..Just been slammed by India in the 4th test and have been second best since the start. Ian Botham thinks that England will easily beat them in the next Ashes, no one to replace Warne,Mcgrath,Gilchrist, and Hayden is not the palyer of old.What do you reckon? is this the end or can they bounce back?
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I think teams have ups and downs.
Australia is one of those teams that can play badly for a couple months and bounce back and thump everyone.
True. Although, it's not like other countries. They have a host of very good clubs to go though still.
The reason Australia is so good at their sports is because they continually put money and effort into training people up. Just because we don't always see the fruits of that, doesn't mean it isn't happening
I would too. For slightly different reasons of course, but I doubt very much that this will be a permanent fixture in Australian cricket.
I don't even think they would suffer too much from the credit crunch
I think the 2 upcoming series with SA will be a better indication of the demise of the Oz cricket team. India always seem to raise their game when the Aussies visit (just ask Laxman) so their 1st test series defeat since 2005 might be a blip.
Mind you, I think they'll have problems replacing players who have retired. Even the new blood (Katich, Jaques, Haddin, S Clark) aren't that young and their spinning attack is woeful.
There is a suggestion that they might bring Warne back next summer though.
Warne won't come back - a series of 20 over matches is a world apart from 5 test matches. I kind of hope he does though - would be pretty amazing.
as for the blip / lack of personel argument / seeing Aussies demise... whilst I'd love to see them topple from the top of the tree I'd rather it were because someone else (ie England!) supercedes them rather than they go into decline like the Windies have been doing for 15 years or whatever.
Hard to see how they can possibly be as consistent a force though. THe strangest thing about their series in india is that their strong batting line up was so poor - only 2 of them averaged over 40. Lack of Warne and McGrath and a weaker bowling unit is understandable but they must be concerned about the batting...
AGree with the post re SA though. Playing in Subcontinent isn't always a great signifier - tosses are so crucial. OK, you still have to bat well but India won 3 out of 4 tosses (winning the match twice) and in the other game (the first test) Australia won the toss and dominated for most of the game. Give me a grassy drying English wicket in May any day!
I think the other thing that is where the Northern and Southern Hemisphere differ so much is that NH tend to place a lot of emphasis on one player and expect them to bail the team out. SH isn't that focussed on only one player - they retire, they get replaced
I woudl tend to agree
77 hours and 30mins
Although 3 days sounds better
PS I kept forgetting to tell you and I just remembered - my phone gets switched off from Monday, 17th November
Yep days is good.
I was debating asking you for the fourth time but figured I'd just head to the bars and yell your name really loudly!
Yeh I would be the one in fancy dress, shrieking loudly and uncontrollably as I pissed off all UK residents
1. Feel free to talk about how nice she was from today
2. Yes, different as a result of being dressed in Hawaiian gear
3. YES they have internet in SA. I will CHOOSE not to go on it though as it will be approx 28 degrees on the frist day I arrive so really, I have better thing to do