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Loading ...Will,
Congrats on the Ashes win. But, that last line of yours sums up why England will never be the best team (or even one of the best teams) in the wolrd. You just about managed to beat the world’s 4th best team. You have an upcoming series against the world’s best team. Yet, you think about the next Ashes. Test cricket is not played between 2 teams. If you need to be treated seriosuly by the other teams, you need to start winning against the other good teams. The series against SA would be a good start.
Ashes win just the start for the new England
By Will last year, at the end of August Add your comment below
England win the Ashes. No one even ponders an open-top bus tour. No medals are hung around players’ necks and, with due respect to MPs Brown and Cameron – and the Queen – very little fanfair has been afforded this England team.
And thank god for that. England’s win was unforgettable, in a tense, thrilling, pendulum-swinging series which might have lacked the greats of the game that we had in 2005, but for entertainment it was very much on a par.
Did the better team win? Just about. Man for man, the two sides are very close indeed, but England beat Australia on home advantage and a clearer idea of where they’re heading. Before the series, I thought England would win 2-1 owing to having an in-form spinner who can bat, and having a more balanced attack; the fact Hauritz wasn’t picked at The Oval by Australia was a remarkable decision. Surely, surely, they must have been made aware the pitch was a bunsen. It wouldn’t have taken much to realise that on first glance 24 hours before.
I almost felt deflated by the win. 25 days of ball-by-ball commentary can do that to you. But having had time to reflect, only now do I feel really excited; pleased that England won, even though it feels like a heist, because this is just the beginning. In 2005, the regaining of the Ashes was the culmination of Nasser Hussain, Duncan Fletcher and Michael Vaughan’s extensive planning. The 2009 win has come sooner than even Andy Flower would’ve hoped, and is just the beginning.
And one other thought, which I’ll write about when I can be bothered: Matt Prior, you played a blinder. What a turnaround in his career it’s been.
Oh, and by the way – just 457 days until the next series in Australia.
Tags: 2009-Ashes, 2010-11 ashes, andy-flower, ashes, australia, duncan-fletcher, england, michael-vaughan, the-ashes |
5 Responses to “Ashes win just the start for the new England”
August 26th, 2009 at 4.31 am
August 26th, 2009 at 8.02 am
Cripes, only 457 days. Has that bloke Oli Broom set off for Brisbane on his bike yet?
I reckon the better team lost this series. Pick a composite team of players in form and Strauss, Swann, Anderson and Broad would be sharing a dressing room with a lot of green and canary yellow. The ‘key moments’ everyone is talking about that swung the series were moments of Australian failure – the captaincy in Cardiff, the bowling at Lord’s day 1, the imagining of demons in the pitch at the Oval day2.
Brilliantly, history will show that England won but if the re-match started tomorrow the Aussies would win. As for talk of Ricky returning in 2013, let’s have him. By then Billy Murdoch’s record of defeats will be the only one he hasn’t passed. Three in a row would be special.
August 26th, 2009 at 8.47 am
QUOTE: You just about managed to beat the world’s 4th best team … ” UNQUOTE
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JII,
You have a strange way of looking at sport rankings! Until the result of the 5th Test we WERE playing the top ranked team! I’m sure you realise that only the Ashes win knocked Australia down to 4th place. England can only play one team at a time – starting with the one in front you (Australia).
But you’re right England need to be level headed and realistic. I think that the England team have treated winning this highly entertaining Ashes series very professionally; as the start of something they’re building, not an end in itself.
Long-term I’d like to see reform of the domestic game in England to see sustained success internationally. Less cricket, but of a higher standard. How about the County Championship switching to three divisions of six and 10 First Class matches per year each (not 16)?
Alas, it looks like the counties will stop playing 50-overs cricket next year:
That’s not likely to help the England team success in ODIs. Nor is the sheer quantity of cricket that the counties and England are playing.
August 26th, 2009 at 1.02 pm
Jo Nathan,
Yes, I typed that deliberately. On current form, they are the 4th (or is it 5th?) best team in the world. This was the case even before the Ashes started. It is just that the fall was not registered on the ICC rankings.
August 26th, 2009 at 1.04 pm
To add one more point, my main issue with Will’s statement was that he was ready to ignore every other series before the next Ashes. It is as if he doesn’t care if England loses to SA or anyone else as long as they beat Aus after 457 days. That way, I am happy with the way Strauss & Flower have responded.
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