Australia really didn’t have anyone else who could have been given a chance ahead of Lyon.
Bashir isn’t good enough in county cricket though.
I don’t mind if you stick with something because there is potential but he’s not going develop the way English cricket is set up.
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Exactly. I’d rather see Ahmed given a go. Leg spin always adds an air of uncertainty and at least he can bat.
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I’m not arguing for him just stating what my interpretation of what might be the thinking.
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Holy snapping dog turds.
After the score at Day 4 stumps, I didn’t bother checking today.
Wow.
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/two-tier-model-for-test-cricket-ecb-wary-ca-open-1498241
2 Tier Tests
something looking likely to happpen. Even though it’s been unofffficial for sometime now.
“There’s a lot of options that we’ve got to look at - tiers would be one of them,” he said. “We wouldn’t want, as England, we may go through a fallow period, and that means, what, we fall into Division Two and we don’t play Australia and India? That couldn’t happen. There has to be a sense that common sense needs to play out here.”
England-first. From the self-proclaimed test cricket saviours.
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The thing is Ahmed does not provide control. Not very Bazball though to save runs!
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Do think the big 3 have essentially decided amongst themselves that they want to play tests against each other more.
From a cricketing point of view, Any series involving the three will make for good cricket. The rest of the teams in the proposed first tier are good test teams in NZ , SA and I believe SL as it stands now.
I’m open to both sides of the argument. But I really don’t see a point (except stat loading) when teams play the likes of Zimbabwe etc.
Teams that don’t prioritise test cricket probably need this wake up call. But the con for that is that those teams do need a bit of handholding to ensure their cricket is up to scratch.
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Maybe England’s fallow period can be removed from the equation by not treating test cricket as an after thought to some anomaly of a tournament right in the middle of August.
Just a thought. If you prioritise it so little you get to play Ireland in a 5 test series.
How England can ignore this lad is a mystery to me…
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RIP Bob.
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RIP Bob…
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You can all be crusty old cynics if you like, but I’m a romantic, and I bloody love this show:
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A farce so they can avoid refunds… that’s tonight
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Whisper it quietly, but South Africa are slowly finding ascendancy in world cricket again. Would love us to play more Tests, though.
They really should be playing more tests.
I’m thinking that England will be looking at new recruits from there though. Pretty soon.
It’s institutionalized and I say that as someone who is part of the institution, albeit very, very, very far down the ladder. The Betway20 thing, the SA20 are being prioritized to a point where a couple years ago we sent what was basically a 3rd team to geth thrashed in New Zealand because players were playing in the above and with those being sanctioned events, it was clear where the priority lay.
The four day game continues but ask the average cricket fan on a Durban street when next the Dolphins play a 4 day game and he wouldn’t have a clue. Fuck, I don’t have a clue either. But ask him who was bid for highest in the Betway20 and he’d tell you immediately.
Think England might just have got enough there
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