Bali
After a night sleeping in Hong Kong airport we made it to Bali and are now safely in a nice hotel with a good pool and fee buffet breakfast for 7 pounds a night. Only issue was that we found a cockroach which left Michelle standing on the bed until I killed it, and leading her to wake up and do the same again in the night when she thought she saw another one!!
I've seen the cricket and the rugby. I liked this comment on the web about how to get Ponting out: "Ponting's not a great skipper but he is a brilliant batter and so we need a plan for him. My suggestion is put three sub fielders in the covers and bowl underarm spinners until he gets cross."
We should have played Panesar - after Flintoff he's the next most likely to get wickets...and on helpful surfaces he's going to be more of a threat than Freddie. I didn't see any of England's fielding but Panesar should come in for Anderson, and if Harmison really has lost it then Mahmood had better come in...not that I believe he's really up to it. The toss is vital - we have to bat first and bat well (500+) to then be able to put some pressure on them. Monty will get wickets with slip, silly point and short leg, especially in the 4th innings.
I hear Andy Robinson is being forced out today as England's rugby coach. He hasn't done well but I would never change the coach this close to the world cup - I feel sorry for whoever comes in with no time to change things. If it's Martin Johnson, then I hope he has learnt from Clive Woodward and does the same, but he has less talented players at his disposal. I'm not sure if it's really a role that Johnson should play given how recently he retired....it could be a bit like Hoddle managing England at football with so little experience (not to mention Keegan) - both with poor results.
Breaking news: Michelle is next to me in the internet cafe so she may just leave a post!
I've seen the cricket and the rugby. I liked this comment on the web about how to get Ponting out: "Ponting's not a great skipper but he is a brilliant batter and so we need a plan for him. My suggestion is put three sub fielders in the covers and bowl underarm spinners until he gets cross."
We should have played Panesar - after Flintoff he's the next most likely to get wickets...and on helpful surfaces he's going to be more of a threat than Freddie. I didn't see any of England's fielding but Panesar should come in for Anderson, and if Harmison really has lost it then Mahmood had better come in...not that I believe he's really up to it. The toss is vital - we have to bat first and bat well (500+) to then be able to put some pressure on them. Monty will get wickets with slip, silly point and short leg, especially in the 4th innings.
I hear Andy Robinson is being forced out today as England's rugby coach. He hasn't done well but I would never change the coach this close to the world cup - I feel sorry for whoever comes in with no time to change things. If it's Martin Johnson, then I hope he has learnt from Clive Woodward and does the same, but he has less talented players at his disposal. I'm not sure if it's really a role that Johnson should play given how recently he retired....it could be a bit like Hoddle managing England at football with so little experience (not to mention Keegan) - both with poor results.
Breaking news: Michelle is next to me in the internet cafe so she may just leave a post!
posted by Ed at 2:30 am
3 Comments:
Still don't really understand why Bangkok to Bali had to be via Hong Kong, it's miles in the wrong direction and you didn't even get the chance to look round Hong Kong.
I think that cricketwise we were outplayed in all departments of the game; not surprising really, man for man the Aussies are better than us (whoever we pick) and while home advantage just won it for us last time round, this time I think we'll struggle.
Rugby was very disappointing. I think that Robinson has to go; even allowing for the fact that many of the talented players from the Woodward era have gone, Robinson doesn't seem able to motivate what he has got, and at his level 75% of the job is getting the best out of his team on the day. I don't know who should replace him though: Matt Dawson is quoted today as saying that it shouldn't be Martin Johnson as he isn't a coach, but I don't know that that matters. I'm sure the players know what they should be doing, they're just either not good enough or not psyched up enough to do it.
It's taken the RFU 3 days to get rid of Robinson, and there's no indication who will be his successor. He claims still to have the support of the players and the team management, but must be remarkably thick-skinned not to realise that he had lost the support of the fans, who ultimately pay his wages. I know you think that supporters should carry on supporting irrespective of results, but my feeling is that the grossly inflated salaries of "top" players and managers mean that they are being paid for success, and if that isn't forthcoming they should suffer the appropriate penalty and lose their jobs. I'm not sure there shouldn't be a change of captain as well.
I'd agree about the change of captain...I've always been sceptical about Corry because he doesn't command a certain place in the team, although his desire and courage can't be criticised.
I think Robinson's results have proved to be poor and consequently he needs to go - my only cncern is that so close to the world cup changing now could make it even harder for us to play well at the world cup - hopefully that's proved wrong. Alex Ferguson wasn't immediately successful at Man U...there has been some study done somewhere about how teams with long-term managers out-perform those with many managers comfortably in football....I think it holds true in all sports.
I'd have got rid of Robinson after the world cup but as Richard says there is only one way and that is up - it can't get a lot worse!
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