The Cricket Thread

[Savage Henry]

The Pakistan press conference is on live now. Tense is probably the word.

[MB]

My head is spinning at the very thought of these allegations. My over-riding emotion is one of sadness at the prospect of a fledgling career of a superb bowler being ruined. I'm actually feeling quite emotional just thinking about this whole scandal.

[Yoss]

That might have been the biggest no ball I've ever seen.

hmmm

This is all very sad, especially if Amir is involved. The evidence is circumstantial but pretty compelling, unfortunately.

Cricket-wise, Pakistan were always going to lose the series given the context in which they were having to play it, far too much to ask of such a young side, but there wasn't much between the sides in the first three Tests, only dropped catches prevented England having major batting collapses long before they actually did so. Not so worried about Strauss and Cook at the top of the order, it was never going to be a series for openers to prosper; not even too worried about Collingwood, who'll dig in and won't let it worry him. Pietersen is a real concern though, he's been so out of touch for so long I'd have rested him well before now, but it's way too late to look at other options before the Ashes now (assuming Morgan is dropped to make way for Bell, as he should be).

We bowled well but we already knew we could do that on home turf in good conditions, that tells us nothing. Nonetheless good to see Swann still going well, and we can take epositives from Trott at three and hopefully that'll be a turning point for Broad with the bat. Biggest plus point is Prior's performance though, finally playing well on both sides of the stumps within the same series.

[Savage Henry]

hmmm

This is all very sad, especially if Amir is involved. The evidence is circumstantial but pretty compelling, unfortunately.

Cricket-wise, Pakistan were always going to lose the series given the context in which they were having to play it, far too much to ask of such a young side, but there wasn't much between the sides in the first three Tests, only dropped catches prevented England having major batting collapses long before they actually did so. Not so worried about Strauss and Cook at the top of the order, it was never going to be a series for openers to prosper; not even too worried about Collingwood, who'll dig in and won't let it worry him. Pietersen is a real concern though, he's been so out of touch for so long I'd have rested him well before now, but it's way too late to look at other options before the Ashes now (assuming Morgan is dropped to make way for Bell, as he should be).

We bowled well but we already knew we could do that on home turf in good conditions, that tells us nothing. Nonetheless good to see Swann still going well, and we can take epositives from Trott at three and hopefully that'll be a turning point for Broad with the bat. Biggest plus point is Prior's performance though, finally playing well on both sides of the stumps within the same series.

I forgot I said that. The Met police have released the guy in the News of the Screws on bail without charge. Which seems odd, on the surface.

That's all fair comment. It's fair to say Swann's right at the top of his game at the moment. I'd also suggest Trott is beginning to look a genuine test batsman. I'm more comfortable with him in the team than, say. Ravi Bopara.

The best thing that can be said of the England team at the moment is that, injuries aside, the tour party to Australia is all but picked, save for the back up wicket keeper and and spin bowler.

[MB]

Is it just me, or is there something slightly suspicious about Pakistan's capitulation? Their tactics during the morning session were completely baffling.

Sadly, it appears I was right to be so concerned. Akmal's wicketkeeping in the Sydney test back in January was beyond belief. Not only did he drop three or four dollies, he missed a straightforwward run out of Mike Hussey. Spot fixing is one thing, but match fixing is altogether more serious. Heads must roll.

[MB]

I forgot I said that. The Met police have released the guy in the News of the Screws on bail without charge. Which seems odd, on the surface.

That's all fair comment. It's fair to say Swann's right at the top of his game at the moment. I'd also suggest Trott is beginning to look a genuine test batsman. I'm more comfortable with him in the team than, say. Ravi Bopara.

The best thing that can be said of the England team at the moment is that, injuries aside, the tour party to Australia is all but picked, save for the back up wicket keeper and and spin bowler.

Trott is looking very solid, but I am concerned about the fragility of the top six. At this stage, I'd make the Aussies strong favourites on their home turf. The back up keeper will almost certainly be Davies, a decent batsman. The selection of the second spinner is interesting; I'd go with Rashid and would be disappointed if Tredwell gets the nod. However, it probably won't make a great deal of difference because England are unlikely to play two spinners Down Under.

[btb]

Moving on from the the obvious I see that KP is struggling to get a county to play for - bad news for England?

[staggy4life]

Sorry if this has been said already but a TV journalist in Pakistan just said on Sky Sports that the death penalty would be the maximum fine.

[Fuctifano]

KP has also announced that he's been dropped via his own twitter page, decrying it as a "f**k up". He thought better of it and deleted it a few mins later.

I'm on my phone and links are a pain in the arse to post, but the story is on cricinfo, and a quick hunt around twitter should be able to turn up a screenshot of the offending tweet.

Worst of it is that it'll probably mean the other England players, including the very amusing Swann get banned from tweeting.

[Savage Henry]

KP has also announced that he's been dropped via his own twitter page, decrying it as a "f**k up". He thought better of it and deleted it a few mins later.

I'm on my phone and links are a pain in the arse to post, but the story is on cricinfo, and a quick hunt around twitter should be able to turn up a screenshot of the offending tweet.

Worst of it is that it'll probably mean the other England players, including the very amusing Swann get banned from tweeting.

It was pretty hilarious... and KP is quite right to be angry, he chose not to play in the IPL so he could play for England instead. Have to say the thinking is sound though, let him get as much four day game practise for Surrey as possible.

Swann's pretty hilarious. Strauss is amusing too - even had a couple of tweets back from him One of them clearly when he was sitting on the balcony at the Oval just after getting out.

[T_S_A_R]

the fuss over this spot fixing thing has gone out of control. at the end of the day if the players have a chance to make some money bumping dodgy bookies then fair play to them. to see guys like nasser hussain and boycott getting up on the moral high horse about this is a joke, where's the morality that they are getting paid more for commentating on the match than the pakistan players get for actually playing in it.

i like cricket but at the end of the day it has to be asked what the point of it is? there are zero consequences of winning or losing, there's always another series starting and the next money generating match is always round the corner. if they are serious about ending this kind of thing they should create a world test series and cut back on the amount of one day tournaments as the game is so devalued at the moment that you can't blame the players for trying to make an extra buck out of it.

also there also seems to be a bit of pakistan basing here. matt le tissier admitted booting the ball out the park during southampton games for spread bets on shys which is exactly the same as what has went on here but i don't see anyone demading he be sacked from soccer saturday. and as often as you hear about botham's "miracle" innings in 1981 you almost never hear that the aussies had bet against themselves in that match and the achievement is never mentioned as being diminshed by it or the austrialians such as lilee are never demonised because of it.

[Yoss]

It was pretty hilarious... and KP is quite right to be angry, he chose not to play in the IPL so he could play for England instead. Have to say the thinking is sound though, let him get as much four day game practise for Surrey as possible.

Swann's pretty hilarious. Strauss is amusing too - even had a couple of tweets back from him One of them clearly when he was sitting on the balcony at the Oval just after getting out.

?

He did play in the IPL, for as long as his central contract & certificate of release allowed him to.

[Savage Henry]

?

He did play in the IPL, for as long as his central contract & certificate of release allowed him to.

I beg your pardon, brain fart. Not IPL. Champions League. He turned down an offer from Bangalore at the behest of the ECB, seemingly.

[Yoss]

Ah, okay. Don't think I knew that.

[btb]

Just read the KP article on cricinfo - found this interesting (to me anyway) piece of trivia tucked away in the last sentence.

Pietersen last played a non-England first-class game in May 2008.

Makes me think the claims that the top players are playing too much cricket might be somewhat exaggerated.

*********************************

Going off at a tangent the introduction of central contracts means that established Test players don't appear to often for their counties - going to the extremes Jimmy Anderson must've spent more time playing for England than Lancashire.

Edited September 1, 2010 by btb

[Yoss]

Mohammed Yousuf just took a brilliant running catch, if that doesn't set Scotland Yard on alert nothing will.

[Tam O'Banter]

the fuss over this spot fixing thing has gone out of control. at the end of the day if the players have a chance to make some money bumping dodgy bookies then fair play to them. to see guys like nasser hussain and boycott getting up on the moral high horse about this is a joke, where's the morality that they are getting paid more for commentating on the match than the pakistan players get for actually playing in it.

i like cricket but at the end of the day it has to be asked what the point of it is? there are zero consequences of winning or losing, there's always another series starting and the next money generating match is always round the corner. if they are serious about ending this kind of thing they should create a world test series and cut back on the amount of one day tournaments as the game is so devalued at the moment that you can't blame the players for trying to make an extra buck out of it.

also there also seems to be a bit of pakistan basing here. matt le tissier admitted booting the ball out the park during southampton games for spread bets on shys which is exactly the same as what has went on here but i don't see anyone demading he be sacked from soccer saturday. and as often as you hear about botham's "miracle" innings in 1981 you almost never hear that the aussies had bet against themselves in that match and the achievement is never mentioned as being diminshed by it or the austrialians such as lilee are never demonised because of it.

That means f**k all! I'd play any sport for a living at minimum wage.

[Yoss]

Me too, but if I was involved a sport in which I could see there was plenty of money sloshing around and very little of it was going to the players I'd think that wasn't right.

[Tam O'Banter]

Me too, but if I was involved a sport in which I could see there was plenty of money sloshing around and very little of it was going to the players I'd think that wasn't right.

Once more, that's not the point. You can't just go around breaking the rules and taking bungs, they are 100% in the wrong.

[Savage Henry]

Mohammed Yousuf just took a brilliant running catch, if that doesn't set Scotland Yard on alert nothing will.

Yes, but to be fair everything returned to normal any time the ball went anywhere near Shoab Ahkter.