The forum seems to have gone quite on the topic of Cricket recently, no one has mentioned anything about the Ashes, l wonder why?

It's still a sore point that the Ashes are retained in London, and in the words of one cheeky Londoner on the radio this morning, Australia gets a 'cheap copy'.

Well done Australia. Knew it wouldn't be long - I doubt they were hardly missed.

How much did the Aussies bribe Fletcher with?
Jones, Giles and Anderson.....the guy must have been on drugs!

[QUOTE=BadgeIsBack]It's still a sore point that the Ashes are retained in London, and in the words of one cheeky Londoner on the radio this morning, Australia gets a 'cheap copy'.




Of course they should be kept in London, we don't want one of those Johnny Foreigner types getting hold of them, they will probably swap them for a bottle of beer or a sheep or something

Never mind Fletcher ... how much did Koetzen take from Ponting?

Poor Andrew Strauss must be crying in his Toohey's every night.

Monty was great .Why didnt they play him from the start.
I got some stick today at work.But while it was great we won them last time I can honestly say I wasnt that bothered this time .Sure I wanted us to win but Cricket isnt really my sport ( as it isnt to many people back home) As I tried to explain to an Aussie at work.Say the cricket World Cup was on and Australia were playing New Zealand in the semi final would I watch the match ? No !! Now say The Fifa World cup was on and say Argentina were playing Germany in the semi final would I watch the match ? Definately !!

Them grapes are very sour eh?

Spot on.

I was trying to explain to somebody the other day what a minority sport cricket is. All he kept saying was with 60 million people in the UK you should beat us The only time it sank in was when I told him that I do not know 1 person who plays cricket in the UK and that probably more people in Victoria play on a regular basis than they do in the UK.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=414256

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=413541

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=325496

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=314975

Maybe not as quiet as you thought

England and Wales has 18 rather than 6 professional teams to pick from (albeit the best couple of players in each team come from overseas). Cricket is played at all private (or public if you prefer) schools, just like Rugby (Union).

Cricket is another game (like association football, tennis, rugby league and union, table tennis, squash, badminton etc) which England and Britain has given the world, only to fall behind.

OzTennis

I think it's taking some time to come up with anything like a plausible excuse as to why they were robbed this time around

See the thread on the WACA Inn - it was that Australia had more luck and the South African umpire robbed Strauss (predictable or what eh?)

OzTennis

england just came over for a game of cricket the ashes stay in england always

Predictable I don't generally look in the Inn/Pub threads. At least when Aus lost last time they got a hard time about it from the press.

I am quite aware of how many County sides there are after all I am an England cricket fan.

What I am on about is at grass roots level. Sure we all played cricket at school but how many went on to play after that, hardly any. The majority of us played football or rugby (by the way I think we are still world champions at that).

Compare driving about on a Saturday or Sunday in Australia and there are cricket matches on everywhere from 7 year olds to veterans, do the same in England and outside of the odd village match you would struggle to find a game on.

And getting back to county cricketers the vast majority of these wouldn't get a regular spot in most regional sides in Australia.

John

18 County teams still gives places for over 200 full time professionals to pick from; 6 states gives 70 or 80. Actually the Australian team of recent decades has been Warnie plus NSW, WA and Q'l so they're picking from less than 40!

Still RWC Champions basically because it hasn't been played again since you won it so luckily (last gasp kick from Wilko). Memory tells me that England have lost 8 of their last 9 RU internationals (almost like the cricket), some World Champions! Rugby, like cricket, hasn't learned to absorb success and continue it rather than dwell on it and glorify it.

The weather of course must play a factor in why so few people will continue playing cricket after school but there's more to it than that. I'm heavily involved in tennis in the UK and the weather excuse gets trotted out so often to explain the lack of a Wimbledon winner. My usual response is that Borg, Federer, Edberg, Safin etc came/come from much harsher climates and there are so many indoor courts now as to make this excuse irrelevant.

You might find (haven't been able to get stats) that there are actually more people playing cricket in the UK than Australia - 3 times more people and I'm pretty certain the participation rates are not 1/3 of what they are in Australia. You are perhaps forgetting too how much cricket is played, particularly by those of South Asian and Caribbean descent, in the Midlands and the North of England?

The 2005 open topped bus, packed Trafalgar Square, audience with PM and Queen, Queen's Birthday honours, Sports Personality awards etc, etc tell me that cricket is an important sport in England.

Perhaps the problem with the mediocre run of the mill County players is that they can make a living from cricket? It's not so long ago that the Ashes was between a team of professionals and a team of amateurs. The modern times of more money in the game, ACB contracts etc have tipped the scales the other way.