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2nd Test


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According to Wiki it was funded by the Chinese. Sounds a bit odd but that's wikipedia for you.

 

Absolute shambles.

 

For once Wiki is right, the Chinese funded it. I don't know why but they did. I don't think it was all that much and it gives them a foothold in the caribbean which has some resources that China wants I think. The recreational ground is apparently unplayable (the prisioners must be doing someting else- they keep the gorund tidy). Stamford's ground is not the biggest (and I bet he wants a nice wad of cash for the privelege). When something similar happened a couple of tours ago in Jamaica, they moved to the next test venue and played back to back tests. (That's an option). The west indies have more grounds than they have tests (for once) it wouldn't be unfeasible, although it would be very difficult, for the test to be moved somewhere like St. kitts.

 

Apparently a lot of locals thought it was the daftest place on the island (which isn't that compact) to have a cricket ground as it floods too easily. It does seem though that antigua has now got another beach to go with its 365 it had a few weeks ago.

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BBC

 

Apparently the next ground has an unplayable outfield too?? i may have read it wrong though!

 

In relation to today, what a farce, how they couldnt have just sent a few people out onto the pitch, do a couple of runs or whatever get a feel of it, this could have been avoided!

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I felt the declaration and the non enforcing of the follow on were probably about right, just with hindsight they look bad decisions. We didn't enforce the follow on because we had two fit seamers and a spinner plus some people who can bowl a bit. Then what happens if Gayle takes a shine to Broad/Jimmy and that puts us in a difficult position as our bowling attack wouldn't be up to it. Freddie is blatantly not fit and probably won't play again for a while, plus having a cortisone injection into your hip is not the nicest thing in the world and really probably shouldn't have been done. Harmison had some bad food and was puking (something easily done in the Caribbean) but a day extra rehydrating made a big difference.

 

The declaration was about right too as Strauss would have looked an even worse muppet if the West Indies had chased down 450 (which on a pitch like that is fairly feasible). A declaration should always eliminate the possibility of loosing and that did it. I'm not sure it was the best idea to send in Jimmy as a nightwatchman as he was never going to score at a rate quicker than he did and someone like Broad (who was never going to contribute much at 7/8/9) could protect the front line batsmen but still score runs quickly.

 

However, for the next test, we might well struggle as I don't think Freddie can play and I don't rate Bopara's all round capabilites, plus KP might well be out as from the sound of it he caught one flush on the wrist and it wouldn't surprise me if he has cracked a bone.

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I agree wit Rudmedic word for word. I would add that I think the bowlers had enough to play with and failed us.

 

The other point, which test cricket in particular needs to address, is what is the purpose of the sport?

 

For me it is to entertain the paying public, either at the ground or on the television.

 

While I appreciate rules about player safety, same interpretation for each team etc etc, I do think that when 4 overs remain before a game reaches a conclusion there is something not quite right about saying "ok chaps, getting a bit dark now, let's call it a draw".

 

That isn't in any way a criticism of the West Indies. They did exactly what England or any other side would have done in the same circumstances.

 

But surely there should be rules that ensure the specific circumstances we saw last night cannot arise again in future - spinners on, weather's good, light is a bit iffy - game should continue until the scheduled end.

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I'd agree, but it was clearly not the right choice at the time. You have a team in the palm of your hand, then you crush them. You don't piss around knocking 200 runs and then see if you can do it. Sorry, but that was a decision of ultra-:censored:ness which no captain should make when you are losing a series. Looks like we are falling to pieces just for the Ashes, as let us not mess about - the Windies are a terrible test team. We, at the moment, appear to be worse. Can we play Bangladesh instead of Australia, although we'd spend four days batting making 1200 just in case like?

 

I'm seriously pondering recalling Mike Brierley now.

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I'd agree, but it was clearly not the right choice at the time.

Flintoff and Harmison were unable to bowl at that time.

 

You can't bowl a side out on that pitch on 3 bowlers.

 

So not enforicng the follow on was psot on.

 

Should he have set a target of 480 instead of 503? After the event, it would appear so.

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