Is Beating Australia a Possiblity???

[Rachael]

Surely the problem for all the countries challenging Australia is mindsets and approaches back home: the WI in particular, but also Pakistan and others, need to get their heads around the idea that the main reason they succeeded in the past was that glorious finishing school called English Domestic Cricket. For their part, the English need to get their heads around the notion that English Domestic cricket ALONE is not enough...

I think it's starting to happen: tough coaches are starting to bang heads together here, there and everywhere. We still find, however, that the WI team turns up to Test series (even in their own back yard) under-prepared. We still see Indian fielders failing to back up in numbers when throws are coming into the stumps. We still see Pakistan backing their pace attack.. and even (in the recent series against India) on home grounds where their apparently very promising up and coming swing bowlers could have got the ball moving a foot either way.

Seems to me that England are only 3-4 years away from being very, very competitive... and that the reason they are so close is that they have finally (with the academy and individually tailored development programs making use of home AND overseas opportunities) started addressing the limitations of THEIR traditional approach.

At long last we've got rid of the quick-fix obsession with individual talent finding it's own way to the top and just flourishing naturally.

Marsh and Fletcher both recognise something the Aussies recognised far, far longer ago: that great players are made not born. They may look for different initial aptitudes (Fletcher clearly starts with temperment, character and team-orientation, Marsh starts more, perhaps, with a commitment to one's own improvement) but the focus on building world class players out of routine material (and over the long haul) is in place.

Seems to me that all the other TEst countries are slowly headed down the same road that we've taken.. but that in the subcontinent and the WI there's a bigger mountain to climb in terms of mentality: the obsession with "talent" (and relative neglect of organisation, preparation and perspiration) stil combine to hold back teams that should have been competing with the Aussies for years.

[Occasional Fan]

Originally Posted by Rachael

Seems to me that England are only 3-4 years away from being very, very competitive.

I don't suppose you could squeeze this to 2 1/2 years, could you, Rachael? I really would like to see England win The Ashes in 2006/7!

[Rachael]

Ashes in 2006/7 would be nice, wouldn't it... but realistically.. don't you think that will depend on a drop in the level the Aussies play at as much as an improvement in the standard of our team?

My reasoning on the 3-4 years is simply that by then we should actually have the sort of experience needed to really compete with the best: Vaughan should be a senior player with (perhaps) well over 100 caps... if they survive then Flintoff, Hoggard and Giles may well be on 70-90 caps a piece... and we should have guys of this generation like Strauss, Bell, Key, Harmison, Jones and Anderson well established and with 40-60 caps a piece...

I also reckon it will take Jones that long to master glovework :-(


More to the point.. 3-4 years should be long enough for the later cadres of academy intakes to start to plug any gaps in the side: the academy system seems to be a veritable production line now.. but the young wrist spinners, for example, still look at LEAST 3-4 years shy of ready (and possibly nearer double that).

[Occasional Fan]

To be honest, yes: I think the Aussies will need to drop a notch at the same time as England is on the up if we are going to win The Ashes within four years. But I really don't want to wait that long, I really want to be there when it happens and I really want it to be in Australia! That's the only reason for my 2 1/2 year wish! (And just before everyone jumps down my throat, I'd settle for next summer as well, even though I am unlikely to be at many of the tests next year.)

[Ernest]

With respect to Australia, they are falling a notch, as we are rising, in paritcular, I am talking about the likes of McGrath, as I have said many times will be a year older in 2005, I am not underestimating the Aussies, just being realistic, with an aging McGrath, and Brett Lee not accurate, unless Australia come up with another class pace bowler, I think England beating Australia in England is not only a possibility, but a probability.

The battle lines as I see it are, will the Australian batting stand up to the pace of Flintoff and Harmison, and the swing of Hoggard and Anderson in English conditions, and Simon Jones if he is fit.

I for one dont think it has sunk into the minds of a lot of English supporters, this time we can beat the Aussies.

[Beny]

That's a long way to fall Ernest.

[Ernest]

Originally Posted by Beny

That's a long way to fall Ernest.

Not as long as you think Beny, if one side is established, and the other is blooding players, then that sort of cuts the fall, whetever happens the series should be a cracker, an competative, one sided stuff is crap.

[Beny]

Cant we just keep it one-sided a little longer? I'm kinda enjoying seeing the English get smashed.We can have competative cricket against Pakistan or somebody.

[Ernest]

Originally Posted by Beny

Cant we just keep it one-sided a little longer? I'm kinda enjoying seeing the English get smashed.We can have competative cricket against Pakistan or somebody.

No Beny, I think you have got me wrong, all Englands series wins of late have been one sided, but you know how things are developing, and I hope Australia at least give us a game.