ENGLISH CRICKET IS A JOKE - COME HOME NOW

DREAM FADES
By JMB
January 10 2007

England have turned their glowing CV into a comic strip in the last two months. It's time to rip up the plans and start again. The Ashes were ruined by a lack of preparation and predictably foolish team selections. It's time to bring the boys home and avoid further embarassment.

England should never have agreed to a schedule where they play a Twenty20 and minimum of eight One Day Internationals at the end of this tour. As it is now the team are disheartened and performing like numpties. Loading a tour itinerary with one day matches seems to serve one purpose, that of pleasing the bank manager.

When the tour to India ended the team should have flown straight to Australia. They could have had a full preparation including at least 4 competitive state games before the first test. If we had not played the One Day Internationals the final test would have been starting about now and we might have had a little more to get excited about.

Who remembers the scores in One Day cricket? Over the last four years England have played some thrilling test series and cricket fans can remember the heroic individual performances and series wins. Ask those same fans to recite the One Day International scores and the memory fades.

The reason we play so many one day games is purely financial, but who apart from the people in the ground care? The players move from city to city playing the same opposition repeatedly. The games are a waste of space on the international calendar. Of course there should be a few One Day Internationals, but does anyone need to see more than a best of 3 series?

As for the England team that is in Australia at the moment, they must all be desperate to get home. Flintoff looks knackered, Pietersen hates losing as it makes him look bad and the rest of the side must be shell-shocked. The ECB would say they see the ODI series to come as key preparation for the World Cup. At the moment the games only serve to dent English confidence. Bring them home and choose a team for the World Cup than can compete and will be hungry.

The only bright light on the horizon is the return to international cricket of Michael Vaughan. The rest of the side in today's Tenty20 international against Australia is a sorry reflection on English cricket, particularly when you compare the two sides.

The Australia team is filled with batsmen who can bludgeon the ball out of the park. England potentially have Pietersen and Flintoff to do the same. We have too many fiddlers who look nice at the crease but are capable of nudging and nurdling when big hitting is what is required. The bowling department is short of variation. We have too many middle of the road 'pace' bowlers like Mahmood, Anderson and Lewis who can only perform when conditions suit.

It's time to change the one day mind-set and pick English players for their performances in the short game rather than 4 and 5-day cricket. The likes of Darren Maddy, David Sales, Nayan Doshi and Stuart Broad have been successful in Twenty20 county matches but are never mentioned in England terms. It must be the correct way forward to pick the right horses for the course they play.

Let's take a new look England to the World Cup. Let's select a mixture of young and old one-day specialists who can go to the Caribbean with no baggage and everything to gain. Keep Vaughan as skipper, Collingwood, Pietersen and Flintoff and build a young vibrant side around them. Let's face it would they do any worse.