A sad day for England cricket, but an inevitable one unfortunately. Andrew Strauss retired from professional cricket today citing a lack of form for his decision. And this is fair enough in my view. Strauss has not scored many runs in the last 12 months, and a team cannot stay at the top level based upon sentiment.
Strauss' achievements are superb as a cricketer and captain, but at the age of 35 he feels that there is nothing left to encourage him to rediscover his form. He'd taken England to the summit of Test cricket and in doing so won back-to-back Ashes wins, a huge achievement for English cricket. The trouble is that the only way from there was down, and Strauss knows it. It's time for the England cricket team to introduce new blood in the form of Jonny Bairstow and James Taylor, alongside more established, but still world class players like James Anderson and Steven Finn.
England have rightly just relinquished the top spot in both Test and ODI cricket to South Africa, as Graeme Smith's men are clearly the best team on the planet, so now is the perfect time for Andy Flower and his new captain, Alastair Cook to rebuild.
Strauss has 50 games as skipper, which should have been more because it was only sentiment that gave Andrew Flintoff the role in Australia in 2006/7, and that would have meant no KP as skipper too.
Now is the time to rid the England side of its older members and replace them with young talent. Test and ODI cricket will be dominated for a few years by South Africa, so now is the time to prepare for when they experience a decline so that England are there to step in and take over. Lose the likes of Pietersen and Trott (who aren't English anyway, but have performed well in the colours) and get some young guns in!
Thank you Andrew Strauss - you are a true England cricket legend.
Wednesday 29 August 2012
Monday 20 August 2012
KP and the Number One Spot
English cricket has been in the headlines this week for mainly the wrong reasons in that they have rightly lost the top spot in test cricket and the Kevin Pietersen affair, apparently undermining his team-mates and particularly his captain.
Firstly, England lost to the better side - South Africa are a terrific all-round side, reaping the rewards of sticking with players until they find their feet at the top level and bringing through talented young players when places appear. One has to remember that the South Africans has been blighted by injuries during this tour, losing their wicketkeeper and a top fast bowler to name a couple. They outplayed their hosts to win the series 2-0, although perhaps 1-0 would have been fairer to Andrew Strauss and his men. South Africa's batting is imperious and their bowling hostile and accurate, albeit with an unpredictable Morne Morkel and a frankly average spinner in Imran Tahir. They have seamers in the bank, but the only real chink in the armour could be in the spin department.
Saying that, they deserve their spot at the top of the tree. Their batting is very powerful indeed and rarely fails to hit 300+, meaning that they are not often going to be in a losing situation. Ok, so England fans will say that England put up a good fight, but having lost convincingly to Pakistan in the winter and now to South Africa at home, can anyone really claim that England are still number one?
If one was to pick a team from England's and South Africa's teams, he majority would be tourists - this is mine:
Alviro Peterson
Graeme Smith
Hashim Amla
Jacques Kallis
AB De Villiers
Ian Bell
Matt Prior
Dale Steyn
Graeme Swann
Vernon Philander
Steven Finn
One noticeable absence, who could have play for either side is Kevin Pietersen. The "England" batsman was dropped for the final test as it was revealed that he sent "derogatory" texts about his England colleagues, particularly Strauss, even apparently suggesting ways of getting him out. Commentators and pundits keep saying that this needs sorting out as soon as possible, but in my view Pietersen should never play for England again. He has tried to manipulate a situation to allow him maximum exposure in the IPL, but then realised that he needs his international career to command his wages in such domestic competitions.
In my view Pietersen should just become a freelance cricketer, playing in the various big money T20 competitions around the world. He is an very good player when his mind is in the right place, albeit a potential changing room splitter having found it difficult to exist in various changing rooms around English cricket.
England would be better to focus their energies on the likes of James Taylor and Johnny Bairstow who both look to be made of the right stuff after a slightly shaky start for the latter against the West Indies.
Firstly, England lost to the better side - South Africa are a terrific all-round side, reaping the rewards of sticking with players until they find their feet at the top level and bringing through talented young players when places appear. One has to remember that the South Africans has been blighted by injuries during this tour, losing their wicketkeeper and a top fast bowler to name a couple. They outplayed their hosts to win the series 2-0, although perhaps 1-0 would have been fairer to Andrew Strauss and his men. South Africa's batting is imperious and their bowling hostile and accurate, albeit with an unpredictable Morne Morkel and a frankly average spinner in Imran Tahir. They have seamers in the bank, but the only real chink in the armour could be in the spin department.
Saying that, they deserve their spot at the top of the tree. Their batting is very powerful indeed and rarely fails to hit 300+, meaning that they are not often going to be in a losing situation. Ok, so England fans will say that England put up a good fight, but having lost convincingly to Pakistan in the winter and now to South Africa at home, can anyone really claim that England are still number one?
If one was to pick a team from England's and South Africa's teams, he majority would be tourists - this is mine:
Alviro Peterson
Graeme Smith
Hashim Amla
Jacques Kallis
AB De Villiers
Ian Bell
Matt Prior
Dale Steyn
Graeme Swann
Vernon Philander
Steven Finn
One noticeable absence, who could have play for either side is Kevin Pietersen. The "England" batsman was dropped for the final test as it was revealed that he sent "derogatory" texts about his England colleagues, particularly Strauss, even apparently suggesting ways of getting him out. Commentators and pundits keep saying that this needs sorting out as soon as possible, but in my view Pietersen should never play for England again. He has tried to manipulate a situation to allow him maximum exposure in the IPL, but then realised that he needs his international career to command his wages in such domestic competitions.
In my view Pietersen should just become a freelance cricketer, playing in the various big money T20 competitions around the world. He is an very good player when his mind is in the right place, albeit a potential changing room splitter having found it difficult to exist in various changing rooms around English cricket.
England would be better to focus their energies on the likes of James Taylor and Johnny Bairstow who both look to be made of the right stuff after a slightly shaky start for the latter against the West Indies.
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