1st Test: England v Bangladesh: Lord's 26-30 May

[flanflinger]

Originally Posted by Ernest

ff, you mean I think Harmison and Hoggard have under performed, Jones and Flintoff have bowled quote well.

No Ern I mean that England as an attack have not fired... Flintoff has not bowled as badly as the other two, but I don't think he has bowled as well as he could.

I am not convinced by this Bangladesh will improve in 5 years, I am with Maranello 15 years is more likely, and I am worried that in the meantime coming up against teams like Australia, SA, Pakistan, India and England is not doing them any good..

I hope they will improve and I think it is great that they have a Test at Lords, but frankly everytime I see them play Test Cricket I am convinced this method of throwing them up against the best teams in the world is not developing their game...

[Ernest]

Originally Posted by flanflinger

No Ern I mean that England as an attack have not fired... Flintoff has not bowled as badly as the other two, but I don't think he has bowled as well as he could.

I wonder if Flintoff is not carrying to much wieght, he seems larger than usual, maybe he needs more cricket after his op, not bowled bad though.

Originally Posted by flanflinger

I am not convinced by this Bangladesh will improve in 5 years, I am with Maranello 15 years is more likely, ..I hope they will improve and I think it is great that they have a Test at Lords,

Well only time will tell, but every team has to start at the bottom, yes I bet despite the score, they are feeling good playing at Lords.

Originally Posted by flanflinger

I am worried that in the meantime coming up against teams like Australia, SA, Pakistan, India and England is not doing them any good

I do take your point here, but there is another side, it will help England play into a bit of form, no matter what side England are playing, getting the line and length right remains the same.

[Victor Frankenstein]

Originally Posted by Teatime FatCat

ps - am I the only one on here today - have all you bastards gone to Lords without me?

I'm watching at home but had no idea that people post in this forum now for england matches, so i was looking in the england section for a thread about the match.. schoolboy error!

Anyhoo, bowling, shocking by hoggard and harmison, very dissapointing and against australia they'd be 100+ before lunch given that dross being bowled at them. However, it's not australia, and i think they look like they're bowling well within themselves and don't really look like it's much more than a practice game for them, the reaction when harmison took the first wicket said it all.

On the plus side, we've been sharp in the field and Jones the bowler has been cracking, sending down some absolute corkers that any other day would have got him a good few wickets, i'm very impressed with him as he would have been on my "must start performing" list. Yeah, he's bowled a couple of bad balls too but on the whole he's looked very good. Flintoff has bowled well considering he's still coming back from injury, not at his best yet by any means but improving all the time and better than hoggy and harmison.

Harmison had a much better second spell, better accuracy and consistency and has done well after lunch.

I would say that the bowlers in general don't look all that fired up for the contest, I find it hard to blame them for this considering it's hard to play against opposition that you know will get themselves out without you needing to injure yourself.

Jones the wicket has been good with the gloves so far but hasn't really had much to do, need a spinner on...

Bangladesh have been dissapointing, I had high hopes for them as they'd improved so much under Whatmore but they do seem to have got carried away with the whole Lords thing and have come out playing a one day game, a couple have got out to good balls but most have got themselves out.

[Milo]

There is absolutely no way that this can be called test cricket. At least when Sri Lanka came through in the early 80s, they could bat. Mendis, Wettimuny, Dais and Ranatanuga were good players. They might have had no bowlers, but at least they still reguarly got more than 200 each innings and were not wipping boys with both bat and ball.

This Bangladesh side is woeful. The way they have batted today is club cricket nonsense. With their apparent attitude to test cricket they do not deserve to be here.

[flanflinger]

Originally Posted by Ernest

I do take your point here, but there is another side, it will help England play into a bit of form, no matter what side England are playing, getting the line and length right remains the same.

I think Flintoff, Harmison and Hoggard could bowl better, this outing will help them - if this had been the first Ashes Test Hayden and Langer would have cashed in big time, so this is possibly good for England.

But in the intrests of helpig Bangladesh - is this outing, great day as it is, going to help them.

They have a young player, 16 years old Rahim, and he looks the best player in his first Test - what does that say!! It says they are not learning, and if they carry on he could end up looking as bad as the rest of them. These guys nees to sort out their first-class structure - play against teams they can compete with. Develop two or three good players, and earn their way into Test Cricket. Test Cricket should not be about helping one-side prepare for the "real" series later in the summer...

[Ernest]

Originally Posted by Maranello

I seriously doubt that Ern. Over the past decade or so, both India and Sri Lanka have often been better than England, and are almost the same level now. Are we seriously saying that in just five years Bangladesh have any chance of being as good as England? I doubt it. Maybe 15 years, with the right coaching and good progress.

Quite so Maranello, England have been poor, and it goes back a couple of decades, even the Botham Ashes in 1981, England did not have that great a team.

Pakistan I doubt are at the moment as good as England, and the reason is easy to Identify, Pakistan lost their star players within a short time of each other, so they are in the process of re building, and I don't doubt they will do it, and it won't take 5 years.

Like with Bangladesh, maybe they will not do it in 5, but with their large population, players will come through, like you say with the right coaching

[Ernest]

Originally Posted by flanflinger

But in the intrests of helpig Bangladesh - is this outing, great day as it is, going to help them.

Maybe playing in the big time at Lords may help their attitude against lesser teams, I don't know, bit I doubt it will harm them.

Originally Posted by flanflinger

These guys nees to sort out their first-class structure - play against teams they can compete with. Develop two or three good players, and earn their way into Test Cricket. Test Cricket should not be about helping one-side prepare for the "real" series later in the summer...

Well this is a much larger picture, no England should not be playing Test cricket just to prepare for playing the Aussies later.

But you other point begs the question, who can they play without stripping them of playing any first class cricket, yes they need to sort out their internal cricket, but who would they play in the meantime, if Test status was taken from them.

[Richie Benauds Love Child]

JOb done Bang all out for 108, hoggy bagging 4. As other posters have said an awful lot of suicidal batting, which if the england management are worth there salt, should be shown to messers trescothick, flintoff and vaughan as an example of "what not to do against the aussies".

Hopefully this might be the time strauss gets some runs.

[flanflinger]

Originally Posted by Ernest

But you other point begs the question, who can they play without stripping them of playing any first class cricket, yes they need to sort out their internal cricket, but who would they play in the meantime, if Test status was taken from them.

How about seconding them into the ICC's Inter-continetal cup?

[Richard Jenkins]

i'll bet that ttfc's 3rd ix team could perhaps do better. park cricket at it's worst!

That's not a 'test' of anyone.