Alex

Hope the Russians want their money back

This bloke

He’s not an opening batsman though. Bairstow was preferred to Foakes. That’s a tactical ‘Bazball’ decision.

I think that is particularly galling. I.e. Foakes being more than capable with the bat

Because he wouldn’t have took up the game probably. I’m not a fan of them but there’d barely be an England team without them. Which is all about how shit the provision for sport is in most state schools. There’s the odd exception like Wood. But he learnt his cricket at Ashington CC, not school. Even Root got a scholarship

Agreed. Bairstow must be the most indulged English cricketer of the last 20 years though. Even under this management. You can guarantee he’d be opening this series if he fancied doing it.

Well that’s only the counter to that if it’s as black and white as all out attack or an ultra conservative approach. Yet you’ve just said you shouldn’t be giving your wicket away like that. Which is literally where most people are. I.e. the aggressive, attacking approach is great but rein it at times. Instead of throwing your wicket away when you’re just starting to turn the game your way.

Because that’s Bazball. They’re in the entertainment business. Winning is secondary. I’m not even taking the piss either. Crawler’s approach is actively encouraged. He shouldn’t be anywhere near test cricket, because when he dies get in, he still gives it away. But they’ve pretty much said there’s no room for compromise in this ‘philosophy’. So there you are. I hope they prove me wrong but I don’t think it’s sustainable against a team this good

One of those where I’m not quite sure if it’s worse if he made that story up or if it’s true

I was the same re: jinxing it. I totally agree re Crawley. The thing is though, that do what the fuck you want, it’s all cool, man is the mentality that is encouraged by Ben and Baz.

Not like Crawley to give it away after doing the hard work. Brilliant response by England up until that point too

tbh

Good session.

Little cunt

How many down by lunch?

Can’t imagine why people think you’re a wum

Just think of the audience if he didn’t ban anyone not arse-licking him in the comments

Trying to emulate Luke Edwards

Yeah, they looked really flat and devoid of the much vaunted ‘positivity’. I like McCullum. I like Stokes. But there some fucking BS flying around about the former. He was great in full flow but he underachieved relative to his talent. The 2015 World Cup sums him up somewhat. He played a few exciting knocks and had a ridiculous strike rate. He also captained NZ to their first final. But his average innings length was less than 20 balls. That’s the captain opening the batting. In the final, in the first over, he faced Mitchell Starc. Against the best bowler in the tournament he danced down the wicket and tried to smash a 90 mph ball that was right in the block hole. He played and missed with a wild swish. Next ball - same. Next ball - same but bowled.

To the one you ex goes to

Wait! Are you telling us you have a lass?

And unnecessary

The whole point I’m making is there’s no nuance to that way of thinking. A few big calls cost the team a win in the last test. The moment anyone pointed that out (completely justifiably) then the response was ‘so you’re against Bazball?’ ‘Would you rather have turgid matches that are destroying the game?’ Etc. It’s only one side of (what shouldn’t even be a two sided argument) that are taking this way. Hence the fully deserved ridicule of the likes of Morgan. Even KP was having a pop at the setup. Him bring your archetypal conservative English cricketer

I think it’s unlikely they’d have been as critical of a male ex-pro pundit. Even one who basically makes a living out of spouting absolute fucking shite (a la Merson). So it probably boils down to prejudice. Which doesn’t really make them overtly racist or sexist. Although I suspect it’s more of the latter. It did make me think a bit of Dianne Abbott in that sense, as someone mentioned above. I.e. getting more stick for not remembering something in an interview than the then Foreign Sec got for an inaccuracy in Parliament with grave consequences for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. So yeah, some people are unfairly placed under more of a spotlight