Thread: The Ashes

ENGLAND coach Duncan Fletcher was last night accused of playing favourites and unwittingly helping Australia's Ashes campaign by publishing his inner thoughts about his players.
Former captain Mike Atherton says Fletcher has dented team morale with the insensitive manner in which he dumped wicketkeeper Chris Read for Geraint Jones at the start of the tour.
And Australian coach John Buchanan has claimed he gained valuable insights into England's plans by reading the Ashes diary released by Fletcher after last year's series.
"As Chris Read found out this week, it pays to be one of Duncan Fletcher's chosen crew," Atherton said.
"Given Fletcher's brutal assessment of his shortcomings -- basically, that Read cannot handle the pressure and that he has a crap batting technique -- there is no way back now.
"That is a frightening thought when you are just about to embark on a three-month tour.
"I wonder, as Read pondered the coach's -- and, by implication, the captain's -- comments, how much a part of Team England he felt."
Buchanan said Fletcher revealing his inner thoughts in his book was akin to "leaving notes under the door".
"Duncan's diary gave us a little bit of an insight into their dressingroom," Buchanan said. "What they have done out here seems to re-emphasise a few things they have said in that diary.
"It's useful to know as much about the opposition as you can."
Atherton agreed with the decision to axe Read, but not with the way it was done.
"My wicketkeeper must score runs, which I think Jones is more likely to do than Read," he wrote in Britain's Sunday Telegraph.
"Nor do I have a problem with the timing of the announcement: better to put an end to any speculation and settle players' minds early rather than later.
"The manner of the announcement made me wince, though.
"Never mind that Read had come in against Pakistan and done all that could be reasonably expected of him; never mind that the underpinning of selection with consistency and fairness, which has been a blessing of the Fletcher years, has taken a battering."
Atherton, who led England's Ashes tour in 1994-95, also said Fletcher might have harmed the bond between Andrew Flintoff's men.
"More immediately you have to question the so-called spirit of togetherness of the squad, the unbreakable bond that Ashley Giles spoke so eloquently about when I interviewed him some weeks ago, which he insisted was the key to victory in Australia," he said.

the physcological battle thickens...

Anyone know what's happening with TV or radio coverage inThailand???

Australia network channel is supposed to be showing it all.....

UBC trailed the pay for view thingy last time.... i imagine that might be happening again... but not long to go now ... 3 more days!

I really wish they'd not be so tight and have had more lead up games.

The UK attack looks very undercooked going into such an important match.

You can get the entire series on UBC for <1,500 THB - Customer Care

Originally Posted by kingwillyhggtb

Australia network channel is supposed to be showing it all.....

I've got one English (ish) channel at the shag pad; ANC!! Horay!!

I'm going to have to give up sleeping from Thursday so I can watch it live.
COME ON ENGLAND

Originally Posted by daveboy

I'm going to have to give up sleeping from Thursday so I can watch it live.
COME ON ENGLAND

^ give up sleeping? at least you can .... i'd have to give up work

heres a couple of sledges.

Top 10 Ashes sledges

1 Mark Waugh to Jimmy Ormond on his Test debut, 2001: "Mate, what are
you doing out here? There's no way you're good enough to play for
England."
Ormond: "Maybe not, but at least I'm the best player in my own family."

2 Merv Hughes to Graeme Hick et al: "Mate, if you just turn the bat over
you'll find the instructions on the other side."

3 Hughes again: "Does your husband play cricket as well?"

4 Mike Atherton, on Merv Hughes: "I couldn't work out what he was
saying, except that every sledge ended with 'arsewipe'."

5 Dennis Lillee to Mike Gatting, 1994: "Hell, Gatt, move out of the way.
I can't see the stumps."

6 Derek Randall to Lillee, after taking a glancing blow to the head: "No
good hitting me there, mate, nothing to damage."

7 Ian Healy, placing a fielder yards away at cover when Nasser Hussain
was batting: "Let's have you right under Nasser's nose."

8 Tony Greig, England's South African-born captain, to the young David
Hookes, 1977: "When are your balls going to drop, Sonny?"
Hookes: "I don't know, but at least I'm playing cricket for my own
country." Hookes hit Greig for five consecutive fours.

9 Rod Marsh, late Seventies: "How's your wife and my kids?"
Ian Botham: "The wife's fine - the kids are retarded."

10 Bill Woodfull, Australia's captain in the Bodyline series of 1932-33,
responding to Douglas Jardine's complaint that a slip fielder had sworn
at him: "All right, which one of you bastards called this bastard a
bastard?"

Classic - there is such a big difference between unitelligant sleding like 'piss off ya bald prick' and the above.

Came across this site
http://www.tuffersinoz.com/

I shall be teaching statistics and viewing on Thursday and Friday this week.


2 more sleeps...

^ well in my case perhaps 4 more sleeps (provided I only have 1 nap a day) - but i know wot u mean....

Originally Posted by kingwillyhggtb

1 Mark Waugh to Jimmy Ormond on his Test debut, 2001: "Mate, what are you doing out here? There's no way you're good enough to play for England." Ormond: "Maybe not, but at least I'm the best player in my own family."

well it was #1 and I bet it shut the foker up for a moment or two....

love this quote from Warnie.
pure class.

It's surprising they would go back to Jones. I thought they wanted Read back because they wanted their keeper to cling on to everything behind the stumps," he said.

"Jones will be under enormous pressure. It's not me sledging him or anything - he's in the side for his batting not his keeping and we've seen him drop some crucial ones.

"You don't want to be dropping Ponting on half a dozen in the first Test of the series, especially when you've just been brought back into the side. It's good for us that he's playing."

No, he should be ok, after all he is playing in his home town

Australian culture....about as real as American intelligence.

1 hour to go!

Australia have won the toss

Fantastic atmoshphere as the players take the field.

harmison comes in to bowl for the very first delivery of the 06/07 ashes series to Justin Langer.....

is a huge wide!!!

second delivery......

this could become the new get ya posts up thread - cricket commentary!

nervous start by langer but still manages 2 boundaries and its 0/9 after the 1st.

England already on the back foot. 23 minutes in and they only have 2 slips in. Aussies scoring at more then a run a ball!

0/33