Neilsen's Take On It

[BoyBrumby]

English coaches suck: fact. Might have only been a pom for the first six months of his life but it's like the mark of Cain.

Taciturn Zimbas ftw.

[social]

The first step to fixing a problem is acknowledging it. No point saying that everything's rosy and well when there are festering problems and which have been for about 18 months.

Until Nielsen, and the selectors go, the only way the team can go is downward.

Exactly!

Series was a complete ****-up from almost day one

[slippyslip]

As I said in the quoted post, problems have been there since the new selectors and new coach have come in. It's cost us 3-4 test series now and probably 3-4 more before the decade ends if we don't change the people. It's hardly a knee jerk reaction. You can pretend to go on like Watson is a long opening term option and that Cameron White is a test quality allrounder or you can start making the decisions that took us to number one in the first place.

The quality of the players took us to number 1. They're gone. We've had the toughest 10 months of test cricket we've had for decades, if ever.

As I've said in many posts before we've got an easy 2 years ahead of us in test cricket. If we start losing tests to sides like Pakistan, West Indies, England at home, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh then panic.

We've got 2 years to build the team and allow players to settle into positions. Watson was never a long term solution but he was the solution for the Ashes series. In what way did he contribute to losing the Ashes? Hughes will have plenty of time to settle in before we tour Sri Lanka exactly 2 years from now.

We've lost Warne and McGrath (and the forgotten Jason Gillepsie) but on top of that Clark and Lee have had major injury problems. But othen the 1st innings at Lords the bowling was reasonably solid.

The only major problem we have is getting a decent spinner.

[Son Of Coco]

Here's his blog.

Thanks Tim!

Great stuff! Good to see you acknoweldge the mistake of misreading the pitch in the last test! Thought your comments on five test series' are spot on too!

Love that we've lost our biggest series, but we can still have an inside joke about Steve Bernard not getting a mention on your blog! Tee ****ing hee!

Just stop with all the exclamation marks please, you stupid ****!

I think he may have been referring to receiving so many posts about Clark not getting a mention in his blog after the Headingly test. I went on there myself to ask him about it.

Agree with you though, I bet a lot of supporters are laughing their arses off...

[howardj]

Nielsen Now Needs A Rest

I admit, I do like putting the slipper into this bloke, but I think this resting thing is getting a bit out of hand. Can someone please tell me how this period (an Ashes period) is any busier than say 1992/1993 where we:

- toured Sri Lanka in the 1992 pre-season
- came home and played a full five Test summer against the West Indies
- the international guys played the Shield games back in those days
- played the triangular one-day series that summer
- toured NZ in March-April 1993
- toured England from May-September
- Back home for a full 6 Test summer (where again the international players played in the Shield in those days)
- Off to South Africa at the end of the Summer
- To pakistan in September 1994
- Back home for a full summer
- Off on a tour of the West Indies.

Also remember, back in those days, there was virtually the same personnel for both Tests and ODIs

My question is, did guys come home mid-tour back in those days? What's the difference now?

[zaremba]

Sounds to me as though there's something going on that we're not being told about

[four_or_six]

Sounds to me as though there's something going on that we're not being told about

Like... when Ponting is actually coming back? I don't get why all the cloak-and-dagger over that.

With Nielsen, I presume there's something personal going on. It's a bit strange otherwise, surely dashing back to Australia for a week isn't really that restful?

[zaremba]

With Nielsen, I presume there's something personal going on. It's a bit strange otherwise, surely dashing back to Australia for a week isn't really that restful?

Yep, that's what I meant.

[howardj]

No, it's because he's tired

[Ausage]

Having spent the last week recovering from a London - Sydney I can honestly say that traveling to the other side of the world was one of the least relaxing experiences I've been through.

[Son Of Coco]

Having spent the last week recovering from a London - Sydney I can honestly say that traveling to the other side of the world was one of the least relaxing experiences I've been through.

It's funny, I've had mates who've travelled to/from the UK and had all sorts of issues with jetlag etc but it doesn't seem to worry me as much. I'm tired for a few days afterwards, but I haven't experienced the waking up at funny hours or not being able to sleep until 4 am sort of stuff. I usually make myself stay awake when I arrive/try to make sure the flight arrives later in the day so I'm not sure if that makes any difference.