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English sport in meltdown

PhoenixFire

International Coach
superkingdave said:
1-1 test series followed by a 5-0 ODI loss is a convincing win now is it?
Forget ODI stuff, it's fairly meaningless as far as form calculator goes. In my eyes, if it wasn't for Murali, we would have white-washed Sri Lanka in the tests.
 

superkingdave

Hall of Fame Member
PhoenixFire said:
Forget ODI stuff, it's fairly meaningless as far as form calculator goes. In my eyes, if it wasn't for Murali, we would have white-washed Sri Lanka in the tests.
:wacko:

if it wasn't for Ponting and 10 of his Australian mates we wouldn't be 2.9-0 down in this series

plus i don't think Murali had much of an effect on the Lords resultf
 

aussie

Hall of Fame Member
well i never had much interest in Rugby, although i did jump when England won the WC in 2003.

But overall i don't think the Football & Cricket teams are in a meltdown at all. Yes the footballers have been so mediocre and frustrating in the past, but i have great expectations for them to come good in the future, plus the cricket team is in good shape, everyone gets smoked down-under..
 

PhoenixFire

International Coach
superkingdave said:
:wacko:

if it wasn't for Ponting and 10 of his Australian mates we wouldn't be 2.9-0 down in this series

plus i don't think Murali had much of an effect on the Lords resultf
In Lords he took half of SL's total wickets. In the 3-match series he took 24 @ 16.87, with the next best being 5 @ 53.
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
Seems to be altogether too much acceptance of second best in the thread. Don't get me wrong, there's absolutely no disgrace in losing to a champion team like the Aussies clearly are, but we haven't even looked like winning a test (even if we were hamstrung by selection issues somewhat). The Ashes very obviously hasn't been a clash of equals.

WRT football, we always seem to delude ourselves we're better than we are. Our players have a great deal of global recognition (mainly 'cos of the popularity of the Prem), but on the world stage we have never been able to string together the set of results needed to win a WC or EC. Moreover our best player at the WC was a Canadian who plays in Germany.
 
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superkingdave

Hall of Fame Member
PhoenixFire said:
In Lords he took half of SL's total wickets. In the 3-match series he took 24 @ 16.87, with the next best being 5 @ 53.
Yes, but at Lords the problem was that we couldn't take 20 wickets not that Murali was bowling us out.
 

steds

Hall of Fame Member
aussie said:
well i never had much interest in Rugby, although i did jump when England won the WC in 2003.
It seems everyone did apart from me. I winced when Robinson scored. Can't get much worse than born in France & played for Wigan.
 

Matteh

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
BoyBrumby said:
Moreover our best player at the WC was a Canadian who plays in Germany.
On the BBC website today he's saying he's a Brit who just happened to be born in Canada.
 

Matteh

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Turbinator said:
BRAAAP!!! CANADA!!! :laugh:
:huh:

Personally i'm a Brit who just happened to be born in Germany, can understand the Hargreaves plight, only he didn't get called a Nazi or Hitler's Grandson repeatedly in his early teens.
 

Magrat Garlick

Global Moderator
Matteh said:
On the BBC website today he's saying he's a Brit who just happened to be born in Canada.
He's never lived in Britain...

WRT the thread question: it does seem to forget that there are a fair amount of other nations who also do top training work, coachwork etc., so I don't think there's anything specifically English about being poor. In cricket there are five nations with the significant talent pool and setup to be the best in the world at present. In union there's about seven. In league there's two, but England's participation is limited to two counties with combined population about 7 million. In football there's seven (+ all the countries with small footballing populations but good setups, see Netherlands, Croatia, Sweden, etc.).

You can only reasonably expect to be midway up the table when competition among these nations is so fierce. (It's the reason Norway have found a bunch of sports nobody else cares about, such as women's handball, speed skating and curling, to be any good at.)
 
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GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
It's a good job the Mighty Whites are flying high. In sport I care for the whites first, the England Cricket team second and then the England football team. Pretty dismal at the minute, I think to be serious, the BBC's awards bash last week highlighted how poor things are at the moment. It's swings and roundabouts though, I mean this time next year we'll be arguing over whether it's the WC-winning Cricketers or Rugby players who deserved team of the year at the damn thing.... :ph34r:
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
There wasn't enough of criticism after SL drew the series with England. That was pitiful really, after England went 1-0 up they acted as if it was only a matter of time before they won the series.

That was all forgotten however the minute they beat Pakistan (good win no doubt) and the Ashes were near. Conveniently forgetting that England have only won 5 tests since the Ashes (4 if you don't count the Pakistan forfeit). Not impressive at all.

Cannot comment on the other sports, but IMO England were far too happy to pat themselves on the back and forget about the jobs (plural, not just the next Ashes but the Pakistan and India tour etc.) ahead.
 

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
Jono said:
There wasn't enough of criticism after SL drew the series with England. That was pitiful really, after England went 1-0 up they acted as if it was only a matter of time before they won the series.

That was all forgotten however the minute they beat Pakistan (good win no doubt) and the Ashes were near. Conveniently forgetting that England have only won 5 tests since the Ashes (4 if you don't count the Pakistan forfeit). Not impressive at all.

Cannot comment on the other sports, but IMO England were far too happy to pat themselves on the back and forget about the jobs (plural, not just the next Ashes but the Pakistan and India tour etc.) ahead.
It's not just Cricket, it happens in everything. In sport, to stand still is to go backwards, but noone ever says that to our successful teams.
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
steds said:
I count 5 at most.

Yeah, it's a miracle that the Celtic nations compete with us much less beat us.

England being 7th is an absolute disgrace because not only are we the richest Union we have by far the biggest playing base. Link here. The figures are damning

WRT to Vimes's point about countries with small footballing populations but good setups; it's a fair enough shout, but it does pre-suppose ours is inferior! Why is ours inferior? It's surely not a given? Moreover, countries with similar populations to us (Italy, France) have enjoyed far more success on the world stage.
 

PY

International Coach
There's very few countries that compete to a high standard in all of the sports we are doing rubbish in currently.

Australia are the closest (as ever) but I wouldn't class their footy team quite there yet but definitely getting there.
 

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