Australia getting their excuses in

[Gwylan]

This is not the end of Ponting's captaincy - Cricket - Sport - smh.com.au

I love the fact that Australia were a bit unlucky as they didn't have the right team selected - whose fault was that? Is SMH suggesting that England were picking Australia's team for them.

And that as for that bollocks about England scouring the world to pick players. That's a bit rich coming from a nation whose rugby team consists of anyone born in the southern hemisphere and who has drunk Australian lager, and a cricket team which fast-tracked the nationality of Kepler Wessels and which is happy to pick non-Aussies when it wants to (Andrew Symonds, Clarrie Grimmett and lord knows who else0.

Has a point about the toss though - still, that's cricket.

 

[Easy 10]

"When Australia lose, they look for reasons. When England lose, they look for excuses."
Mervyn Hughes, in the aftermath of Headingly.

 

[Stumpy Tim]

Jeez. There's one line in 2 pages about England looking for foreigners (and let's face it, where would we be without Strauss, KP & now Trott?). And the article didn't say not picking a spinner was an excuse, it says it was a mistake.

Every time England beats Australia you always get people on NSC crawling through the Internet looking for something bad to say about the Aussies reaction. The truth is the coverage over here is VERY respectful towards England, and they have been very magnanimous in defeat.

 

[Easy 10]

(I actually agree with Hughes's assessment, I thought that was a pretty sharp one-liner)

 

[Simster]

I've got to say, I tend to believe Stumpy Tim's assessment, and I thought Ponting was very magnanimous in defeat yesterday. And not once did they refer to the decidely ordinary umpiring. (I know England were also the vicitims of bad decisions, but my gut feeling is that they were affected more than we were)

The main reason they've lost the series is that they were skittled in the first innings three times, and England punished them on two occasions. In addition, they picked the wrong team for the Oval, and they lacked strength in bowling depth. And related to that one, their failure to remove Panesar or Anderson in the final hour at Cardiff has proved very costly indeed.

 

[Silent Bob]

(I actually agree with Hughes's assessment, I thought that was a pretty sharp one-liner)

I disagree, when England lose we turn in on ourselves and ruminate on how irredeemably shit we are.

 

[Stumpy Tim]

I disagree, when England lose we turn in on ourselves and ruminate on how irredeemably shit we are.

And when we win, half the team retires

 

[Easy 10]

I disagree, when England lose we turn in on ourselves and ruminate on how irredeemably shit we are.

We do that as well, but as excuses go, here's an example.

England wicketkeeper Matt Prior blamed England’s first innings collapse in the fourth Ashes Test at Headingley on a fire alarm going off in the team hotel at 4.30am.

England’s players were left shivering outside Leeds’s Radisson hotel the night before the first day, after a female guest accidentally set her drying underwear alight.

And England were bowled out in two hours 45 minutes on the first day for a paltry 102; Prior left high and dry on 37 not out.

Prior said: “I don’t know how long we were outside the hotel. I think I was sleepwalking. It wasn’t ideal.

“I think anyone would be slightly miffed at 5am standing in the rain with no shoes on.

“It’s not an excuse well, it clearly is Matt but there were a few grumpy people around complaining they had been woken up at 5am.”

Yeah, THATS why we were all out for 102 Matt.

 

[Simster]

I disagree, when England lose we turn in on ourselves and ruminate on how irredeemably shit we are.

Indeed. Hughes's one-liner is stereotypically anti-English.

No-one was looking for excuses after Headingly. No-one blamed the pitch, the umpires, cheating Aussies, the weather. No-one. We all knew what the problems were, and they were very well addressed in the end. But in the immediate aftermath, it was all about slaughtering Bopara, and moaning about our shit bowlers, as I recall.

 

[Gwylan]

Jeez. There's one line in 2 pages about England looking for foreigners (and let's face it, where would we be without Strauss, KP & now Trott?). And the article didn't say not picking a spinner was an excuse, it says it was a mistake.

Every time England beats Australia you always get people on NSC crawling through the Internet looking for something bad to say about the Aussies reaction. The truth is the coverage over here is VERY respectful towards England, and they have been very magnanimous in defeat.

Yes, fair enough. I wasn't trawling Aussie sites to find things to pick on, I was genuinely interested in what they said and whether Ponting was being blamed (generally not). But that dig about picking people from all over the world was a weird one - and totally uncalled for.

I do think the selectors have got off lightly though. The England selectors have played a blinder on the whole, stuck with people like Broad or Swann who came good and brought in Trott who did well. The Aussie selectors got nearly everything wrong - not just the spinner at the Oval.

They picked Hughes with no back-up if the gamble went wrong, chose a Brett Lee who'd been out for months (and who broke down again). failed to pick Krejza, who takes wickets - if at a price and persisted with a mis-firing Johnston.

Aussies were unlucky. If Ponting had won the toss at the Oval, they'd probably be holding the Ashes now, it was that narrow a win but I think Australia brought some of their problems on themselves.

 

[Andrew]

We do that as well, but as excuses go, here's an example.

England wicketkeeper Matt Prior blamed England’s first innings collapse in the fourth Ashes Test at Headingley on a fire alarm going off in the team hotel at 4.30am.

England’s players were left shivering outside Leeds’s Radisson hotel the night before the first day, after a female guest accidentally set her drying underwear alight.

And England were bowled out in two hours 45 minutes on the first day for a paltry 102; Prior left high and dry on 37 not out.

Prior said: “I don’t know how long we were outside the hotel. I think I was sleepwalking. It wasn’t ideal.

“I think anyone would be slightly miffed at 5am standing in the rain with no shoes on.

“It’s not an excuse well, it clearly is Matt but there were a few grumpy people around complaining they had been woken up at 5am.”

Yeah, THATS why we were all out for 102 Matt.

It is possible, didn't the same thing happen to Chelsea about a year back now? Their hotel alarms went off and they lost like the FA cup final or something?

 

[Common as Mook]

Have a look at this: AdelaideNow... Aussies' Ashes hope up in smoke

And this: England hero reveals Aussie connection | The Daily Telegraph

And maybe this too? The Wisden Cricketer - The Ashes Test Series 2009 Pitched Battle

Magnanimous my ARSE.

 

[Silent Bob]

We do that as well, but as excuses go, here's an example.

England wicketkeeper Matt Prior blamed England’s first innings collapse in the fourth Ashes Test at Headingley on a fire alarm going off in the team hotel at 4.30am.

England’s players were left shivering outside Leeds’s Radisson hotel the night before the first day, after a female guest accidentally set her drying underwear alight.

And England were bowled out in two hours 45 minutes on the first day for a paltry 102; Prior left high and dry on 37 not out.

Prior said: “I don’t know how long we were outside the hotel. I think I was sleepwalking. It wasn’t ideal.

“I think anyone would be slightly miffed at 5am standing in the rain with no shoes on.

“It’s not an excuse well, it clearly is Matt but there were a few grumpy people around complaining they had been woken up at 5am.”

Yeah, THATS why we were all out for 102 Matt.

Well, he didn't actually say that. The journalist said he said it. Players always do this, look at Ponting, must have mentioned the pitch 2 or 3 times in his interview yesterday, despite saying it wasn't an excuse.

 

[Common as Mook]

From the first article;

Tailender Graeme Swann swung hard to make 63, helping South Africa to declare at 9-373 and set Australia a mammoth 546-run victory target with two days still remaining on a crumbling pitch.

Unbelievable shite. Trott has an English Dad, Pietersen has an English Mum and Strauss is as English as Churchill.

 

[Stumpy Tim]

Have a look at this: AdelaideNow... Aussies' Ashes hope up in smoke

And this: England hero reveals Aussie connection | The Daily Telegraph

And maybe this too? The Wisden Cricketer - The Ashes Test Series 2009 Pitched Battle

Magnanimous my ARSE.

Huh? The first one is a match report with ONE paragraph about Trott being from South Africa. The second one is an INTERVIEW with Trott where he himself talks about his Australian heritage. The third one is a blog by an Englishman

If that's the best you've got...

 

[Andrew]

From the first article;

Tailender Graeme Swann swung hard to make 63, helping South Africa to declare at 9-373 and set Australia a mammoth 546-run victory target with two days still remaining on a crumbling pitch.

Unbelievable shite. Trott has an English Dad, Pietersen has an English Mum and Strauss is as English as Churchill.

 

[8ace]

From the first article;

Tailender Graeme Swann swung hard to make 63, helping South Africa to declare at 9-373 and set Australia a mammoth 546-run victory target with two days still remaining on a crumbling pitch.

Unbelievable shite. Trott has an English Dad, Pietersen has an English Mum and Strauss is as English as Churchill.

Is Strauss's old dear a septic as well then?

 

[Wozza]

Huh? The first one is a match report with ONE paragraph about Trott being from South Africa. The second one is an INTERVIEW with Trott where he himself talks about his Australian heritage. The third one is a blog by an Englishman

If that's the best you've got...

An SMH report yesterday mentioned Trott and SA in the FIRST PARA.

Another story, on English nervousness/negativity, was based on quotes from messageboards = lame.

Not hard to find dodgy reporting in Aus.

 

[Billy the Fish]

Strauss is as English as Churchill.

Yeah, I don't get it when people try and say that Strauss, and Prior for that matter, aren't english. Even though they were both born in SA, they moved here at a young age, grew up and were educated here.

 

[The Spanish]

Yeah, I don't get it when people try and say that Strauss, and Prior for that matter, aren't english. Even though they were both born in SA, they moved here at a young age, grew up and were educated here.

its hilarious coming from an entire nation that pitched up from somewhere else, usually here, in the first place.