Hope for England ?

[Benyonsabrahma]

South Africa thrashed Australia today with eight wickets and twelve overs to spare, should we see this as a sign of hope for the upcoming Ashes tour?
Lets be honest, the answer has got to be NO !
They've got Ponting, we've got Strauss !
They will have Lee and we have Harmison !
We've got Bell and they could borrow our dog and he'd still be better !

With the long standing selection policies that England have had, I really don't see any reason for optimism, do you ? If we are to believe what we read, then that pillock Pieterson ( this is the guy who hopes to captain England again) resigned because Moores wouldn't allow him to bring a broken down old has been on tour with him.

Agree or disagree ?

[Benyonsabrahma]

The same old dross and lack lustre performance served up against the West Indies.

How can Bell go on under performing game after game and keep the likes of Shah out of the team ? He must have some incriminating photos of the selectors.

Panasar ? What a disappointment Benn turned our batsmen inside out at times and I really expected Monty to stick it to the West Indies but he was very ineffectual.

Flintoff was his usual self in the bowling department with the other seamers looking to be at a much lower level. Sidebotham is well past his sell by date, he's had his moment of glory. Broad is looking like a young kid still trying to learn his trade and Harmison ?

The Australians have nothin to fear unless just for once the selectors actually do their job correctly and select players who are in form and justifiably deserve their place in the team.

I'd scrap the following.

Collingwood
Sidebotham
Harmison
Bell ( a long time ago)
Broad ( Back to school)
Panasar ( There's something wrong)

Thats the easy bit, who would you bring in ?

[beechy]

hope for england? dont think so after being bowled out for 51 today!

The same old dross and lack lustre performance served up against the West Indies.

How can Bell go on under performing game after game and keep the likes of Shah out of the team ? He must have some incriminating photos of the selectors.

Panasar ? What a disappointment Benn turned our batsmen inside out at times and I really expected Monty to stick it to the West Indies but he was very ineffectual.

Flintoff was his usual self in the bowling department with the other seamers looking to be at a much lower level. Sidebotham is well past his sell by date, he's had his moment of glory. Broad is looking like a young kid still trying to learn his trade and Harmison ?

The Australians have nothin to fear unless just for once the selectors actually do their job correctly and select players who are in form and justifiably deserve their place in the team.

I'd scrap the following.

Collingwood
Sidebotham
Harmison
Bell ( a long time ago)
Broad ( Back to school)
Panasar ( There's something wrong)

Thats the easy bit, who would you bring in ?

i agree with getting rid of ian bell, collingwood has got england out some sticky situations and broads more than pulling his weight and hes only 22! owais shah is the man for the job, deserves his chance, scores runs consistently and 100 in the warm up game in st kitts so get rid of bell and stick him in

[Benyonsabrahma]

Shah has deserved his place in the test team for some time now.

Other than Anderson, which other seamers have the England selectors taken on tour ?

With regard to Collingwood, given the chances that he and some of the other batsmen have had, then at one time or another all of them are bound to have the occasional good knock, but surely, thats not good enough. The selectors should be looking at and selecting inform players.
Strauss, Collingwood and Bell have had a long run of failures and Cooke who I rate has had a bad dip in form. I agree Beechy that Shah maybe the man but its going to need way more than one man to change the the dismal play of this England team.
I bet Sir Ian is wishing that he hadn't tipped England to regain the Ashes.

[Wado180]

so the question still remains, who do you bring in?

batting i would give a go to Bopara as he seems to have the right attitude and definatyely has the ability to bat at 5/6.
bowling i would pick Swann - his batting is miles better than Monty and Monty's bowling has gone right off!

the development squad is full of "kids" with very little experience on the big stage and who i think would find it difficult to come in under the current atmosphere within the senior squad and a couple of "older" players who have had a go at test cricket and not really set the world alight (Rob Key etc)