English Cricket Thread

[Durhamfootman]

the 'Flower' scenario

[andy]

Very happy with Fleming think it's what side needs right now but I'm not sure about root as captain and the message it sends long term to brook....now is the perfect time under a new coach fresh start for brook to have a go with root in the side to lean on....

[Durhamfootman]

reports that Fleming wants to bring in Mike Hussey as batting coach

he's worked with England before, when they won the 2022 T20 WC

[Arthur Crabtree]

But how is his golf?

[Durhamfootman]

that may not matter any more

[andy]

Flintoff has stepped away from the lions

[Arthur Crabtree]

Looks an impressive knock today from Flintoff jr.

[sussexpob]

Very sad to see the talented Hampshire quick bowler John Turner has announced his retirement at 25, due to a series of crippling injuries to his back.

Who would have thought a couple of years ago when he was drafted into the England setup, that all the "we will have him bowling 98mph in no time" stuff would end with him playing about 3 more matches in his career before the stress fractures and physical collapse followed? Shocked I tell you, its never happened before?

Another talented young quick bowler with a bit of nip ruined by ECB Towers in the quest to extract 4 more mph out of his body. Good luck in your next adventure John!

[sussexpob]

Jordan Cox the latest English player to come out and suck up to his IPL overlords, insisting that benchwarming at the IPL was so worth it because getting to talk to Virat Kohli alone is so much more worthwhile than playing cricket in poxy England.... Currently getting absolutely spanked match in, match out... 15 odd games and not passed 44 in one...

Seems very much Jordan that benchwarming and fireside chats with Virat have ruined your season...

[sussexpob]

I would personally advocate disqualifying any English player who says this stuff. Either you admit you want the money or you shut the f**k up. All these money washed pirates coming back spouting the BCCI propaganda can do one, I do want to hear how great it has been not to play alongside legendary players because it seems evidence suggests otherwise.

[Durhamfootman]

ah well.... keep taking the money. If spouting compliant verbiage keeps the money coming in, then I guess that's what you do. It's a short career

It's not as if the rest of us don't know what's going on. It's only problematic when ECB management find it convenient to believe the bullsh1t

[Arthur Crabtree]

Not doing him any harm- Cox is due to bat at three for England tomorrow.

[sussexpob]

Not doing him any harm

There is a very concerted push from Indian stakeholders of the game recently to show English cricket's future as being entirely reliant on Indian interest to be viable, last week for instance a senior BCCI board member tried to argue falsely that English cricket had become less popular than gymnastics, darts and a host of other fringe sports, and that its only option was to function as a subsidiary of Indian cricket, providing a longer T20 season for their audiences hosted in another country. Meanwhile, owners of other IPL franchises are making it open about their desire to get their teeth into the Hundred, with calls of expansion of teams and the fixture list following, and owners of IPL franchises getting dibs on the teams.

Not hard to see where this is being pulled. We have the biggest IPL franchises suddenly hiring famous cricketers as "mentors", and then as soon as these guys are on the pay role they suddenly feel it necessary to talk about how superior the IPL is, and how its great for other domestic leagues. KP was hired by the Delhi Capitals as a coach without portfolio, and one day later was releasing monologues about how Indian cricket is the future and we just need to run to the waves coming, not resist them, because all we are doing is resisting our own cricketing utopia.

Dinesh Karthik was hired by RCB and Mumbai of London as a "mentor" also, and this seemingly involved him trawling English and Indian press about why test cricket was dead, and why warming a bench at the IPL was more important for English players. He'd previously been a "mentor" for an Indian owned SA franchise and interestingly did the same, wandering around all tournament to give interviews or podcasts to spread the propaganda messaging. His director at both Mumbai of London and RCB has also trawled SM and the press giving the same interviews. Karthik also turned up on the Stick to Cricket podcast, and his performance was like IPL Goebbels, coming up with a string of bad faith arguments as to why English players had a moral obligation towards honouring their IPL deals over their English commitments.

Cox is basically the 5th person from the same team to come out in the last month to argue this very point, and I am not having the fact that this is a fluke when his coaches and bosses are all doing it. Its quite clear this is not a player being honest about his own development, he is engaging in a quite clear and concerted effort by those paying his bloody money to promote narratives that are against our national interests.

I do not support his inclusion in the England team

[sussexpob]

Probably worth noting that Karthik, Bo-twat et al turning up everywhere to remind us that its great for English cricket that these players are better off warming the bench and not playing in an elite tournament, operates against a reality where both players in question have been destroyed in the matches they have played since returning.

It's quite clear irrespective of the larger narratives in play, that its doing them no good at all.

[sussexpob]

Sadly, I doubt English cricket is going to be able to resist this nonsense. Faced with a failing tournament with falling attendances, all we get in return from the ECB is be dictated on about what we are supposed to want, and what is supposed to be good for us. We are too plebby to know what we want ourselves, so we just need to listen to Richard Gould talk more shite before we see the light. Gould literally said at the weekend that English cricket would not be able to have its own best players play in Domestic cricket without Indian money, which seems to forget that they actually did for two years before the great sell off, we rescheduled the whole summer to facilitate it.

He also laughably then said that this is what England needed. The game needed its best players playing for our domestic teams, including county sides in his assessment. So, English players should be at the IPL because its good for us, but at the same time its of fundamental importance they are in England playing county cricket? When is the last time Archer played for Sussex? You know, the team that made him who he is?

Not hard to see with this total moronic pleb in charge, how we ended in such a mess.