anzac said:
here is a prime example of the sort of negative / defeatist mentallity that plagues many of the international teams & players when it comes to Australian cricket!
If only, but if, we need, if we had.....blah blah blah.....
When are they going to learn that nothing will change unless you make it happen - so what are they doing about it?????
And this is a prime eample of the complacent nonsense which passes for Australian comment.
What are England doing about it? Everything you suggested, as they have been doing for several years.
Obviously changes do not occur overnight: when Australia realised how ghastly their situation was and resolved to do something about it in 1985/6, it took about 10 years for things to work through. England's "Raising the Standard" programme started in about 1998 and may come to fruition in 2007, which means it will have taken about as much time as Australia did to achieve a position of dominance.
Despite the blather from complacent Australians with rocks in their heads, they have not only had a serious programme of improvement and development, but they have happened to find a couple of players of all-time greatness who have elevated what would be a very good team into an awesome one.
England will have reached the stage of having a very good team of solid, motivated individuals who are seriously competent at Test cricket by about 2006.
What is required to take us beyond being a very good team is a couple of seriously excellent players. You cannot plan for seriously excellent players, you cannnot institute programmes to discover them, you cannot invent or manufacture them. They occur, or not, as the case may be.
Stuart MacGill is a leg-spinner who passes muster as a Test-class bowler, and quite a lot of countries would happy to have such a player available. But to even think of comparing him with Warne is to compare a decently competent player like Bichel with Dennis Lillee - a comparison which will not be flattering to Bichel. That's the kind of thing which has made Australia virtually invincible rather than very tough opponents.
Australia's current legendary players are either retiring or can see that date approaching. There is no sign that Australia have acquired any new bowlers of anything like the promise and potential, let alone achievement of Warne and McGrath. They will therefore find an England team composed of good, competent players competitive. If Englad manage to discover a player or two who can elevate the team beyond the merely very good, then we can dominate the way Australia have these last few years.
But one of this is likely to make any sense to anzac, since he's obviously had his head under a rock for the last five years - or he wouldn't have asked such an ignorant set of questions about England's development programmes and structures.
However, none of the English programmes has done anything, as far as I can see, to deal with Fast Bowler Injury Virus, which leads to us playing most series with a pace bowling line-up starting with our fourth-choice. Until we can not only identify and select players but keep them fit enough to last out a series (quite a difficult task, as Australia have clearly not managed in Jason Gillespie's case), the best-laid plans and shcemes will come to naught.
Cheers,
Mike