just read mccallum is new red ball coach, appointed by 'cricket chief' rob key who appointed captain stokes

now, i get that i must be asleep and never see a paper, but fucking hell, ive missed all this happening

a winter of failure in both codes  

Pretty disappointing world cup really, never really felt like we got going. 

Wasn't expecting us to beat India but with the dropped catch and our openers not firing, we never really gave ourselves a chance.

I've seen an interview with Baz where he's waffling on about how much we have achieved over the last few years. Anyone know what he's referring to?

On 06/03/2026 at 08:57, BoltonPro15 said:

Pretty disappointing world cup really, never really felt like we got going. 

Wasn't expecting us to beat India but with the dropped catch and our openers not firing, we never really gave ourselves a chance.

I've seen an interview with Baz where he's waffling on about how much we have achieved over the last few years. Anyone know what he's referring to?

Last few years have seen us improve our win rate in tests haven't they?

I do think that that has led to a bit of tunnel vision at times, with little attempt to adjust slightly to conditions/game situation etc.

As for the India game, I didn't think we had a cat in hell's chance at the break, but we got mightily close in the end, so perhaps we did have a slight chance in the end.

I think the biggest issue is arguably too many batsmen not valuing their wicket enough. Trying to twat it about unnecessarily. 

There is being positive, and there is being stupid. 

At the same time, that has seen us achieve remarkable chases in the final innings.

Is it "hubris" as Boycott would say?

 

 

Just seen India have scored 255 in the final.

He's box office when on top form but I'm not sure we should be picking players who can't be arsed turning up for the first test

 

Tickets for the Newlands Test Match at New Year sold out this week in half an hour! Seems a bit fishy that looking at previous attendances. Flights and accom booked months ago, didnt dream we wouldnt be able to get tickets for the actual cricket! 

5 hours ago, Piemon said:

Tickets for the Newlands Test Match at New Year sold out this week in half an hour! Seems a bit fishy that looking at previous attendances. Flights and accom booked months ago, didnt dream we wouldnt be able to get tickets for the actual cricket! 

Just a brief explanation from instagram. If you’ve been on tour before you’ll know you can probably pick some up there. Good luck👍

We were going to go again but are doing the 150th anniversary Test in Melbourne instead. 

Yeah, we got a ticket allocation for our package clients.

On 22/05/2026 at 16:49, BobyBrno said:

Just a brief explanation from instagram. If you’ve been on tour before you’ll know you can probably pick some up there. Good luck👍

We were going to go again but are doing the 150th anniversary Test in Melbourne instead. 

done Sri Lanka previously (Galle & P Sara Oval Columbo) and never had a bother getting in. We've emailed Cricket SA and just have to hope we can get sorted out there. There is another release of tickets nearer the time apparently with tickets not taken by the tour ops. Fingers crossed

Only watched the highlights last night. They did well to get all the wickets into an hour!

Doing Headingley first day. Can’t chance anything beyond day two these days. 😊

has this baz ball run it's course?

3 hours ago, L/H White said:

has this baz ball run it's course?

Atherton always worth a listen

Watching the highlights last night and after the first ball, I said to my wife, I can understand why so many wickets were taken yesterday. Just seen this and it doesn’t look like much has changed. Haven’t seen any expert opinion yet as I’m out walking but that wicket doesn’t look good.

1 hour ago, BobyBrno said:

Watching the highlights last night and after the first ball, I said to my wife, I can understand why so many wickets were taken yesterday. Just seen this and it doesn’t look like much has changed. Haven’t seen any expert opinion yet as I’m out walking but that wicket doesn’t look good.

It's all over the place, and 27 wickets in under 2 days, is incredible, you'd be gutted if you have Day 3 tickets.....as I'm not sure you'll get to see a right lot of cricket.

A decent knock from Gay

3 hours ago, Lt. Aldo Raine said:

A decent knock from Gay

in Pride week too.

That wicket is dreadful and someone needs sacking for it.
The ECB would be docking points if a county produced a shocker like that.

16 hours ago, Traf said:

in Pride week too.

That wicket is dreadful and someone needs sacking for it.
The ECB would be docking points if a county produced a shocker like that.

It's fine as a one-off, more interesting than it being a road

3 hours ago, jmjhb said:

It's fine as a one-off, more interesting than it being a road

The ideal is somewhere between the two.
A result-producing pitch that needs at least 4 full days of play to do so.

I remember being thoroughly pissed off at the MCG pitch for the boxing day test and this isn't much different. The only difference that due to the weather, we would have struggled to get any sort of result if the game went on any longer than 3 days, this week.

I know this will be very naive of me but what I don't get is how hard it can be to get a decent pitch ready for a test match?? This is someones full time job.

I have a bee in my bonnet against Lords anyway but that's a different story..