Inzy' banned for four matches.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/ot...tan/5388402.stm

Now that he has been cleared of ball tampering, what happens to Hair?
I think, it's time he walked!

Just posted an application form for 2007 membership of Nottingham CCC plus an application for advance tickets for England V India ( 2nd day) and England V West Indies (ODI) - 6 for each game.

So that's £544.00 I'd better not need for anything else

I'm not sure how to do links, but i hope this works - Gibbs was quizzed by Indian police over his role in the match fixing saga - http://www.news24.com/News24/Sport/Cricket...2012181,00.html

I always knew there was more to the saga. Gibbs has implicated former SA bolwer Derek Crookes - I bet you, though, that newspaper headline writers must be pleased that Crookes is a suspect.

Test Match tickets (as mentioned above) arrived yesterday

Not the best of starts

More trouble for the Pakistan team here

Bugger !

Sorry but I disagree. This competition is totally unnecessary so it's good that we're coming home in a week's time

only a few weeks until the ashes. ....nsw v england in at tour match next week at the scg . i cant wait...
so are any of you englishmen and women coming down under for the ashes ?

Not me

I'll be in Perth, Melbounre & Sydney with 3 mates ..... & we've got tickets for the tests. Thankfully for the Aussy cricket watchers we are cricket fans rather than Barmy Army people. We spend the days watching the cricket & the nights consuming alcohol. There is one area where the Aus bars beat the British ones hands down. Last time we were in Sydney we spent the nights in Darling Harbour 'pouser' bars watching a South Afirca/Pakistan test match rather than all the lovely young ladies round us.

According the 'rumours' Umpire Hair is to be dropped. The PCB have won.

nothing really to be gained from nsw v england , except decent match practice for both teams. Phil Jacques proved himself again. he must be close to test selection even with a fit langer and hayden

i cant believe trescothick has left the tour and returned home to england. i hope his situation improves, and that he can return to test cricket. he is a good cricketer and a big blow for england , in this ashes series.

I see Chris Adams has done the usual Derbyshire trick of saying one thing and then doing another. In Octoboer he signed for Yorks but has now gone back to Sussex. Mr Adams willl have a 'lively' time when Sussex play Yorks in 2007. I just hope the game is at Scarborough as the comments will be even more vitriolic there.



Brendan, thanks for not mentioning a certain keeper dropping catches !!

I'm also not 100% sure that Jaques will play regularly for Aus. Phil is as a class batsman who will most probably get lots of test runs. p.s. I only say probably because you can never tell until someone has played test matches but I'd back him to get runs. We had Jaques at Yorks for 2 seasons & he was an excelent batting replacement for Lehmann who was a big act to follow . BUT the Australians like players who are good fielders or bowl . Hatty (the Yorks members names for him) doesn't bowl & only fields in the slips where he drops a fair number. Outside the slip region Phil makes Giles/Lemann look athletic.

What does Owais Shah have to do to get a game for England?

'Teflon' Jones perchance ?

Hmmm. No answers yet. Is it because he's an "uppity darky?"

(Apparently, someone at Lord's was heard to say words to this effect.)

Wisden award for Umpire Hair

You see, when two players bat well, the whole world looks better. Well done Tinker and Collingwood.

Joyce is a better bat

Joyce may get a chance....................Bell injured

...........Or maybe not...........Bell fit


1st Test starts at Midnight (our time)

Giles playing, rather than Panesar, and Ponting has won the toss.........................here we go !

Help England are already on the back foot after 1 day ... anyone want to buy a 4 week holiday (& match tickets) in Aus ???

Let's not forget that it's been more than forty years since the English football team did anything spectacular.

English Cricket is a much better bet for winning this tornament than the Footballers are of winning the World Cup again.

It's only the first innings, don't sweat.

Right then, I know most people will have been waiting for my ever accurate surmisings of the events so far.

Kevin Shine, never any good as a player and not much cop as a coach either it would appear. In the space of 6 months he has turned Harmison from one of the world's top bowlers into Devon Malcolm, and that's being unkind to Devon. Harmison needs to work hard on his action as at present he seems to be living on past glories after having been unimpressive for large parts of last summer too.

Giles ahead of Panesar I do not understand, unless Fletcher neither of them will be able to turn it on this pitch. To say that he is there for extra runs when he hasn't batted for 18 months is just sheer lunacy. I can only assume that he is planning to play both of them at either Sydney or Adelaide and that Giles is getting match practice, else why play Panesar in the final warm-up game? It smacks of low confidence in the batting order, it's conservative and defensive rather than attacking bowling, and it pisses on the selection continuity that was one of the reasons we won the last series anyway. Giles won't win you test matches with his runs from no 8, but Monty can and has run through test sides. Notably at Old Trafford this last summer. Poor show from whoever had the final word on selection.

Tomorrow morning is now vital, Bell and Pieterson must both survive until lunchtime. In fact if the follow on is to be saved then I would say that Bell, Pieterson and Flintoff all have to score or get close to centuries, and that Jones and Giles who are both there for their batting weigh in as well. If we can get a draw out of this it will be a massive blow to the australians.

Let's not forget that these 2 shitty days aside England have a very good team and fully deserve their ranking of 2nd in the world. This has been earnt by performances both at home and abroad over the last few years.

When you consider the differences between the sides in experience, the amount of players not available for England (remember the aussies only beat us when Simon Jones isn't available), and the amount of players returning from long injuries then it's no surprise that we have started slower. The important thing now is to show some fight for the rest of this match so that the pattern for the series isn't set.

I think we can recover from a first test defeat like we did in 2005, maybe not enough to win the series, but I don't see why we can't draw it provided that players start playing to their potential.

I honestly love your no nonsense analysis Mo - you're wasted as an accountant - they should get you writing for the Torygraph*


* I only mention them as its the best paper for cricket, not because I'm a secret tory paper lover...

Trying to pull a couple of threads together: Mick Thomas subtitled his last UK tour as “Sympathy for the Ashes”. I don’t think many people who went to the gigs got the joke, and anyway he dropped it (not a catch).

For the record, Mick’s cricket imagery is scarily similar to Bill’s football. Take a trek down WPA's memory lane.

I actually love cricket (I’m a Kent CCC supporter btw – no surprises there), but 99% of the English public don’t give a flying fuck about it unless “we” win.

Just my rambling two penn‘orth.

This is embarrassing. And a pity. Not being a big cricket fan, I stiil get into it when England are doing well.
Have to watch last nights debacle on BBC 2 tonight.
157 all out? Again, not being the most clued up, but it seems like loosing the Ashs last summer was so painful for Australia, that they were not going to let it happen again.
Whereas in England, we've just hoped it would be alright on the night.

I can't stand the game.

My father and uncle are fuckin' saddoes of the cricketing world; they've done more tours to be Aussie Cricket groupies than I'll ever do Bragg tours. This year South Africa, next year, the West Indies.

But apparently your lot are playing like shit. I had a conversation on the phone today with another immigrant mate and your lot lost three wickets while we were talking.

Obviously not a long conversation

Having just seen the highlights I notice that Australia, as well as playing brilliantly, are also getting some luck with decisions.............KPs LBW and Flintoff getting out from a no - ball for example.
Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes.

Oh fuck it's 1989 all over again.

Ponting really is taking the piss, after skittling us out on an excellent batting pitch he's then gone and rubbed the bowlers noses in the dirt. England went into this game in a fragile state of mind, the team selection shows that. Everything that has happened since must have worsened the situation.

Nasser Hussain on sky reckons that ponting has dropped a bollock, thinking that England could possibly bat for 2 days. I doubt they'll last much more than 2 sessions.

This is the one thing that pisses me off about sky. I mean I'm prepared to get up at 3.30 to watch half a days play, I don't need to be told there's a chance they'll save the game when there isn't. The visual coverage of both cricket and football has been raised to a new level, the presenting of it is almost as poor as itv sports coverage.

The only positives so far have been Ian Bell's batting, Flintoff's 1st innings bowling and the fielding in the first innings.

So where from here. Well, clearly Pieterson needs to be promoted to 4 ahead of Collingwood who I would drop to 6 and put Joyce in at 5. Panesar must play, it's an absolute must. We knew when the squad was picked that Kookaburra's don't swing, therefore either Hoggard, or more probably Anderson (who has actually bowled better than his figures) needs to be sacrificed for Mahmood.

Way back in the dim and distant past, there was a debate on the BB mailing list about “a ball struck squarely and firmly”. I actually argued at that time that it was a cricket, not a football, metaphor. I was wrong.

BB’s response (and it’s not a literal quote, but it’s close) was “What the f*** do I know about cricket”.

Pete, I think that phrase was the basis of one of your Xmas quiz questions.

Aqua, it was indeed a short conversation.

I think Ponting was a cunt to go back in to bat. I guess he has more than an eye on the gate takings being refunded.

Yep, you're right Geoff. It was the one that I got the answer wrong for, and I set the bleedin' question.

KP LBW wasn't 'lucky' for the Aussies. I saw it 'live' on Sky & had given Peiterson out before the umpire did. It looked absolutely plumb. The comentators on both Sky & BBC 5Live Extra agreed. It was only when Hawkeye said the ball would miss the off stump that people changed their minds. He should also have been out before, but the catch was dropped.

Flintoft was unlucky as the bowler's foot was well over the line so it should have been a no-ball.

BUT remember that in 2005 Australia probably suffered more from the 'bad' decisions than England. So it all evens itself out in the end.

very good display by the aussies first with the bat and then the ball. Pontings form with the bat in the past two years is nothing short of sensational and good to see langer back in form. Our bowlers were great mcgrath is a warhorse , just reliable, warne brilliant and very suprised ( and happy ) for stuart clark. as a nsw player i have seen him bowl a fair bit , i always thought he deserved a chance a test cricket
The English were vry dissapointing . apart from flintoff , the bowling was terrible.
The batting was ordinary 1st time around , though Bell did look good. he was the one player i thought would be vunerable.
the 2nd innings from england was good. but as they were chasing 650 and were never going to get it , there was no real pressure . but none the less a better performance. Peteirson was good, collingwood a suprise , he was also unlucky to get out , just a rushed shot.

anyway hopefully england will be more competitive for test 2.

Some of the press took exception to Flintoff's shorts and vest (and tattoo) attire, at the end of the match, when he shook hands with Ponting.
I think they were right. He should have been in his whites.

i'm more concerned about flintoff rediscovering his batting form rather than his post-match attire, but like you said you aren't a big cricket fan.

Terrible team selection, still no Panesar. How is Panesar a risk? Surely it's a bigger risk to pick the exact same team that were royally anally fucked right over sideways last time out. Giles will spend his time bowling defensively outside the leg stump on a disintegrating pitch when Panesar could be the person who would spin england to a win in the fourth innings. As it is, on this pitch neither giles or anderson will be a threat, and if hoggard doesn't swing it neither will he. That leaves Flintoff and Harmison. If Harmison can't land it on the pitch again then Australia will only have to bat once and we will lose by an innings as Warne spins us out on the last day.

We absolutely have to at least double what we managed today, anything under 500 and we're fucked.

I can't add to Moster's analysis, and he reads the game better than I do. But just to echo that not playing Panesar yet again is crap. I can't believe it. What, is he being saved for when we're two down in the series?

end of day 1 , 2nd test .a very good effort by england . collingwood and pieterson batted vey well. i think england will need to score 500 plus . if they do this then at least they wont be beaten..all of australia were very suprised that panesar was again omitted from the english side. why did they bring him over to australia if they arent going to play him . is he the theo walcott of cricket. theo enjoyed his german holiday

perhaps panesar is good for something off the pitch. like packing up all the gear on day 4 to load onto the bus.

I agree with Brendon - I think we'd all like to see Monty on the pitch.

The cricket is distracting me more than I thought...........At the York gig last night the backdrop had NO PASARAN written in huge letters.


When I first saw it, it registered to me as NO PANESAR

Hoggy Hoggy Hoggy - Oi Oi Oi. Arise Sir Matthew

Aus 312 - 7 Hoggy 4-74

The only downside is that we'll never see him at Yorks anymore

Oh yes can add my agreement that Panaser should (alright MUST) be playing instead of Giles

I saw that picture, though can't locate it on the 'net. They bloody well did get him doing that, too. It's an outrage, frankly.

'scuse me doing my West London teacher bit, but he's seen as an icon in schools around here. His picture is on the classroom wall all over the place. More to the point, he's a fucking great cricketer. It's a major mistake, and indicates how fucked-up the English cricketing establishment is. "Oh, he can't field" I imagine is the pat response.

If anyone is reading this and doesn't know what we're going on about, check here.

Pete, thinking of changing his avatar to the same one as Moster's