GIMH
Norwood's on Fire
Just watching some ashes thing on sky sports ashes
We probably did this at the time but now the dust has settled, for fellow England nationalists, which was the more hurtful defeat?
At the time of both I had high expectation.
Hindsight shows it to be completely ridiculous for both. But for different reasons. We would never have competed in 2006-07, but a lot of 2013-14 we engineered for ourselves.
We arrogantly assumed, and I include myself in this, that after the home summer, we would have too much over there for them. We ignored signs of recovery and that our formula was coming unstuck. Players were ageing or losing form (or both) - Swann, Trott, Pietersen. We picked Tremlett on the basis of three years prior. There was little in the way of plan B.
I think it's fair to say that even with the right decisions, selections, preparation, we'd have lost the Ashes anyway. Johnson put in the best series of fast bowling I've ever seen.
But plenty of times we had a foot on the throat with the ball only to let it go. The complacency, the poor choice of bowlers, this was massive in us conceding big leads that subsequently enabled Warner to tee off and kill each Test dead. As the series went on, we were declining mentally, physically, emotionally - probably the biggest similarity, score line aside, with 2006.
As I say, I think we were onto a loser at that point regardless. But we should have gone there and competed.
In 2005 we caught the Aussies unaware and they came back like a wounded animal. Probably the greatest side ever.
In 2013 we surrendered seven years of dominance over the old enemy by just assuming we could continue it. Watching it was like torture, everything you had enjoyed for four or five years unravelling in front of you. Knowing an era was well and truly over.
So yeah for me 2013-14 is probably my nadir of watching cricket. It sapped the ****ing life out of me.
Of course, after both we wound up with Peter ****ing Moores
We probably did this at the time but now the dust has settled, for fellow England nationalists, which was the more hurtful defeat?
At the time of both I had high expectation.
Hindsight shows it to be completely ridiculous for both. But for different reasons. We would never have competed in 2006-07, but a lot of 2013-14 we engineered for ourselves.
We arrogantly assumed, and I include myself in this, that after the home summer, we would have too much over there for them. We ignored signs of recovery and that our formula was coming unstuck. Players were ageing or losing form (or both) - Swann, Trott, Pietersen. We picked Tremlett on the basis of three years prior. There was little in the way of plan B.
I think it's fair to say that even with the right decisions, selections, preparation, we'd have lost the Ashes anyway. Johnson put in the best series of fast bowling I've ever seen.
But plenty of times we had a foot on the throat with the ball only to let it go. The complacency, the poor choice of bowlers, this was massive in us conceding big leads that subsequently enabled Warner to tee off and kill each Test dead. As the series went on, we were declining mentally, physically, emotionally - probably the biggest similarity, score line aside, with 2006.
As I say, I think we were onto a loser at that point regardless. But we should have gone there and competed.
In 2005 we caught the Aussies unaware and they came back like a wounded animal. Probably the greatest side ever.
In 2013 we surrendered seven years of dominance over the old enemy by just assuming we could continue it. Watching it was like torture, everything you had enjoyed for four or five years unravelling in front of you. Knowing an era was well and truly over.
So yeah for me 2013-14 is probably my nadir of watching cricket. It sapped the ****ing life out of me.
Of course, after both we wound up with Peter ****ing Moores
Last edited: