• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

From a neutral perspective, these Ashes suck

Stapel

International Regular
They really do!

Yesterday, I returned to Holland from what should have been My Great Ashes Holiday Trip. Normally, me & mrs Stapel go camping in France or Italy. A couple of months ago, my loving wife, fully aware I love to watch cricket, suggested we could go camping in England and watch cricket. A big offer! Rather than filling the boot of the car with boxes of wine, she would watch me drinking ales & bitters in a cricket stadium. Happily and thankfulIy I took the offer.

And spent 600 euros on tickets for Test 3, Day 4 & Test 4, Day 4. You can see where this story goes........

We watched the last session of Day 2, Test 3 in a pub, a five minute walk from our camping site near Nottingham. Even mrs Stapel could see the Test wouldn't get into its fourth day. So the next morning we drove up to Birmingham and see if we would get lucky. We did: for 25 quid each, we got inside. We couldn't sit together though. Mrs Stapel ended up between well-behaving retired Australians. I ended up in The Hollies Stand.

At 10:20 am, Day1, Test 4, I was having coffee under the awning (very useful in Italy, but for completely different purposes quite useful too in England) of our tent, pitched up not too far from Nottingham. It was gloomy, just not raining. One of these instances one would actually be right to send ones rivals in, after winning the toss. When Alistair Cook did so, I got myself on a train to Nottingham. I had this gut feeling three day tests would be the norm....... When I got myself seated, at 11:08 am, I checked the score on my cell: 10/3 in 1.2 overs. As the train entered Nottingham, Australia were 6 down. When I crossed the actual Trent Bridge and approached the first shady black market ticket broker, cheers would come form the stadium. Despite having missed 7 wickets, the bastard wanted 250 pounds for a ticket. It told him to **** off, and decided to watch the proceedings in the pub. Shortly after lunch, I got in for 50 quid. I had missed 11 wickets.....

Now, I feel quite happy for that Edgbaston Hollies Stand experience! And the atmosphere in Nottingham, including a very nice after party at the pub accros the bridge was brilliant! Yet, this was not what my trip to England was for.

I had been looking forward to watch Jimmy bowl (bowling 20 outswingers and then the inswinger), to watch Ryan Harris bowl, and to watch Pub make an innings (and career) rescueing ton. But most of all, I was looking forward to gripping test cricket. And that means tests with the momentum, rather than the ball swinging! Apart form the first day in Cardiff, the only momentum swing was from test to test. Nice in itself, but not what test cricket makes test cricket.

And that's really why these series suck!
 

Niall

International Coach
Yeah, its the pinnacle of test cricket due to its history etc, but don't blame any neutral for not loving the last few series, as pretty much every test their wasn't much intrigue going after the first few days!

The 2013 series was much closer and interesting despite the 3-0 scoreline.
 

Tangles

International Vice-Captain
I watched the first days at Edgbaston and can feel for any neutral who paid to watch that. As an Aussie fan it wasn't fun to watch.
 

hazsa19

International Regular
That is rotten luck! Out of curiosity, how many Ashes matches since 05 you have really enjoyed from a neutrals perspective? I would guess Adelaide 06, Cardiff 09, TB and Durham 13... And that's about it? It's not like the Ashes was awash with competitive cricket pre 05 either.
 

burr

State Vice-Captain
From a neutral perspective many series suck these days. I almost can't believe some of the matches I watched from the 90s to mid 2000s - Windies 95, SA 97, India 01. Would struggle to get that quality of cricket now.
 

Furball

Evil Scotsman
Nah that's bollocks, there's been plenty of high quality cricket that's been played when there's been some thrashings doled out. England's dismantling of India in 2011 was high class stuff.

You're confusing quality with exciting. The two of course aren't mutually exclusive, but periods of bad cricket can lead to great games/series.
 

Howe_zat

Audio File
Yeah England have played miles better than in 2013 and Aus with the notable exception of Ryan Harris haven't really been any worse
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
Yeah England have played miles better than in 2013 and Aus with the notable exception of Ryan Harris haven't really been any worse
You don't think Australia have batted worse this series than they did in 2013?
 

Howe_zat

Audio File
You don't think Australia have batted worse this series than they did in 2013?
Not even slightly. Watch a video of Lord's day 2 that summer. Swann took the worst 5 for ever and Aus were bowled out for 120 without asking anything of the bowlers
 

Son Of Coco

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
You don't think Australia have batted worse this series than they did in 2013?
Yeah, I don't think we've bowled as well as 2013 either, although maybe I've just forgotten. I recall our bowling effort back then as being one of the reasons people were saying we hadn't been as bad as the score indicated. I also seem to recall us working out some plans to certain batsmen and executing those plans reasonably effectively during the 2013 Ashes. This series we've only really been settled in line and length in one test.
 

OverratedSanity

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Yeah, I don't think we've bowled as well as 2013 either, although maybe I've just forgotten. I recall our bowling effort back then as being one of the reasons people were saying we hadn't been as bad as the score indicated. I also seem to recall us working out some plans to certain batsmen and executing those plans reasonably effectively during the 2013 Ashes. This series we've only really been settled in line and length in one test.
2013 was basically just Ryan Harris though wasn't it. I don't remember the others being that good.
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
Not even slightly. Watch a video of Lord's day 2 that summer. Swann took the worst 5 for ever and Aus were bowled out for 120 without asking anything of the bowlers
interesting. not sure i agree but 2013 is like a forgotten series in a way, seeing as they've all been so close together. Hard to remember anything specific other than Agar's innings in the first test really.
 

Furball

Evil Scotsman
You don't think Australia have batted worse this series than they did in 2013?
Their last 2 efforts with the bat have been disgraceful but they were shocking at Trent Bridge in 2013 (2 jammy last wicket partnerships made that game close), abysmal 1st dig at Lord's and collapsed in a hilarious heap at Durham.
 

Top