England v Pakistan, 2nd Test, Edgbaston, Aug 6-10, 2010

The tests really are coming thick and fast. I worry for young Aamer. I hope his body can handle all this cricket.

England likely to be unchanged. KP under pressure. Really needs runs. If he doesn't score at least a 50 in this game then they should get him out of there, and find a county for him to help get a couple of low key games under his belt.

For Pakistan, Mohammad Yousuf has been brought back out of his 4 month long retirement. He'll probably replace Umar Amin, which is a shame as Amin is a promising young 20 year old (even though he hasn't shown it so far), whilst Yousuf is a 36 year old who is past his best.

Zulqarnain Haider (whoever the f*ck he is) is probably going to replace the hapless Kamran Akmal as well, and Danish Kaneria has been unceremoniously dumped from the entire test squad and will be replaced by Saeed Ajmal. Just another day for Pakistan cricket then......

Pakistan-

Butt(c)
Farhat
Ali
Yousuf
U.Akmal
Malik
Haider+
Aamer
Gul
Ajmal
Asif

Hello Everyone,

I note that when Tests are played in England the convention seems to be to use the ground name as the Test venue (Lords, The Oval, Trent Bridge etc), whereas the city tends to be used in other countries.

Do you prefer that Edgbaston be used in the thread title, or Birmingham?

Fromage

Prefer Edgbaston .... Trev's f**ked up again - he's been living abroad too long now.

Thanks cheesy.

Thank you Merlin.

Fromage

Thank you Fromage & Merlin

Smerky.

No worries Petey.

Merlin wrote:No worries Petey.

Thank you Smerky for your Thank you..

Fromage Merlin and Petey.

Oh FFS......

You're forgiven.
Move on.

Fromage
Can you fix my problem?******
Every time i use a punctuation it is followed by really annoying asterisks and it sucks because i really like to use ******!****** and ******,

Get F**ked, Horrie.

PlanetPakistan wrote:Fromage
Can you fix my problem?******
Every time i use a punctuation it is followed by really annoying asterisks and it sucks because i really like to use ******!****** and ******,

Hello PlanetPakistan,

This is rather odd. I am not entirely sure why you are experiencing this problem.

I will see what I can do.

Fromage

thanks Fromage

Umm, can I start this thread again?

An interesting point that Frommie makes. Is it simply because both Lords and the Oval are in London that we have all used the convention of using the grounds rather than the cities to describe the venues of Test matches in England?

Birmingham does look rather odd compared to Edgbaston, and Headingley will forever haunt me over Leeds.

The point also needs to be made that when these grounds were first set up they were deliberately set outside the environs of the major cities rather like Shakespeare's Globe was across the river at Southwark out of reach of the Puritan City Fathers. Lord's was a long way outside London (which did not have its own city-wide government -outside the Square Mile - until 1888) when Middlesex actually existed and was not just a postal fiction.

Old Trafford is actually in Stretford not Manchester whilst Trent Bridge is across the river in West Bridgford not Nottingham - although both have subsequently been absorbed by the city boundaries. Edgbaston is actually in Edgbaston, now a suburb of Birmingham but at the time of the ground's creation a rural village with the ground in the middle of a green field site.

Although it staged its first Test Match in 1902 the ground was so little developed that marquees had to be erected to accommodate both players and officials for both Test and county games which persisted into the 1950s and for this reason it did not become part of the regular Test Match circuit in England until 1957 after the present ground had been developed. Urban sprawl put an end to Edgbaston's rustic isolation however.

Joseph Chamberlain, the Victorian politician who split the Liberal Party in the 1880s over Irish Home Rule and the Conservative Party in the 1900s over Tariff Reform, moved there from London and eventually settled in a house named "Highbury" after the district in London where he had lived and his son, Neville, who later became Prime Minister, represented the constituency in Parliament from 1929 until his death in 1940.

The six major Test grounds have always been normally referred to by the ground name rather than the city within England, not sure of the common usage in other countries but it seems like in Australia it's more common to talk about the city the match is being held in (after all, a few of the grounds there actually have the city in their names anyway.)

Common names for the newer international grounds in England don't seem to have really settled down, you hear Durham, Chester-le-Street and Riverside all in use for the same ground for example, the Cardiff ground has a traditional and a sponsored name but was often just referred to as the Cardiff Test last year, etc.

Yeah, it's basically a uniquely English tradition. Even in the records (Cricinfo, etc), all the Tests around the world list the city as the venue but for English-based Tests the ground name is always used.

I don't mind at all. Lords or The Oval sounds much better than London anyway.

And thanks for the little bit of naming history, AD.

Aye. Very interesting that, AD.

What was interesting?

The tour of Birmingham?!!

Well, I guess whatever lights your bushel ......

What tour of Birmingham? Have you been on the sherry again this lunchtime?

Sherry??
Pah .... gnat's pee ....

Anyway To quote AD :

Although it staged its first Test Match in 1902 the ground was so little developed that marquees had to be erected to accommodate both players and officials for both Test and county games which persisted into the 1950s and for this reason it did not become part of the regular Test Match circuit in England until 1957 after the present ground had been developed. Urban sprawl put an end to Edgbaston's rustic isolation however.

Joseph Chamberlain, the Victorian politician who split the Liberal Party in the 1880s over Irish Home Rule and the Conservative Party in the 1900s over Tariff Reform, moved there from London and eventually settled in a house named "Highbury" after the district in London where he had lived and his son, Neville, who later became Prime Minister, represented the constituency in Parliament from 1929 until his death in 1940.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/8886649.stm

"I'm not saying that all phoney - like 'as long as the team wins, I'm happy'. I am inherently lazy, so if I didn't have to do anything for three-and-a-half days apart from watching my mates do the work so be it."

Good old Swanneeee!!

Whats the betting Strauss wins the toss and in muggy conditions says we'll bat and England get bowled out for 88?