West Indies v England, 3rd ODI, Bridgetown, Mar 27

And if KP or any of the others want to go home then let them. They're not exactly doing themselves any favours by staying out there. Sure a few of them have their minds on other things, i.e. the pay cheque they're about to pick up. This team's clearly got nothing left to give, the schedule is at fault as well for allowing a 5-match series to be spread out over 2 weeks at the end of the tour.

Fark me, I had to pop out for a few hours.

Should I be surprised at the score? No other team throws in scores like this on such a regular basis so something must be fundamentally wrong with the way they're going about their cricket.

I'm guessing Team Selection is an issue here Lever.

DJ_Smerk wrote:I'm guessing Team Selection is an issue here Lever.

Nah, that's an excuse. This team is better than the current 80/8...

It more to do with not applying yourself to the job in hand.

So typical England. Bunch of f*cking idiots. As usual, half of the batting lineup gets out playing one shot. Today it was the pull shot. C*nts.

I've given up. I think this current team might actually be worse than anything we put out during the 90's.

Big_Bad_Bob wrote:FFS.

15/0 off 6 overs with 3 maidens, and 4 of the runs in byes.

And this in a reduced overs game.

What a pile of shit.

And that was when the going was good!

Coaches and captains have to be judged on one thing only and that's results. There's something fundamentally wrong in the setup and I suspect it's largely due to team morale and spirit. With recent performances and the KP captaincy row I'm guessing we're back to the sort of dressing room cliques and general unpleasant atmosphere that was apparently there before the Hussain/Fletcher regime swept it away?

Henry wrote:So typical England. Bunch of f*cking idiots. As usual, half of the batting lineup gets out playing one shot. Today it was the pull shot. C*nts.

I've given up. I think this current team might actually be worse than anything we put out during the 90's.

I'll join you. Is there anyway of divorcing your national side?

Andy Flower has been a loser all his life. It's just the truth. Not meant to be a harsh statement. He was a fine batsman, but he played for a team that hardly won anything. Now he's coaching a team that's hardly won anything. We need a coach who knows what it takes to WIN. Flower is not that man.

Overstating the position of coach that IMO, it's about time the players stopped talking the talk and walked the walk.

I don't think half of them (at best) have good cricket brains...

JKLever wrote:

Henry wrote:So typical England. Bunch of f*cking idiots. As usual, half of the batting lineup gets out playing one shot. Today it was the pull shot. C*nts.

I've given up. I think this current team might actually be worse than anything we put out during the 90's.

I'll join you. Is there anyway of divorcing your national side?

Emigrate and swear an oath to another flag after you've passed an exam.

Bopara is batting exactly like Ian Bell does- Looks great, but then plays a pathetic shot to lose his wicket. Mental weakness. Pure and simple.

JKLever wrote:Overstating the position of coach that IMO, it's about time the players stopped talking the talk and walked the walk.

I don't think half of them (at best) have good cricket brains...

Isn't that down to how we coach at a more fundamental level? Not everyone one has a natural cricketing brain, it has to be taught to a lot and it obviously isn't being taught to our supposed best players.

In the current England team, only Pietersen, Collingwood, and Strauss have decent cricket brains. The rest are jellyfish.

Henry wrote:Bopara is batting exactly like Ian Bell does- Looks great, but then plays a pathetic shot to lose his wicket. Mental weakness. Pure and simple.

But when he first came into the side he played some impressive little pressure knocks down the order to rescue the situation, and seemed a natural at this level. What's changed?

They can't be arsed any more and want to come home, beamer.

eowyn wrote:They can't be arsed any more and want to come home, beamer.

poor things...

beamer wrote:

Henry wrote:Bopara is batting exactly like Ian Bell does- Looks great, but then plays a pathetic shot to lose his wicket. Mental weakness. Pure and simple.

But when he first came into the side he played some impressive little pressure knocks down the order to rescue the situation, and seemed a natural at this level. What's changed?

Well, he's now been in and around the England setup for almost 2 years now. He's probably been dragged down to the standard level....

eowyn wrote:

JKLever wrote:Overstating the position of coach that IMO, it's about time the players stopped talking the talk and walked the walk.

I don't think half of them (at best) have good cricket brains...

Isn't that down to how we coach at a more fundamental level? Not everyone one has a natural cricketing brain, it has to be taught to a lot and it obviously isn't being taught to our supposed best players.

Overplaying the role of the coach again for me. Selectors need to be picking players that don't need to have their hands held whilst playing the game. Coach is there to bounce ideas off players IMO

Yes but his claim was that Bopara is "mentally weak" when his early performances suggested quite the opposite. Perhaps the negative atmosphere around the squad has affected him much as it did with plenty of talented players in the 90's?

Confidence is shot, let's be honest - Strauss gave the game away after the first game in his interview.

I'm restricting my criticism solely to ODI/T20 btw, I don't think we played that badly in tests in India or WI. We just lacked a bowling attack.

But no one does scores with the frequency like we do in ODI ranging from 80-120. No-one...

For a start, Steve Harmison must never play for England again. To me, he sums up everything that has been wrong with this England team for the last 3 years.

I'm also not sure how good an influence Flintoff is either. Fine bowler, no doubt. But he's been a number 8 batsman at best for the last 3 years. He also seems to have his pals, and others who he doesn't like so much. He's incredibly loyal to guys like Harmison, and when Fred gives his opinions, which i'm pretty sure go something like- "Harmi's fine...He'll come through" etc, people listen to him. I think his shadow in the dresing room is becoming too big. He's not as good a cricketer now as he was 3-4 years ago, either. I doubt his batting will ever return to the form of 2003-05.

JKLever wrote:Confidence is shot, let's be honest - Strauss gave the game away after the first game in his interview.

Then we need a coach who can bring that back - it's not just about technical ability, or lack of it, other than our shortage of really threatening bowlers we're nowhere near this bad on paper, OK not one of the top three but still good enough to beat the likes of the West Indies with plenty to spare.

It's about a team who aren't playing for each other, aren't performing to their ability and look like they don't want to be there. The coach and captain have to take a lot of the blame for that.