The Ashes!

[JimC]

I think you are right on the money, Seraph...

[Xamonas Chegwé]

England wins the Sydney test by an innings and 83 runs and the five match series 3:1. Time for the Australian selectors to go chopping old wood, methinks, but do they have players in club and state-level teams that are better than the members of the national team who are no longer up to standard?

There is an old quip too, which goes like this: Q: What is harder than to get into the Australian cricket team? A: Getting out of it. Sometimes the selectors seem to be hoping that failing cricketers are only suffering a temporary lapse of form, and it is true that is difficult to determine, but I think sometimes that hope is maintained for way too long. Mateship between selectors and players can cause reason to be pushed aside by emotion. A better approach would be to delegate people like Ponting back to state-level cricket, but make it clear that they can be promoted again if their return to form at that level warrants it. Not sure if that sort of thing has ever happened, though. It seems that once a player has been sacked, he retires altogether immediately, or soon after.

We had exactly the same problems in England for years - the same old faces 'picking themselves' irrespective of form. That seems to have changed recently - domestic form has been the benchmark in recent years, rather than tenure. We have strength in depth at the moment too and enough young talent waiting in the wings that you can expect a few good results from the England 'A' and 'B' teams, let alone the first XI!

[Clinton Huxley]

Well done En-ger-land. Aussies outplayed in every area of the game. Men against boys, really.

[JimC]

Well done En-ger-land. Aussies outplayed in every area of the game. Men against boys, really.

True, that...

:sighsm:

[klr]

Some series stats:

Australia: Scored 2,631 runs for the loss of 90 wickets. Runs/wicket = 29.23

England: Scored 2,864 runs for the loss of 56 wickets. Runs/wicket = 51.14

And if you were to exclude the Perth test - clearly an aberration for England - well, you don't really want to know the figures.

Oh, alright: Australia would be 29.34 runs/wicket, England 70.94 ...

[Hermit]

Having had to wait 24 years for England to win an Ashes series on Australian soil, the glee of the English - and the Irish who are suddenly so eager to be involved in the victory dance - is understandable. It may not be till the 2034/5 tour for the next occasion to be so jubilant.

[klr]

Q: I say, I say ... what do you call an Australian centurion?

A: A bowler