congrats to england

[Ken Gargett]

finally the bandaid is ripped off this morning and we now longer have to put up with this dismal series. what a let down. congrats to england. outplayed us in every department. we are appalling. i'm still not completely comnvinced as to how good they are. we'll only know that when they play someone decent.

saw the first day of this one, curtailed by rain (which is absolutely torrential up here in brizzy at the moment). then every time i walked by a set, disaster was striking. smith (supposedly a great fieldsman) drops a sitter caught ands bowled. bell gets a let off from dodgy technology. beer oversteps for his first wicket in test criocket and cook called back and adds a mere 140 extra. talk about having the gods on your side. the good thing about that is even had we had the gods on our side, we'd have lost. better to have them when it is close.

at least this might have cleaned out some deadwood for us but where is the new talent?

khawaja does look very good but needs time and support.

it could be a few l;ean years but as the natural home of the urn is australia, i have no douibt we'll be back.

[mazolaman]

Not so sure about the natural home bit.

Just been watching the highlights,couldn't believe Watsons run out,after he was playing so well.

Sums up the series I think.

"one swallow does not make a summer"we'll see when we've played out the summer how well were doing.

But,in this series,England were pretty good,and Australia were pretty bad.

Any thought of two average teams battling it out are incorrect.

More disturbingly,is the article I read recently correct in stating that crickets popularity is on the wane in Australia?

For the good of the game,I hope not.

Still,it's not over yet.Siddle and the Hilf might get a ton each.

Thanks for the congrats Ken,very sporting mate.

[Ken Gargett]

Not so sure about the natural home bit.

Just been watching the highlights,couldn't believe Watsons run out,after he was playing so well.

Sums up the series I think.

"one swallow does not make a summer"we'll see when we've played out the summer how well were doing.

But,in this series,England were pretty good,and Australia were pretty bad.

Any thought of two average teams battling it out are incorrect.

More disturbingly,is the article I read recently correct in stating that crickets popularity is on the wane in Australia?

For the good of the game,I hope not.

Still,it's not over yet.Siddle and the Hilf might get a ton each.

Thanks for the congrats Ken,very sporting mate.

if hilfenhaus scores one tenth of the runs he has given away, we are back in this.

they are always saying cricket on the wane and this won't help but still very popular. if cricket waned when sides were down, your lot would not have been able to put together a team for years, yet here you are thumping us. people love the game as it really is the greatest game ever conceived, indeed, it may be mankind's finest achievement. australia will be back.

i remember years ago crossing the border from iran into northwest pakistan to quetta. was a fabulous place then. we would be surrounded wherever we went be kids and older wanting to talk cricket. one kid was quoting the scores of recent third grade games in sydney. they knew batting and bowling averages for aussies to three decimal points (i still think that cricket is the best chance for peace in the sub-continent as it is surely the only thing, aside from hate, that they share - unfortunately, americans can't understand that, and i mean no insult with that, it is simply that they do not have a cricket background).

kids everywhere love the game. there'll be cricket long after we are gone. for me, the greatest threat to the game is, bizarrely, from itself with 20/20 etc.

when i lived in england, i regularly played against a chap from one of the banks who had put together teams to tour weird areas, like albania. terrific bloke. win or lose, we all enjoyed it just as much.

the best tour i ever went on (aside from one that can't go into print where two of our party - one a former english test cricketer and the other a high level sports administrator - were arrested and jailed for an evening in country nsw) was with the english law society to oporto. heaven.

have just bought a book about JM Barrie (of peter pan fame) who would apparently assemble his own team, of quite famous writers etc, and they would travel about playing. can't wait to read it.

cricket will never die.

[mazolaman]

amen to that.

[Fuzz]

Maybe Cricket Australia should do what the AOC does and offer citizenship to some prospective foreign players?

[adic88]

Getting smashed by an innings in 2 consecutive Tests on home soil.

What a disaster.

[adic88]

Cricket is one of the few games/sports that you can smoke a good cigar while playing it casually.

I was watching a local game recently, and the fielder had so little to do, there was a suspicious puff of smoke soon appeared around his head.

[winelover]

Ken thanks too for your sporting congrats. It was a historic series for both sides and having inflicted three innings defeats there really was a gulf in performance between the two sides. I think England were better prepared andd more professional in their approach and we have to thank our selectors for backing Alastair Cook through a terrible patch who has repaid their faith in spades - avg 120odd (but not good enough for the one day side). A good mate of mine lives in the same town in Essex where Cook hails and used to play tennis against him - a top lad and very modest.

Also agree that T20 is awful and totally not cricket. I went to one live game at the Oval and I was so bored and just wondered what I was doing or what the point was in the whole game. That said 4 day English County games are hardly riveting and watched by very few. Still the longer format seems right although I also like the one dayer's.

Aizuddin - I didn't know cricket was played in Malaysia. Is it popular there too? Also how comr you've been backing England? Great to have had your support though.

Mazoloman - do you want to go to a game next summer? Would be good to see India but tickets are not cheap. Otherwise a county game or one dayer? Take it you must be a Surrey man if I am right in remembering where you're from? A long time until the summer though.

[El Presidente]

Congrets to England

I enjoyed the series as much for the English putting a magnifying glass on the parlous state of Australian Cricket as to see a Pommy side with true mental toughness (which I haven't seen since Botham).

Exciting times for Aussie and English Cricket. The Aussies have reached near bottom and can rebuild (if we stop making excuses) and the Poms can go forward and challenge for the mantle of No 1 side in the world.

[adic88]

Aizuddin - I didn't know cricket was played in Malaysia. Is it popular there too? Also how comr you've been backing England? Great to have had your support though.

Yes, we do have cricket here. http://www.malaysiacricket.com/ Its been doing quite well too, last couple of years.

Why i support England? Coz, i lived there for several years during my younger formative years, and i think i've been brainwashed to love everything British.

[OZCUBAN]

Hi All

While it is a shame that the Aussies lost ,one team and or country cannot dominate a particular sport forever.

The Aussie team have had had a stellar run for at least a decade maybe two ,and every team no matter who they are need to rebuild eventually.

Sometimes the best medicine is the bitterest to swallow!

On a personal note it was a hard series for me ,having being born in England my allegiances were being tested ,but now being an Aussie ,I went with them ,as one of my pet hates is ,and it is mainly the english that move /emigrate over here and carry on like they were still living at home.

"When in Rome is my motto"

I have been assimilated

Cheers OZ

[Ken Gargett]

Ken thanks too for your sporting congrats. It was a historic series for both sides and having inflicted three innings defeats there really was a gulf in performance between the two sides. I think England were better prepared andd more professional in their approach and we have to thank our selectors for backing Alastair Cook through a terrible patch who has repaid their faith in spades - avg 120odd (but not good enough for the one day side). A good mate of mine lives in the same town in Essex where Cook hails and used to play tennis against him - a top lad and very modest.

Also agree that T20 is awful and totally not cricket. I went to one live game at the Oval and I was so bored and just wondered what I was doing or what the point was in the whole game. That said 4 day English County games are hardly riveting and watched by very few. Still the longer format seems right although I also like the one dayer's.

Aizuddin - I didn't know cricket was played in Malaysia. Is it popular there too? Also how comr you've been backing England? Great to have had your support though.

Mazoloman - do you want to go to a game next summer? Would be good to see India but tickets are not cheap. Otherwise a county game or one dayer? Take it you must be a Surrey man if I am right in remembering where you're from? A long time until the summer though.

when i lived in london (london house), one of the guys that played with us was burmese - fabulous bloke and the spittting image of dr fu manchu in those old films with the long thin mo - but, and he would not dispute this, possibly the worst cricketer ever (still a chance for our side though). what he was, however, was a broadcaster for bbc asia and he was quite proud of the fact, that with the massive number of listeners throughout the sub-continent and southeast asia, he was the most listened to cricket commentator on the planet (that would put lawry and greig etc, in their place). i found out later he also did the tennis and was good mates with gabrielle sabatini. never forgave him for not introducing us. she may feel differently.

and rob, re botham, never thought of him as one of the mentally tough cricketers - a brilliant one and determined but more happy-go-lucky in a sense (played for love of the game etc, so i don't mean this negatively). don't forget he was dumped as captain after two tests, partly for both lack of form but also other perceived weaknesses such as lacking that toughness of which you speak. they brought back brearley, who did have that toughness and guile, though certainly no ability.

when i think of tough english cricketers from years back, i think truman, boycott, knott, greig, illingworth, barrington, snow, willis, broad, tavare, edrich, atherton, vaughan. not an exclusive list and i think a few of the current mob may join them. says a great deal about someone like anderson who averages 80-odd last tour and this time, was the star bowler. hope for some of our lot yet. also bell, though i still think had warnie been around, bell would have been back to rabbit in the headlights status.

you could add colin cowdrey to the list as well - coming back to face lillee and thommo at 42? when he could easily have ducked it. but he was such a gentleman that one doesn't think of him as "tough". perhaps unfair. i'd add tom graveney but given that as a kid in the nets at school, i managed to bowl him, can't bring myself to do that (tho to be fair, i suspect that as he was dispatching everyone else, who were all about 4 years older than me, into the next suburb, he may have deliberately let one through - as i was a wicketkeeper, not sure why i was even bowling). so he goes into the gentleman category.

[Ken Gargett]

Hi All

While it is a shame that the Aussies lost ,one team and or country cannot dominate a particular sport forever.

The Aussie team have had had a stellar run for at least a decade maybe two ,and every team no matter who they are need to rebuild eventually.

Sometimes the best medicine is the bitterest to swallow!

On a personal note it was a hard series for me ,having being born in England my allegiances were being tested ,but now being an Aussie ,I went with them ,as one of my pet hates is ,and it is mainly the english that move /emigrate over here and carry on like they were still living at home.

"When in Rome is my motto"

I have been assimilated

Cheers OZ

we should hire you to talk to the squillions of kiwis living here.

[OZCUBAN]

I noticed you said lived Ken i heard no mention of work

[mazolaman]

Graham,I'm looking into some india tickets now,probs for the OVAL,I'll get one extra,and if you would like to come,great.

I too am chuffed for Cook,as we have done what Australia used to do,stick with the player through a bad patch.

Chuffed to see the whole team doing their job well,ie Swann,not many wickets,but pinned down an end,added the preassure.

Replacement bowlers came in and took a load of wickets.

Anderson bowled beautifully,as good a swing bowling as I've seen in years,particularly in Australia.

Collingwood has always been a favourite of mine,by way of application,and jack rabbit fielding.

A good team,potentially great.

Of course,it was all down to Pietersen giving up the captaincy,and bringing down the reign of Moores.Or so the modest and unegotistical Pietersen claims!Bollocks.

With a feeling of bonhommie,I offer you KP,to help rebuild your team!I'll throw in a few hundred quid too.

Mental toughness,Harold Larwood-and he used to have a pint before play and at lunch!Quality.

As always,the Ashes are never dull.

[Ken Gargett]

I noticed you said lived Ken i heard no mention of work

did a masters at london uni for a year and then worked in a law firm in the city for a year.

lived at a place called london house - anyone else know it? had an absolute hoot. sensational time.

[El Presidente]

rob, re botham, never thought of him as one of the mentally tough cricketers

Crap (beg to differ on this one).

I have played enough sport across the world to know it is the Bothams I want to play with side by side. He may not be Captain material but he had a HATE of losing and a swagger that I would go over a trench with. He also had the magic touch of delivering when needed to more often than not. Give me the Bothams/Warnes of the world to play with. They are a rare commodity.