Crystal ball time - what will the test rankings be in three years time?

[Paoli]

Originally Posted by Beny

Players can possibly play through until their late 30's now especialy the batsmen. The likes of Gilly, Ponting, Hayden and Martyn are all some of the fittest cricketers in the world and all have said that they would like to play on for a few more years.

The Gilly that you are talking about, is he the same one that has said the 2007 World Cup will most likely be the end? Ponting is only 30, so your right there. He'll probably continue to the 2010-11 Ashes in Australia. Hayden is extremely fit, but to be honest, I don't think that he is a good enough player to play until he is 38-39. Only the best will play until that age, and I can see only one playing that long. Brian Lara. Damien Martyn also said that the 2007 World Cup could be his final tournament and predicted a mass player exodus after that. Doubtful, but we'll most likely lose Gilchrist, McGrath and Martyn; the two former are enough to change a team.

[vvvrulz]

And without Gilly, thats almost half the team in my opinion, especially in tests.

His contributions from no.7 have actually saved Australia's skins numerous times.

[Beny]

Well guys the 2007 world cup is only 2 years away. That's 2 of the 3 years. Anyway, we're hardly worried about the keeping position as Haddin can take that over eaisily. There is plenty of Keeping talent comming through the ranks.

[greg]

I think the ridiculous amount of cricket played by everybody these days is going to shorten players International careers because there is only so much your body can take.After the next World Cup there is going to be a massive shake-up of quite a few teams because players in their mid 30's will retire but England will escape a mass cull because they don't have any elder statesmen unlike Australia and Sri Lanka who will be hardest hit.Australia will still be strong but it will be impossible to replace Warne and McGrath who are exceptional players and the main reason for their success.

1 England. Should be at their peak with a strong batting line-up and solid bowling side,may still lack a spinner.

2 Australia. Struggling to cope with loss of Warne and McGrath but previous points collected give time to get things right.

3 India. Same old story,great batting line-up but lack quality pace attack to damage sides away from sub-continent.Mental fragility will always be a problem too.

4 S.Africa. A.B.De Villiers now established as one of best players in world and backed up with strong batting line-up but a little short in bowling with Pollock no longer force of old and still no spinner.

5 Pakistan. Should be higher with the talent at their disposal but still manage to shoot themselves in the foot with in-fighting.

6 Sri Lanka. Still decent batting side but lack bowling to perform consistently away from home.

7 West Indies. Have talented players but lack discipline (similar to England in 80's) will have the odd good performance but invariably underachieve.

8 New Zealand. In transition after World Cup retirements.

9 Bangladesh. Fast improving with Ashraful and Aftab Ahmed the cornerstone of a better batting side who have learnt to be more patient.Need to keep Mortaza fit to perform away but at least winning home Test series now.

Zimbabwe will be gone.

[Kirsty Harris]

Originally Posted by greg

1 England. Should be at their peak with a strong batting line-up and solid bowling side,may still lack a spinner.

England do have a perfectly good spinner at the moment, Greg.

Agree with what you say about the amount of cricket shortening careers however.

[greg]

[quote=Kirsty Harris ]England do have a perfectly good spinner at the moment, Greg.

But he will be getting on in 3 years time and has always had injury problems so body might pack in by then.

[Kirsty Harris]

Originally Posted by greg

But he will be getting on in 3 years time and has always had injury problems so body might pack in by then.

That may well be true, but you did seem to be implying that we currently lack a spinner.

I agree that there isn't a long line of spin bowlers queing up to take over from Gilo. Still I think he'll be o.k till after the next world cup.

[Oliver]

I think it is very telling that Rod Marsh has resigned from his position in the England set-up. His contribution to England's resurgence cannot (and will not) be forgotten.

I do think it is amazing to see so many (was that two out of three?) Australians ranking England above Australia on the back of what is in effect just ONE not very important one day international defeat.

The Twenty20 game really doesn't matter at all. The Somerset game, while surprising was won by two very classy international (not English) cricketers and the nature of the game (one day cricket and chasing a mammoth score) meant that Jayasuriya and Smith were effectively playing a long form of Twenty20 - and got away with that until they'd put on 197, by which time, of course, the total was very much closer. For goodness sake, it was a warm up game... the Australians scored a lot of runs, which is part one of the excercise and had their bowling and fielding put under a lot of pressure, which is part two of the excercise... barring the result (which let's face it, isn't frightfully important) Ponting must have been quite pleased with the practise.

The Bangladesh game, doesn't matter a damn... they lost and now they only have two more chances to beat them.
That's going to be terribly hard. Oh and of course they have three more chances to take a better look at England... I'm sure they'll win two of the next three matches against the poms.

And even if they don't, then they'll probably do alright in the Nat West Challenge after that. Such a stupid schedule.

So Australia are going to play England in five Test matches at the height of the English summer, or, judging by the recent hot spell, a little after the height, when English conditions don't really apply. Might get a bit cold in September I suppose.
But they'll know what to expect, and I just don't believe they'll struggle. Hoggard won't get any swing, and they'll've worked out a method to combat a thriving Harmison... who'll then cease to thrive. They don't think much of Giles, but then they all practise against a much bigger spinner (of the ball) than him. They'll've worked out that Flintoff has little sideways movement. And they'll be picking holes in the technique of the English batsmen.

Now we've lost Rod Marsh, who is presumably looking for a job back at home, following the extremely successful one of turning round English cricket... One wonders, what precisely was in Marsh' mind. Perhaps he couldn't face the idea of contributing to an Australian Ashes defeat, or perhaps he thought he was more likely to land a job back at home before England had lost the Ashes.

Cheer up Seamer and Paoli... it just isn't that bad. I don't suppose we'll be crowing much at you come the end of the season.

[Oliver]

Originally Posted by Oliver

I think it is very telling that Rod Marsh has resigned from his position in the England set-up. His contribution to England's resurgence cannot (and will not) be forgotten.

Now we've lost Rod Marsh, who is presumably looking for a job back at home, following the extremely successful one of turning round English cricket... One wonders, what precisely was in Marsh' mind. Perhaps he couldn't face the idea of contributing to an Australian Ashes defeat, or perhaps he thought he was more likely to land a job back at home before England had lost the Ashes.

Cheer up Seamer and Paoli... it just isn't that bad. I don't suppose we'll be crowing much at you come the end of the season.

Now we've lost Troy Cooley, who has found a job back at home, following the extremely successful one of turning England's cricketers into an Ashes winning team.

I wonder if our batsmen will find a coach who can teach them how to play the reverse swinging ball in time for the return series down-under.

Otherwise we're going to lose quite badly.

Then Seamer and Paoli will be trying to cheer us up, before they stick the crowing boot in.

[Beny]

We'll kick your butts down under but it wont have anything to do with reverse swing or who's coaching. Simply put England's bowlers are less effective in our conditions, yet our bowlers prefer them. The English batting is still un-reliable so unless they get some consistancy they wont be able to rely on their bowlers making up the runs.