Cooley: current Aussie bowlers are as good as 2005 England

Says. The ECB want shooting for letting Cooley go. Look how much better Lee has become under his tutelage.

Will they really drop Yuvraj after just two failures? That would be a bit daft, considering only Tendulkar looked comfortable against the Aussie attack. What makes them think that an out-of-form Sehwag will do better than an in form Yuvraj this time around?

If CA had picked up Cooley 5 years ago, Lee would have 400 wickets by now.

JGK wrote:If CA had picked up Cooley 5 years ago, Lee would have 400 wickets by now.

No question he's a better bowler. I also notice that he's started to pick up wickets from the wide ball wafts - Ian Botham like.

One thing cooley seems to have given him is a slower ball that isn't totally rubbish.

JGK wrote:If CA had picked up Cooley 5 years ago, Lee would have 400 wickets by now.

It's a sobering thought.

Rob I wrote:Says. The ECB want shooting for letting Cooley go. Look how much better Lee has become under his tutelage.

I'm getting more and more convinced that Australia's is the only Board that really cares about winning consistently. Most other Boards only seem to have the $$$$ aspect in mind, and who cares how their team actually performs on the field. Some people have said that Cooley wasn't/isn't as brilliant as he was made out to be, but the results are there for all to see- When England had him, their pace attack was excellent, when they didn't we became shite. When Australia didn't have him, their pace bowlers other than Mcgrath were hot and cold, but now that they do have him, Lee has improved ten fold, Clark has gone from first class trundler to number 2 bowler in the world, and Johnson is getting better and better.

Whoever in the ECB it was who sacked Cooley should be shot. Instead, he's probably earning more money this year than he was in 2005.

Lee's bowling improved before Cooley took over.
I think it's more to do with just his mindset!

Demelza wrote:Lee's bowling improved before Cooley took over.

Not that I noticed.

I thought he was pretty okay during the Boxing Day test in 05/06 against South Africa. He worked over some quality batsmen, and had Smith for one tied in knots all summer. Or am I thinking of someone else?

Demelza wrote:I thought he was pretty okay during the Boxing Day test in 05/06 against South Africa. He worked over some quality batsmen, and had Smith for one tied in knots all summer. Or am I thinking of someone else?

D - Smiffy was just in carp form

Lee has had moments throughout his career but was just too much chaff accompanying the wheat. So far .............. this season he has posed a near constant threat to batsmen. Far better length with movement. Basically less of the bigheaded "see the ball fly" rubbish.

Mick, don't you think it might be that his role has changed? I'm quite sure that with McGrath in the team he has always been told to just run in and let it fly. On the occasions when he was needed to do something more he failed becuase he hadn't a Plan B.

Now his role has changed, and he seems to be holding a little back in order to keep more pressure on thebatsmen.

No doubt steve waugh used lee purely as a shock weapon to rough up the other team.

I think it set him back significantly as a bowler as when people stopped being afraid of him he had nothing else left to fire at them.

Lee also had somewhat of a free run in the team under waugh, waugh had a huge mandate as skipper and played lee at all times even when it was clear he wasn't in form(01 ashes for example where fleming and colin miller were both in form and more deserving of a spot)

Yep, pdy. That license to bowl shite certainly didn't help Lee.

Waugh's 01 ashes diary talks about Lee's average as well.

He seemed to be basically saying it didn't matter that lee was averaging about 50 for the series as he roughed up Thorpe in the 3rd test.

Maybe for Waugh who had all those big guns there was truth to that but it certainly hurt Lee's growth not really having to put up numbers to hold a spot.

tac wrote:Mick, don't you think it might be that his role has changed? I'm quite sure that with McGrath in the team he has always been told to just run in and let it fly. On the occasions when he was needed to do something more he failed becuase he hadn't a Plan B.

Now his role has changed, and he seems to be holding a little back in order to keep more pressure on thebatsmen.

Role changed? Maybe you describe it that way. I don't think it's coincidence that with Cooley (& maybe Neilsen) he actually looks like a real fast bowler.

Mick Sawyer wrote:

tac wrote:Mick, don't you think it might be that his role has changed? I'm quite sure that with McGrath in the team he has always been told to just run in and let it fly. On the occasions when he was needed to do something more he failed becuase he hadn't a Plan B.

Now his role has changed, and he seems to be holding a little back in order to keep more pressure on thebatsmen.

Role changed? Maybe you describe it that way. I don't think it's coincidence that with Cooley (& maybe Neilsen) he actually looks like a real fast bowler.

I think it's a bit of both, Mick. Whatever it is, I hope to see more of it!

"Whatever it is, I hope to see more of it!"

Agreed - I think one of the reasons why many of us slagged him so heavily was that he had the raw skills and works hard on his fitness and the like but bowled like a fecking idiot.

Couldn't it just simply be that players grow and mature as they play? I mean, they're constantly striving to improve, it shouldn't come as that much of a shock when they actually do!

Demelza wrote:Couldn't it just simply be that players grow and mature as they play? I mean, they're constantly striving to improve, it shouldn't come as that much of a shock when they actually do!

Of course D, but he's had lot's of opportunity to work it out for himself - not like he's played 25 tests & it's clicked - to me the change is significant after so long that it's down to some new influence - to obvious choices are the new coaches. The idiot Tasmanian couldn't have worked it out.

Yeah, Bung's improved out of sight. Been damn impressed with him since he started leading the attack.

Batfink Begins wrote:Yeah, Bung's improved out of sight. Been damn impressed with him since he started leading the attack.

I hear he's a big fan of you as well, Finky.

tac wrote:I hear he's a big fan of you as well, Finky.

Oh gosh... ooohhh yes Brett Lee. Sorry, that was just the Mark Knickerless eminating from my soul.

now now don't wet your pants boys!