I was reading yesterday that Ben Stokes is the son of former Kiwi Rugby League player Ged Stokes, and that he moved to England in his teens when his father got a coaching job and still talks with a Kiwi accent.

I was reading yesterday that Ben Stokes is the son of former Kiwi Rugby League player Ged Stokes, and that he moved to England in his teens when his father got a coaching job and still talks with a Kiwi accent.

Really? This must be a first in world sport.

I reckon a first in world sport would be if they could find 11 actual poms good enough to play cricket for England, instead of a mix of south Africans, West Indian, Welsh, Irish, Zimbabwean, Kiwi and even the odd Aussie player.

It's the way our multicultural world is going. I know you're Australian and live out in the sticks but racism isn't cool anymore in civilised society.

Merry Christmas, it's only a game.

Normal service is resumed.
Pathetic England.
255 on an easy pitch.
Australia ....500 to come?

Might actually have a lead for once!!

About bloody time.
Mind you they still haven't got Haddin out.
A century partnership for the last pair anyone?
You wouldn't put it past this sorry bunch.
Probably even this sorry bunch can finish them off quickly and, as you say, have a lead of maybe 70.

Only Lyon to come, and if they can keep Haddin away from the strike they could polish it off quickly. Even with Haddin on strike, he might play a few shots like KP tried (idiotically!) and get himself out.

Be just like us to then get bowled out for 150 or less in the 2nd innings!

Cook is truly useless as a proactive skipper.
He's just watching again.
While it goes tits up.
Out thank fook ...40 put on for the last wicket.
Pisssss poor short bowling.

You get the feeling that neither side is really having a serious go.
At least the result is unclear for a change.

Well after a hard working start they collapse again.
It's totally unacceptable to have a tail that long that CAN'T bat.
They ought to ashamed of themselves and their technique irrespective of decent Aussie bowling.
The management need sacking for presiding over this imbalanced side.

www.theguardian.com/sport/video/ ... er-cricket Piers Morgan showing how to do it. I say good on him. He shot off his big mouth, and no one could have blamed him if he backed out, but he actually fronted up and took his lumps. More guts than brains, but good for him.

www.theguardian.com/sport/video/ ... er-cricket Piers Morgan showing how to do it. I say good on him. He shot off his big mouth, and no one could have blamed him if he backed out, but he actually fronted up and took his lumps. More guts than brains, but good for him.

That is the series in microcosm.
A pathetic effort to challenge a Aussie bowler.

Cook out second ball lbw not offering a shot.
That is leaving it.
The man's brains are fooking scrambled.
Bell dropped next ball.
Anderson as a nighchman.
I don't think they will make a hundred.
14 for 3
Edit
17 for 4
Disaster.
Edit
23 for 5

I was down near the SCG this morning and saw some of the barmy army already half drunk at an early opener at 9 in the morning.
You will need to set up a delousing station for those guys when they go back home - they all look like they have been living in the same clothes since Brisbane.

Apparently the game is sold out for the first three days. I was thinking of going on day four. The good news is that i'll probably get in for free if the poms struggle on till the morning of day four.

155 after such a dreadful start is surprising but totally inadequate in the context of this game.
Two batsmen were out offering no shot to balls on their wickets, showing the crazy defensive, almost cowardly mindset of leaving so many balls as a tactic of survival.
Not the act of trying to score and win, but just survival and the creeping death of two runs an over on average.
Australia have a plan for ALL our batsmen. They have obviously spent hours trawling through videos of the English batsmen and looked at the stats on scoring and dismissals. We have no answer to this targeted, tight bowling, very personal assault.
Contrast this with what England bowlers serve up, which in no way looks thought through and in fact is allowed to continue being done wrongly by a totally feeble unproactive captain.
The whole impression is one of shambolic amateurism coupled with an almost wilful intent not to learn by mistakes ... the SAME mistakes.
Yet this captain is not at risk ...

Ppfffttt - do you guys know any other games?

After probably the worst England performance ever, I'm just astonished by the number of so-called experts who are insistent that Cook should be retained as skipper, despite all the evidence pointing to him being totally unsuited to the task.

To judge a cricket captain, you have to ask 3 questions -

1. Is he able to motivate others around him with his captaincy and decision-making?

2. Is he able to change the momentum of a game with his on-field decision-making and to do so with sufficient good timing?

3. Will the captaincy have an positive impact on his own individual performance?

Now, if a captain can answer all 3 of those questions in the positive, then you have a great skipper - Steve Waugh, for most of his reign as Aussie skipper.

Answer 2 positively and you have a good skipper - Mike Brearley fits this bill.... For one positive, you are talking about somebody riding on the tails of a good team, like Ponting did.

Cook, however, doesn't answer a single positive - He is the most incompetent skipper I have ever seen lead England, and that includes Flintoff and Chris Cowdrey - To imagine he can hang onto the job is downright insulting.

Just how poor a job does somebody have to do to be fired??..... Accusations of a click, or a old boy's club, would be quite appropriate if, somehow, Cook remains as skipper.

Personally, I'd look to Broad to take over, ship out some of the dead wood (Anderson, Pieterson, Prior), and look to bed in some younger players in preparation for the next Ashes.

Well, thank Christ that's over! No point in whinging about it, a result like this has been coming, and in the long term could be good for England just like the last 5-0 down there. At the moment England have problems in every area. Trott gone, Swann gone, Pietersen, Prior, Anderson, and Bell all in their 30s probably means the next ashes team will look a bit different, it will be interesting to see just how many changes will be made.

As for the Aussies well, I don't think we'll see just how good this team is when they go to South Africa.

As for Cook as captain, I'm not convinced, but then again I'm not sure who else could do a better job at the moment. Broad maybe?

Captains aren't nearly as important to the result as they once were.
I don't really know the English situation, but I know for Australia that Clarke is just a company man who does what he is told, and the brains behind the outfit is Lehman.
We haven't had a captain that was in full control of the team since Ian Chappell in the 70s. Since Bobby Simpson created the position of coach we have seen the game plans developed by an older and smarter guy than the on field captain, in consultation with the bowling and fielding coach etc, and the players too, but not nearly to the degree they did in years past.
Lehman has shown how crucial the position of coach is these days. He was dropped into the job just before the first test in England and has had 10 straight tests to work your players out, and he has the measure of all of them now.
In the meantime, your brainstrust don't seem to have come up with a single new idea to take the game to Australia.
I admired Flower as a player, but it's obvious from his comments and inertia during this series that he is an A grade tool and a poor coach.
I think you have a stronger side than Australia on paper.
Pity we are so much smarter than you.

Hold the front page, England win the Ashes!









Trust the women to show the men how it's done.

Looks like Flower's out of the door. www.espncricinfo.com/england/con ... 14429.html

Looks like Flower's out of the door. www.espncricinfo.com/england/con ... 14429.html

www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/why ... 31xdx.html Shane Warne wants the England coaching job. That's a bit funny when you look back at all the clashes he had with coaches who tried to get him fit in the early part of his career, but he has come to appreciate fitness and training in recent years. He would be an interesting coach. I imagine he would clash with a few players.

www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/why ... 31xdx.html Shane Warne wants the England coaching job. That's a bit funny when you look back at all the clashes he had with coaches who tried to get him fit in the early part of his career, but he has come to appreciate fitness and training in recent years. He would be an interesting coach. I imagine he would clash with a few players.

Oh, for the love of god, no.