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The Post-Ashes Inquest Thread

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Amalgamate counties into regions - NE (Durham, Northlumberland, Cumbria), NW (Lancashite) Red Riding (All the Yorkshires except East, unless they find it) etc...

6-8 regions means fewer games, make them mean more, bigger crowds (?), let bowlers go for it (including internationals playing county cricket!)

Recall KP, Swanny, Vaughan and all the other bells who are talking rubbish and let them get smashed at the 'G on Boxing Day

FTECB
 

chopsfc007 said:
Or maybe he will come back like he has before we don't have better to replace with
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Exactly. Cook has gone through period of poor form before and come out of them.

Guessing, but I think he will still want to play and his form will recover.
 
chopsfc007 said:
Or maybe he will come back like he has before we don't have better to replace with
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Bri said:
Exactly. Cook has gone through period of poor form before and come out of them.

Guessing, but I think he will still want to play and his form will recover.
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He may do. But I think he should be given a rest at least. Send him home now and let him return in the summer. Playing these next 2 tests won't help
 
A tweet from Colly

When England beat Australia more of their players are encouraged to play county cricket. When Australia beat England, county cricket isn’t strong enoughCounty cricket is an amazing education for any cricketer, it’s unique, skilful and physically demanding. It’s a fickle world..
 
For all this talk of "aggressive cricket", its just hot air and and code for brainless batting.
The other day, we had a batsman start the day on 92 not out, with his side still trailing but 180 odd. Instead of getting up in his face, being aggressive, he faced the first ball that morning with... 1 slip. That's it. Not even a gully, not even a short leg. That isn't aggressive, it isn't even on nodding terms with the concept of "aggressive".
Bayliss and the England powers that be have basically given the players a license to go and have a wild swing, and if it doesn't work, it doesn't matter - it's "aggressive Cricket".

Aggression is prolonged periods of pressure, fields intended to take wickets, being hostile. Not launching your hands at anything outside off stump, then shrugging your shoulders as you walk off.

Farbrace, Bayliss, Root et al should get a f***ing dictionary for Christmas and look up the word "aggressive".
 
Silly Point said:
Was going to wait until the end of the series but now seems as good a time as any to start the discussion.

As ever after a heavy defeat, particularly in an Ashes series, there will be much soul searching and head scratching at FTECB Towers as to what they can possibly do to turn things around. No doubt county cricket will get the blame, and tbh they might have a point this time but only through their own making and relegating the CC to the third most important domestic comp.

So what changes would you make? Who should stay? Who should go?

Obviously the biggest change I would make, which won't happen, is returning the County Championship to the showpiece event of the domestic season.

More realistically I'd give Bayliss responsibility for one day stuff only. Farbrace for the Test side. Wouldn't want Anderson or Cook to go yet. Jimmy is still our best bowler and is invaluable at home, and there's no obvious replacement for Cook. The only one I'd think about dropping or encouraging to call it a day would be Broad, but again where are the alternatives? The lack of competition from below is really worrying.

Not familiar with the selectors, apart from that Whittaker bloke, but I'd sack the lot of them.
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Get rid of Boycott on BT commentary f***ing hopeless along with his daft hat
 
TopCat said:
Short Term
Sack the selectors
Drop Broad, Cook & Moeen
Replace Bayliss with a proper Test Match Coach, let Bayliss concentrate on White Ball Cricket
Get Stokes back in the team

Long Term
Reduce the number of County Championship games, allow bowlers to bowl fast without the fear of injuries caused by playing game after game on the "circuit"
Get younger players playing in Australia, India and Sri Lanka in the winter. Fuck the Lions tours, get them playing club/grade/state cricket and learn the game abroad
Play Tests on flat wickets with Kookaburra balls - allow bowlers to learn how to get opponents out on flat wickets, not just trundle up at 80mph on a green top in May
Establish a Spin Bowling academy on the sub-continent. Send British spinners over there to learn the art of spin.


Agree. Vince did ok though, but agree he didn't merit a recall
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Absolutely 110% spot on. TopCat for Strauss's job.
 
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TheRey said:
For all this talk of "aggressive cricket", its just hot air and and code for brainless batting.
The other day, we had a batsman start the day on 92 not out, with his side still trailing but 180 odd. Instead of getting up in his face, being aggressive, he faced the first ball that morning with... 1 slip. That's it. Not even a gully, not even a short leg. That isn't aggressive, it isn't even on nodding terms with the concept of "aggressive".
Bayliss and the England powers that be have basically given the players a license to go and have a wild swing, and if it doesn't work, it doesn't matter - it's "aggressive Cricket".

Aggression is prolonged periods of pressure, fields intended to take wickets, being hostile. Not launching your hands at anything outside off stump, then shrugging your shoulders as you walk off.

Farbrace, Bayliss, Root et al should get a f***ing dictionary for Christmas and look up the word "aggressive".
Click to expand...
Aggressive cricket is not just six hitting, it is being positive in all forms of batting that includes defensive shots.
 
TheRey said:
For all this talk of "aggressive cricket", its just hot air and and code for brainless batting.
The other day, we had a batsman start the day on 92 not out, with his side still trailing but 180 odd. Instead of getting up in his face, being aggressive, he faced the first ball that morning with... 1 slip. That's it. Not even a gully, not even a short leg. That isn't aggressive, it isn't even on nodding terms with the concept of "aggressive".
Bayliss and the England powers that be have basically given the players a license to go and have a wild swing, and if it doesn't work, it doesn't matter - it's "aggressive Cricket".

Aggression is prolonged periods of pressure, fields intended to take wickets, being hostile. Not launching your hands at anything outside off stump, then shrugging your shoulders as you walk off.

Farbrace, Bayliss, Root et al should get a f***ing dictionary for Christmas and look up the word "aggressive".
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I made that exact point further up the thread, it set the tone for the day and they went 350-1 over the days play. Muddled thinking and mixed messages.

I'll add another one. They actually did pick a 90mph bowler (Steven Finn) and had another in The Lions (Mark Wood), but they were both unlucky with injuries. When Finn went down and it was obvious Wood wouldn't make it who did they call? It was Tom Curran, another low 80s seamer. Muddled.

And another. We've been looking for a number three all summer, and they stuck with Westley until the end just to drop him. Why? it just doesn't make any sense. If Vince was the man you wanted then why wasn't he bedding into the side against the Windies?

Muddled, inconsistent decision making. They've gone from a side with machine like efficiency to an undisciplined mob in the space of about 2 years. It took ages to build that mentality in the set-up and it will take ages to get it back.
 
chopsfc007 said:
Cook will come good
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I'm not so sure. It was mentioned last week about his dropped catches in the summer and how his reflexes may be on the wain. He's getting out to shots he would usually send to the boundary. He has had slumps before (2010 being a major one) and come good, but this one feels different, not to mention is own comments about "no decisions" about his future and "taking one test at a time". It wouldn't surprise me at all if he retired after the Sydney Test.

I'm a huge, huge Cook fan but it feels like his time may be up.....

What the fuck we going to do when Jimmy retires? Will he play past this summer?
 
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George Dobell in cricinfo .... good.
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basically the dead hand of the ECB

Reflecting on England's bowlers' inability to make a dent in an Australian batting line-up that is, Steve Smith apart, good but unremarkable, the team's assistant coach, Paul Farbrace, said: "There's nothing that's surprised us during the course of this series and the same in India last year."

And it is true that, if anyone is surprised by England's struggles in Australia, they simply haven't been paying attention. This was England's eighth successive Test loss in a row in Australia, after all. And the seventh in a row away from home following four in succession at the end of the India tour. All of which have been characterised by England's bowlers struggling for inroads in conditions offering them nothing and their batsmen struggling for survival in conditions offering the home side bowlers plenty. Really, England travel worse than Southern Rail. And they will keep doing so until actions are taken (or more accurately, reversed) and the first-class county game is given the respect it deserves.

County cricket is not the problem here. It's the solution.

The early years of this century were some of the best in the history of the County Championship. The introduction of promotion and relegation and the advent of four-day cricket helped create a tough environment (Justin Langer was among the overseas player to rate it as tough a cricket as he played at domestic level) which prepared players well for the challenges of Test cricket. How else was it that, at one time, four of England's top seven (Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss, Jonathan Trott and Matt Prior) scored centuries on Test debut, while two others (Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen) made half-centuries? Meanwhile James Anderson took a five-for on debut and, before the end of Graeme Swann's first over at that level (where he played alongside another fine spinner in Monty Panesar), he had dismissed Rahul Dravid and Gautam Gambhir. That team went on to win in India and Australia.
 
I just get the feeling this is it for Cook. He's been through these runs before but apart from the double hundred against a pretty average Windies side (yes I know they beat us but all that does is emphasises our state as a poor Test side) I can't remember his last significant score. Bad news for the other counties as he'll see out his career piling on the runs for Essex!

I'm dreading the day jimmy packs it in. Hope he can last a couple more summers but time not on his side. I'd be tempted to leave him out of the last two Tests and any future tours tbh, including NZ where it might swing.
 
This whitewash in the ashes has been coming a mile off, and the stokes situation confirmed we would not even get close and England can't play to the conditions....

Think malan will be a decent batsman at 5, roots a class act, but if broad and Anderson don't get wickets,we have no plan b......too many average players....
 
Silly Point said:
I just get the feeling this is it for Cook. He's been through these runs before but apart from the double hundred against a pretty average Windies side (yes I know they beat us but all that does is emphasises our state as a poor Test side) I can't remember his last significant score. Bad news for the other counties as he'll see out his career piling on the runs for Essex!

I'm dreading the day jimmy packs it in. Hope he can last a couple more summers but time not on his side. I'd be tempted to leave him out of the last two Tests and any future tours tbh, including NZ where it might swing.
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Agree on Jimmy. He's done alright this series and is still devastating at home. And Jake Ball seems to be the selectors choice for the future
 
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