New Zealand Tests

[LeedsExile]

Is the apathy so great that no one else can be bothered to comment on this debacle? Surely Bayliss must go now? It is appropriate that the test team are so useless as the entire management focus has been put on white ball cricket. Part of me is glad that England are doing so miserably this winter as it proves how misguided the decisions that have marginalised the championship into a spring/autumn event have been.
It might well be we see a lot more of Ali Cook this summer than was expected unless he has had enough of all this as well.

[Slogger]

Rather than play meaningless 2 day games there should have been at least two and probably three 4 day games played under proper rules before the first test. When they get home they all need a good spell in county cricket in advance of the Pakistan series.

[bwildered]

The official line was it was a shocker. It was by all accounts .

[nat]

The official line was it was a shocker. It was by all accounts .

Trust me it was.

[pablo]

The solution obviously is to run two twenty twenty tournaments in parallel in the Uk and send some of our players off to the new 10 over a side tournament in India. Why not play the longer form of the game in this country in February and March, after all nobody watches it and nobody cares about Tests.

Alternatively somebody could give Graves, Strauss and Bayliss the boot and bring in some people who care about cricket rather than just making money.

[nat]

The solution obviously is to run two twenty twenty tournaments in parallel in the Uk and send some of our players off to the new 10 over a side tournament in India. Why not play the longer form of the game in this country in February and March, after all nobody watches it and nobody cares about Tests.

Alternatively somebody could give Graves, Strauss and Bayliss the boot and bring in some people who care about cricket rather than just making money.

I'll gladly issue the boot for free.

[Andy]

Cricketers are no longer bothered to play for pride. The easy money of franchise cricket doesn't help. I Harry Gurney s dismissive tweet about Hales giving up red ball cricket because that's what the public wanted sums up the posh snowflakes in our game, and most of whom were born abroad and because British and kids don't play the game anymore.

[nat]

Cricketers are no longer bothered to play for pride. The easy money of franchise cricket doesn't help. I Harry Gurney s dismissive tweet about Hales giving up red ball cricket because that's what the public wanted sums up the posh snowflakes in our game, and most of whom were born abroad and because British and kids don't play the game anymore.

Well that's cheered me up.

[Andy]

Cricketers are no longer bothered to play for pride. The easy money of franchise cricket doesn't help. I Harry Gurney s dismissive tweet about Hales giving up red ball cricket because that's what the public wanted sums up the posh snowflakes in our game, and most of whom were born abroad and because British and kids don't play the game anymore.

Well that's cheered me up.

After having car accidents, break ins and run ins since December watching 11 so-called professionals auditioning for Strictly Come Catching Practice is a relief.

[Oldhasbeen]

Cricketers are no longer bothered to play for pride. The easy money of franchise cricket doesn't help. I Harry Gurney s dismissive tweet about Hales giving up red ball cricket because that's what the public wanted sums up the posh snowflakes in our game, and most of whom were born abroad and because British and kids don't play the game anymore.

Maybe Gurney's attitude has something to do with him realising he's not good enough for Test cricket, despite his early promise?

[Oldhasbeen]

I've just watched the "highlights". I never like to say it can't get worse, but, well, even with England's away record in recent years, I really think our batting display was rock bottom. I can't remember a more shocking, spineless, brainless batting display by an England team. And I've been watching since 1970.
Maybe we could have picked a better squad (I don't think Broad, Vince or Ali  should have been picked for the tour) but the whole display showed a shocking mental fragility, which must reflect something rotten in the whole set-up. Someone at or near the top's gotta go.  Bayliss's position (at least in red-ball cricket) looks untenable and what batting coaching our guys have been getting from Ramps I cannot imagine.
I'm planning on rising early to watch some live stuff in the morning. If England don't improve,  could be hitting the beer before 8AM for the first time since I was at University in the 70s.

[Andy]

I forgot Ramps was our batting coach. That would explain the camp collapse. I nearly ended up teaching him and Strauss on our course...

[nat]

It's ridiculous, jobs for the boys. Why should England players need a batting or bowling coach?!

The ECB is a joke. Take a look at the job vacancies that regularly appear on their website. It's like a rotten borough.

[golden duck]

If this was likely to be a wake up call then this winters shambles could be seen as a positive but sadly I believe we are watching the very slow demise of test match cricket. It will probably see most of us out but 50 years from now... glad I am very unlikely to see it.

[Slogger]

Talking about the decline of test match cricket I've seen some of the coverage of the excellent series in South Africa over the winter. They've had India followed by Australia. A lot of the cricket I saw was very good but there was practically no one at some of the games. And it was a similar story when India played Australia earlier in the winter. We've got the balance wrong somewhere.

There's a good article on Essex in The Cricketer this month and in it John Faragher talks about how it looks like the 50 over competition will be marginalised by the T20 franchise tournament (it will be played at the same time)and how festival cricket is most unlikely because of the lack of summer 4 day games. All of that is down to ECB policy, leading to the narrowing of the game and a retreat from places like Colchester in favour of short form evening games played in eight test grounds. My take was that Sunday games at Colchester attracted an awful lot of pay at the gate patrons from Suffolk and Norfolk (on the basis of the number of Ipswich and Norwich football shirts). They won't be going to T20 at Lord's.