Arthur Crabtree wrote:It'd be pretty funny if the ECB went for Harmer.
After the Mitchwash in 2013-14 they went to the people to find out what they wanted from an England team and decided they didn't want overseas players who qualified (like KP) so they introduced the most extreme qualification criteria in the history of world sport. A couple of years pass and the decide they want Jofra Archer so they change their rules. So you know what, let's fast track Simon Harmer... Why not?
I hope they do, because it would so effectively make them look ridiculous. But I fear he is just helping out in the nets.
Durhamfootman wrote:the powers that be only sit up and take notice in an ashes year
odd that.
and yet encouraging at the same time, because they will at least try and do something this time, after completely ignoring for 2 years what everyone else could see was becoming a serious problem
the question now is whether the health of test cricket is more important than the bottom line, because while this isn't an existential crisis it will need a root and twig approach to solve it
Ultimately, though, all these issues stem back to one fundamental problem: county cricket does not appear to be producing top-order batsmen of the quantity or quality required. Until they do, England's team management will always be looking for contingencies and England's middle-order will continue to be exposed. Eventually, the penny will drop at the ECB, that by eroding the primacy of the county championship, they have eroded their Test team's ability to compete. They are the ones to blame for these embarrassments. The team are simply the product of a broken system.
England's Test batting is painfully weak. Perhaps as weak as it has ever been. Unless the ECB have the courage to change the county structure - and yes, that includes backtracking on the monstrosity that is the white-ball window and accepting that the focus on The Hundred won't do a thing to help the Test team - it will keep happening.
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