******Cricket Thread******

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I’ll miss Botham. Met him on the pitch at the end of the test match in Kandy in 2003. We managed to blag our way into the end of test presentation ceremony by following Derek Pringle from the commentary box! Botham was really chatty and friendly, kept saying how much the players appreciate the England fans travelling to support the team. He clocked I had my City shirt on and shouted over Bob Willis saying, ‘Oi Bob, a fellow City fan here’. I then talked to Botham about cricket and Bob about City for 10 mins. It’s a great memory.
 
Odd series really.

I haven't seen such a lack of combined quality in a home Ashes series since 1985 although there were some great individual performances.

Most batsmen on both sides lacked the basics of test match batting i.e. head still, side on, playing the ball late, foot to the pitch of the ball etc

Ultimately what cost England was Root's (and England management as a whole) failure to creatively counter Smith's eccentric batting style. Bowling round the wicket with a 2-7 legside field would have squared Smith up even more. It might not haver worked but it was worth trying.

On the basis of that series England appear to have only 2 consistently able test match performers - Broad and Stokes. Archer had 3 good tests out of 4 but Root seems desperate to overbowl him. Root should give p either the captaincy or white ball cricket (or both) because England cannot continue for him to underperform as a batsman.
 
I will miss Gower but Botham never impressed me as a commentator.

I hope Nick Knight isn’t the one to take over. I’d much prefer Ian Ward or Roy Key.
I do agree with Botham's prowess as a commentator. He is poor. He comes into his own, as an analyst/opinion man. He knows his stuff, and it's been shown.

Nick Knight is a knob. Ward's fine, but dull. Key's ok .
 
Yes, a 5-10 minute montage of their presenting clips, when the coverage was closing down.

A sad day, as they are both very knowledgeable about their sport.
Golf and cricket are the only sports where the commentary and opinions are interesting, knowledgeable AND worthwhile.

Football, pah.
Wish sky would get rid of Stelling and them other 4 dinosaurs who are absolutely clueless.
 
Really strange feeling coming away from this. I feel we have shown a lot of character to come away with a draw but it flatters us! Hopefully the cracks won't be papered over and we can move forward
 
The series as a whole was entertaining, as, if you take Smith (who seems to make batting look piss easy) out of the equation, we're two evenly matched sides. Yes, we missed Jimmy. Such is life.

The series was lost (imo) when we had them 100odd for 8, in the first Test and we didn't put the foot on the neck. We're not ruthless enough (a bit like City, at times)....we lost the Test.
 
I will miss Gower and Botham. We have been spoilt with the commentary team on sky. Really came to appreciate it after having to suffer the BT coverage of the ashes last time.
Think Botham will retire full stop, but Gower wants to continue. Could see him on TMS or doing the highlights on terrestrial TV. Shame really as I would have liked to have seen Gower opposite Bob on the verdict.

I would like to see Mark Butcher get a more prominent role on sky. Not going to happen as he does not have the blockbuster profile but I love his languid commentating style, he is so easy to listen to. Out of the Aussies, I would like to hear Ponting more. No drams, straight to the point and extremely insightful. Warne can just fuck off.
 
Ultimately what cost England was Root's (and England management as a whole) failure to creatively counter Smith's eccentric batting style. Bowling round the wicket with a 2-7 legside field would have squared Smith up even more. It might not haver worked but it was worth trying.

So your answer to getting Smith out is to do something you're not allowed to do?
 
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