that Covid has been a big problem and generally there’s a lot of cricket. But we need first class cricket when we arrive on tour and in the Ashes especially there needs to be space between the Tests to get in another couple of first class games. They’ve been hampered by poor squad selection, selecting players who had recently struggled when they knew they couldn’t get any cricket, but it’s just daft having no breaks between games.

Those are just a few things, but bloody hell this team needs real work.

[Drummond]

They have no patience, resilience or staying power. The game is so skewed towards shorter formats that players just don't ever grind it out and learn the art.

The Aussies, meanwhile, love for the Ashes and love test cricket.

[UK Redsox]

I know that he was the beneficiary of England plunging to new depths, but that was some debut by Boland.