England's sorry tour of Australia imploded today in possibly the worst ODI performance by England in recent years.
Fllintoff really isn't the ideal captain for England, he has enough to do. The confidence is so rock bottom now. I expect that we'll lose all of the remaining matches and it dates back to the ashes when we lost on the Fifth day on the second test at Adelaide.
The simple fact is that success breeds success; the ashes in England was a great success but we will learn more from this failure. We have to learn .
The Ashes 2006 will be bad for grass roots cricket as all the youngsters who picked up a bat to mimick their idols now will be thinking 'the sport of loosers'. And it's no good saying 'the luck wasn't there' or 'we had injuries' or we're touring'

The bottom line is that we were under-cooked going, we weren't ready to fight or win (and haven't looked like winning any match).The only match we've won was a scrape home verses New Zealand (and it wasn't England who won the match so much as new Zealand who lost it).
We've come nowhere close to the awesome hights of Australia (who will replace the world class Warne and McGrath with people just as good) and truethfully, the one day utfit just shows the lack of vision in the England outfit.
Our one day outfit really needs to be made up of a core of 25 players maximum and talent needs identifying much earlier.
Loye should have been picked 5 or even 10 years ago . Bringing him now at the fag end of a career is asking for problems.

Just look at the score card. if you were the coach , you'd be in that dressing room wanting answers to why that happened.

Its an absolute shambles now.

Drop Flintoff ( he has to take responsibility, he wanted the captaincy) and all the jaded loosers now. Give the captaincy to Loy or Bell (or a batsman for goodness sake), tell Flintoff to concentrate on his batting (and the world cup) ,as his batting has dropped off (last century? last big centuary) since the introduction of his captaincy role. Look at what happened when he batted with Pieterson in the Ashes in 04 and compare to 06.

The days of listening to Flintoffs innings 'Hes hit it like a kicking horse and fetch the tin hats' seem a long way off don't they.
Seriously. On paper England look like a good team, but when it comes down to the crunch they haven't got the mental attitude to hit the killer blows.

In sport, you make a lot of your own luck any way, study the opposition, prepare to win. If you fail to prepare, then prepare to fail.

Whats so annoying is that we know they are a good side (ten years ago we knew they were an average side)
because we've won big in the recent past with a similar set up. It's not as if everyone's retired à la England Rugby team . Ok, so you'll all jump up and down about injuries to Jones, Vaughan, Giles, etc. But if we had depth in our game (and I believe wo should and could) a few injuries shouldn't really matter.

Let's compare two world class spinners, Warne and Mcgill. I've always thought Mcgill was technically better than Warne. But Warne just oozes belief. And that's why mcgill never gets a game. Cricket is a game played IN THE HEAD.

I'm really dissapointed in Collingwood on this tour, especially so in the ODI format. He should be setting an example and he's just not doing it.

Now there is no damage to limit . Its about survival and learning , and preparing for the World cup.
The coach has to go . The chairman of selectors must go, as must the selection board. The new coach alone should select (as in football or rugby).The captain has to change. We have to pick a stable side instead of chopping dropping changing and whinging .We must move forward now. If we don't, the world cup will be an embarrasment too far for grass roots support to take.

I want to watch cricket ,England, not the Muppet Show

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I have a dream.... (Martin Luther King)