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    England Squad to Tour SA

    They don't need a Clarkesque role. They already have a Flintoffesque role. And it's not as though Flintoff actually got all that many people excited when he started out in international cricket - he too was regularly rubbished as a mediocre bits and pieces player, though there seem to be...
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    England Squad to Tour SA

    Please explain the difference between a "bits-and-pieces player" and an "all-rounder" in terms other than "I don't think much of " and "I like". I'm another who has yet to be impressed by Clarke, but I'm scratching my head to think of any other up-and-coming players who even seem to offer the...
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    England Squad to Tour SA

    He has? Then why are season's figures so poor? Cheers, Mike
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    England Squad to Tour SA

    Does this mean there's no point in listening to you until you've scored one too? Cheers, Mike
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    Robert Key to replace Butcher?

    In terms of consistency, what this summer has suggested is that he can consistently be out for under 20, although if he survives the chances he always gives early on (eg when Gayle dropped a sitter off him when he was on 17 at Lord's), he can go on and get some runs. That *is* what the...
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    Harmison the World Top rated Bowler

    In Botham's first 2-3 years, he was able to swing it miles both ways, which was why he was so devastating and has such magnificent early figures. After 1980, he lost the inswinger and was only half the bowler. After 1982, he lost the outswinger as well and wasn't a bowler at all. Harmison, on...
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    Robert Key to replace Butcher?

    If they didn't restore Thorpe immediately, they would be mad. If they kept Key rather than restoring Butcher, they would also be mad. But if Bell made an impressive 150, then hmmm. As has been pointed out, Butcher's record in the year before his injury wasn't quite as impressive as the...
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    Giles in PWC top Ten!

    This is manifestly not true. Giles does *not* spin it as much as a finger spinner can. He may be able to, and he may do it very occasionally, but it isn't his method so to do. Tufnell's method, on the other hand, was to give the ball a big rip and turn it a long way. That's roughly the two...
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    **Official** West Indies in England Thread

    Are you sure it was conceived as a plan to get him out? To me it looked very much like they were simply trying to keep his scoring under control, with the idea of taking wickets at the other end, just as the successful plan in SL in 2000-01 was to raise Murali's strike rate to 80 or so, giving...
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    **Official** West Indies in England Thread

    Remind me where the ball with which he bowled Gatting in the First Test of the 1993 Ashes pitched. Cheers, Mike
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    Giles in PWC top Ten!

    I take it you never watched Tufnell bowl, then, since what you say about Giles turning it as much as Tufnell could is about as accurate as saying that Robert Key is as relentlessly excellent a batsman as Bradman. Not that degree of turn is a particularly useful measure of a spin bowler, as it...
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    **Official** West Indies in England Thread

    So, how often does he bowl that negative line way outside leg stump, then? As far as I can tell, he's used it in about two spells since the tour of India where it was a strategic plan to reduce SRT's strike rate. Otherwise, his bowling has been no more negative than that of someone else who...
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    Giles in PWC top Ten!

    It's a bit more than once, actually. There've been a couple of other instances where he's been brought on to slow things down and used that negative tactic - not that negative tactics are eschewed by everyone, as New Zealand can testify with regard to McGrath bowling very wide to prevent them...
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    Robert Key to replace Butcher?

    I agree. You're right that the double hundred bespeaks a level of application which isn't really demonstrated in county cricket, and also not to go any further overboard about it, in my view. But he is an example of someone where Richard's first-chance averages tell you something, because I...
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    Robert Key to replace Butcher?

    Is that just the trivial point that it was a Test match and he got runs in it, or does your statement have some wider implication? Cheers, Mike
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    **Official** West Indies in England Thread

    I think it's a bit much to call 38 and 24 balls *exceptional* for ten-jack. I don't think it's unreasonable to make 20 balls a basic expectation for those guys. They won't always make it, but they ought to have at least that in their mind as their target when they walk out. I thought Collins...
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    **Official** West Indies in England Thread

    I suppose what really ticks me off about this whole thing is that when England teams and their supporters on tour used to whinge on about things like this, it was taken as an example of how ghastly the English were. And rightly so, because that's what it was. Cheers, Mike
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    **Official** West Indies in England Thread

    I'm not defending the ECB, particularly, except from the charge that they have treated WI unusually poorly compared to other tourists. But I admit to surprise that the WI team wanted formal greetings, more on the grounds that I usually want to get straight to the hotel as soon as I've cleared...
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    **Official** West Indies in England Thread

    Yes, all touring sides are treated like this. Since there are no tickets printed in advance for the fifth day of any Test, no touring team gets fifth day tickets given to them until there is a fifth day. Nor has anyone from the ECB turned up to officially meet the squad landing at the airport...
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    **Official** West Indies in England Thread

    You said that Sarwan didn't have a technical problem but that his downfall was poor shot selection. If you think that shuffling across your stumps so that you are an obvious lbw candidate for any bowler who cuts it back into you or simply bowls it straight is poor shot selection rather than a...

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