And so the Ashes have begun...

WWWWWHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!

KP I love you!!
and Freddie
and Gilo
and Vaughny

Hell, I love everyone

even the Aussies, seriously, a wonderful team.

England an be a great team for a while to come. The only slight weakness is that Giles is 32 and might start to feel the effects of age soon. Though hopefully we'll have a spinner coming through. If not Vaughn is more than capable of covering.

 

I honestly think this may be out last great hurrah in cricket. Not enough new players I think.

 

*Stupid question alert*

So what exactly are these ashes we've been getting so worked up about? Someones granny? doggy? dead cricketers?

 

I honestly think this may be out last great hurrah in cricket. Not enough new players I think.

I really don't agree with that at all. England have a great spread of players both young and not so young, the majority of players are actually in their mid to late 20's. There are plenty of younger players waiting to come through, and if anything I think our team will improve in the next 1-2 years, and I see no reason why we can't domiante world cricket for the next 5-10 years.

As someone once said; THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING!

 

A great day for world cricket.

Well played England. At last an English team that competes like those of the late 70's and early 80's. Best series since... I don't remember a better series.

Who was man of the series? Flintoff or Warne?

Warne sure went out with a bang, shame he dropped Pieterson that put a downer on an otherwise brilliant match for him.

Crikey, first the Rugby World Cup, now the Ashes. What's next, England get more medals in the Commonwealth Games? Huh, don't think so....

Can we have another 5 matches please? What am I going to do now without the Ashes to watch until 4 in the morning?

 

Start praying for the football team

 

Yeah, cos they aren't going to achieve half of what the cricket team have just achieved

 

never underestimate the power of prayer, its, well, powerfull.

 

Bah!


Footie is old, cricket is where its at now

 

I hate it when Australia gets done by Ingerland.

Cricket sucks anyway.

 

Whats happened to good sportmanship?

The Aussies had a great series, Shane Warne and Bret Lee were fantastic
The Series would have been boring without them

And The Ashes will be more fun now the bar has been raised

 

The ashes are bails from the 1882 Oval Test match in which England lost the series to Australia. In typical OTT fashion the Sporting Times newspaper declared, "In fond rememberance of English Cricket, which died at the Oval. The body will be cremated and the ashes taken back to Australia".

And so the legend began.

 

Indeed
And now those Ashes have been reclaimed by England

And hopefully they will stay in our posession for at least another 2 series

 

Only 15 months until the next Ashes series here in Oz. 400 or so more sleeps. I'll be at the Sydney Test for sure.

There's going to be big changes in that time, many of the current players won't be there for the next series.

Warney's talking of retiring - say it isn't so!
McGrath will be lucky to last that long, he's getting old in the tooth now.
Martyn will be dropped.
Hayden will be dropped if he doesn't continue from the century he made at the Oval.
Gillespie is gone.
Kasper is gone.
Katich better do something quick or he'll be gone too. His average is only 39. That's not good enough.

The only definites are Langer, Ponting, Clark, Gilchrist and Lee.

 

And Gilchrist is not performing all that well
For a batsman who averages over 50 hes been very poor

And hes not that young either

Tait isn't too bad, but he lacks experience

It shouldn't be too hard for the Aussies to get replacements, the question is, will they be as good as this current team have been for so many years?

 

How do you replace the highest and 3rd highest ever wicket takers? We've got two 500+ wicket takers in the side. When they go, there's going to be a huge hole in our attack. It may just be another 10 years before we get back to where we have been over the past 15 years, and I doubt we'll ever again achieve the greatness of the side in the 90's. Winning 16 Tests in a row is a record that probably will never be beaten.

In the early 80's, we had the big three 70's stars leave in the same series - Lillee, Marsh and Chappell. It took us nearly 10 years to get over their loss. In that time we got hammered by all and sundry, WIndies and England included. It was a depressing time to be a cricket fan, as a kid, I remember being ecstatic when we drew a Test against the WIndies in Adelaide, 1984.

I know how the English are feeling now. It's good to be on top after so long.

Great batsmen come and go, great bowlers are harder to find.

It's going to be a long, hard road for Australia. At least the cricket will be interesting though.


Freddy Flintoff's been on the telly here giving his speech. How pissed is he?

Good on him.

 

Yep,he can party in style

I think the Aussies are in a period of decline, but it was bound to happen. You cant be the best forever. The West Indies used to be the greatest side in the world for a long time, but now look at them, they only really have 2 good players.

It even happens here in football. Manchester United dominated football here in the 90s, now they're struggling to win the least important trophy.

Give things time and they will right themselves

 

The Aussies are stocking up the problem that really stuffed the Windies a number of years ago - the fact that the main players (and your right to say the bowlers) will disappear around the same time. From what I've seen of what Australia have in the locker to replace Warne and McGrath, I'd be a little worried. MacGill is an adequate replacement for Warne, as it happens he has a better strick rate than Warne! However, replacing a cricketer with such a good cricketing brain like Warne is going to be nigh-on impossible. As for fast bowlers, well what is there? Lee is a good bowler that plays with alot of heart, and his average suggests he's a not half bad bowler. But he's not the steady steamer that Australia need at the top of the bowling rota. His fast pace bruises the batsmen, but too often is ineffective. As for Tait, sure he's quick and his slingy action will alway pose some problems at county/state level, but at Test level its a different ball game. Gillespie, Kasprowicz et al are not going to make the impact they once did.

As for the batsmen, well there are some superb records flying round the Australian camp, 50+ averages and hundreds galore, but England have exposed the weaknesses of each of the Australian top order time and time again this summer. Australia have to now realise that they are not invincible, and that in England they have a team that is capable of matching (and surpassing) them.

In the next few years there will be a marked shifting of the balance of power in the world of Cricket, I do believe Australia will still be there or there-abouts, but there domination, which I have had to sit back and admire, is nearing a close. I just hope for Crickets sake that other nations can rise the bars set by these two teams in this fantastic series.

 

I hear Freddy is coming out to Australia next month to play in the World team against Australia. I've got to get me some tickets for that.

He needs to stop being such a nice bloke. I want someone to hate, Botham style.

 

one player Australia have is Symons who plays for Lancashire. His performances for us have been fantastis since he joined. How he didn't gat a call-up in this series I don't know.

 

I'll second that.

 

Me too

I heard that Vaughn might get a call up to the World Team because Tendulkar might not be fit

 

Aye, that rumour's been floating round the grapevine today. Some may question why Vaughan isn't in the original 11. Suppose you can question his recent form with the bat, but then again Tendulkar's got tennis-elbow and hasn't been his normal self over the last 12 months (which incidently is still very good!)

 

I think there are better England players who could be put in that side

 

Thanks. Thats been bugging me for years.you truly are the MacDaddy *Bows to the MacDaddy*