I just think Symonds is high theatre. Fielding and batting. Can change the course of a game. He has the walk and the intimidation factor.He is a Ponting loyalist and the Punter will miss him.
I answer to viney and vinay.
Flintoff and KP both nursing injuries must be a worry seven weeks out from Cardiff.

Hughes is as aggressive as any opening batsman ever and Mitchell Johnson? Well, batting bowling, whatever he does, he’ll be entertaining.

These guys mixing it with Pieterson, Flintoff and Harmisson will be brilliant.

I would like to see Stuart Broad rough up Hughes or Ponting early in their innings. He set Sarwan up beautifully but by then Sarwan had already scored a hundred.

The Australian selectors have been predictable and are picking players that trot the company line. On ability alone Symonds streets Andrew MacDonald. Cricket Australia is playing the moral police and Symond’s so called misdemeanours must be scaring off sponsors. A good team but no excitement. The treatment of Symonds could well push more freespirited and talented cricketers into the arms of the IPL.

cheers

I am playing cricket for Dartington & Totnes cricket club, and am living near Cornworthy in amongst the the lanes between Totnes and Dartmouth.
We might have to catch up for a pint and a cricket yarn next week then…

These days. if a sport isn’t on terrestrial TV, it doesn’t progress. Rugby League and Boxing are two sports that have gone backwards in terms of popularity since (for different reasons) they went off terrestrial TV. There’s a real risk Test cricket will go the same way.

It wasn’t all cricket’s fault. The BBC had fallen in love with football and made no effort to woo cricket in the end. Be interesting to see what happens after the analogue switch off when the BBC will be able to stick cricket on one of it’s now many channels confident that anyone can watch it. But that depends on them wanting it, being willing to pay, and there being enough interested people beyond the forty-somethings who got into cricket from ‘free’ BBC coverage when they were children.

Even from the outset, losing the Twenty20 and being 7 for 31, losing to Bangladesh, and being put up in a “haunted Castle”

Let’s hope for a repeat performance with a marginally difference result

I am actully in the living in England for this summer, im over here playing cricket (what else would i be doing here really). The best thing is that i won’t have to stay up to all hours of the morning to watch the Ashes like i did in 2005.
I am actully living down in Devon, and if i remember correctly you come down this way every now and then do you not…

Credit where credit is due but sky have my vote, even if its costing a few quid!

Totally agree, why can’t they sell somebody the rights to make a highlights/magazine show for terrestrial?

However,the game is played in the middle and in the minds. What gets up Australian noses is a captain with airs. And if he has bowlers with aggressive intent all the better. Think Jardine with Larwood. Breareley with Willis and Botham. Vaughan with Harmison,Flintoff,Jones and Hoggard.

In the absence of an uppity Captain you need strike power.Smith had Steyn and Dhoni had Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan.

The Aussies have had six hard Tests against South Africa and will be confident. In Lee,Siddle and Johnson they have bowlers with speed and aggression. Against this the England batting looks fragile.The success against the Windies was just a good “net”. Johnson is adept at breaking left handed batsmen’s fingers and Cook and Strauss should be wary.

With the evenness of the two sides it will come down to catching.

If Flintoff and Harmison play England are slight favourites.

Expect Ponting to have a big series. This may be his last Ashes tour.He is approaching 11000 Test runs and along with Tendulkar and Lara is a modern great. He will be dismissive of Pratts and baying crowds. 22 yards is all it takes to define a cricket team. And these are hard yards.