Barry's Beef

Things started off very strange, India beaten comfortably by Bangladesh and then Ireland celebrated St Patrick's Day by pulling off one of the biggest shocks of all time by beating Pakistan by 3 wickets, having already lost to the West Indies in the tournament's opening match it meant the end for Pakistan. India should still progress. And then England stuttered into action, as Australia were thrashing Holland, England sealed a convincing, if not all that encouraging, win against the plucky Canadians. England's performance was over-shadowed by five of the squad going on the piss and Freddie falling off a pedallo. Pissed. Freddie was dropped for Essex's Ravi Bopara who performed pretty decently. Perhaps for the must-win match against Kenya, England will perservere with Bopara and drop Dalrymple who's not having the greatest of tournmaents as of to date. Sweetstuff likes the idea of bringing Strauss in for either Bell or Joyce. Personally, it is getting frustrating to watch Ian Bell hit another classy 20/30 without making more and Joyce looks good but I am not 100% sold. So, yes I would bring Strauss back in.
And then Googly sent me a text to tell me that Bob Woolmer, the Pakistani coach, had been found unconscious in his hotel room and pronounced dead at a local hospital. I am really at a loss as what to say, apart from to pay tribute to a man who achieved a lot in his career as a player, and perhaps more so as a coach. He was rumoured to be one of the favourites to succeed Duncan Fletcher as England coach. And this news was compounded by Inzi's decision to stand-down as test captain and retire from One Day Internationals.

Labels: Andrew Strauss, Bob Woolmer, cricket World Cup, Ed Joyce, England, Freddie, Ian Bell, Inziman Ul-Haq, Pakistan, Ravi Bopara

In with the new and out with the old was the key phase for England's World Cup squad. Mal Loye, the explosive opening bat, has lost out to Essex all-rounder, Ravi Bopara for the last spot in the England squad. Loye (36)* has long since been the scourge of County attacks on the domestic front, but despite several bright starts has failed to go on and score a big score for England. Bopara (21)** offers a lot of what England need: an intelligent, elegant batsman who can bowl a fair bit - his first international wicket (which he is celebrating in the photo) was none other than 'Mr Cricket' Mike Hussey. He also gives the squad a better balance as England already have sufficent top order batsmen in the XV. It's unlucky for Loye but given captain Michael Vaughan's (32)*** tendency to get injured he may well yet appear.
On the bowling front it is as expected with Saj Mahmood (25)**** getting the nod over Stuart Broad (20)***** Personally, I would have gone the other way with Mahmood being a bit expensive for my taste and Broad is a type of quick that we don't have in the squad. What it does mean is the end of Darren Gough's international career. As England flopped from disgraceful performance to abysmal surrender to abject attempt of cricket, Gough was again touted as the saviour. However, as England turned things around and eventually prevailed against the Convict Scum ******, it became clear that England could win without Gough (36)*******. I think we can now expect Gough not to renew his contract and Essex and to announce his retirement imminently. I hope this isn't the case, Essex needs you Dazzler!

* including their age in brackets clearly denotes journalistic talent and research
** ditto
*** ditto
**** God, I'm good
***** So good
****** No, they really are.
******* You get the drill now?

Labels: Darren Gough, England, Mal Loye, Michael Vaughan, Ravi Bopara, Saj Mahmood, Stuart Broad, World Cup