England A in the Duleep Trophy

[Salamuddin]

England A kick off their Duleep Trophy campaign with a match against South Zone at Gurgaon, Haryana.


The teams (from): South Zone: S. Ramesh (Captain), S. Sharath, Y. Venugopala Rao, S. Sriram, S. Badrinath, R. Ramkumar, Sunil Joshi, M. S. K. Prasad, N. P. Singh, Barrington Rowland, Sree Shant, D. Tamil Kumaran, Shivaji Yadav, Ibrahim Khaleel and Swapnil Asnodkar.

England A: James Tredwell (Captain), Kadeer Ali, Simond Francis, Simon Jones, Michael Lumb, Sajid Mahmood, Graham Napier, Scott Newman, Kevin Pietersen, Mathew Prior, Bilal Shafayat, Ed Smith, Graham Wagg and Shaftab Khalid.


Should be a good game....

 

[Langeveldt]

I think South Zone have the stronger team with the likes of Ramesh, MSK Prasad, Joshi, Surinder Sriram and Venugapola Rao... should be a good game though...

 

[Salamuddin]

I think South Zone have the stronger team with the likes of Ramesh, MSK Prasad, Joshi, Surinder Sriram and Venugapola Rao... should be a good game though...

Its Sridharan Sriram

 

[Isolator]

Are you sure it's in Gurgaon? I might be able to go watch... any idea where exactly (ie. which stadium) ? Thanks.

 

[marc71178]

Pietersen another ton - 241-4 at Tea, and Prir scoring well again after another disappointing top order performance.

 

[Tim]

Apart from Pietersen, the rest of that England 'A' team don't really have good FC stats...I presume most of them have been picked on potential?

 

[marc71178]

They've been selected on potential more than results - all very young (except Ed Smith) and earmarked as possible future England players.

The irony of it is of course that Pietersen isn't yet English!

 

[Langeveldt]

Apart from Pietersen, the rest of that England 'A' team don't really have good FC stats...I presume most of them have been picked on potential?

I dont think so, especially guys like Kadder Ali....

 

[Richard]

Apart from Pietersen, the rest of that England 'A' team don't really have good FC stats...I presume most of them have been picked on potential?

Some very strange interpretations of potential, more like!
Smith's FC stats are good, but apart from him and Pietersen...
Anyone who seriously thinks Graham Wagg, Graham Napier, Matthew Prior, Simon Francis and James Tredwell have the potential to be county-standard players IMO need their heads examining!

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Richard its not a case of thinking they will play for england one day. Its about picking the best young players...if the best arent good enough then that shows the sad state of english cricket

 

[Tom Halsey]

Some very strange interpretations of potential, more like!
Smith's FC stats are good, but apart from him and Pietersen...
Anyone who seriously thinks Graham Wagg, Graham Napier, Matthew Prior, Simon Francis and James Tredwell have the potential to be county-standard players IMO need their heads examining!

Napier, in all seriousness, has a hell of a lot of potential.

Just take a look at his OD stats.

He has really underperformed in the FC game.

 

[twctopcat]

Doesn't matter coz the 90mph boys Jones and Mahmood will tear thru any lineup, bring on day 2!

 

[tooextracool]

mahmood bowls at 90mph???

 

[twctopcat]

Yeah, was clocked around 94mph at the academy, he claims to be quicker than Jones, hence the discussion with Mahmood's form that perhaps he should be going to the caribbean instead of Jones. Doesn't matter now, because Jones is in fact going already. He's leaving the england a tour party early:
http://www.ecb.co.uk/db/ARCHIVE/CRICKET_NEWS/2004/FEB/073979_ENG_22FEB2004.html

 

[marc71178]

Another good days play for this side - certainly shocked a few people so far with their performances.

 

[Richard]

Yeah, was clocked around 94mph at the academy, he claims to be quicker than Jones, hence the discussion with Mahmood's form that perhaps he should be going to the caribbean instead of Jones. Doesn't matter now, because Jones is in fact going already. He's leaving the england a tour party early:
http://www.ecb.co.uk/db/ARCHIVE/CRICKET_NEWS/2004/FEB/073979_ENG_22FEB2004.html

And because someone has clocked 1 or 2 mph quicker than somoene else that means they should be going on an international tour.
What a brilliant idea that is. Because someone has clocked fast at a training establishment they must get an international place. The fact that his First-Class record is poor is of no relevance whatsoever, naturally.

 

[Richard]

Doesn't matter coz the 90mph boys Jones and Mahmood will tear thru any lineup, bring on day 2!

Not just by bowling at 90 mph they won't!

 

[Richard]

Napier, in all seriousness, has a hell of a lot of potential.

Just take a look at his OD stats.

He has really underperformed in the FC game.

If you ask me he's been exposed in the First-Class game and benefited from the Lee-Sami-Davies-Trott syndrome that affects batsmen in the one-day game, where they bizarrely gift lots of wickets to the same bowler.
As a batsman, he's one of the most overrated sloggers I've ever seen.

 

[Richard]

Richard its not a case of thinking they will play for england one day. Its about picking the best young players...if the best arent good enough then that shows the sad state of english cricket

Well, whether or not these are the best (personally I think there simply must be some better than the like of Wagg, Napier, Prior, Francis and Tredwell) it's still a poor idea trying to make the rubbish up-to-county-standard.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

We have no choice but to make the rubbish upto county standard. These players are needed to replace the old fokes who retire. If they arent good enough then so what? you cant magic decent players out of thin air. It just means that county cricket gets even easier. Which should be more evidence of having 6 first class teams, so the (what looks like by the evidence of our a team) few good players we have in the county game are all playing each other and the weaker players get cut off.