I looked last night at the feed, Sidebottom very impressive. But come next ashes will he be right / uninjured / inform ?
Don't rest your eggs in one basket, why not get a few likely candidates including Simon Jones again to play this Australian summer, in Australia.
And it's not just bowlers I relate this to, it's borderline batsmen as well. If they are not in the England touring squad surely it is more beneficial that they are playing in Australia during the England winter. And if they perform exceptionally well I am sure they will gravitate to the "state" squad much the same as our players gravitate to the "county" squad.
The likes of Ricky Ponting have not been made on his personal sheer ability alone. Ponting has been developed within a "MacDonald's Restaurant" like type franchise training system, along with Adam Gilchrist, Michael Clarke and others.
England has had access to the ground floor of this process. Because it was basically engineered by Rodney Marsh.
But England got a shorter schooling in the basics, and unfortunately donated to much time in monarchical type arguments about captaincy rather than concentrating on balance of the team.
England does have the opportunity to rectify this.

Good idea,send the likes of Mahmood,Onions,Plunkett,Bresnan,Godleman,Hildreth and others and see if it fine tunes their obvious ability.They may go as good cricketers and return as very good cricketers.

Exactly even if you get 2 successes out 10 tried that is a plus.

Good idea but the state sides will not want them, due to there only being 6 state sides they need the spots too much to put a whole heap of internationals. Oliver Newby who plays for Lancashire played in my grade last season, he only took around 14 wickets for the season. Most of the County players would play in district, sub-district or other local comps if they come to Australia.

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

Would it be interesting/feasible for the England A team to play in the Pura Cup in the Australian Summer? A lot of English youngsters do play grade cricket down under at this time or go to one of the Southern Hemisphere academies. Why not enter an English team in the Pura Cup? I realise there are positives and negatives with that, but if they're down under anyway, then why not??

That's a very good idea Andy, I don't think it would hurt any of the world A-Teams nor hurt the Australian domestic competition to have the visiting A-Teams included in the comp's. It would probably create a lot more public interest on the domestic scene and give a lot more flexibility to the touring side that may wish to rotate its senior players through that squad at various times to regain touch or fitness.

Acker,

I love most of your comments on here, particularly your genuine interest in English cricket, but I found this thread to be very condescending and even patronising.

The fact is that you ignore the fact that we do send players away (often to Lilliee School in India) and many of our players already play Grade cricket (but not First Class Cricket - the Aussies are more sensible than to our allow our players a breeding ground - unlike us who will happily select an Aussie quick over a home grown one any day!!)

It is not as if England is the only country failing to produce quality young bowlers - IMO their is a dearth of talent world wide, and it is not as if there are so many Australian quicks out there, in their early twenties, ready to replace McGrath, or give Lee any cause to look over his shoulder?

We do send players to Australia, but the chances are a state side would not pick them, because they don't really use overseas players. They certainly aren't in any hurry to give a leg up to English players - or from other nations.

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We have an Academy set up by Rod Marsh, and it is probably producing more Test players than it's Australian equivalent. We also send players to India for specialist training. Would the Australians really give us access to their academy, I doubt it!! So we have to make the most of ours.


I imagine that the debate on team selection and the captaincy that occurs on here is not reflective of the thinking of Moores, who probably had a better idea of his first XI than we do.

As it is I do find it highly condescending to suggest that our "problems" could be solved by Australia alone, we have a very good infrastructure, generally, we just need to make better use of, yes we do need to get our quick players used to other conditions, but that includes the sub-continent as well as the Australian conditions.

"flanflinger" in your opinion would any of the English county sides be interested in setting up a reciprocal program with Australian domestic state teams to send an English young talented player of that county to an Australian state squad under the proviso that player would be playing Para cup reserve grade and if form warranted it be playing Para cup grade. And the Australian state squad would in return provide a young talented Australian player back to that county to play county reserve or seniors if form warrants ?

As far as the Lillee school is concerned, it has lost a lot of popularity here in Australia most notably because of the drought in West Australian quick bowlers coming through to national level. And some less than encouraging remarks about it by his former partner Jeff Thomson.

I am sure they would, Surrey for example regularly sends it's young players to Australia for the winter to play Grade cricket. I think they problem would come from Australia. Would an Aussie state side be prepared to let an English (or other nation) young quick bowler come over and learn his trade.

County sides are much more willing to take on a young overseas player (often to the detriment of local talent) because they think that an Aussie/South African bowler would be a better bet. In the 70's and 80's the County system was full of West Indians, and it really helped to develop that nation to reach the top.

So I am certain they would have no problems bringing talent over, it just depends on whether their Australian counter parts are prepared to do the same.

I hope someone would run with it (Victoria, South Australia or Tasmania). Because selection for the spot would also generate a healthy competitiveness within the group of players trying to win it. A panel of 3 selected by state and the county participating could chose the 2 players. Simple rules such as must be under 22 years of age on new years day and not be on a ACB or ECB contract could be the basic prerequisite.
The county or state could also be given the right to sign the player for the following season as well should they wish to.
I think thier would be an upside of the scheme to all parties involved both teams and the 2 players.