SHA Small Heath Alliance

That underpins everything, the fact that whilst not exactly the Aussies being there for the taking, it was the best chance we have had in years of making an actual fight of it. To lose in 11 days is stunning in retrospect. Even the Aussies didn't expect that.

FWIW I'd keep Baz but there needs to be some account taken on mistakes made. If he really "won't be told what to do" then it maybe time for someone else, and a goodbye and thankyou as there's no question that overall we have improved under him in a lot of ways and had some great performances.

Keep the attitude but a bit more fine tuning as opposed to off the cuff maybe.

Keeping most of us and a lot of the public interested in test cricket with everything else going on these days is a win I think.

Don’t want to come over as too much of a smart arse (believe that if you will) but here’s the stats for that series.

Woakes (who wasn’t fit to begin with) took more wickets - albeit one more test - at a better strike rate and economy rate than Carse

[www.espncricinfo.com]

The batting averages are interesting too, Duckett, Brook and Smith in particular. Spectacular.

Much is being made of the depleted Aussies but we were pretty depleted for much of the tour and by the last innings were without Archer Wood Atkinson and Stokes. Not that the last innings of the last test makes any difference. Losing Archer and Wood so early was a huge, though not particularly unexpected blow.

I suppose what it shows is that Australia has much greater depth when it comes to second and third choice options. And spinning options.

Carey was my man of the series, an absolute master behind the stumps and very effective in front of them.

I think their batting and ours overall is comparable, although they clearly had the best of it in this series.

Looking forward to seeing how these Rew kids develop.

I agree broadly - though it’s true he can’t be ‘told what to do’ - the MT have to do it their way and take responsibility. That doesn’t mean don’t be honest with yourself and your own mistakes (what Stokes said after the game) or listen to
constructive advice when it’s given.

I remember people saying how pivotal the first test would be and how going in to it so underprepared was begging to be 2-0 down instantly given the pink ball test was inevitably going to be won by the Aussies.

Yep this is the main reason we went down so badly and so quickly. Most of us on here felt the series was too big an ask but that we ought to win at least one test. The lack of prep is a massive own goal. To win out there you have to prep the way Strauss had his side prepped in 2010 and even then hope the Aussies are in a bit of a lull/transition period.

But that won't work with today's top UK based cricketers far too expectant of being permitted to swan about the globe playing mickey mouse formats for mega lolly. To manage the stars of team England - Stokes, Brook, Root, Archer - we effectively threw the first two Ashes tests by trying to wing it. If we continue to wing it Brendan style we're gonna need the Aussies ahead of 2029 to help us out by reformatting the schedule - Adelaide first test then 4 and 5 after Sydney and consulting us on what pitches we want and removing the pink ball test for a start.

They're not gonna go that far to save the Ashes but we can't go back to 2010 levels of intensity with all the mental toll that wrought either so it's always going to be an uphill task which is why 2027 home Ashes is critical we win it

Carse is a decent wicket taker, problem is he’s no good in circumstances where you’re defending a low total, he’s too wide too often.

Tongues proven a bit this tour so he’s one definitely for the future

mad

I remember people saying how pivotal the first test would be and how going in to it so underprepared was begging to be 2-0 down instantly given the pink ball test was inevitably going to be won by the Aussies.

Yep this is the main reason we went down so badly and so quickly. Most of us on here felt the series was too big an ask but that we ought to win at least one test. The lack of prep is a massive own goal. To win out there you have to prep the way Strauss had his side prepped in 2010 and even then hope the Aussies are in a bit of a lull/transition period.

But that won't work with today's top UK based cricketers far too expectant of being permitted to swan about the globe playing mickey mouse formats for mega lolly. To manage the stars of team England - Stokes, Brook, Root, Archer - we effectively threw the first two Ashes tests by trying to wing it. If we continue to wing it Brendan style we're gonna need the Aussies ahead of 2029 to help us out by reformatting the schedule - Adelaide first test then 4 and 5 after Sydney and consulting us on what pitches we want and removing the pink ball test for a start.

They're not gonna go that far to save the Ashes but we can't go back to 2010 levels of intensity with all the mental toll that wrought either so it's always going to be an uphill task which is why 2027 home Ashes is critical we win it

Were any of the four you mention actually ‘swanning around’ playing Mickey Mouse cricket for mega bucks?

I think your analysis is miles off.

Essentially it's just too hard for England to win series down there despite all the wealth in the English coffers. South Africa are able to win down there because their system creates players suited to hard bouncy Perth and Brisbane style wickets. India win down there because they have a vast pool of literally millions of cricketers out of which squads are assembled to go down there with confidence. West Indies won a test down there 2 years ago despite their shortcomings/lack of funding and England won in Melbourne last week because the 10mm of grass made that 2 day test a bit of a lottery.

We can't expect our system to create a Mitchell Starc or a Mitchell Johnson but we should be able to produce several Scotty Boland and Nathan Lyon type bowlers. A 16 match county championship once again with plenty of fixtures in mid-summer would help achieve that over time and narrow the gulf between the two sides for 2029 and 2033. Then send a Lions squad to compete in the Sheffield Shield or their 2nd XI competition play proper hard competetive cricket out there so some of them are ready for Australian pitches when they step up.

Jacob Bethell played hard Sydney grade cricket 2 years ago as a 20 year old, then chose to play in the Australia A game in Brisbane 6 weeks ago and his shot selection was far and away England's best of the series.

Don’t think one game six weeks ago would set you up.

On that basis the England batsman ought to have been much better.

Thoughtful article by Emma John in this morning's Guardian. Possibly somewhat anecdotal but I wouldn't dismiss it like that as it supports my argument that cricket is just far and away a bigger sport in Australia than it is here at least in terms of participation and access. Here whether it was the austerity 1950s that sucked the life out of the sport when it briefly (interwar and immediately post WW2) vied with football and rugby league for the attention of the masses in some northern areas and around here, or the Thatcher flog off anything of worth or Jack Straw hiding the game behind a pay wall it all seemed designed by those in charge to keep the oiks out of the sport

[www.theguardian.com]

Seen Aussies online not happy as looks like a lot of their games are going behind a pay wall soon.

It's weird cos their media since the 1980s has been extremely rancid even compared to ours but there's a culture of civic pride that pervades their urban environments. The beer culture was antiquated as late as the early 2000s dominated by big brewery XXXX, Tooheys, VB slop and ramshackle hotel and pokie bars (barring that Lord Nelson pub on Potts Point) but the times I've returned since the thai cafe scene, craft beer scene etc... exploded like it already had in NZ and California in the 1990s. Good metropolitan outwardly oriented people go and settle there these past 25 years. Can they resist the lure of the franchise model? The BBL works because their Test and ODI team has been so so good for many decades now their cricketers are household names in a way ours (barring Stokes and maybe Root) are not. Not to mention their women's cricket is so professional and has been at least since the Sydney 2000 Olympics

C.A. will do what all the other boards have done, and take the money.

I've seen the Sydney you recall, but I've also seen the outer areas where they are openly intolerant and racist.

Yes I know where your going with that. I've spent time in that area between Adelaide and North Adelaide and it can feel a bit unsavoury in some spots. Nowhere is perfect capitalist dead zones exists everywhere.

The comments on that Guardian article make for very interesting reading I keep going back to this idea of the sports invisibility since 2006

tiredgiraffe
16 hours ago
24

My children have no frame of reference when hearing me listen to TMS. But they vividly remember cheering Stokes on during 'that one match' which was freely available.

So much of cricket (and sport in general) is about the players - recognising them, having favourites, discussing form. Denying that to a wide audience is such a massive mistake

Seen Aussies online not happy as looks like a lot of their games are going behind a pay wall soon.

A league Soccer as well apparently according to some of the comments I'm reading