Aus Vs ROW

[honestbharani]

Originally Posted by Richard Jenkins

Gibbs
Vaughan*
Laxman
Tendulker
Dravid
Kallis
Boucher+
Aktar
Pollock
Muliltheran
H.streak

First of all, I don't think either Kallis or Laxman are actually better than Lara but secondly, no left hander in the entire team, I am sure Warnie will lick his lips in anticipation of an all right hander side....

[Teatime FatCat]

Originally Posted by Goatman

Thats the lad. Bloody good spin bowler too.

C'mon - you've got to be impressed with the level of my Dutch cricket knowledge!

I saw Baz Zuiderent bat once and he looked pretty good. Shame he didn't get another contract, we should have more Dutch in county cricket! which reminds me, wasn't Andre van Troost from Holland?

Oooh - and now I think of it, there was some Danish guy who used to play for Derbyshire, apparently he used to shout "***** Lord Hellfire" when he was hit for a 4.

[Ernest]

Originally Posted by Scott-Wozniak

Ernest

I really can't see that hapoening, both Vaughan and Fletcher have publicly stated that they have ended the select/drop/select/drop procedures favoured some time ago and that new people selected now will be given a reasonable run in the side to prove themselves.

Scott

Scott
Yes they were in there rights to drop Read ,and replace him with Jones,they should not have gone on to say what they did.Jones will get the same extended run as Read.

They were pre-emting the meeting of the full selection board back in England,no they may not reistate Read,because that would show a split in the selection panel.Fletcher and vaugham will be slapped on the wrist,and then it will be hushed up.

The full selection panel could overrule Fletcher and vaughan if they wished.

[darren cook]

Originally Posted by Notts Exile

That's what I was thinking !

As much as I am a fan of Read . I think the only person you could have keeping for the rest of the world would be Andy Flower .

[Notts Exile]

Think you might be right there Darren, was forgetting about him. He'd score a few runs too!

[Goatman]

Originally Posted by Teatime FatCat

C'mon - you've got to be impressed with the level of my Dutch cricket knowledge!

I saw Baz Zuiderent bat once and he looked pretty good. Shame he didn't get another contract, we should have more Dutch in county cricket! which reminds me, wasn't Andre van Troost from Holland?

Oooh - and now I think of it, there was some Danish guy who used to play for Derbyshire, apparently he used to shout "***** Lord Hellfire" when he was hit for a 4.

Very impressive indeed Fatcat. Quite caught me by surprise I can tell you. Zuiderent does look county quality to me. I can't believe one of the smaller counties - Derby or Durham for example - haven't picked him up. Seems daft. Andre van Troost is one of the many van Troosts that have played for the national team - fast and wayward if I remember right. Not heard about your Dane, but I'm sure your right. When you look at the Hoofdclasse Competitie averages, there are a worrying number of Anglo-Saxon / Asian names around, but there is certainly also some genuine home-grown talent over here - maybe they shoudl be over there!

The Dutch want ot be made a proper first class team and be allowed to compete in the English competition. The Dutch are a very pragmatic people, and there seems to be a general feeling that the Netherlands is not big enough to stand alone in cricket. Ultimately, it seems they want to see the top 2-3 clubs in NL made "counties" and allowed to force thier way in and out of our championship on merit.

I've been thinking on this lately. I reckon Europe should play like WI. With SCO, IRE and NL together, I reckon they'd put together a team at least as good as BAN and KEN and now ZIM as well. Add in a few Danes, Germans and Portuguese and so on, and they would surely be worth considering for test status after a few years. Make the constituent nations first class teams:- ie. Scotland, ireland, Netherlands, Portugal, Denmark, Croatia and bloody Latvia if they want to compete in Busta Cup, Red Stripe Bowl and Carib Beer Cup lookalike competitions between themselves. In the unlikely event of the Europe test team becoming so good they are unbeatable, you could simply strip off the top 1 or two constituent nations and make them stand-alone test teams. The "domestic" competition would drive up stabndards by concentrating talent, it would concentrate money to allow a proffessional class to develop, it would get players used to 3-4 day games, it would raise the status of the game in Europe and it woudl get players used to different conditions. Imagine a test series with one game in Lisbon, one in Amsterdam and one test rained off in the Emerald Isle! It would be like playing the first half of a tour in England and then jetting off to Chennai for the rest! It would also allow the continental game to evolve seperately to the English game, and not turn into a lesser clone. It woudl also allow better facilities to develop, as each nation would be required to maintain only 1 "quality" ground, and have access to a communal European pot for funding for this. As it stands, each country needs to fund several grounds they are hoping to eventually be promoted to first-class status from a very limited funding pot. NL for example has only 3 grass pitches in the whole country! If they could find money to maintain the VRA (national) ground externally, the money they spend keeping this facility good enough to host matches between SA and KEN and so on, as they have in recent times, could be spent elsewhere, which would be a real boon to the smaller clubs. I woudl love to see Europe go down the WI route, and I think it woudl be a great asset to the game.

[Scott-Wozniak]

Originally Posted by flanflinger

Partly true, however... Would you really say that he is the best keeper in the world, by putting him in a ROW team, that is what you are saying. I was merely pointing out that if he gets dropped for his own national team, why should he get into a ROW team?

FF

I think the argument for that would be in terms of keeping abilities alone, Read must be regarded as one of the best keepers in the world, and as a ROW side is being selected on specialist abilities alone, Read would need to be considered for that specialist role. The reason he was dropped from his national side was nothing to do with his keeping abilities, but simply because he couldnt/wasn't scoring runs. In England's situation it is considered important that the WK make some contribution with the bat, but as the ROW side is packed with world class batsmen, it's not really seen as being that important.

You could argue that even in a ROW side the WK should also contribute with the bat, but I guess that's what makes the selection of ROW side so interesting, and contentious at the same time. Everyone has their own ideas on what 'balance' means and select their ROW side based on where they consider the 'balance' should be. I've said on here in my own ROW side, I'd want what I consider to be the best Captain in the world to lead this side, other people have dismissed this as not being important and simply pick a Captain from the players already selected, some want to include Lara as being the best batsman in the world, others have left him out and gone for a mix of 'in form' quality batsmen. Who can say which is the right method to use in selecting a ROW XI ?

Scott

[Scott-Wozniak]

Originally Posted by Rachael

Anyone betting on Fletcher and Marsh both being involved in English cricket in 12 months time?

Rachael

One of them might go, and my bet would be on Marsh - not Fletcher.

Scott

[darren cook]

Originally Posted by Scott-Wozniak

Rachael

One of them might go, and my bet would be on Marsh - not Fetcher.

Scott

Although I would hope it would be Fletcher .

[Scott-Wozniak]

Originally Posted by ernest

The full selection panel could overrule Fletcher and vaughan if they wished.

Ernest

Yes of course they could if they wanted to, no-one's disputing the powers of the full selection panel. But in my mind they won't, as this would cause all sorts of problems for Fletcher and Vaughan and show that the selection panel do not have faith in the decisions that the Coach and Captain make - and it could be disastrous.

I do think people are reading too much into this though. The squad to tour the West Indies was selected by the full selection panel. Notice the word squad! It's down to Fletcher as coach and Vaughan as Captain to make the final selections for the games to be played - they don't have to keep going back to the full selection panel to get their agreement on who plays and who doesnt - that would be just rediculous. They were fully within their power to drop Read and play Jones, without having prior approval of the full selection panel, as Jones was in the squad available to be selected.

I simply cannot see the full selection panel reversing the decision to play Jones, after Vaughan has publicly stated that Jones will get a reasonable run in the side. He may get a smack on the wrist, for 'forcing the issue' but I doubt even that will happen. The policy that is now being used (which I'm sure has come down from the full selection panel) that players will not be selected/dropped but if selected will get a reasonable run.

The only person who's going to be annoyed by all this will be Rod Marsh, the Academy Director, and I'm not even sure if he sits on the selection panel, in my mind Rod Marsh exerts far too much influence on the selection of players and that Vaughan and Fletcher should have the last say on who plays.

Scott