The Ashes 2006-07: The Build-up

[Harmy's Army]

Originally Posted by Teflon

He is, however, useless, at pre-series wind-ups. His comments are either stupid (e.g. the psychologist one), overconfident(the last series one about 5 - 0), or completely untrue (about all the previous series being close and Aus respecting Eng and taking them seriously).

How about second time lucky this year ?

[Quagmire]

I saw an interview with one of the Aussie players (can't remember who it was, it might have been Clarke) where he said before every series McGrath always says they are going to win 5-0, that’s not just in public but the dressing room too.



With the Monty thing, he is stupid for publicly telling the world that he is seeing a psychologist because it will put attention on himself that he is worried about abuse. Australians love a character and that’s what Monty is so he will be bagged & loved at the same time.

[Ernest]

No he's not stupid.

Originally Posted by Glen McGrath

Australian bowler Glenn McGrath has predicted his team will win the Ashes 5-0, just as he did in 2005 when the tourists lost 2-1 in England.

At first glance it seems he is shouting his mouth off, but:-

Originally Posted by Glen McGrath

To say anything else would be negative. If we're going to win 2-1, or 3-2, which games are we going to lose

That's a fair enough question, also you would not expect him to concede a game - would you .

[gibbs_fan]

It really irritates me when players , especially senior players, open their big mouths before a series. It just puts your team under added pressure. Graeme Smith is another one who cant shut his mouth.

But in McGrath's case, can you blame him. Although England won the ashes last year, they have been humiliated in every ashes series before. And I bet McGrath called those results correctly. Of course everyonre gets it wrong once in a while but I bet McGrath and Warne got it right most of the time. I find it very silly that you English fans keep bringing up the fact that McGrath got it wrong. Why dont you go find out his overall record of calling the ashes and I bet you'll find that he is right more often than not.

The irony here is that every year before the ashes, you say that you have a team that can finally win back the ashes and then England gets beaten quite easily. Maybe we should post some of your incorrect predictions, of which there are many.

I must admit that I was quite surprised when England won the ashes. While it was no fluke, I maintained that Englands no2 ranking was flattering. You see that in the year before the ashes, England played most of the test teams in England. The only tough tour they had was against SA. Beating the West Indies in West Indies is a formality nowadays. Just like I said before, when England do tour the sub continent and Australia, they will be found wanting. I was of course correct. Of course English fans will complain about their injuries. Just like the soccer team, there always has to be someone or something to blame when they lose. My point is that England will lose the ashes and they will susequently fall down the ranking to 4th or 5th.

As for the Fans who insult 1-day cricket, you are bitter because England are one of the worst at it. If England were poor in test cricket and great at 1-day cricket, you fans would be insulting test cricket. Come on guys cricket is cricket. We should support the Game.

[greg]

Originally Posted by gibbs_fan

My point is that England will lose the ashes and they will susequently fall down the ranking to 4th or 5th.

No they won't.

They lost the last series in Australia convincingly and therefore will not drop down the rankings much even if we lose this time.I would guess that we will stay 2nd and could close the gap right up should we retain the ashes.

Having checked,to go top England need to win the series by 3 clear matches.That won't happen though.

[gibbs_fan]

Originally Posted by greg

They lost the last series in Australia convincingly and therefore will not drop down the rankings much even if we lose this time.I would guess that we will stay 2nd and could close the gap right up should we retain the ashes.

Having checked,to go top England need to win the series by 3 clear matches.That won't happen though.

My friend, you are talking about the old system. It doesn't matter whether or not a team lost the previous series. New system, you lose matches, you lose points. The last series was ridiculous, SA was ranked no1 but they had hadn't beaten Australia home or away.

Then again it would be nice to see some team other than Australia on top. Maybe I should support England this time round.

[greg]

We were hammered in the last series though so if we keep it tight then the Aussies will lose the points off their wins anyway.

Not exactly rocket science is it.

[Seamer]

Originally Posted by gibbs_fan

The only tough tour they had was against SA. Beating the West Indies in West Indies is a formality nowadays..

South Africa used to be a tough tour back in the days of Cronje, Symcox, AD ect. But S.A are easy beats in test cricket these days. Ntini and Kallis are quality players for sure, Gibbs can't handle seem to handle pressure and the rest seem to be average at best. They are still OK in ODI's though. Perhaps this is the reason you place such importance on ODI's Gibbs fan.

As to the McGrath 5-0 call. I just groaned and buried my hands in my head. I don't think we have ever whitewashed England, and to say our team of old men will beat a team with the likes of Flintoff, Tresco and Pietersen 5-0 is just idiocy.

[gibbs_fan]

Originally Posted by Seamer

Gibbs can't handle seem to handle pressure and the rest seem to be average at best. They are still OK in ODI's though. Perhaps this is the reason you place such importance on ODI's Gibbs fan.

With all due respect Seamer. Since when does Gibbs buckle under pressure. The one thing that I can safely safe about Gibbs is that he plays all situations the same. He is always aggresive and always playing his shots.

I agree with you in that SA are a poor test team but that does not mean that I do not find them important. If you read my previous posts, you will see that I prefer test cricket. I am just making the point that there are more than 2 teams playing cricket( Australia & England) and that there is more than 1 series being played( the ashes). Not once did I say that 1 day cricket is more important. Test cricket is more interesting but that does not mean that one cannot watch and enjoy the odd 1 day games.

Please Seamer before you accuse me of saying that 1 day cricket more important than test cricket get some evidence or do all you Austalians make accusation without evidence

[gibbs_fan]

Originally Posted by greg

We were hammered in the last series though so if we keep it tight then the Aussies will lose the points off their wins anyway.

Not exactly rocket science is it.

Greg before you talk about rocket science, go and look up the allocation for points. It has nothing to do with what happend in the previous meeting between the 2 teams. That was the old( donkey) system. If Australia win, they WILL pick up points. What you are saying is that because Australia won last time, they cant gain any points. For every test match a team wins, that team picks up points. The number of points depend on the opposition among other things. It does not depend on the result the last time round.

Now that is rocket science