Planetarion Forums

pig · 31 Jan 2005, 05:12

Now as a very big football fan and hater of rugby, my second fav sport is cricket.

Now the all important question is will we beat the aussies in the ashes, ive got tickets for trent bridge and edgbaston so im looking fkin forward to the matches, but with the south africa tour practically over, its time to look forward to the summer.

Personnaly im an optimist, so I believe we will win, with bowlers like Giles, Hoggard, Flintoff, and Harmison we are strong in that department, our batting order is also rather high, now the aussies arent in a decline but they are beatable, ive just got a feeling that we will win, with crowd, our pitches and a bit of luck i think we will do it.

Anyway I would like your thoughts on this.

Oh ye as a sidenote a little story about Freddy. I went to the 20/20 final in the summer, and got incredibly drunk, it was one of the hottest days of the year. Now a little tradition me and my mate have is meet the players after the game and have a drink with them. This time though the security staff were being twats and wouldnt let us in, so we headed off to the players car park and low and behold we saw Mark butcher, now my mates went to speak to him while I went round the corner for a piss, so I was standing there and a bloke walks round the corner.

In a lancashire accent he goes alright mate, the first rule ofc while pissing is look straight ahead, so I replied alright, I then asked him if he had a good today, he said that it was a bit shit being knocked out of the 20/20 but he enjoyed the rest of the games and got nicely drunk, now my brain wasnt working quite as fast as it should of and I thought it was a spectator, anyway i finished off my thing and the guy finished as well, he turned round to me and asked me what i thought, still kinda looking away while he was putting away his thing, i told him my annoyance at lancashire being knocked out but my pleasure seeing leicestershire twat surrey (who were unbeaten upto this point), he laughed and and said i know what you mean, anyway I put my hands in my bag, and got out two calypsos

I offered him one, as offering him one i only realised it was freddy flintoff, he replied with "Id love one ta" took one and I drank a calypso with him, When i realised who it was i asked him to meet my mates, and he came along with a calypso in hand and met my mates. A surreal moment one which will never be repeated im sure. But thats something footballers would never do eh?

Zar · 31 Jan 2005, 05:44

Most probably not.

England haven't been challenged recently by any decent teams. Their fantastic record winning spree has been against either crap teams, or generally teams that are underperfoming compared to usual. I don't think England have yet been challenged enough, to the extent that Australia will challenge them in a series like the Ashes.

Australia is in a league of its own. There is no cricketing country that even comes close to its performance. There were many who thought that the perhaps the only team capable of rivaling Australia were India. Look what happened to them in the last series!

If India are incapable of beating Australia (at home - most importantly)...good luck to England!

Although - much can change in a few months. I was impressed with the series against South Africa. We just have to hope that Australia becomes significantly worse, and England better, for there to be a general match up.

Its not the fact that England are a bad team, its just that Australia are too good a team.

..and yeh Flintoff is a top bloke. Arguably the backbone of English cricket at the moment - well if he wasn't injured all the time!

Yahwe · 31 Jan 2005, 07:13

does anybody have any idea what a calypso is?

SYMM · 31 Jan 2005, 10:06

A type of west-indies music, a sea-nymph in greek mythology a moon of saturn or a type of ice-lolly...

JC · 31 Jan 2005, 10:26

We'll run them close in a few tests but i cant see us winning because we cant get enough players playing well at the same time. Trescothik, Vaughan and Key dont seem to perform match after match in the sme way that Strauss does. As for bowling we dont come anywhere near the strength of Australia. Freddie is our best bowler, which means he is used more than he really should be and so is knackered when he comes in to bat and doesnt score as highly as he can. We desperately need Harmisson back on form.

Ste · 31 Jan 2005, 10:37

I think we'll give Australia the closest series they've had in a while.
They're still miles ahead of everyone but as McGrath and Warne are getting on a bit they could be losing their edge.
If all our players are on-form, we can match them. This being England though, we won't.
Might win one test from the series though.

lokken · 31 Jan 2005, 12:30

Blind optimistic view that somehow, we will put it out of our arse, and win the ashes.

5th day at the oval ashes win.

You know it makes sense.

pig · 31 Jan 2005, 12:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yahwe

does anybody have any idea what a calypso is?

its a drink the working class give there kids, its possibly the best soft drink ever!

as for bowling, I still think we are strong, im hoping Harmi will find his form, while gilo and hoggers are going from strength to strength, I also think vaughns spinners add strength to the game, im inclined in making harmison, giles and hoggard the main bowlers, with freddy and vaughan to support when the bowling is running dry.

It will be a good one :P

roadrunner_0 · 31 Jan 2005, 12:47

rugby is very much a greater and more involving sport than cricket

pig · 31 Jan 2005, 12:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by roadrunner_0

rugby is very much a greater and more involving sport than cricket

lies

its TnT what I call for Toffs and Twats, not saying you are one but I really dont like rugby, Winter u enjoy football, summer cricket simple and it works

Football>Cricket>Rugby

lokken · 31 Jan 2005, 12:52

A suggestion that i got was that we should dry out the pitches bigtime like concrete to make Harmy truly effective as on unresponsive pitches, he's nowhere near as good as he can be.

KoeN · 31 Jan 2005, 12:53

naah england won't win.

pig · 31 Jan 2005, 13:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by lokken

A suggestion that i got was that we should dry out the pitches bigtime like concrete to make Harmy truly effective as on unresponsive pitches, he's nowhere near as good as he can be.

thats why im hoping the wether will be good, although it has its flipside, with the english batters of course having to go against the aussie bowlers

btw, ive got a student membership at trent bridge and edgbaston, which means at trent bridge i can sit in members area, ergo im next to the players changing rooms *g* im planning on wearing my "pommy bastard" t-shirt and hurling some abuse at shane waugh it should help

arbondigo · 31 Jan 2005, 13:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by lokken

A suggestion that i got was that we should dry out the pitches bigtime like concrete to make Harmy truly effective as on unresponsive pitches, he's nowhere near as good as he can be.

It's easier to bat on a concrete pitch, or "road" than it is to bowl on it trust me.

As for the Ashes, no we won't win but it should be closer than the previous few series. The Australian batsmen are better man for man right now than ours, bar Strauss for Hayden. Butcher and Key shouldn't be given as many chances this time round, i think we have Bangladesh before the Aussies, so if neither perform against them then get rid of them and give Bell a go at 3.

Flintoff will be key for us, but how fit will he be after his op remains to be seen. He's certainly proved himself to be a match changer, with him now getting the rewards he deserves for his bowling. Giles is rarely effective on English pitches and will most likely be used to tie up an end and be negative like he was to Tendulkar and just bore them out, unlike a Mr Warne, and the bowling attack of McGrath, Gillespie, Lee/Kasprowicz is a bit more fearsome than a very off form Harmison (hopefully that will change big time), Hoggard (who by opening bowling standard is pedestrian, but he swings it a lot), and Jones, who needs to get his pace back from before he was injured. I'd be tempted to give Saggers another go just because he's awesome on English pitches.

Gary · 31 Jan 2005, 14:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by JC

We desperately need Harmisson back on form.

And therein lies England's best chance of taking the ashes. IF he can get back to the form to the extent that we see seven slips and two gullies beside the wicket keeper (like we saw in the West Indies), then they have a chance. They can't rely on Flintoff alone to bowl them out.

furball · 31 Jan 2005, 21:28

We won't win, even with all our players in good nick. We need at least 2/3 players absolutly on top of their form for the entire series, otherwise the Aussies will retain the Ashes.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a die-hard England cricket fan but the sense of reality thing is kinda a downer.