Love sport? Try betting on your favourite team and win!

 


Twitter

 

Recent Posts

Cricket news



Fantasy Cricket

Hot to Trott

By Will last year, mid-August Add your comment below

I can’t help feeling this is a poor, muddled decision by the selectors to call up Jonathan Trott. It’s exceptionally unfair on him to expect a serious score, on debut, in the biggest England match for four years. The blame, of course, should be laid squarely at England’s faltering and feeble middle-order, whose failures have prompted such drastic change. But there’s almost a sense of covering their arses; “he’s a debutant, so if he fails, don’t blame us”. Flower must understand Ravi Bopara better than anyone, though, and realised he’s a lost cause for the time being.

Only seen him play once or twice, but by all accounts he’s a very, very passionate South African-turned-Englishman. Like Pietersen. And others. And our future wicketkeeper, Kieswetter. Er, and Strauss. And some others.

Hot to Trot was a fillum

Tags: , , , , , , , |

9 Responses to “Hot to Trott”

  • Jo Pols wrote:
    August 16th, 2009 at 6.38 pm

    Point of information, please: what do you mean by “very, very passionate South African-turned-Englishman”. Passionate in general? About cricket? About being “English”?

    I don’t think anyone will seriously blame Trott if he fails; he’ll be given more chances. People will blame (as you’ve said) our feeble middle-order, the English temperament (so Langer says), the counties for their rejection of much needed reform and the Kopaks and overseas players for reducing the available talent pool.

    Actually a short term fix for the England team would be to bring in MORE Kopaks, as Prior, Pietersen, Strauss, Trott etc are amongst our more promising players. (Yes, I’m not too serious about this and know Strauss came to England when he was 6 and Pietersen’s a British citizen whose mother and wife are English).

    My own view is that there is still a massive gulf between county cricket in front of 4 men and thermos flask – and and test cricket. At the very least we should have 3 divisions of 6 (10 matches each) to raise the quality of the top level of County Championship. What chance have Worcestershire have against …. anybody?

  • SpryCorpse wrote:
    August 16th, 2009 at 11.28 pm

    I think it is a good move to bring in Trott. He can’t do any worse than Bopara. He may not feel the pressure too much because I don’t think the pressure of expectation will be great. And the Aussies won’t know too much about him.

  • Kathy wrote:
    August 17th, 2009 at 7.13 am

    Can’t help the feeling Vaughan retired too early — and his county form has never been a good indication….

  • IVAR291 wrote:
    August 17th, 2009 at 7.57 am

    I must admit i was one who got a little giddy at the prospect of Ramprakash and Trescothick coming back for Bell and Bopara respectively. I think that Tresco’s return was always pure fantasy but I felt that Ramps could have made a real difference and give him the opportunity to admonish his own demons. He should have returned last year against New Zealand- and played on a series by series basis with a view to finish at the Oval, to bring him back now would have been a serious volte face for the selectors, and this is the reason why he has not been selected for the Oval.

    However, let’s move on and I think good sense has prevailed. Trott is the right choice- better than Rob Key. the question is now where should he bat.

    I want to see Collingwood bat at 3, I’ve wanted him to bat at 3 ever since it became apparent at Lords that Bopara’s game is too loose to warrant batting at 3 and when KP was ruled out of the current series. Collingwood’s technique is also questionable to bat at 3 but surely bopara was always a better bet at 5 and likely to score runs and bat with the class he possesses- however collingwood has hidden away at 5 for most of his career and unlikely to be moved out of his comfort zone. In my view if he cannot step up to 3 then he should be jettisoned as soon as this series is completed.
    So i would bat Trott at 4 and bell at 5 with collingwood batting at 3. Whence KP returns I’d like to see him take on the 3 mantle with Trott and bell at 4 and 5 respectively.
    I believe Trott to be of the highest quality he is a top player and has been at county level for some years- indeed his pedigree in SA was also of top player and undoubtedly would have played for SA

  • Ashes Ernie wrote:
    August 17th, 2009 at 8.18 am

    As ever, Will, you have the words. Selectors covering their arses. Sad but true. A cowardly selection by picking “the next cab off the rank” (what kind of a phrase is that FFS?) instead of taking a slightly bigger risk for possibly the greatest reward an England Test team might gain. The Ramps and Key issue was pure fantasy because their success would make the selectors look plonkers over the last five years and their failure would make the selectors look plonkers now. And we can’t have that!

    So the team is picked on the basis of least possible damage to selectors’ reputations, thereby giving the Aussies an easier last Test than they might have had.

    But look at who the selectors are, Miller, Whitaker and Giles, three decent, undynamic, run-of-the-mill, plodding products of middle England. What dou you expect?

    Life might be more colourful with Botham, Jack Russell and Tuffers as selectors. And the Duke of Edinburgh.

  • William wrote:
    August 19th, 2009 at 4.11 am

    Ernie is right, England may not have had the players over the past 5 years to compete at the top level, but the selectors make the same mistakes time and time and time again. Either new selectors are needed or the captain should have more say – probably a little of both. It’s particularly bad with batsmen, how many England batsmen in the middle order have had repeat chances over the last 5 years despite consistent failure?

  • richo wrote:
    August 19th, 2009 at 9.01 am

    what’s Englands obsession with South African born cricketers lately?
    Honestly don’t kids play cricket over there anymore?
    Surely there is some talented young British cricketers

  • Marcus wrote:
    August 19th, 2009 at 10.39 am

    Richo, you might be interested too know that England have also called up Ernie Els and are in discussions with Percy Montgomery too. :)

  • The Ashes Blog wrote:
    August 22nd, 2009 at 10.59 pm

    Will Luke is one of the keenest observers of the game of cricket …

    What, Trott scored a century on debut for England?

    Seriously, Will, I can’t blame you for not being too optimistic about Jonathan Trott. I mean, he is just another South African who decided to play for England … just like England’s other top performing players.

    • Comments

     


    Receive email updates on new comments


    « | Main | »