Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

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.

England might as well pick Morne Morkel and Duanne Olivier whilst they are playing County Cricket, blast the Aussies out with raw pace

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.

On Tuffers and Vaughan they were saying he qualifies for England next year.
I wonder if we will see him on a Lions tour. KP played for the Lions when he hadn't qualified for England.

England selectors are so hopeless they'd probably select Harmer for the T20 side

258 and 490-8
194 and 107-1
302 and 195
227 and 233
403 and 218
491
346 and 180
58 and 320
307 and 352-9
184 and 242
363
287 and 180
396-7
161 and 317
246 and 271
332 and 423-8
342 and 322-6
290 and 346
336 and 230
77 and 246
187 and 132
277 and 361-5
85 and 303
374 and 146
258 and 258-5
67 and ?

England's test results in the last 2 years

Some surprisingly big scores on there.

thanks Bayleaf

imagine if they hadn't won the world cup last month?

and they very nearly didn't, of course

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

Ha..... usually it's after an overseas ashes debacle that the inquests begin

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

seems Dobel is asking the same questions

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id ... ken-system

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.

the ECB won't, of course.... they've spent every penny they had (and it was a lot of pennies remember) on what they hope will turn out to be the new cash cow, so they're more likely to appoint someone to conduct an inquiry, and then do nothing with it.

or worse.... appoint someone from the Graves family trust and task them with finding that the hundred is having no detrimental impact on test cricket at all

Don't know if English cricket no longer produces good players. England have batters who have done well. But they're all getting worse at the same time much as the batters did after 2011. All of them, worse together. Then, I blamed Flower's coaching.

Flower is still the first person to get his hand on many people. We used to get leaks about him promoting his younger stock, but that's gone now. He's obviously decided it's not sensible to keep branding his failures and putting his head over the parapet. He's floated around in the background now in incongnito mode.....but it's hard not to forget that englands terrible batting woes were merged after his player pathway, with him the guardian of key parts. He took a job highlighting his biggest weakness. He flogged to death a group of talented players that were made by others, yet he hasn't created anything himself. He's like the Ringo of English cricket, riding on the others...the sooner he starts narrating Thomas the tank engine 2019, the better

The ECB will be annoyed there is no KP to scapegoat this time

Before we ruin Roy , buttler and bairstow as white ball players maybe we should stop picking them in test matches