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The Spintolose and TJB Ashes thread

cnerd123

likes this
Yea Bambino, tell the skinny little 13 year old Pakistani kid that he's a wimp and that you'd beat him up in a fight IRL. That'll show him.
 

stephen

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
goodareasshane isn't biased, aussie tragic is a bit but both are top dudes

tjb definitely still tjb, but like stephen seems enough of a semi-balanced bloke to not go insane and post like ikki in all those punishing warne v murali threads
I usually only go crazy in ODI stuff really. And occasionally when the selectors go completely insane.
 

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
Not sure where to put this anecdote so this thread will do.

I was giving my daughter (age 12) a lift to her mate’s house yesterday afternoon so asked her to check the cricket score for me.

She read all of the info out and then asked what it meant etc. I gave my fair and unbiased summation of the match situation and said we needed a decent lead and then to try and stop Smith second time because he’s the best batsman in the world.

She then asked, rather understandably, ‘well if he’s the best why don’t we buy him so he can play for us?’

So I tried to explain that international cricket is not like club football and finally she says, ‘so you can only play for England if you’re from england?’

And a million CW threads popped into my head
 

Tom Flint

International Regular
Her comment;
'If he's the best then why can't we pay him to play for us,'
Basically rings true for archer unfoetunately
 

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
Quite. I liked her thought process though - that anyone would want to play for us
 

Howe_zat

Audio File
That's not really true, people had heard of him at least. In fact a quick look through early posts about him is the discussion of how he wasn't getting picked for Barbados or the WI under 19s. Which is pretty damning of what he was like as a teenager - if you take any proven international player, they were pretty much always a star in youth cricket. Archer is one of the few who wasn't.

It honestly goes to show how much English cricket did for him in the mean time. Notion that he was a world beater that England just parachuted in is nonsense. But hey, facts never stopped people from moaning before.
 
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Howe_zat

Audio File
Smith has an English parent, so he was always eligible to play other sports for England but not cricket. I remember hearing about him picking up an English passport at one stage but that doesn't change the residency rules, I think.
 

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
Probably worth often restating how it’s harder to qualify for England in cricket compared to other sports
 

Starfighter

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
It honestly goes to show how much English cricket did for him in the mean time. Notion that he was a world beater that England just parachuted in is nonsense. But hey, facts never stopped people from moaning before.
The perception that he was parachuted in comes because the eligibility rules were significantly tightened a few years back, he came and started performing domestically, and then were conveniently relaxed in time the WC. If they hadn't tightened them in the first place it wouldn't be perceived that way, although you'd still get some grumbles.
 

Howe_zat

Audio File
That’s true and I certainly don’t mean to imply that the powers that be care about the integrity of the eligibility rules in any way. They clearly don’t.
 

Flem274*

123/5
I usually only go crazy in ODI stuff really. And occasionally when the selectors go completely insane.
i like you. we all have our biases. your queensland is my central districts.
if you take any proven international player, they were pretty much always a star in youth cricket. Archer is one of the few who wasn't.
is this really true? i can't speak for other teams because i don't know enough, but for us

raval - no
latham - kind of
kane - yes
ross - yes
nicholls - no
colin - zimbabwe u19s as opener so....maybe?
watling - no
spinner of the month - no
wagner - maybe in sa?
southee - yes
boult - kind of, in southees shadow

for odi specialists

ferguson - no
henry - no
guptill - no
neesh - kind of
munro - no, but also not proven international player
 

Spark

Global Moderator
There was actually a poster here (might have been hasza?) who posted all the way back in 2010/11, I think, while Smith was still seen as a legspinning all-rounder by the general public, that England should have tried to poach him or they’d regret it. He wasn’t wrong!
 

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