Thommo is notoriously biased towards Queenslanders generally, so it's not a great shock that he'd choose Kasprowicz for the comparison and not (as might have seemed more fitting) Gillespie.BoyBrumby said:Hindsight's wonderful, but you've gotta laugh at Thommo's comment about Hoggard being a net bowler compared to McGrath & Kasprowicz. I have a lot of time for Kasper & I'm sure not being certain of his place didn't help him, but I think we all know who performed the better.
I think the point is the context in which he said it - just written there it looks bland, but when he said it we all know it meant "so what if we've struggled in the one-dayers and had all sorts of weaknesses exposed, that doesn't mean we'll struggle in the tests... etc"FaaipDeOiad said:Some of the things that are included there are really odd too.
What's so "weird and wacky" about Ponting saying the ODI series didn't mean much because tests are a different game and "we'll see how it goes"? That seems fairly reasonable to me. And including Hoggard's ridiculous comments about the age of the Australian bowlers as "right" is a bit silly, given that Australia's best bowlers in the series were 35 year olds, one of whom had a man of the match performance before he trod on a ball (which I doubt was what Hoggard was suggesting might happen) and the other of whom became the 7th guy in test history to take 40 wickets in a series.
This?BoyBrumby said:Yeah, fair enough. Although Hoggy wasn't alone in suggesting Warney was on the slide a bit. I think both the Waughs said something similar too.
I'll hold my hands up, I didn't call it at all. To be fair, it would've been a pretty one-eyed Englishman who did!
On an entirely unrelated topic, what were SP's predictions beforehand?!
The boy did good, apart from overrating Harmy.The Baconator said:
Is it physically possible to be more wrong?Terry Alderman said:If Australia get away to a good start then England have got no chance. They have got to be competitive in that first Test at Lord's or else it's goodnight.
England lost Collingwood and Gough, and got Bell and Hoggard... not a particularly huge improvement, really. Hoggard was a good bowler in the series but didn't set the world alight, and Bell was very poor. Australia lost Hussey, Symonds and Hogg, and got Langer, Katich and Warne, including their best batsman and best bowler in the series. If you ask me, Australia got the bigger boost.greg said:When with the benefit of hindsight we can identify many of the reasons why England won the test series as being present in the ODIs. In fact it is hardly surprising that Australia ultimately squeaked the ODIs but lost the tests considering England strengthened after the onedayers, and australia (arguably) weakened.
Alderman and Jeff Thompson are the biggest ****s alive.Barney Rubble said:I think one of the funniest comments was, I think by Alderman, "If any of the Australian batsmen get out to Giles, they should hang themselves".
They'd have worn out the noose by now - Gilo dismisse each of the top 8 at least once.
Alderman had a point, I think. Obviously the "anyone who gets out to Giles should hang themselves" thing was over the top, but he was quite right in saying that Giles is an extremely defensive bowler, refuses to go around the wicket and gets most of his wickets through the batsman doing something dumb or pitching it in the rough over and over until something unusual happens, which is why he has such a ridiculous test average. He had a pretty poor series really and Australia played him okay, but he still picked up the odd wicket to a silly shot.simmy said:Alderman and Jeff Thompson are the biggest ****s alive.
Why make such a stupid comment?
I hope they are still crying in a corner over what could have been.
If Hoggard is a net bowler... then what the hell is Kaspa?!?!?!
To be fair to him, it could well have been a different story if he hadnt stepped on that cricket ball.honestbharani said:I think the stupidest comment of the century was from McGrath. He is the biggest idiot really, to say that they were gonna win 5-0, when they never managed it in the recent past, when they were so much better and England were so much worse than them. He is a legend of the game, but his words deserve to be in the trash bin.
And now McGrath has found a match in Botham, who thinks that Australia wouldn't even come close to Engalnd in 14 months time!honestbharani said:I think the stupidest comment of the century was from McGrath. He is the biggest idiot really, to say that they were gonna win 5-0, when they never managed it in the recent past, when they were so much better and England were so much worse than them. He is a legend of the game, but his words deserve to be in the trash bin.
There was basically no way it would have been 5-0, which is what he said and which is what makes him the idiot he is.Deja moo said:To be fair to him, it could well have been a different story if he hadnt stepped on that cricket ball.