As for the rest of the discussion on this thread...
You can't blame the players. I think the best players in the country (bar one or two) are out there. Changing them now will not matter one iota.
To me it's obvious that our cricket "system" is not producing high enough quality batsmen (and bowlers to a lesser extent) to be competitive with the top test teams. So you can't blame the direct management (Managing Director, Performance Director, Coach, Captain - maybe a few others) for this. It's out of their control.
What the direct management can control is preparation for the series and team selection. And that has been sh!t. Giles, Bobat, Silverwood need to go straight after the series. I personally think they've made things worse, when they should be keeping things level as a minimum. I would keep Root (who else is there?) but remind him how sh!t team selection was and how suspect some of the tactics on the pitch were. Listening to Ashley Piles now on TMS, he's talking utter, utter BS. It's worth a listen on replay. Utter, contradictory bobbins. "We are 4 in the world in test cricket and wanted to be better. Have we redressed that balance. Not totally" NOT TOTALLY? NOT AT ALL YOU MORON.
On management, in one of the BT sport innings breaks, they interviewed Jeremy Snape. Self-styled cricket psychologist. WTF! I imagine he is filling players minds with more things to worry about not less. Get rid of immediately. Get a normal sports psychologist as an advisor, and only if a player asks for one.
Fixing the cricket system? Many others have already said.
- Better quality pitches that mean 1) batsmen have a chance to build an innings rather than hit quick runs before they have a ball with their name on 2) Bowlers have to bowl better to take wickets 3) Spinners get a chance to influence games.
- Bring the County Championship into the whole of the Summer. Run it in parallel to some one day competitions. Get rid of either The Hundred or the t20 Blast.
Will the latter happen? Doubtful. Lip service maybe. Unfortunately Harrison and the rest of the inept bunch of muppets that turned up and failed at the DCMS Select committee shared £21m in bonuses for a *successful* 2021 season. For successful read profitable. They don't care about test cricket. They care about money.
What's worse was this was all talked about 4 years ago. Together with the plan to fix it. What has actually happened? Jack Sh!t
Edited to add more sweary words because the same situation arose the last time we were out there.
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Topic: Ashes Test Series - 2021/22 (Read 90996 times)