[thirty7]

Can't agree more K Jay.

Got back from Day 4 earlier. It was a dreary day to watch live, although the guts of both Bell and Cook cannot be spoken highly enough of. They had a job to do and for the most part they succeeded. Crowd really got into it towards the later part of day when we began to realise we may see the Ashes come home. Needless to say that at the end of play i prompty purchased my ticket for the final day

[thirty7]

P.S Double post...a mod can delete one of them...any reason why we can't edit here? It seems assinine to not let us fix grammatical errors or double posts.

[Mikk]

You can edit, just use the edit button at the bottom.

Post deleted by the way :up:

[thirty7]

I can't edit my posts. It even makes a point of it in my "posting rules"...in bold too!

Dont think im gonna let the man hold me down!...unless its David, he can touch me.

[thirty7]

So the Ashes are home!

Twas a truly great day for Aussie cricket fans. Although i must say when Freddie and KP were still in, a few hearts went in mouth. But luckily Warney spun us out of that one and we have reclaimed the precious urn.

Unfortunately that now means the next tests will be dead rubbers (which wehn the MCG is expecting 100,000 in attendance) could be dissapointing. But alas, i really enjoyed the day. Especially getting to meet former champions like Michael Holding, Michael Slater, Mark Taylor, Beefy Botham, Bill Lawry and Ian Chappell. I also had the honour of having a brief conversation with Mark Nicholas who seemed appreciative of our embracing and acceptance of him into the infamous Channel 9 Commentary team.

But yeah it was a good day, best test of the series so far and hopefully the English continue to gof orward witht he positives they cant ake from the game, i.e. Harmy's and Hoggy's bowling, Cook and Bell's resolve, KP's dominance, Freddie's return to form, Monty's bowling and so on.

P.S. I love those Barmy Army'ers. They really are an entertaining mob.

[Tyler Durden]

Glad you enjoyed it Eric. I wish we could have put up more competition for you, but I doubt you're too worried about that at the moment.

I could do the whole English thing of having to find people to blame, but I won't. The best team won all three tests and whilst that's hugely disappointing for us, the Ashes are where they deserve to be on the basis of what we've witnessed.

[thirty7]

I didn't want to brag about it straightaway. But a 5-0 whitewash!

Tis a shame, some of ure guys showed promise at times but it was too inconsistent. A big hoo-rah and glasses-up to Warne, McGrath and Langer who have been instrumental in our success. Here comes the new era of Australian cricket.

[Tyler Durden]

Oh we can moan all we like about our preperation not being great (don't know why we left that one day tourno to come home for 4 days then fly to Aus....crazy), or how we missed three important player (Vaughan, Tresco & Simon Jones) or how the moon wasn't in the right juxtoposition for the earth or whatever.

Bottom line is we are still a good team, but Australia are a great team. When everything went for us 18 months back we were just about able to have a great summer against them. But with them extra motivated and at home (so no Duke Ball English conditions), we were always going to lose. Maybe it wouldn't have been 5-0 without adding in all the factors above, but it would still have been a big win for them.

Be interesting (yet again) in 2 and a half years time. I'm sure people do appreciate them, but it's hard not to take for granted having the two best bowlers in the world for the last decade to carry out our "thrashings". I know people think that there is depth to replace McGrath (certainly Clark looks good if not exactly in the first flush of youth!), but you'll be the luckiest buggers in the world ever if you get someone anywhere near the quality of the worlds best spinner ever to come in and cause mayhem again in the near future, regardless of how much promise some other cricketers show. And no MacGill doesn't install the same fear and is nearly as old as me anyway!

The batting for Aus will carry on being imperious, although age is going to take some of those guys away in the next few years (and Gilchrist will likely need replacing too by then) the Aussie batting line for the future seems very promising, though don't put too much store in Symonds, he only ever plays well against the land of his birth, he'll be dropped by 2009!

Your system brings through players of a quality better suited than ours to Test Cricket. The State Cricket system is much better than ours. Our County Cricket is effectively the equivalent to your grade cricket so you can see the problem in what a step up it is to test level.

So all in all, I think it'll be another close humdinger that could go either way in a couple of years (much like in 2005....), but at this point in time we are clearly not a match.

[thirty7]

They're all good points. Especially about our State Cricket system. At the moment we have guys like Phil Jaques (NSW), Chris Rogers (WA), Adam Voges (WA), Marcus North (WA), all trying to press their claims for national selection through some consistently good batting int he Pura Cup (Rogers especially). Meaning although a guy like Justin langer will be missed, we have guys who are hungry and talented waiting to step up. In the bowling regard, we have Shaun Tait (SA), Mitch Johnson (QLD), Ben Hilfenhaus (TAS) all staking claims to the vacant pace slot with the only real worry the spin option despite some raw young guys in Dan Cullen & Cullen Bailey (SA).

Would you be able to name any promising players in ure domestic scene at the moment?

[Tyler Durden]

Originally Posted by thirty7

Would you be able to name any promising players in ure domestic scene at the moment?

Only Australian ones!!