Cricket World Cup Thread (Continued)

[Simon]

Interesting Tournament so far isn't it?
A Fantastic victory for Bangladesh earlier and Ireland are running the Pakistani's very close.

[RegCubit]

Yes and England still have this inability to hit the white thing with the big bit of wood, nor seem to be able to catch it, apart from Flintoffs amazing catch, and what the hell is that buffoon behind the wickets, has he been at the ganga or what.

[SHANDY LOVE MACHINE]

Maybe we should get the government to set up an on-line petition, RC ;)

[Noah]

As Jon Lewis carried no favour with Duncan Fletcher before he blotted his copy book, I guess it's all up with him now. The other four who went to the nightclub are all in today's side, but Lewis must be on drinks duty. Best not give that job to Flintoff.

[Neil]

I'm not watching it but looking at the scorecard Paul Nixon has 23 off 8 balls!!!!

[Noah]

What sad news from the Windies : Bob Woolmer has died.

[stout]

Sad news indeed commented last night that he was looking well peed off with the performance of Pakistan.Good player in his day a truly sad day for cricket




http://home.skysports.com/cwc/article.aspx?hlid=455203&CPID=491&clid=1214&lid=4161&title=Pakistan+coach+Woolmer+dies

[Simon]

I was absolutly gobsmacked to hear about Bob Woolmer. It was only a month or so ago people were talking about him taking over from Duncan Fletcher.

Really, really shocked. RIP.

[SHANDY LOVE MACHINE]

I still think he could do a better job than Duncan Fletcher

Sorry

[Dr Wart Hoover]

...now Ireland have beaten them, Pakistan are on the plane home - England aren't doing so bad then?

[SHANDY LOVE MACHINE]

Pakistan are on the plane home

Hope someone has told the Mugabians

[Woody]

Lewy seemed to be enjoying himself the other night.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1256416,00.html

[Joe]

I'm interested that no source has revealed how Woolmer died yet. A bit suspicious if you ask me.

[Simon]

Yeah, Joe thats what I've been thinking.

Its been loosely said that it was a heart attack, but I think it might be a bit more suspicious. No doubt that Pakistan wouldn't have taken being knocked out so early too gratefully, is there something that went on after the game, do you think....

Or maybe, god forbid, he took his own life.

Anyway its a terrible story and had obviously cast a shadow over the World Cup.

[Joe]

No Simon. I think the two avenues you're implying are a bit too radical. I'd be rather surprised if either were true.

At worst I was thinking he was very intoxicated.

[SHANDY LOVE MACHINE]

Or he'd spent hours listening to one of your tedious anecdotes Joe

[Simon]

I was just throwing possibilities in to the equation.

Very strange though...

[Woody]

And now the Police are treating it as suspicious!!:eek:

[RegCubit]

Poisoned? Sounds like a possible suicide.

[Joe]

I'll eat my words now, as it's just been announced that Bob Woolmer was murdered.

Earliest theory I've heard is that it's related to a match fixing gang he was going to lift the lid on. How pathetic. I hope whoever did it gets what's coming to them.

[Simon]

When I first heard the news, it was too suspicious not to expect something was up. Apparently Woolmer's co-writer for his book has said that nothing about Match fixing was going to be released.
As I said before, Pakistan as a nation is very passionate about Cricket and to be knocked out at such an early stage must have cheesed off some of their support, but enough for someone to commit such a crude act.
The rumour going around is that he was murdered by something close to him.
Its probably best to say that this investigation will overshadow the entire tournament, sadly.

[Joe]

The rumour going around is that he was murdered by something close to him.....

....or someone with very long arms :p

I'm truly sorry, and if anyone's offended I'll delete that, but it was just irrestistible!

[tigermatty]

Apparently there is going to be a charity single released to raise money for his widow, the bands already lined up to appear on it include The Stranglers and one-hit-wonders Rednex.

[Joe]

Apparently there is going to be a charity single released to raise money for his widow, the bands already lined up to appear on it include The Stranglers and one-hit-wonders Rednex.

Just read an update on this story on the BBC website. Apparently the single will be a cover of Berlin's 1986 classic Take My Breath Away.

[SHANDY LOVE MACHINE]

Disgraceful

[Simon]

....

....or someone with very long arms :p

I'm truly sorry, and if anyone's offended I'll delete that, but it was just irrestistible!

Sorry about that grammatical error ;)

But some of those 'jokes' were pretty tasteless.

[SHANDY LOVE MACHINE]

No, sorry, I meant that Berlin's Top Gun song was disgraceful.

They were such a band than that, as epitomised by their hit 'Metro' - electropop at its early 80s best. Gary Numan would be turning in his gravy.

[Woody]

No chance for Lewis now then

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/6527543.stm

[Neil]

I'm surprised that story warranted a mention considering he's Englands forgotten man!

[Woody]

He's like Chuck Norris- Missing in action!

[Woody]

I hope I'm wrong but i reckon this could spell the end of his international career. If so at least we'll have him all to ourselves instead of wasting hours driving up and down motorways to serve the drinks for England!

[Noah]

Yes, we'll have to hope that things progress domestically at least : both on the family and county scenes.

I remember discussing Stuart Broad with Lord Ian Compton at the Cheltenham Festival. He is one who looks as if he could do the business. It's a wonder he's been selected !

[SHANDY LOVE MACHINE]

As long as Fletcher's in charge Lewis will never play for England again.

Lewy's timing has been unlucky. I believe he was about to break into the England side about 5 years ago but had a serious injury and by the time he got back to form he was closer to 30 and therefore past the bright young future stage.

It'll happen again with Glos players - it seems to be unfashionable to pick anyone from bumpkinshire

[Woody]

It's gonna be Gidman next, he'll get the odd drinks serving call up to satisfy the purists but unless there's a major injury crisis he'll stand no chance!

[tigermatty]

Appaling gamesmanship from sri-lanka on the last ball, that's just not cricket.:mad:

[Joe]

Appaling gamesmanship from sri-lanka on the last ball, that's just not cricket.:mad:

I've been waiting hours to come on here and fume over that, and I'm glad someone beat me to it.

We did well with the ball, but largely bottled it with the bat. I'd expected us to lose before the match, expected us to lose when Pieterson's wicket fell, expected us to lose going into the final over, and had even expected us to lose off the final ball, needing 3 to win. And I would have been content to see us lose, after watching such a competitive game of cricket.

But it was all ruined by Fernando. Still have a sour taste in my mouth now. If that wasn't intentional, I don't know what was. Very disappointed.

[Tim]

I didn't see the incident on the telly, only heard it on the radio, and the commentator wasn't too upset about it.

If anything, I'm more upset by the manner of Bell's dismissal. There was some debate in the commentary box about whether or not it was out, and only Simon Mann thought it was. That means there were four others who thought it not out. Surely, then, there is some doubt. In which case, why did Koetzen not give Bell the benefit of that doubt?

However, the main problem is a lack of runs in our top order. Our top three have played something like 140 ODIs between them, yet have scored only one ton between them. That's not good enough. We are severely missing Trescothick (or Stresscothick, as he's been dubbed).

The other problem is Kevin Peiterson. OK, so he's a good batsman, the best one-day batsman in the world according to the stats, but someone needs to sit him in a room and tell him cricket is a team game.

He did half a job yesterday, getting to 50, before his ego kicked in and he decided to take on Murali single-handed. There was no need, and he threw away his wicket.

And I agree with Shandy re Lewie: Fletcher obviously doesn't rate him and won't play him, yet he's been England's most economical bowler over the last 18 months.

I heard Fletcher on the radio earlier this week bemoaning his young bowlers' lack of experience and control, saying they needed to become more consistent.

Yet the answer was in the squad all along: what is Lewie if not consistent and in control?

I remember when we exited the last world cup in South Africa, there was all this talk about how we were going to spend the next four years solely preparing to win the 2007 World Cup.

And yet what have we done? Nothing. The team that's taken four years to build includes people flown in within the last four weeks!

And I think I'm right in saying we haven't won a competitive World Cup match against Test opposition since 1992!

[Neil]

What happened with the last ball? I didn't see it...

[Dommotyger]

He bowled but didnt let it go!

[Woody]

And Murali is a chucker!

[Neil]

And Murali is a chucker!So's the other geezer, the fast chucker!

[Dommotyger]

Have you seen the latest score! We are 120 - 6!

[Simon]

We were 113 for 3 only 15 minutes ago!

[Woody]

154 all out. Awful Awful Awful.:mad:

[Neil]

This tourney drags on and on and on. I'm glad we're out!

[SHANDY LOVE MACHINE]

Bag of ****e

[IJD]

Bag of ****e

Spot on Shandy. To lose a game of international cricket where the opposition use less than 20 overs to get their runs is just w**k.

After the winter that English cricket has just had, Fletcher has got to be given the bullet (some might say literally!!).

What makes this tournement such a farce is that we are out but we still have to play another game - a total farce (just like the 3rd/4th place game in footie's World Cup).

[IJD]

So Fletcher has done what everyone wanted and stepped down before he was pushed.

However, in an earlier interview Fletcher said: "Earlier in the World Cup I came to a decision about my future and I discussed stepping down as head coach with the ECB prior to England's game against Bangladesh.

What a load of s***e - why would a coach be thinking like this half way through a World Cup - if he was going to quit then he should have waited till the end of the tournement - by doing this he is trying to save his skin from the crap that England fans have had to put up with for the last 6 months.:tosser:

[Woody]

Who is going to replace him then?

He did a pretty good job at Test level but an awful one in ODI's.

Lewis may get a look-in again after all then. Especially after the rubbish served up by Mahmood and Plunkett in the last few weeks.

[SHANDY LOVE MACHINE]

Great to see John Lewis back in action for England and ripping apart the Windies

[Neil]

???