The Cricket thread

About time we started talking about our national summer game again.Last time it was discussed,England were probably getting a fookin' tanking in a ODI.And guess what...England are getting a fookin' tanking in a ODI at this very moment! Answers on a postcard to Messrs Moore and Cook please.

Is Cook the right man for the one day game ?

I didn't think he was the right man for the Test job earlier in the summer, but he proved me wrong. I don't think he's ever shown signs of being up to the job in ODIs, though.

To be fair, India are a fantastic limited overs team. Better teams than us will lose heavily and repeatedly to them. At least we're not losing to Zimbabwe....

To be brutally truthful about India,their performances in the ODI's have only increased my contempt for them as all round cricketers bearing in mind their shambolic and gutless displays in the last three tests.When England awoke from their Johnson induced coma and started to play some half decent cricket again,India shrivelled up like slugs on slug pellets and died a pitiful death.The batsmen in the current team cannot be compared to some recent and not so recent greats from India such as Tendulkar,Dravid,Laxman,Gavaskar,Vishwanath etc,who were complete players and could score runs in any conditions against any opposition,including one day cricket as well as test matches.They certainly are a very good ODI team but an alarming stat was given on Sky sports earlier-England have lost something like 7 out of the last 10 ODI series,including 4 in England,where they were once pretty hard to beat but are now a soft touch.Darned if i know the answer and i suspect the England management don't either,won't be rushing out to put a few bob on the 3 Lions in the world cup.

Cook's not scored a ton in 35 Test innings, and nearly 40 ODI innings.

He's not the man to regain the Ashes next year for me, let alone the World Cup which could well be a massive disaster.

After a 5-0 whitewash, a loss at home to Sri Lanka in all three formats, losing to India at Lords...

Cook must go. We need him back as a batsman. As a captain he's shite anyway.

The World Cup will be a massive disaster whoever's in charge.

Joe Root's doing a good job skippering Yorkshire at the moment - I wonder how long it'll be before he gets the England gig? Speaking of Yorkshire, it's about time Adam Lees had a go at opening the batting in the Test team (whenever the next one is - April?). I can't see Sam Robson getting another shot at it next summer.

Robson has made more tons in the past year than Cook.

Me too, I scored a sublime unbeaten 160 on Gwithian beach against my sister and her five-year-old twins last month.

I guess the point is that Cook has shown that he is Test quality time and time again in the past, when he isn't lumbered with the captaincy. To cut him adrift from even playing in Tests seems premature at this stage.

Cornish Chris wrote:

Me too, I scored a sublime unbeaten 160 on Gwithian beach against my sister and her five-year-old twins last month.

I guess the point is that Cook has shown that he is Test quality time and time again in the past, when he isn't lumbered with the captaincy. To cut him adrift from even playing in Tests seems premature at this stage.

It just seems grossly unfair the number of batsmen who have been dropped in the past two years in spite of out-performing Cook. There is credit in the bank, then there is 2 years without a ton in either format.

Robson is young, has a ton in the past summer, and I'm not sure who else you bring in for the 3 Tests in the Windies ahead of the Ashes - unless Hales does so phenomenally in the World Cup that he pushes himself into the frame. Unfortunately Hales is partnered by Captain Slow, thus is under enormous pressure to score quicker than even he'd like, especially early on in his innings. Lyth/Lees have both had good seasons, but it'd be more of a risk to throw either of those in against the Windies with just 3 matches before the Ashes, and the ECB hate a risk. Much better to just sit there and hope Cook/Robson hit it off.

Callington reject comes good.

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Notts seem to have a productive interest in Cornish cricket,Charlie Shreck and Matt Robins have also played for them in recent years.Good on Jake Libby,hopefully he can maintain his progress.

Rohit Sharma breaks world ODI record,264 v Sri Lanka.Some cuffing is that,would have taken me about 8 Saturdays to make those runs.Bet the West Indies are glad they pulled out of the tour.

Blimey

Phil Hughes in a bad way;

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Nasty business and this seems to be the most serious incident of it's type for some years. All good wishes to him for a complete recovery.

In this instance even an Aussie deserves sympathy, I hope he's OK and makes a full recovery.

This was a bad one as well;

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Peter Lever lives in the Tavistock area now, does a lot of coaching at Lewdown Cricket Club.

And how didn't Closey get maimed here;



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No helmets either.

Savage bowling from Holding and Brian Close's utter determination to appear unhurt and unruffled is the epitome of English stiff upper lipedness, love it.

Absolutely horrible for Hughes - his brain is 'stable' but his situation 'critical'. Very unpleasant.

I've had broken fingers and bruised ribs/shins. Always grew up slightly afraid of that hard red thing being thrown around. Even as an adult when you get someone slightly quicker than medium paced there's a bit of adrenaline there knowing it's gonna hurt in the wrong place. It made me feel a bit sick when I read about Hughes this morning.

Cricket is dangerous - this is the proof. I remember a club cricketer in Cornwall died a few years ago when he swallowed his tongue after being hit by the ball when fielding.

Given that the professional game largely consists of people throwing a rock at each other at 85mph, it's amazing there aren't more injuries. Jonathan Agnew said on the BBC yesterday that you get 0.4 seconds to react to a delivery.

Mock Cuncher wrote:

Absolutely horrible for Hughes - his brain is 'stable' but his situation 'critical'. Very unpleasant.

I've had broken fingers and bruised ribs/shins. Always grew up slightly afraid of that hard red thing being thrown around. Even as an adult when you get someone slightly quicker than medium paced there's a bit of adrenaline there knowing it's gonna hurt in the wrong place. It made me feel a bit sick when I read about Hughes this morning.

I had broken fingers, a toenail ripped off, nine ball marks on my ribcage after a game against Liskeard on a sporting pitch when I resisted a la Closey against Matt Hunkin [good fast bowler and fellow Argyle fan],got sparked out by a bouncer for a couple of minutes at Saltash, notched four leg byes over the top of slips after being hit on the bonce by a different bouncer, top edged a hook into my right eye from yet another bouncer and got smacked in the jaw at Stoke Climsland when already suffering from shocking toothache. But the worst one was undoubtedly when I was fielding at silly mid off against a left hander and our bowler kindly bowled him a juicy full toss, which he smashed straight at my bollocks. I actually caught it in a purely reflex/self preservation action but the momentum was such that it carried the ball and my hands straight to the bulls eye-jeez,it was indescribable. These situations seem to be made for bringing out the "humour" in people-while I was crawling around vomiting on the pitch, everyone else was convulsed with laughter, the barstewards. Off work for a few days afterwards, always wore a box thereafter if fielding close to the wicket. It is indeed a dangerous game even at local level, saw quite a few people hospitalised over the years, nothing as bad as poor old Phil though thankfully.

Helmets give poor protection for lower rear skull and neck.......especially when you turn away from a rising fast delivery......needs to be improved.....trendy looking helmets are not designed with safety as first priority.....safety tests on helmet are not good enough........does it need a fatality to change helmet design thinking ?

Played on rubberlink matting whilst in Aden.......a big fast bowler could get some fair bounce off of that.....no boxes ....no helmets....back in the early 1960s.

The poor chap didn't make it. Terrible terrible news.

zyph wrote:

Helmets give poor protection for lower rear skull and neck.......especially when you turn away from a rising fast delivery......needs to be improved.....trendy looking helmets are not designed with safety as first priority.....safety tests on helmet are not good enough........does it need a fatality to change helmet design thinking ?

Played on rubberlink matting whilst in Aden.......a big fast bowler could get some fair bounce off of that.....no boxes ....no helmets....back in the early 1960s.

He was wearing an old school helmet, just a freak accident, tragic but surprised to see it leading the Beeb news this morning.

Tragic. Gotta feel for the bowler too. He'll carry the burden for the rest of his life.

Jesus. Unbelievable. So sad.

Jeez, that has cast a very dark shadow over cricket. Unbelievable, thought he would be like Michael Watson or Schumacher. RIP Phil and thoughts go out to his family and friends, who must be utterly devastated.