I see England players have gone to Flanders...

Don't know how I feel to be honest when players take trips to war graves for a bit of team bonding. Waugh did it too didn't he?

Hopefully they got it drummed into them that in the overall scheme of things, the Ashes isn't 'that' important.

JKLever wrote:

If the revelation that Adil knows two-fifths of ****** all about most things is anything to go by, that must have been a riveting conversation:

"What's all these stones about, Freddie?"
"Well, you see Adil, when somebody gets old, and sometimes when they don't, they just sort of switch off. Then we put them in the ground."
"Why do they do that for, Freddie? Why don't they just wake 'em up."
"No Adil, let me explain, this is called DEATH."
"Death, Mummy? I'm scared."
"It's alright, Adil. Just hold my hand."

I think it's good if they realise precisely what JK mentioned ... that cricket is not a matter of life and death (despite Shankly's top joke).

That should not switch a professional sportsman off, and turn him into something bloodless and indifferent.

Just make him a bit calmer, more assured in the overall measure of things that his job is to do his best as a sportsman, ambassador for some generally better human qualities and as a relatively important but not life-or-death entertainer.

Bit of a cynical photo op, if you ask me.

And so soon after they employed "Flanders" as a consultant too...

I'm surprised there weren't more moody black and white photos juxtaposed with white horses running down a beach on an overcast afternoon.

Waugh did it too didn't he?

The 2001 team went to Gallipoil on the way through. From the material I've read, it did them no harm. Perspective and grounding.

Thought this thread was about a former Banjo coach now turn coat.

Though the 2001 team could've spent the week getting trashed in a Turkish brothel and the result would probably have been the same.

Dello wrote:Bit of a cynical photo op, if you ask me.

And so soon after they employed "Flanders" as a consultant too...

Maybe one of the genuises at ECB HQ misunderstood which Flanders they needed to see, and went for both.

When they could have gone for Moll
(and her sisters).

Dello wrote:Bit of a cynical photo op, if you ask me.

And so soon after they employed "Flanders" as a consultant too...

I doubt the former (as I suggested above). I could be wrong.

But a bit of an out-of-the-way choice of venue (literally). Perhaps it was considered there is nowhere in England as poignant for the message that could be taken.

By which I don't mean taking the "fight" to the Aussies!

I have been to some of those war cemeteries in Flanders. And they can be moving, in an unexpected way. Not in an aggressive or lugubrious or emotionally distracted way. More contemplative than that. Finding a sounder centre of gravity than the flimflam of everyday life and sheep-ish fashions. Thinking more about what really matters.

Okay, I haven't explained that very well. You have to have been there.

Ypres may not be such a good symbol though. Lots of effort for little obvious gain.

Waterloo is only 70 miles up the road, Crecy about the same distance the other way. This is more what we need against the Aussies.

The 2005 team also visited war graves.

Or (to tya) Agincourt. If the defiant two-fingered salute is to be taken back to its alleged origin.

Agincourt is a bit too deep in the French hinterland to risk a visit just prior to an Ashes series. French culture may be infectious.

KP [thinks]: Wow, what a dump...but at least I look awesome in this velour tracksuit...ohh, yeah, baby...I wonder if that cute lobby barman would make me a mojito?

KP thinks ???

I think it's funny that an English team would visit anywhere on the Western Front. Why would you want to remind them of a farking idiot running the show at the behest of a bunch of other idiots.

And just out of curiosity does KP lool like he's setting up a GQ shoot?

Bradman wrote:I think it's funny that an English team would visit anywhere on the Western Front. Why would you want to remind them of a farking idiot running the show at the behest of a bunch of other idiots.

To put their present situation in perspective?

Harsh but fair.

Bradman wrote:And just out of curiosity does KP lool like he's setting up a GQ shoot?

My thought exactly!

Well Sir Allen's bitten the dust so he's get to go somewhere.

Flintoff misses the point and the bus...


http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jun/30/andrew-flintoff-england-ashes-bus-indiscipline

Bradman wrote:I think it's funny that an English team would visit anywhere on the Western Front. Why would you want to remind them of a farking idiot running the show at the behest of a bunch of other idiots.

I suppose the 10s of thousands of people who go the Flanders every year to pay homage to the fallen laugh their bloody socks off from dawn to dusk!