TOPIC:

I was amazed at Clark's after match speech. So we are improving and playing well are we? FFS you were just rolled by a young team without a couple of their best bowlers. A team that has been in turmoil and you couldn't get within 200 runs of them. If we can't win the next test, what then Michael? Doolan doesn't appear to be a #3, Rogers must be on thin ice and apart from Smith and a couple of others, they can't handle real spin.

shark58: Given that they lost a 14 players aside 'warm up game' by over 100 runs it is not suprising what happened in the test match. On the next tour, all games must be first-class, in other words 11 against 11 and over three or four days. You must take your sport seriously to be able to play it well and this starts at the beginning of a tour until it is finished.

More broadly, the team is not that good, the great bowling of Johnson and Harris. together with England's butter fingers in the field, led by Prior, made the difference last summer. England will start favourites over there this winter, because Australia does have a run of the mill side.

At the risk of upsetting the WA bias. What is Mitch Marsh doing in the test side.

He is there for no other reason other than "potential". Wrong reasons I know, but that can only be why he would get picked. His form and numbers certainly don't stack up to be selected.

Much the same reason that Cummins from NSW a few years back got picked. Had to do very little before getting selected for his first test. The reason - he was the next big thing etc...

ArkRoyal wrote: shark58: Given that they lost a 14 players aside 'warm up game' by over 100 runs it is not suprising what happened in the test match. On the next tour, all games must be first-class, in other words 11 against 11 and over three or four days. You must take your sport seriously to be able to play it well and this starts at the beginning of a tour until it is finished.

More broadly, the team is not that good, the great bowling of Johnson and Harris. together with England's butter fingers in the field, led by Prior, made the difference last summer. England will start favourites over there this winter, because Australia does have a run of the mill side.

You appear to have forgotten the tour of South Africa after the ashes whitewash which the aussies came away from victorious.

Joan: I did indeed forget about the victory in SA -- thanks for the reminder

I'm very much looking forward to the next test. Hopefully it will show whether we are that bad, or whether I'm just jumping at shadows.

totally off subject......but how in the hell did Wade get selected over Whiteman or Nevill for the ODI squad?.........everyone knows what Wade brings to the table.....nowt.....thought be a perfect chance to blood one of those boys internationally.......especially with the World Cup coming up soon......no spinner as well......LOL......yeah I know Australia doesn't have a spinner, but reckon a few overs from a Boyce or Zampa would be better than Maxwells tripe or Steve Smiths long hops?

Freeze I quite liked the look of James Muirhead a young leggie from Vic last summer in a couple of games I saw. He was giving them a rip and he was landing them as well.

yeah he looked pretty confident BH......didn't get a Vic spot in their OD side....was stuck behind Holland and Ahmed......hopefully he won't be lost to playing Melbourne district all year.....Aust has 3 young leggies of note that I know of.....Boyce, Zampa and Muirhead.....touch wood one of them can get a state game and push for international honours at some stage in 2014/15......reckon the selectors have to be daring, back them and stick one of these kids in the world cup squad.....