I think Clarke’s remarks were completely out of school. That said, they were apparently triggered by James Anderson threatening to punch George Bailey in the face.
Hopefully both sides realise they’ve gone too far and return to play a civilised game from now on.
Just to be clear though, I make a clear distinction between the remarks on the pitch (from both sides and equally silly and childish) and those made, with a supposedly clear head, in the calm and considered atmosphere of a press conference. Even before the Trott story broke I thought Clarke’s comments were just a bit grubby really. they didn’t even have humour or a tongue-in-cheek sensibility to lift them.
But yes, I too hope the focus returns to cricket.
Except that Michael Clarke didn’t make any comments about Jonathan Trott.
D’oh, not Clarke…Warner. The point remains the same though
Not really. Dave Warner is a notable dickhead. Michael Clarke seems pretty sensible in all his press appearances.
And really Warner’s comment only seems terrible in retrospect. He didn’t know that Trott had actual mental problems and plenty of Poms ripped into Trott for the manner in which he batted. It’s not like Warner made the comment after Trott revealed his stress problems. I think if Trott was still touring the whole thing would have been forgotten already.
Oh my sainted aunt … there’s another fossil inhabiting these forums. 
Alas the line between on-field and off-field has become too blurred and I have given up any hope of reformation. Garish behavour has become *de rigueur * and combined with their preference to spend more time feeding inanities to the social media than in the practice nets, I think it’s a viable option to have them all live miked up from start of play til stumps.
Once Joe Public have it confirmed that in between every sledge with comic or dramatic effect and the occasional tactical insight there are a dozen sessions of incessant drudge and crude abuse we’ll take the only civilised approach available and turn the TV sound down and listen to the radio coverage.
No I think they were poor at the time, what he said was a story at the time and the subsequent publicity of the issues with Trott doesn’t make the comments worse but it just shows why, when you are speaking in an official capacity it pays to keep it away from the personal.
The poms criticising Trott weren’t doing so in an official capacity, that is the difference.
It just showed a lack of class, I hope he appreciates the slack being given to him by the England party and that he learns, but as you say…he does seem to have dickish tendencies.
Big game coming up. If Oz win, England are in a real backs to the wall situation and will probably lose the series overall (especially given you would think that the WACA will supply a pitch more in the vein of the Gabba on which England struggled). If England win, then the series is very much on and could develop into a proper fight.
Presumably Oz, after a very strong first test, will run the same team out - unless there is an injury that I have not picked up on?
England have the Trott situation to deal with, plus Bresnan has had a run out and should be fit. I can see them bringing in Ballance at 6 with either Bell moving to 3 and Root to 5 - or just jumping Root to 3. I can also see Tremlett being dropped for Bresnan, thus making England’s bowling attack Broad, Anderson, Bresnan, Swann.
All of this might change if the pitch looks like it is going to turn square. They could play Monty instead of Tremlett in that case. A lot of talk up here that the pitch, a drop in, is a bit of a mystery. Is this right? Or are the papers just struggling to fill out their word limit?
The two Sheffield Shield matches played there over the last month indicate that it’s not vastly different from previous years although it may not fall apart as much on days 4-5. Which is a problem as that’s what has offset the massive first innings scores to allow a result. Australia have made 17/1154 in their last two Adelaide first innings for a win and a miraculous draw; England have made 11/1170 for 1 win and 1 loss.
I suspect this will be a draw but I don’t think that would necessarily be a disaster for England. A year ago, South Africa, through Faf du Plessis, survived four sessions and drew a match they should have lost but it reversed the momentum of the series and they went on to win in Perth and retain their #1 ranking.
Yep it is a drop in wicket which suits spin early on more than a traditional wicket but does not deteriorate so is more even. Which means you can hope to get some early wickets but if a player gets his eye in you have a very hard chance of bowling him out.
So do the poms go with spinners or quicks?
Seems reasonably finely balanced at the minute - I’ll bet England will be disappointed to drop a couple of those chances which might have tipped things slightly in our favour. Tomorrow morning is likely to be a really important session. If these two stick around and score some runs, the pressure on the England bats to actually perform, for the first time in what feels like forever, will be quite high.
Well, bugger. Draw is about the best England can hope for from here you would say - and it will take the batsmen actually scoring some runs in weight collectively for the first time in a while.
Australia are all over us at the minute. Difficult to see how England win the series at present - there’s going to have to be some decent plans drawn up and some of the senior/star players really need to come to the party with big scores/wickets.
When 6 batsmen score 50s, including the #10 you have to say there isn’t much in it for the bowlers. Which is to forget that the Poms won the first day and could well have rolled Australia for well under 300.
Lyon was getting some nice bounce and turn towards the end of day 2. Might make for fun and games on the last day.
Bet Michael Carberry goes out and buys a lottery ticket tonight.
With two balls of the days play to go he’s safely at the bowlers end, having played soundly and got through a difficult session with aplomb. Then Root has a brain explosion and calls for a suicidal single. Carberry is gone for all money but the throw misses. Then he goes survives an LBW appeal off the last ball, which looked a good decision at the time and the Aussies don’t refer … and if they had Hawkeye would have overturned the decision.
The cricket gods truly are capricious.
Time for brutal truth. England are terrible with the bat. They’re going to get thumped here and this tour is going to be incredibly long and hard. They seem to have no answers at the minute, especially to Johnson.
They look well on their way to losing 5-0. What a reversal. Particularly considering the Australian team is bristling with crap players.
I call shenanigans. Johnson’s only allowed to bowl once in a series - he’s meant to have transformed back into a pie chucker by now. Seriously, if Australia can add another 300 from five down then how the hell do we get out for under two? :smack:
As I said earlier no-one was any good in the Ashes in England except Bell. I think we are just watching two mediocre, incredibly fragile and fallible batting sides with a good player or two.
Well my attention has been diverted over the last 48 hours as I’ve been evacuated due to possible flooding,
Thankfully, we escaped and are now back in the house…but I now rather wish I’d remained out of the loop. Poor batting. Johnson is good but not that good. Australia are not bad but we are making them look brilliant.
Oh dear.
Has any team ever come back from 2-0 down in an Ashes?