Cricket

[Craig Beevers]

Couldn't find another general cricket thread so...

Thought other people might like to contribute in finding the right words to describe just how unbelievably incompetent England's selectors are. They treat Onions like complete crap despite being the best seam bowler (dropped twice already whilst 35 average bowlers continue bowling tripe), then they pick what has to be the most boneheaded squads for Bangladesh you have ever seen. Bar none. Borrowing from my own post on another forum:

They spend all these series grooming Rashid, giving him experience, they pick him in a shortened format so he learns to bowl flat rubbish and potentially ruining him as a Test player, then the golden opportunity arises to play him in Test cricket AND THEY PICK A 28YO PLODDER WITH A **** RECORD.

They have the perfect opportunity to have a look at some short to medium term seam options with his arch ordinariness (Anderson) being rested - the seam bowling was clearly not a strong area in England's side but there are other options knocking around who might improve the situation. So the one guy who has completely dominated FC cricket and on England A type tours (Mark Davies) is magically left out in favour of some random Yorkshire player (Shahzad) who's shown nothing exceptional whatsoever.

Plunkett a completely horrible limited overs bowler with a completely horrible record last season in particular is again in the ODI squad.

Prior a proven completely atrocious ODI player, who does nothing for England's balance, is in the ODI squad with no other keeper in there. There a wealth of other options who would do a lot for England's balance.

Denly a player who is obviously more suited to longer format cricket is in the ODI squad and not in the Test squad.

Sidebottom someone who has not looked the same bowler since 18 months ago, is 32, needs to show he has that edge back before he's worth considering again. He is in *both* squads in a very low priority tour.

[Ian Dent]

Anderson?

He is magnificent is all three fields.

[Michael Wallace]

Anderson?

He is magnificent is all three fields.

Wait wait wait. I haven't watched cricket for a while, but I'm pretty sure there was only one field last time I checked.

[Craig Beevers]

Anderson?

He is magnificent is all three fields.

Last time I checked 156 Test wickets at 35 was decidedly ordinary. As was his 0-111 last week whilst every other bowled filled their boots.

[Ian Dent]

What were Onions figures for the series compared to Anderson?

[Craig Beevers]

What were Onions figures for the series compared to Anderson?

Onions has 28 wickets at 31 and he's been pretty unlucky throughout most of those games. plus you have the rank stupidity involved in giving the new ball to Broad or whoever ahead of him.

[Ian Dent]

I do agree with you strongly about Shazhad. He's been given a big push by Michael Vaughan on TMS but looks a very average player to me.
Bresnan at least has a bit of talent.

[Michael Wallace]

Anderson?
He is magnificent is all three fields.

Wait wait wait. I haven't watched cricket for a while, but I'm pretty sure there was only one field last time I checked.

Oh man, Raccoon, you're so funny.

[Charlie Reams]

Anderson?
He is magnificent is all three fields.

Wait wait wait. I haven't watched cricket for a while, but I'm pretty sure there was only one field last time I checked.

Oh man, Raccoon, you're so funny.

I thought this was funny, but I didn't want to let on in case people think I'm a homosexual.

[Matt Bayfield]

Apologies for slightly sidetracking Craig's thread, but if any of you fancy your skills as a cricket pundit, then you might be interested to hear that for the second year in a row, I'm running a "fantasy cricket" competition based on the ICC World Twenty20. This year’s World Twenty20 takes place in the West Indies and starts on Friday 30 April.

Drop me a Private Message, with your e-mail address, if you’re interested in taking part, and I'll e-mail you the spreadsheet of rules and the player list.

And for anyone still wondering what this is about, there's some introductory text below...

*wave*
Matt

Welcome to the (unofficial) 2010 ICC World Twenty20 fantasy cricket competition.

The sports fans among you may have noticed that the West Indies will shortly be hosting the third World Twenty20 cricket championship. To celebrate this fast-paced exciting form of the game, you are all invited to enter a fantasy cricket competition and select your own squad of 11 cricketers who will score fantasy points according to their performances throughout the championship. Entry is free and you don't actually need to know anything about cricket to enter.

There are two ways to enter this fantasy competition:

The more scientific way to enter is to open the spreadsheet (available on request by Private Message) at the "Player List", which lists all of the cricketers in the national squads for the Twenty20 championship. Each player has been given a unique number. In the yellow cells, fill in the 11 numbers corresponding to your chosen 11 players. There are just two restrictions on your squad selection:

• All squads must contain exactly 3 BATSMEN, 3 BOWLERS, 4 ALL-ROUNDERS and 1 WICKETKEEPER.
  
  No more than 2 of your chosen players may come from the same national team.

Once you're done, send your completed spreadsheet to me at (e-mail address available on request).

Alternatively, if choosing 11 players sounds too hard, just send me an e-mail saying you'd like to enter, and I'll pick you a squad at random. All randomly-selected squads will only contain players from the nine seeded nations.


Once you've entered, there's nothing more you need to do. As the 27 matches in the Twenty20 competition progress, I'll add up everyone's points, and the entrant with the most points after the final on Sunday 16 May will be the winner. (For those of you who like little trophies, there might even be a prize.) You can find a few rules and info on points-scoring in the spreadsheet, and more info on the Twenty20 competition itself can be found on cricinfo.

I need to receive all entries before 12:00 BST on Friday 30 April (the day of the opening match).

Best of luck and may the best fantasy manager win!
Matt Bayfield

[Gavin Chipper]

What were Onions figures for the series compared to Anderson?

Never an onion, but I have played cricket with apples (more than one because they only last for one shot).

[Craig Beevers]

Dig time.

England just crushed Australia in the T20 World Cup final. So sweet.

[Jon O'Neill]

[Gavin Chipper]

Dig time.

England just crushed Australia in the T20 World Cup final. So sweet.

Pity it wasn't Liverpool.

[Davy Affleck]

Yawn

[James Robinson]

Yawn

I think that's what the majority of us do, when you type anything in, Davy.