England squad for winter tour

[rasi]

The problem with low bounce comes only when the bounce is uneven. The bounce in here is around about knee level. You cannot compare english pitches with those in here. There the ball didn't bounce simply because the pitch deteriorated. But here, it is the very nature of the pitch. However tall you are, the only way you could get the ball to bounce to the batsman's chest is when you pitch the ball right in the middle of the pitch. You need to be 100 mph to trouble a batsman pitching the ball in the center.

To trouble a batsman the ball has to pitch just short of good length and rise to the batsman's chest. Let alone bowling, the players in general will suffer in here. This is the time of the year when the weather is horrible. We have high humidity and high temperatures nowadays.

 

[barmyarmy]

Incidentally can anyone explain to me why we are playing the West Indies twice next year? First, at Easter and then over here during the summer. We'll be playing 9 tests against them or something stupid.

 

[andrew_nixon]

It's due to the requirement of the ICC to have each team play each other home and away for each 5 year period (May 2001-April 2006) and due to England insisting on playing Australia on a 2 yearly basis (home then away) meaning that Australia have to tour in 2005. Of course the easiest thing to do would be to have Bangladesh tour in 2004, not 2005, play a 3 test series in 2004 and a 4 test series agaisnt New Zealand, then 2 and 5 against the Windies and the Aussies in 2005. But the ECB is ruled by money so they would insist on having at least a 4 test series against them, and wouldn't havve anything less than a 5 test series against the Aussies.

There is no need for England to have 3 tours this winter, as we have 6 tours to do in the next 3 winters. It would of course be far too sensible to have 2 tours a year. Plus we have to play 5 tests against South Africa when we tour there.

 

[barmyarmy]

I was under the impression that next seasons heavy itinerary (and the awarding of so few central contracts) was due to the financial problems caused by the WC boycott of Zimbabwe. This is also why we're only taking 15 players on tour to SL and Bang.

 

[andrew_nixon]

We gave the same amount of central contracts this time last year.

You know, the one thing that gets me about the World Cup boycott is this:

Although I supported the boycott, the government should have supported the team. Beacuse as the Indian government have been stopping tours of Pakistan, the ICC have not been fining them. So if the British government had had the balls to pull the team out, we wouldn't have suffered any financial setbacks. But since when as the UK govenment cared about cricket?

 

[barmyarmy]

We're only taking 15 players in the test party instead of the usual 16.
For some reason we are taking the same number of wicket keepers as fast bowlers as well (3 of each).

 

[andrew_nixon]

I only see 2 keepers. Sure you're not getting Gareth Batty mixed up with John Batty?

I'm pretty sure an extra spinner will be added for the Sri Lanka tour.

They defintely need an extra pace bowler. One of Anderson and Harmison will surely be too knackered by the end of the Sri Lanka tour. And especially as Clarke and Collingwood aren't exactly brilliant with the ball. For some reason the name Chapple keeps ringing in my ears.

 

[barmyarmy]

I'm counting Trescothick as he could have backed up in case Read got injured. Blackwell for Collingwood, Kirkley for Jones, and it's not too bad a squad.

 

[andrew_nixon]

What do you think about an extra spinner for the Sri Lanka tour?

I'd go for Keedy. I know I'm biased, but he has been playing well this season.

 

[barmyarmy]

What's his batting like? You really need a spinner who can bat.

 

[andrew_nixon]

A genuine tail ender unfortunately.

You also need a spinner who can actually spin the ball, which is where Ashley Giles occasionally falls down.

If you're going in with two spinners though Batty or Giles would be "batting" spinners, and one of Harmison and Anderson would drop out, which is hardly going to drastically reduce the quality of England's batting line up.

The only other English spinners I can think of who can bat (Apart from Blackwell who is mainly a batsmen) are Croft and Schofield, but Schofield's been suffering from the yips and has hardly bowled for Lancashire this season, playing solely as a batsman and Croft seems to be out of favour.

I would have picked a new spinner for the Bangladesh tour, just to try out another option. The top 3 English spinners (in order of wickets taken) are Croft, Brown and Keedy. Brown is such a bad batsmen that he would bat lower than Devon Malcom and Courtney Walsh. Keedy does have the best strike rate and has taken an average of 5 wickets each game.

 

[Neo!]

an extra spi9nner will be great