So what do you do about a problem called England OD cricket?

Fire away....

1. Restrict Yardy to T20, where batsman have to try and hit him for boundaries.... playing him ODI cricket means you're basically playing 2 lots of part timers.

Me?

I'd burn some people, rape some others, and stop picking any Sussex players that would be left after plans A and B. You know, the exact same strategy I've been advocating for about three years.

I think you've nailed it. Make a human (or whatever he is) sacrifice of Yardy to one of the gods that're into that sh!t and that'll probably solve everything.

2. However good that 158 was against India, dump captain megaspaz. Not attacking enough by far.

I think you're being harsh on Yardy. He is by quite some distance NOT the worst player in the current England ODI side. And that there's your problem. In my ideal world, Michael Yardy would wake up at 2.47am tomorrow morning, possessed - on a mission from God. He'd start killing players, all the crap ones. Because it's his mission, and only he can see which ones are crap because he has always been 'a crap one' himself. Then in the morning we'd all wake up to the joyous news and Michael Yardy would be in prison/dead. Everything would be looking up then. We could probably give that young and talented whipper-snapper James Tredwell a game. I love that guy. I want his ugly babies.

JKLever wrote:2. However good that 158 was against India, dump captain megaspaz. Not attacking enough by far.

Purely on form you can't drop him completely though. If it was just the captaincy that was the problem then we could afford to drop him but we are so short of quality one day batsmen that he is undroppable at the moment.

It's pretty sad that Bangladesh beating Ireland might end up saving us in this group.

3. Stop picking succesful T20 players for the ODI side and acknowledge the games are totally different.

Hang on there now Mr JK - I thought you were rooting for Yardy in the 50-over team a week or so ago?

I was? You'll have to dig that out for me there Pete.

The solution is staring you in the face.

Steve Davis has shown the way.

The rest of the lads need to follow his lead and admit they are all f4gs. Let go of the burden...

PeterCS wrote:Hang on there now Mr JK - I thought you were rooting for Yardy in the 50-over team a week or so ago?

That doesn't sound like... anyone.

Perhaps there was context. Like a hypothetical poser: would you like to see Yardy in the one-day side or have your testicles deep-fried and fed to a lizard?

One thing Lever is not, is a poser.

Huggable yes, posable, no.

Aditya wrote:The solution is staring you in the face.

Steve Davis has shown the way.

The rest of the lads need to follow his lead and admit they are all f4gs. Let go of the burden...

Why did you edit the word "gay" to something more hateful? Were you concerned that you weren't coming across as enough of a c*nt?

Bowlers = Sh!t.

I'll give Bresnan credit where it's due for his performance against India, but that's pretty much the exception rather than the rule for him.

Either take it seriously at county level, or lead the way for the rest of the world and actually retire from playing the format internationally.

krikri wrote:Bowlers = Sh!t.

I'll give Bresnan credit where it's due for his performance against India, but that's pretty much the exception rather than the rule for him.

Swanny went all right. It was funny - he bowled out pretty early and must've finished his spell thinking everything was going swimmingly.

beamer wrote:Either take it seriously at county level, or lead the way for the rest of the world and actually retire from playing the format internationally.

It's a good point. I'd forgotten about the counties and how it's their fault. Pro 40 really honed those skills.

Bastards. Not Hampshire though. They're lovely.

Dello wrote:

krikri wrote:Bowlers = Sh!t.

I'll give Bresnan credit where it's due for his performance against India, but that's pretty much the exception rather than the rule for him.

Swanny went all right. It was funny - he bowled out pretty early and must've finished his spell thinking everything was going swimmingly.

Yeah, I'll take him out of the sh!t equation. The rest are sh!t though.

Broad's economy rate has been more expensive in the past 2 years than his first 2 years in ODI cricket. No progression.

I'm sure we'll all hear about 'long Ashes tour' etc...

But its bollocks, it may mean the difference in the last 5% of a tight game but it doesn't make you bowl pies.

We'll now go and beat South Africa just watch. Beat anyone, lose to anyone.... we nearly did it in the warm up against Canada

Oh and in case anyone forgot, can't chase 250, can't defend 300.

Maybe we're the Arsenal of one-day cricket - the crappier the opposition the worse we play, full of excuses and not many Englishmen!

This may sound bizarre, but does anyone else feel like the world is back in it's rightful place? Being good at cricket just didn't seem right.

Dello wrote:

beamer wrote:Either take it seriously at county level, or lead the way for the rest of the world and actually retire from playing the format internationally.

It's a good point. I'd forgotten about the counties and how it's their fault. Pro 40 really honed those skills.

It's nothing to do with the county game. The worst players today were the ones who have played the least domestic one-day games in the last few years. Stuart Broad may not have even played a Pro40 game for Nottinghamshire, I don't remember. Trott has played a lot of domestic one-day cricket and has been good for England. Bell has improved markedly after playing a lot of one-day cricket for Warwickshire last season. Tim Bresnan, lots of one-day domestic cricket. Chris Woakes came from playing a lot of one-day cricket for Warwickshire and took a 6fer in his first few games (then he was dropped because he was obviously too sh*t to make a World Cup squad on that evidence). Strauss played more domestic one-day cricket during his time out of the international game and has been better since. I'm sure the same would apply to Alastair Cook who has been unfairly dismissed as 'not a ODI player' when in the form of his life. Around the counties there are good ODD players, they just don't get picked.

I'm pretty sure that any analysis would suggest that it is through not playing more one-day domestic cricket, and honing their skills, that the England players are suffering. Pro40 promotes good skills, it may not be ideal but it asks batsmen to score at a good rate and it demands that bowlers try and contain them. It's hardly poor practice for the current competition. And there's no need to say that most counties would have beaten Ireland today. Most county attacks had Kevin O'Brien on toast when he was playing for Nottinghamshire. I saw a fair few of his innings in the flesh and he was awful. Like a poor Shahid Afridi but even older than he is (and fatter and Irisher and uglier and gingerer).

Due to the money-spinning T20 taking centre stage mid-season, we've tended to play county one-day cricket in May and September in recent years. Massively bowler-friendly conditions that do nothing to prepare players for international cricket.

Once our WC campaign is over, which will be at any time between now and the quarter finals - we need to strip out the players who won't be around for the next campaign on the grounds of age - which means bye-bye Strauss and Collingwood.

Then we get shot of the cuddly bits-and pieces players so beloved of England selectors over the years - bye-bye Yardy, Wright and Tredwell. After that, it's the turn of players who have Norfolk'n idea of how to play ODIs - sod off Jimmy. That leaves you with:

KP
Trott
Bell
Bopara
Prior
Swann
Bresnan
Broad
Shazhad

Add to that lot:

Cook
Hildreth
Taylor
Stokes
Tremlett
Davies
Rashid

Then you have the basis of the next WC squad.

The English F/C structure is due for yet another overhaul. That would be a good time to scrap the 40 over competition and replace it with a 50 over tournament - not so much for existing players, but for the marginal ones who might break through into the senior squad.

One other thing - a specialist ODI coach. Can't think of one off the top of my head though.