God help me - the Test Cricket thread

[Mantis]

What an embarrassing game to watch. Like a pack of scared chickens waiting for a fox to pounce. I can’t wait for this test to be over. Absolutely no idea what to do. How are we rated as one of the top test nations in test cricket? We have been worked out by the poms. They know what to do and when to do it. Not even the rain could save us. Elite cricket players have come to AFL clubs to speak an give the team a motivational speech. Australia is playing like the Carlton football club played football 6 weeks ago. Maybe Cripps and Voss could go to the Australian cricket side and teach them a thing or two. How aggressive approach and backing a positive attitude helps winning a game. I have enjoyed more of what England have done than what Australia have done. A piss weak performance. After such a great start. Hand back the ashes. You don’t deserve them. I don’t see one player I wouldn’t swap with the English squad. One is 41 years of age and I would take him. Broad has retired and I would take him too. Our squad crumbles under pressure way too easy. The way the Carlton football side did a few games back. Need to make 4 changes to side selection at minimum. Otherwise change the captain and get some mental training. Change the attitude and game plan approach. Such a weak result in the end. We lost 2 wickets while I was typing. That tells the story. Definitely in my opinion, Australia is not a top 3 rated test side. No f@#ken way. The worst thing is to lose games to is England in the way we have after such a great start to this series. Like losing matches to Collingwood or Essendon in AFL football. We suck. Sorry for my comments. I am just being honest. Australia not Carlton. Carlton still has a good chance to see us playing finals with injury issues. More than what Australia is experiencing.

[Professer E]

100 percent.  Inconsistent selection and performance.  Poor plans.

Blind faith in Warner.  Why?

So many starts batting, very few ever went on with it.  Too many soft dismissals to Ali and Root's average off spin.

Marnus and Smith stank, Head was average and Carey was very poor after the Bairstow incident.

Bowling - poor.  Too NSW centric and paid lip service to the rotation policy - Starc can't maintain effort for three tests and this was essentially a six test series.  This cost us the series IMO- bowlers were cooked after the third test.  Losing Lyon really hurt and lacked faith in Murphy until far too late.  The bowling plans were laughably amateur at best....I'd be laying this directly at Ronnie and the captain's feet and asking them why?

Series was played in a nasty, street brawl no holds barred manner, picked up by and magnified by the English press.  I didn't watch much as I didn't enjoy it and also thought the on field cricket both skills-wise and "spirit of the game" stuff was very average at best. 

[LP]

We think our team is a rabble, take a look at the Saffies.

This is about as hard as the evidence will get against the use of quotas and diversity to the balance the ledger and improve the outcome.

In business, politics and sport you always get an argument from various apologists that diversity and quotas lead to better outcomes, but in my experience it's the dead opposite of what really happens.

Maybe, just maybe, having a nice quota and lots of diversity is more about making some people feel better with a mediocre outcome.

Just maybe, if the quotas and diversity policies survive for long enough, they will make it back to the where they were before they lost all that ground!

Surely, with and academia and politicians "working together" to resolve these issues, there are better solutions that can be arrived at than quotas, perhaps if we just rename the plan to a policy of mediocrity we won't be disappointed and it can be labelled a success! :o

[ElwoodBlues1]

We think our team is a rabble, take a look at the Saffies.

This is about as hard as the evidence will get against the use of quotas and diversity to the balance the ledger and improve the outcome.

In business, politics and sport you always get an argument from various apologists that diversity and quotas lead to better outcomes, but in my experience it's the dead opposite of what really happens.

Maybe, just maybe, having a nice quota and lots of diversity is more about making some people feel better with a mediocre outcome.

Just maybe, if the quotas and diversity policies survive for long enough, they will make it back to the where they were before they lost all that ground!

Surely, with and academia and politicians "working together" to resolve these issues, there are better solutions that can be arrived at than quotas, perhaps if we just rename the plan to a policy of mediocrity we won't be disappointed and it can be labelled a success! :o

Saffies have no money, they are sacrificing test cricket for short format cricket where they can make a rand or two.
Graham Smith who is now their cricket boss said none of the local companies will sponsor cricket in SA and Indian owners of the IPL teams now sponsor their main 20/20 comp.
Agree on the quota situation, it has destroyed their test lineup and they are no longer the fearsome team they were when Smith was captain and they had the best players in the world. Their better players have also been lured to England over the years and they are now a C grade lineup who if you look at the fixturing are barely playing any test cricket over the next few years except vs the other lesser countries. The success of bazball has further ruined test cricket and I can see 4 day test matches in the future and more short format games and traditional long format test cricket will disappear.

[LP]

After winning over some fans Mitch Marsh has pretty much undone all his earlier good work, with a handful of deliveries and a dropped catch! :o

What made it worse for some fans, and possible for a team-mate or two, it looks like Marsh is a nervous laugh / smile type, grinning from ear to ear shortly after dropping a pudding. We realise some people cannot help this behaviour, but it doesn't help!

[Professer E]

Still waiting for Stoinis to actually do something, and the continued over-reliance on an over rated pace bowling group baffles me.

No catch is easy, but for a professional the one Marsh dropped was close to unforgiveable. 

[LP]

The selectors keep changing the fringe players, but in reality it's the NSW core group that hasn't delivered any consistency for last two months.

The likes of Warner, Smith, Marnus, Cummins, Hazelwood keep bobbing up with the odd gem which just enough to hold a spot, but it's one out of 3 or 4 innings and that is not nearly enough to win a World Cup. At the moment we have no 24x7 in form player.

Media piling on guys like Zampa, but Zampa is only as good as whoever bowls at the other end and if the team scores enough runs for the leggy to freely attack.

[dodge]

Apart from our bowling, fielding and batting last night we were pretty good.

That was putrid.

[ElwoodBlues1]

Still waiting for Stoinis to actually do something, and the continued over-reliance on an over rated pace bowling group baffles me.

No catch is easy, but for a professional the one Marsh dropped was close to unforgiveable. 

Saffies are full on a short format team now, have made test cricket secondary and are a better outfit than before.
But that doesnt take away from how poor we were in the field and its starts with captain who set some strange fields based on sending the opposition in and then going defensive when he should have been looking to attack and get early wickets.
If DeKock fires then the Saffies usually win and it was paramount to attack and remove him quickly...agree on Stoinis, tarzan that plays like Jane too often...

[LP]

Many of our squad are past the Use-by-Date, it's a World Cup too many for some of them, they look upset at the efforts but otherwise disinterested in working to make stuff better!