When will Simon Jones be playing cricket again…?

Reading that world cup thing, well, it all looks a bit bleak.

Don’t be so pessimistic; who would have nominated stuart clarke as a match winner in oct/06; or dare to predict that symonds would establish himself as a test player. It is sad that england has lost momentum; and at an administrative and management level English cricket has failed it’s public badly. Things can and will improve.

excellent point by reverse swing.

towards end-90s, the english ODI side had a strong middle order packed with both nudgers & hitters –along with mavericks like corkie and ALLY BROWN(!!) -
i think the odi rot started with nick knight’s retirement.

it’s definitely the batting that is most dispiriting. dont young english batters want to free their arms anymore or shall we all blame fletch again?

Looking on the bright side, one or two players can turn an ODI side around. KP in South Africa for example.

If a couple of the rookies burst through in combination with good form from KP and the team get on a roll then there is a chance.

Slim, but not beyond the realms of possibility.

hehe - couldn’t help noticing the book being peddled on the left sidebar of this page. not terribly smart marketing eh?

Well 13thMan, you’re probably right about the relative form of the Poms and Kiwis, but you can get stuffed with all that “he isn’t even really a Pom, merely a cricket-whore” bollocks about KP: his mother’s English, after all, but that isn’t really the point. I seem to remember one Kepler Wessels playing for Australia in the late 80s and early 90s, and do I need to remind you that the one non-white player in the Australian side (and more or less the only one they’ve ever had) is Symonds, who was born in Birmingham? The fact that England is a sufficiently diverse and attractive society to draw in people from all over the world is a cause for celebration: so is the fact that this is then reflected in the make-up of the cricket team, even if certain moronic Australian spectators seem unable to accept that the likes of Sajid Mahmood can be English. The fact that Australia’s cricket team does not reflect the diversity of Australian society is nothing to be particularly proud about - and I fully expect it to change soon.

Zainub;- Alexander makes an important point, i think you may be splitting hairs over context.
However if there is such a thing as a cricket whore Pietersen is surely it, he leaves South Africa grizzling about the quota system gets himself a tattoo and soon after selection for England. He is a prodigiously talented cricketer but immature and self centred.
Symonds went the other way; enticed into the county system and offered English qualification, he decided instead to return to Australia and earn selection here.

Irrespective of his parentage, Pietersen is without doubt a cricket whore. The man was a South African until it wasn’t convenient. He wasn’t produced by the English system, despite the Poms’ love of him - he’s a foreign mercenary.
Regarding Wessels - I don’t recall denying his existence. I didn’t mention him because it’s not germane. As it happens, I don’t recall anyone here really accepting him as an Aussie, and we certainly didn’t try to recast him as one.
At least Symonds was raised here - unlike Pietersen. Phil Jaques, too, has an English connection - but is an Australian. This shouldn’t be about convenience, it’s about representing your nation - and Pietersen chose to jump ship. Englands benefit, RSAs loss, perhaps, but it doesn’t change the facts. Do we have to go through all of the Australian born or trained so-called English players throughout recent history? Including those who weren’t quite good enough to get a run here, and so put their hands up for (not even close to) second best?
I seem to recall it taking until very recently for certain moronic English cricket administrators to realise that players like Mahmood were English. Perhaps if your cricket hadn’t been quite such a boys club for so long, you’d have a better side. Had we the large Pakistani and Indian communities that you have had for some time, I am fairly certain we’d have had national representatives from those communities long before now. The simple fact is that here in Australia, we don’t have anywhere near as many migrants from cricket-playing nations. It takes a couple of generations for our newer ethnic communities to start to develop an interest in cricket or AFL. Most Aboriginal Australians tend to play AFL (and are highly represented in that sport), and many migrants come from soccer backgrounds - and are well represented there - and are only now starting to dabble in other sports on offer here. Keep an eye out for them over the next generation or so. We can certainly see many at the Grade and District levels. When one shows sufficient form, he’ll get capped. Unlike England, which seems to base selection on background - until recently, when desperation seems to have forced them to start accepting others.
As Zainub wrote - selection should be based on ability. Not the meeting of racial quotas.
And Kathy, if you want insulting: I suspect that you are more of a cricket whore than Pietersen. No matter how much you try to delude yourself and everyone who reads your Will-endorsed nonsense, you are a New Zealander. Do you now regret previously stating that? Short of taking out UK citizenship, you won’t become a Pom merely by wishing really hard. Consider backing your own team for once.

Cricket in Australia is overwhelmingly an anglo saxon game; run by anglos for anglos. I am interested How does our White Boys club differ from Englands? And as for Aboriginals how nice of us to let them use our facilities.

32 yrs in this sunburnt country; and you how far back do you go?
I wave nobody’s flag i am a cricket lover, you i’m afraid are just mean spirited.

Reverse Swing beat me to it.As much as I hate to agree with him,Boycs.had the right idea when he suggested
separate coaches for Test and one-dayers/20-20 etc.
Go further and have two teams where never the twain shall meet except in dire emergencies or available outstanding talent.At test level ODI’s etc is Mickey Mouse cricket[I know:it's what most of us play/have played and its popular, exciting and mostly a good money spinner which subsidizes the tests [how many times is there a nearly empty ground on the last and most exciting day].
There is a possible scenario spelling out the death knoll for test cricket?

If the ideas of reverse swing and woodyway are anything to go by, Australia have nothing to worry about for many years. Can’t you see that there is nowhere near the depth in English cricket to have separate Test and one-day sides? To point to one-day specialists like Adam Hollioake, who wouldn’t make a club side out here, as the answer, is crazy. And different captains for the two forms of the game is not a good idea. As for comparing Kepler Wessels to Kevin Pieterson (he was actually out of Australian cricket by 1986) there is no real comparison, given that Wessels had to go elsewhere if he wanted to play international cricket.

Look out folks…West Indes is going to run away with this World Cup trophy this year and a player not heard about by many is going to be the star of the show…his name you ask?…KEIRON POLLARD…remember it very well mates…he’s going to destroy any bowler that comes in his way…WI has got Dwayne Smith and Marlon Samuels also in the line up of players in case this youth fails to perforn in one game or two…their bowling might not be the best but with this young guy on the team, i don’t see a problem of them chasing 300 at all because i’m sure you’ve realised that i haven’t mentioned Brian Lara as yet…Have yourselves a great day mates!!!.