who do you think is going to be the "gillespie" of the up-coming ashes?

i've picked pieterson (on a thread in the SA section) - at an average of below 30, i think i predicted.

of the ozzies, it's hard to pick, maybe hayden...or gilchrist again but i have no moody gut feelings.

On Gilchrist: he still looks VERY dodgy when facing outswingers pitched on or outside off-stump. Rather than leaving them to go through to the keeper, he still dabs at them - he can't pull out due to his high backswing. This was his main problem in 2005 and does'nt look like he has fixed the problem. Can't teach an old dog new tricks i suppose

Gilchrist will struggle is my prediction.

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The thought police are everywhere..............

Im going to go for Gilchrist or Ponting, Both struggling and for England im going for Monty Panesar, i just don't think he will be able to handle the pressure down under.

Mc Grath has already started slating him saying he was a "woosie" for receiving mental help to be able to take the Aussie slates.

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Latest Result:


Torquay 2-1 Droylsden


We are 24th out of 24 teams.

i don't think he has to worry about players slates but he may struggle with abuse from the stands - though i think he'll cope with that but still have an average tour.

The Aussies will love Monty Australians love a character, they will give him **** at the same time but he will be a cult hero.

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Bill Ponsford - The only one who could play in Bradman’s company and make it a duet.

The guy at biggest risk, I'd think, is the Aussie captain. The Ashes were lost on his watch against all the odds and against everyone's predictions bar Ernest's. The pressure to regain them - and the expectation that it will happen on home soil - is immense. Now, certainly there's a chance, but I think England are good enough to tie the series Down Under, and if that happens there's one guy who will carry the can: step up, Ricky!

I don't think Flintoff will have anything like the same pressure because the expectation just isn't there in England.

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Money won't buy you friends. But it gets you a better class of enemy.
Spike Milligan

Nope. Flintoff's the guy who is going to face the most pressure. He's going to be under pressure with his batting because he just ain't light enough on his feet to cope with McGrath, Lee, Warne and whoever on fast Aussie pitches... he's going to be under even greater pressure with his batting because it's unlikely that the rest of the England top order are going to bat the Aussies out of matches... and he's going to be under pressure with his bowling because he's not bowled for a long time (and was pretty indifferent the last few times he DID bowl).

At least Ponting knows that his own batting is not going to let him down and that his team is the match for even a 12-man England: that takes away a lot of pressure!

These pressures come ahead of captaincy pressures... and on that front, Flintoff's got to deal with the fact that he's a novice captain (and especially in relation to captaining an aggressive spinner). Ponting's got the cushion of having been there and done it: he knows he's already dealt with far worse **** than anything England can throw at him... whereas Flintoff is captaining despite knowing that he in for a quite unprecedented challenge, way beyond anything he or his players have faced previously.

ps. the one thing both captains will know is that they have better captains than themselves in their own team: Warne in Ponting's case and Strauss in Flintoff's case. Now that IS added pressure!

i can't comment on warne's ability to captain but the one thing is sure as a player he seems disruptive ... he clearly wants to be captain and will be less of a nuisance in that position - certainly he's an aded pressure for ponting

You should look into his impact at Hampshire...

i think he's handling very different egos (bar peiterson who worshiped the ground ...but has hardly played for hampshire since the ashes).

hollyoake or alleyne did well at county level ??

this much IS certain - i thought he handled ervine brilliantly first season. you could be right.