Drop Prior Now

Yesssssssssss...

Well, there's some here who would blame Prior himself for the global recession!

Prior is a cock and a crap wicket-keeper, ergo any attempts to justify hating him and wanting him to be defenestrated from a very tall building do not need to be justified.

Phil Mustard- Remember him? Made 80 odd at a run a ball in his second last ODI, and was probably the only England batsmen of the last 2 post Trescothick years to make a half decent fist of the pinch hitting opening role, yet he hasn't been heard of since. In form he didn't look the worst. I know he had a shocking county season last year, but so much for the 'England bubble' in regards to him.

Haddin is willing to drop Prior...given he has already dropped everyone else

We can kinda bat, we certainly can't bowl - but hey ho the first person we should drop is the bloke who has been one of the only plusses of the Tour - bar one test.

Youse people are as bad about Prior as I am about the balless one.

One of the plusses?

Over 120 byes in 3 Tests, dropped the catch that cost us the chance to level the series, and apart from that looking like a general gashlord whilst gormless in charge of the gauntlets?

I'd hate to see your list of minusses if he represents a plus. Funk me.

If Davies starts the county season with a stack of runs and few keeping errors, then get him in there. Otherwise, Prior is the man for now. If Tim Ambrose was consistently able to bat like he did at Barbados, then he would be worth another go. But at times he looks like Chris Read II with the bat.

Big_Bad_Bob wrote:One of the plusses?

Over 120 byes in 3 Tests, dropped the catch that cost us the chance to level the series, and apart from that looking like a general gashlord whilst gormless in charge of the gauntlets?

I'd hate to see your list of minusses if he represents a plus. Funk me.

Crikey since when have we been good enough to say a bloke who scored 310 runs @ 77.50 is not a plus, batting at 6 or 7.

And we can go on and on about this Bob but I would suggest a 1/3 of those byes were due to gashlord bowling and not his fault.

And your on about the catch that cost us a series, but completely ignore the other catch prior to that off Shiv from Wobbles, and Strauss dolly drop off Nash. To be honest Bob in this instance your talking a load of Bollox!

Play him as a batsman if he's so farking great at that. I wouldn't have a problem with that, as he's arguably earned the chance, though would expect his limitations to be exposed soon enough.

However, he's costing us games with the gloves on, only a total moron could possibly seriously argue otherwise.

Colly and Johann dropped catches yes, but succeeded in their primary functions on the whole which is to score runs. Prior is failing in his.

The wicket-keeper is a pivotal position in the side, particularly when our bowling resources are so limited - they need all the support they can get from the bloke behind the sticks. They don't get that with Prior, and it unquestionably drags the side as a whole further down.

Bob we will have to agree to disagree here.

He is by far the best option we have at this moment in time. There is no other English qualified keeper who is near him at present as an allrounder with the gloves on.

He is also putting us in positions to win games also.

holcs wrote:Bob we will have to agree to disagree here.

He is by far the best option we have at this moment in time. There is no other English qualified keeper who is near him at present as an allrounder with the gloves on.

He is also putting us in positions to win games also.

Is he now? Care to point me at the last Test we won with him in the side, then?

Big_Bad_Bob wrote:

holcs wrote:Bob we will have to agree to disagree here.

He is by far the best option we have at this moment in time. There is no other English qualified keeper who is near him at present as an allrounder with the gloves on.

He is also putting us in positions to win games also.

Is he now? Care to point me at the last Test we won with him in the side, then?

Care to point me to Flintoff's value to the team when it comes to a win/loss ratio in tests?

Means absolutely nothing exactly!

holcs wrote:Bob we will have to agree to disagree here.

He is by far the best option we have at this moment in time. There is no other English qualified keeper who is near him at present as an allrounder with the gloves on.

He is also putting us in positions to win games also.

Loose definition of "allrounder" coming up:

Someone good enough to hold down place in more than one discipline. Prior fails at the first hurdle.

holcs wrote:

Big_Bad_Bob wrote:

holcs wrote:Bob we will have to agree to disagree here.

He is by far the best option we have at this moment in time. There is no other English qualified keeper who is near him at present as an allrounder with the gloves on.

He is also putting us in positions to win games also.

Is he now? Care to point me at the last Test we won with him in the side, then?

Care to point me to Flintoff's value to the team when it comes to a win/loss ratio in tests?

Means absolutely nothing exactly!

Aye - well that's all about the fact that playing Fred screws up the balance of the side.

I see Gimpy the Gloveman (but Batting Beast) maintained his selection justifying record with the willow today then? Probably slipped below 23 again in ODI's I imagine - was a shade over it going into the game I believe. Super dooper. No arguing with that superlative stat, eh? Carry on the Gimpster. Drop the lot, shed byes by the barrel load, generally look like a cretin, and set the worst example in the field of any professional keeper in the game. At least your batting rules supreme.



Round and round the arguments go. Those who argue for Prior in both forms of the game continue to do so, as do those who insist we need a five man attack in Tests. Meanwhile England keep on losing . . . and losing . . . and losing . . . and losing . . . and losing again.

Hey ho, one day you fackers and the selectors will wake up, but I ain't holding my breath.

Matt Prior was the Man of the Match in the footy today so it looks as though he is in form.

Prior is not an all-rounder. He is, IMHO, a big liability, one that I would want out of my side at the earliest.

doremi wrote:Prior is not an all-rounder. He is, IMHO, a big liability, one that I would want out of my side at the earliest.

Dhoni was considered to be a batsman with iron gloves at the start of his career, as well.

Dhoni was very average at the start, he was never that poor, and he had time to improve on the job in ODIs. Added to the fact that he was a demon batsman when he started out further justifying his place in ODI cricket.

A better example is Parthiv Patel (or even Deep Dasgupta). Very very promising batsman, great technique, gritty, and looking like he belonged up there with a bat. But when the gloves came on, he was crap and possibly cost us a series win in Australia. He had to go.

Big_Bad_Bob wrote:
Round and round the arguments go. Meanwhile England keep on losing . . . and losing . . . and losing . . . and losing . . . and losing again.

Correct and correct, but to put the fact we are carp at one mans door is a little over the top really. Its hardly like this is mens singles tennis is it?

Prior is our best bet at present, until you show me someone who is convincingly well above him with the bat and gloves.

Big_Bad_Bob wrote:Round and round the arguments go. Those who argue for Prior in both forms of the game continue to do so, as do those who insist we need a five man attack in Tests. Meanwhile England keep on losing . . . and losing . . . and losing . . . and losing . . . and losing again.

Yes, and we'd lose even more convincingly if we had only 4 bowlers and a keeper who can't bat, it's almost like playing with one less player in the side. And the Flintoff stat is down to the fact that he always misses the games against New Zealand, who are the only team we're capable of beating now... or were a year ago, not so sure now they've scored 600 against India!

I think the problem is a lot more down to the dressing room atmosphere, the personalities and the losing mentality that's crept back in than the balance of the side or the basic ability of the players, apart from the fact that we have no strike bowler or attack leader who can get wickets on a flat pitch. Just as the 04-05 team was a lot more than the sum of its parts, the current one is a lot less and the recent coaches, captains and senior players have to take the blame for that.

holcs wrote:

Big_Bad_Bob wrote:
Round and round the arguments go. Meanwhile England keep on losing . . . and losing . . . and losing . . . and losing . . . and losing again.

Correct and correct, but to put the fact we are carp at one mans door is a little over the top really. Its hardly like this is mens singles tennis is it?

Prior is our best bet at present, until you show me someone who is convincingly well above him with the bat and gloves.

I'm not putting the fact that we are sheet entirely at his door.

However, he is one of the main contributors to it, and to ignore one crap player's crapness on account of the others being crap as well is completely nonsensical...and crap.

His poor performances with the gloves are also symbolic of the mediocrity that England are prepared to tolerate in all of their side.

This obsession with multi-faceted cricketers is leading us up a blind alley fast where they accept shortcomings in a player's primary function on account of the fact that they occasionally bring something else to the side.

It's all bollox.

Pick your best players in their primary functions, and that includes Fred being fit enough to be part of a 4 man attack...and if he isn't, then he isn't fit to play.

beamer wrote:

Big_Bad_Bob wrote:Round and round the arguments go. Those who argue for Prior in both forms of the game continue to do so, as do those who insist we need a five man attack in Tests. Meanwhile England keep on losing . . . and losing . . . and losing . . . and losing . . . and losing again.

Yes, and we'd lose even more convincingly if we had only 4 bowlers and a keeper who can't bat, it's almost like playing with one less player in the side. And the Flintoff stat is down to the fact that he always misses the games against New Zealand, who are the only team we're capable of beating now... or were a year ago, not so sure now they've scored 600 against India!

I think the problem is a lot more down to the dressing room atmosphere, the personalities and the losing mentality that's crept back in than the balance of the side or the basic ability of the players, apart from the fact that we have no strike bowler or attack leader who can get wickets on a flat pitch. Just as the 04-05 team was a lot more than the sum of its parts, the current one is a lot less and the recent coaches, captains and senior players have to take the blame for that.

That's your opinion.

That we are garbage with the current keeper and current balance of the side is fact, and thus it's also a fact that we've got feck all to lose by changing both.

I'd be happy playing Flintoff as part of a Four man attack, however those days are long gone.

If we had the luxury of playing him as part of a 4 man attack and we had ANOTHER allrounder who bowled say,...errr I don't know.... Leg Spin, that would always be a useful thing.


However, I'm sure this debate could rage on for centuries but lets just agree that England's continuous dross is driving us all a little bit Crazy.

Big_Bad_Bob wrote:That we are garbage with the current keeper and current balance of the side is fact, and thus it's also a fact that we've got feck all to lose by changing both.

Well I guess that's fair enough, something has to change, though I really don't want a return to the days of 25 player and 4 captain series! Or a keeper averaging 20 walking out at 100-5, or part-timers bowling at both ends as we rest our limited bowling resources before the third new ball...

It's a shame we're going to have to make experimental selections in an Ashes series, it's the time you really want a successful side with the winning habit as you go into the series but it's too late for that to happen this time. So when we lose 5-0 the selectors will get stick either for keeping faith with failing players, or for making several changes for each match!