McCollum is quite right - there are areas where England could improve. These include batting, bowling and fielding. Virtually the entire tour has been an embarrassment, from preparation onwards. He should be sacked.
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Anything but an Australian win here would have misrepresented the series. No England batter turned up before the series was lost, meanwhile Starc bowled superbly (31 wickets at under 20), the others backed him up well, Head was phenomenal. Well deserved win for Australia, and an appalling performance by England.
Before I’ve been OK with people getting out to attacking shots, you’re just as out miajudgibg a defensive shot. Here both technique and application were found out (same issues as before, but even worse), and the bowling showed an inability to hit the same area twice (except Tongue, and Potts gets a bit of a pass in my mind as he was throwing in with no preparation), and the fielding was appalling at times.
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He seems to have created an environment with few rules. They apparently don’t have team meetings, which seems mad to me.
He does and if he is relieved of the captaincy, his batting may recover in the same way Joe Root’s has after relinquishing the burden (and it is a burden dealing with a feral media and armchair critics like me!).
However, given that he is not an opener it is hard to see who he could replace out of Bethel, Root, and Brook. He is also 34, so not a lot of time to learn new tricks.
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Here is the man to replace McCullum!!!
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I’m not sure I can add much to what has been said already.
The management team (Key, McCullom and Stokes) need to publicly admit to getting things wrong: preparation, selection, strategy and tactics. They also need to sit down with the team and have honest conversations. The ECB should give them time to do that before issuing their verdict.
IMV good managers learn from their mistakes; Key has yet to admit to anything wrong, Stokes has shown considerable remorse, and McCullom has shown a stubborn streak / arrogance that might prevent him from learning from his mistakes.
At the start of the tour, McCullom brought in an All Black guru. I hope the former has someone to talk to outside the ECB setup who can speak truth to power.
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A really interesting chat with Bethell’s Dad on here. I learnt a lot about Jacob and his route to the top. He has mixed with West Indian cricket royalty all his life.
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There is a Facebook tread for our local cricket clubs to put photos and memories on. It covers Hereford and Worcestershire. Many club, village and work sides sadly no longer exist. The picture shows one of the clubs who played in the 1985 annual 6 a side tournament. Each side was allocated a guest player. Think this side got lucky with their guest player.
Also a snippet from the local paper when you had to buy the Evening News on a Friday or Saturday to see if you had been selected for the weekend game. Presumably then on a Sunday. How times have changed.
Looks like Vanburn Holder, 40 tests, turning out for Worcester City and Shaun D’Oliveria playing for Worcester 3rds. If this is from mid 70s he would have been about 10.
The Aussie commentators on the BBL were very complimentary recently about Bethel
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I wonder when he will next play a competitive red ball match?
Assuming he plays in the IPL(?) it could be June. In the next Test match England play. Ditto many of the others in this squad. The county championship will have been up and running since early April but that doesn’t seem to impinge on selection.
Bruce
Reports on England player’s conduct
The same report says that the England players were staying at a casino and were appearing “well oiled” and England fans were in disbelief
A lot of us were looking forward to this tour for a couple of years. We have some really talented players.
It makes me very angry to firstly watch some very poor cricket with poor application and skills, and then to find out that the culture is rotten from top to bottom with seemingly no discipline or professionalism. etc, etc, etc. I feel very sorry for those who spent thousands getting out there.
As a separate observation, we look 7 fast bowlers out there, played a relatively small amount of cricket and only 2 were left functioning at the end. Something is not right.
McCullum is talking about making tweaks to his methods. Laughable.
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If anybody wants to hear Michael Vaughan’s comments , he was in Melbourne for the BBL match between the Stars and the Renegades
No punches pulled
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This, and several other comments he has made sound like ‘back me or sack me’. Risky I think. He definitely doesn’t seem likely to change, or be moderated by someone higher up. I reckon it will depend a bit on the T20WC which isn’t far off. There’s actually little opportunity to review the Ashes before that.
After watching a fair bit of the Ashes coverage I suggest they ask Jason Gillespie to coach England. He was great as a pundit. Common sense, and very clear to call out what he thought was wrong and who he would pick etc.
Bruce
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I remember back in 2005 , the Australians were amazed at the England set up. Coaches for this, Coaches for that, and all kinds of back up staff to help the players. McCullum seems to have done away with most/all of this and just let the players decide what they want to do. I understand that apparently Jamie Smith was not seen doing any keeping routines before play every day, unlike most keepers.
The Ashes looked like a bunch of talented amateurs playing a team of well organised professionals.
Stokes has said that if McCullum goes he will go too. That’s out of order in my book but suggests he feels in a strong position. Stokes is a good leader but I don’t think he is a particularly good Captain but that is hard when most of the team cannot/won’t perform.
We will see that happens, but I suspect more of the same.
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Stokes/Brook/McCullum are behaving as if they think they are unsackable as captains and coaches. Not a good look. Yet another ECB fudge with Brook and his issue in NZ. Tried to hide it when they should have been open about the incident and punishment. It was always going to come out.
Bruce
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