What about Tres , he's way better than Joyce.

No chance,he'd fly home halfway through.

Just what Ian Chappel was saying (until) Loye began to drive, Chappel also commentated that Loye should be playing his slog sweep, but Loye should he could play well in defence when needed, a one trick pony is way of the mark, when a player cover drives, pulls and nudges for singles - Oh and he was run out, no bowler got him out.
Well with respect Rachael I am gland you are not the England selectors, Bopra YES, Strauss NO, Mahmood is as effective as Panesar - in this final game more so.
All the 11 players involved in this final with the possible exception of (Strauss) should go to the World Cup, to break this side up would be negligent, add to the squad yes, break it up NO - look at what they have achieved in one day stuff, how many sides win in Australia in any form of cricket?.
As for Flintoff he has performed well, being captain has not prevented him from performing with bat and ball, in fact with the ball he is I think second only to McGrath with one wicket taken, so I think this ends the debate about his captaincy, and his fitness also for a while.

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Ern

If Trescothick is fit he will go. Joyce has done well as a stand in, considering his lack of experience.
Not really fair greg - his record touring is much better than Harmisons, he must have been in a bad way to go home, if he has any blame - he should not have flown out in the first place, and the selectors handicapped England by selecting him.

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Ern

Ye gods England played one hell of a match there
excellent stuff congrats to Eng!!!!!

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I'm with Ernest there; one of the reasons for not giving Strauss the captaincy for the one-dayers is because he will make way for Kevin Pietersen.

Mal Loye will probably make way for Vaughan - though I suspect that if Vaughan is not fit, then Loye will be retained.

This is a big shame of course, because Strauss is a great fielder, and Vaughan and Pietersen are both woeful.

That said; Kevin can put in the big ones when steaming round the boundary as a sweeper, but in the infield he's almost as hit or miss as Panesar.

It is a sad state of affairs that suggests that Nixon will go to the World Cup instead of Read, but unfortunately that is correct. Joyce will be the 'keeping reserve.

But it is sadder again that having seconded Broad to the Tri-series squad, you are leaving him out of that for the Carribean. Maybe one of Mahmoud, Lewis and Anderson should be looking over their shoulders.

I understand the pitches are expected to be fast and bouncy. Perhaps Harmison?!!! No forget it.

Perhaps Panesar will lose HIS place again.

And of course the point I had completely forgotten, is that Ashley Giles reckons he can make the World Cup party too.

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Red-it, Red-it, Read it and wept

Well, he's also retired, so you needn't worry.

Expect Giles to be included in the 15, thus trashing everything good that's happened to our ODI side in the past week.

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Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl i mi

Please not Giles! He's not match fit so shouldn't be considered.

Why do people keep banging on about Broad, he's unproven and in the couple of matches he's played he's looked nothing special. Yes, the guy has bags of potential as a bowling all rounder but at the moment he's not ready. I also cant see the point of hurling him into a world cup squad, where a bad game or 2 might set him back 18 months. Does anybody really think that Broad (or Tremlett) would do as good as Lewis, Flintoff, Anderson, Plunkett or even Mahmood??

For some reason us English seem to harp on about the "next big thing" and then play them when they are clearly not ready and either finish their career or put it on hold for a couple of years. Or even worse, we ignore players who clearly are ready until they are too old or not at all.

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Mark.

I've read that the pitches are slow, low and will take spin. Do any of the locals know how the pitches have been playing??

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Mark.