Worst England Team of the Century

brandon

brandon

Striker
This one, the 2019 lot, according to Simon Mann on the latest episode of The Analyst podcast.

Have to say I agree with him, if 1999 was the nadir of English cricket, a steady improvement began under Duncan Fletcher leading to 2005 - what followed were successive Ashes wins, including a win in Oz, a win in India and a prolonged period atop of the World Rankings.

This years team have lost 6 of their last 12, winning only 4.
 


eddyfinn said:
Test team wise we have a good bowling attack generally bar a spinner, a world class all rounder in stokes and a world class batsman in root, we aren't great at the moment but the worst team in the last century I mean come on did he forget the 90's. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_cricket_team_in_the_West_Indies_in_1997–98 there's just one example. If we are talking decade then they are the worst team by some way.
Click to expand...

It's 2000 onward, the 90's was in the last century.
 
eddyfinn said:
Test team wise we have a good bowling attack generally bar a spinner, a world class all rounder in stokes and a world class batsman in root, we aren't great at the moment but the worst team in the last century I mean come on did he forget the 90's. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_cricket_team_in_the_West_Indies_in_1997–98 there's just one example. If we are talking decade then they are the worst team by some way.
Click to expand...

Eddy, the 90’s weren’t in this century ;).
Stevie Freestein II said:
Test only I assume?
Click to expand...

Yes, Test team.
 
It’s a poor team, no doubt about it. I think we will go backwards even more before we improve. Our top order batting & spin bowling departments are bordering on pathetic. Once Broad & Anderson retire you will be able to say the same for our seam bowling department also.
 
There are four players in our team who are what I'd class as 'all-time greats' and another 2 or 3 with the potential to be. Yes there's some mediocre players, and it isn't quite the same standard as Strauss's team of 2010-11 but I firmly believe this team is worse than the sum of its parts, and with the right coaching and a bit of stability, the same players could form a strong outfit.

The County Championship is constantly criticised as not producing the players, but is it any worse than any other league in the world? We have a much bigger league than Australia and - unlike Australia - our players get to pit themselves against the best overseas players. Yes, one or two counties exploit the Kolpak system, but there is still a huge pool of promising English players to pick from. The trouble seems to be at the national level: players join the national side, they're thrown straight into back to back money making test series, with barely a warm up game against some Presidents Second XI, batted in a different position to their county then seemingly get no support to adapt their game to test cricket when they start to experience difficulties.

Throw in spending the last five years focusing almost exclusively on 50 over cricket, undef a coach who specialised in this and never watched the CC, its hardly any surprise our test team is crap.
 
brandon said:
This one, the 2019 lot, according to Simon Mann on the latest episode of The Analyst podcast.

Have to say I agree with him, if 1999 was the nadir of English cricket, a steady improvement began under Duncan Fletcher leading to 2005 - what followed were successive Ashes wins, including a win in Oz, a win in India and a prolonged period atop of the World Rankings.

This years team have lost 6 of their last 12, winning only 4.
Click to expand...
Don't forget Nasser Hussain's part in it ;)
 

Back
Top