The Ashes 2009 | First Test

[gooneritis]

I agree it was an excellent match and well done to England for clinging on for a draw but since when has clinging on been something to celebrate, this attitude really amuses me and I'm not just saying that for effect or banter. I hope that Australia will play four quicks at Lords, Hauritz did well at Cardiff but I would much prefer to see Stuart Clark playing.

As for the England team for Lords I hope that they retain Panesar but I don't think that they will. Interesting to see if Swann retains his place because he has just had a very poor match and the same can be said for Broad. As an Aussie supporter I hope to god that Strauss retains the England captaincy for a long time. Note to the ECB, please don't sack Strauss, he is doing a damn fine job for us.

although celebrating a draw is generally not really a good thing to do, australia can hardly mock us, let's not forget just how much australia celebrated scraping a draw at Old trafford in the 2005 series where england were 1 wicket away from winning. the aussies were jumping up and down on the balcony hugging each other and celebrating like it was 1999

[gooneritis]

a fantastic end to a good test match (apart from days 3 and 4).

who said test cricket was boring!!

[SE13]

can't wait for the second test ..... f**k i love ashes test cricket . wish it could be played every year . infact all other cricket should be banned

I agree. Let's boot all the others out and set up our own superior International status with two Ashes series every year, one here and one there. It would be simply fantastic. Although I can't see every cricket fan being able to hold down a job due to the timings.

Back to this first test, and whichever person it was that made the point about how people can find it boring. That last day had everything. A draw snatched from the jaws of victory/defeat, we had wickets, runs, digging in, great bowling, great batting, well everything really! Absolutely brilliant (especially from an England point of view) but for cricket in general.

If the second test is a patch on this first, it'll be another classic.

[ozgooner]

i'm hearin ya SE13 , i love ashes cricket almost as much as football and beer . some people don't understand it , some people even dislike it . fugg em !!! leave it to us purists to enjoy

[SE13]

The amount of money generated would surely make The ICC sit up and take notice. After all, when do you ever see spare tickets for a game? The size of your grounds alone more than justifies the need for more Ashes cricket.

I know our grounds are quite a lot smaller (Lords only holds 29,000) but even so, five days multiplied by five matches, plus the reverse fixtures equals a hell of a lot of money......

[drama]

i have never watched a full game of cricket, i need to do that one of this days...

[rogerthornhill]

One of the reasons that Ashes cricket is so special is that whoever is playing at home only does that once every four years. If it was reduced to once every two years then that would mean we would be playing each other every year and I think that would take away a lot of the magic.

[SE13]

One of the reasons that Ashes cricket is so special is that whoever is playing at home only does that once every four years. If it was reduced to once every two years then that would mean we would be playing each other every year and I think that would take away a lot of the magic.

That's true enough, but I do believe there are enough fans from both sides of the puddle craving more action between the pair. Tickets are as rare as rocking horse shit, so more chances to play mean more chances to watch.

It'll never happen, but we can always dream.......

[Yorkyblue]

i don't think i will ever understand this game, Is what England have just done the same as what Bolton do in football.

If we had lost, we would of had to win 3 out of the remaining 4 tests. It's a lot of work. Now we can just win 2 and get another draw.

why would we have had to win 3 of the last 4 if we had of lost this one

we could have won 2 and drawn 2 of the last 4 and won the series 2-1

Forgetting draws we would need to win 3 out of 4 if we had lost. Even your analysis of 'win 2 and draw 2, it's still stupidly hard to get done. If we had lost yesterday, we couldn't really afford another defeat at all where as we can still afford defeat in one of the tests.

I'm sure you knew what I meant anyway, just being a prick aint ya?

[damo1583]

This series will end up 2-1 but to which side..............I reckon to the Convicts..........

[undapresha]

One of the reasons that Ashes cricket is so special is that whoever is playing at home only does that once every four years. If it was reduced to once every two years then that would mean we would be playing each other every year and I think that would take away a lot of the magic.

That's true enough, but I do believe there are enough fans from both sides of the puddle craving more action between the pair. Tickets are as rare as rocking horse shit, so more chances to play mean more chances to watch.

It'll never happen, but we can always dream.......

Thanks for articulating your point in such as elegant and sophisticated manner

I am happy with the situation as it is. If we were playing each other every summer, there wouldn't be too much time for playing against other teams which are also interesting to watch. Also, I kind of get this 'Olympics' feeling with the current arrangement, it feels as if the series is something special, unique and rare. Playing too often would probably cheapen the Ashes to an extent, and perhaps even ruin some of the intangible qualities associated with it.

On the home vs away thing, I almost find it more interesting to watch when the games are in England, as it gives me an opportunity to watch cricket in different conditions, on different pitches and on some interesting grounds.

[castano]

I'm not a cricket person as much but yestday i saw the analysis of flintof injuries.damn! Does he still walk?