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Absolutely this, some boxing fans pay £25 on sky box office for a boxing match, which could last only 10 -20 minutes for the main event... Therefore £50 odd quid for the entire ashes series which lasts from November to January, seems like a bargain in my books. I would also be happy to pay that.
I personally don't know anyone that has BT Sports on a TV subscription, I don't know about other fellow SZ members? But considering the £80 million they paid for it, I can't imagine they would'nt get much in return in viewers or advertising from the back of this.
Swiss Tony
End of the pier show ⭐⭐
Roots got to dig in now or it's game over i'm afraid,maybe our quickies might just want to give some short sharp **** back with the new ball if they get the chance.
Bearded Shrimper
Striker
I subscribe to BT sport, it's quality. If Southend aren't playing somewhere I can get to I can happily spend Friday evening to Sunday night watching sport from all over Europe, Italy, Germany etc etc. I love it.
On the cricket, sounds like we let them away after tea and need to bat long, very long, now. I actually had a feeling Smith would get 200* so we did better than I feared.
Shows what Bayliss and Root said was right - 60s get you nowhere, 160s get you in to positions to win
On the cricket, sounds like we let them away after tea and need to bat long, very long, now. I actually had a feeling Smith would get 200* so we did better than I feared.
Shows what Bayliss and Root said was right - 60s get you nowhere, 160s get you in to positions to win
BrettieAngell
THE ROCK GOD
A promising start and we had them on the ropes a couple of times but couldn't push the advantage home, I guess no-one gave a chance of winning at the Gabba so we have to pick ourselves up for the next Test.
I do often wonder 'matti' if BT Sport would make more money just being about £5.00 per month, but you PPV the bigger events.
I have had BT Sport as it was only £9.99 at one point, but now it's £28.99 it'll start going the way of ON-Digital and other minority channels and eventually collapse.
yogi bear up the cagire
Life President⭐
Won't bother losing any beauty sleep tonight!:cry:
Blueronron
Manager
I will say it
"THAT HURT"
"THAT HURT"
Blueronron
Manager
There lies a big problem Andy, where is the next bowler to come up and step in for the Ashes
I do think the two divisions is good for the sport, but if bowling in the lower English leagues you do not test your self against decent batsmen
I do think the two divisions is good for the sport, but if bowling in the lower English leagues you do not test your self against decent batsmen
Southminster Shrimper
Coach
I wasn't particularly surprised with the result at all really. I am not a massive fan of Ball, but I have not seen enough of Overton to judge. I like Woakes, but I think he had a really poor game. I think the team need to stop worrying about whether Stokes will or wont play and rely on another player to step up their game. As much as I want England to win, I think it will be a 3 or 4-0 loss. Both teams are fairly bang average tbh, but I shouldn't really compare them to the likes of McGrath, Lee, Warne, Flintoff etc.
Uncle Leo
This cook is an anti-semite
Aussie who sits behind me has been a little too quiet today. Just got up to leave, tapped the back of my chair and said:
"How's your cricket team mate?"
Only one way to answer really...
"County champions this season. We're doing great!"
"How's your cricket team mate?"
Only one way to answer really...
"County champions this season. We're doing great!"
The ironic thing with the two divisions is that three of England's bowlers in this test match played for counties in Division Two this summer.
We have been reliant so much on Broad, Anderson and Stokes that, it's allowed us to probably over-experiment with the other seamer/spinner too much.
I like Wood and Plunkett, in particular, but there's some good Div One bowlers around. We've been unlucky with Roland-Jones getting injured and maybe in the next couple of years Jamie Porter and others will come through.
For the moment, people like Woakes are being picked, because they can bat a bit, as much as because they might win a test match with the ball.
Our bowling, Jimmy aside and occasional golden moments from Broad, hasn't been great for a number of years, in truth.
superblue24
Director
So I think anyone reading this thread woke yesterday morning to their gloomy friend, heartache.
Same old England, lurching from one diabolical shambles to another. This series has 5-0 all over it. The Aussies have managed to get into our heads once more and this will prove costly to the outcome of the series.
The newbies did ok, certainly nothing worthy of being dropped anyway. Cook was poor, he is more experienced a batsman than any of the team but he can't resist nicking off to the slips. I thought he'd fixed that some years back, but seems to have returned like a dark cancer.
Root was average, better in the second innings, but I'm worrying that we are seeing signs of the weight of captaincy and national expectation hanging around his neck like an albatross. Let's be honest about this Aussie side, they are nothing special, but yet they know how to manipulate the game by applying pressure from nowhere whilst at the same time holding their nerve. Root was setting all kinds of odd fields with no return and his decision not to bowl Anderson and Broad at the end of Day 3 with them 7 down and 60 adrift was nothing short of criminal. Nonetheless, I think Root had a part in the loss through his captaincy style.
Anderson and, to a lesser extent Broad, were the only bowlers who emerged with any credit. When Anderson retires, we are seriously going to be in the mire.... (Curran brothers?) Maybe long term England superstars in the making.... Anyway, on to the rest. We need to seriously consider our spinning options where Ali is concerned... Are we THAT short of spinners that he is our ONLY option? I know there is something of a shortage due to the English pitches, but some of the dross that he serves up makes me wonder whether we just abandon the spinner position and have Joe Root bowl a bit if the pitch looks particularly juicy for spin. It's almost become an in-joke to the series that any spinner we bring into the side is getting targeted by the Aussie batsmen game-plan and whoever the unlucky victim is gets their confidence shot to bits and we don't see or hear of them for many years afterwards.
Woakes did "alright" without really having any cutting edge about him. He needs to find that X Factor he had before his injury or else he is going to fall under that long list of players under the "meh" category. He'll keep his place, but I expect much more of him at Adelaide.
Ball, how did we let this clown into an Ashes series? He looks miles and miles behind our other seam bowlers, a real gulf in class and quality. Offers little in the way of batting down in the tail as well. Selectors need to send him home after that abject performance, we might as well have played with 10 for all the impact he had on this test!
Next Test, drop Ball and bring in Wood or Overton. I'm not a big fan of disrupting the side by making too many changes at once so I think the rest keep their place and we'll see what happens in the next game.
I was also bitterly disappointed to see and hear about our batsmen falling for obvious traps set for them. This shows a very "one dimensional" skillset for our batting line-up as we are clearly not able to counter traps and find scoring shots.
Learn from our mistakes going into the next Test, clear their heads and realise that the opposition are average themselves and we might have a sniff of levelling the series. But if we can't do it in Adelaide, then the Ashes are gone. We'll not win anywhere else two games down and on the pitches that follow.
Stokes would have been helpful, I would be throwing him on the next plane to Australia as soon as the investigation is dropped..... Run the internal investigation in January.
It all has the "same old same" feel about it all.
Same old England, lurching from one diabolical shambles to another. This series has 5-0 all over it. The Aussies have managed to get into our heads once more and this will prove costly to the outcome of the series.
The newbies did ok, certainly nothing worthy of being dropped anyway. Cook was poor, he is more experienced a batsman than any of the team but he can't resist nicking off to the slips. I thought he'd fixed that some years back, but seems to have returned like a dark cancer.
Root was average, better in the second innings, but I'm worrying that we are seeing signs of the weight of captaincy and national expectation hanging around his neck like an albatross. Let's be honest about this Aussie side, they are nothing special, but yet they know how to manipulate the game by applying pressure from nowhere whilst at the same time holding their nerve. Root was setting all kinds of odd fields with no return and his decision not to bowl Anderson and Broad at the end of Day 3 with them 7 down and 60 adrift was nothing short of criminal. Nonetheless, I think Root had a part in the loss through his captaincy style.
Anderson and, to a lesser extent Broad, were the only bowlers who emerged with any credit. When Anderson retires, we are seriously going to be in the mire.... (Curran brothers?) Maybe long term England superstars in the making.... Anyway, on to the rest. We need to seriously consider our spinning options where Ali is concerned... Are we THAT short of spinners that he is our ONLY option? I know there is something of a shortage due to the English pitches, but some of the dross that he serves up makes me wonder whether we just abandon the spinner position and have Joe Root bowl a bit if the pitch looks particularly juicy for spin. It's almost become an in-joke to the series that any spinner we bring into the side is getting targeted by the Aussie batsmen game-plan and whoever the unlucky victim is gets their confidence shot to bits and we don't see or hear of them for many years afterwards.
Woakes did "alright" without really having any cutting edge about him. He needs to find that X Factor he had before his injury or else he is going to fall under that long list of players under the "meh" category. He'll keep his place, but I expect much more of him at Adelaide.
Ball, how did we let this clown into an Ashes series? He looks miles and miles behind our other seam bowlers, a real gulf in class and quality. Offers little in the way of batting down in the tail as well. Selectors need to send him home after that abject performance, we might as well have played with 10 for all the impact he had on this test!
Next Test, drop Ball and bring in Wood or Overton. I'm not a big fan of disrupting the side by making too many changes at once so I think the rest keep their place and we'll see what happens in the next game.
I was also bitterly disappointed to see and hear about our batsmen falling for obvious traps set for them. This shows a very "one dimensional" skillset for our batting line-up as we are clearly not able to counter traps and find scoring shots.
Learn from our mistakes going into the next Test, clear their heads and realise that the opposition are average themselves and we might have a sniff of levelling the series. But if we can't do it in Adelaide, then the Ashes are gone. We'll not win anywhere else two games down and on the pitches that follow.
Stokes would have been helpful, I would be throwing him on the next plane to Australia as soon as the investigation is dropped..... Run the internal investigation in January.
It all has the "same old same" feel about it all.
^
Great post and I found myself nodding as I read it.
England seem to have no intention of playing Rashid again, for some reason, despite him being a better bowler than Ball and a better batsman. Granted, it would leave us with three seamers, unless we can get Stokes out there tomorrow. Australia only seem to need three of them, though, so why can't we.
The first test was pivotal. Australia went in unsure of their batting options and their keeper. A chance to maybe derail them early has gone.
Maybe a fight back in the second test. England are generally good at that, but you need a match-winner to step up.
Are there any out there at the moment, though?
Great post and I found myself nodding as I read it.
England seem to have no intention of playing Rashid again, for some reason, despite him being a better bowler than Ball and a better batsman. Granted, it would leave us with three seamers, unless we can get Stokes out there tomorrow. Australia only seem to need three of them, though, so why can't we.
The first test was pivotal. Australia went in unsure of their batting options and their keeper. A chance to maybe derail them early has gone.
Maybe a fight back in the second test. England are generally good at that, but you need a match-winner to step up.
Are there any out there at the moment, though?
Blueronron
Manager
I have to agree re Broad, thought he has lived on the past, though his number of test wickets will say different
I honestly believe we have match winners in Root, Ali,Bairstow who can turn a game
This was tough baptism of fire and Ok a heavy defeat in the first test is not a bad thing, better now than Test match 4 and Aussie leading one nil with one to play.
The real work will be off the field and see how the back room team can motivate the players into believing in them selves and ignore the gutter press comments
End of the day we only need to draw to win the Ashes, the pressure is on the Aussies to gain them back
I know I sound like a broken record but Danny Lawrence would have done a job, not too young but fearless, similar I know I am put out to the Lions but Samit Patel would have been a good call imo (I know hes not the fit looking player we expect nowadays) and I really donot like him as he always stitches up Essex,but as a player to do a job he would have been on my list
I still strongly believe we can turn this around if Root and the backroom staff instill confidence and experienced players like Anderson,Broad step up to the plate and just as important talk to bowlers finding line and length a problem
UTE
I honestly believe we have match winners in Root, Ali,Bairstow who can turn a game
This was tough baptism of fire and Ok a heavy defeat in the first test is not a bad thing, better now than Test match 4 and Aussie leading one nil with one to play.
The real work will be off the field and see how the back room team can motivate the players into believing in them selves and ignore the gutter press comments
End of the day we only need to draw to win the Ashes, the pressure is on the Aussies to gain them back
I know I sound like a broken record but Danny Lawrence would have done a job, not too young but fearless, similar I know I am put out to the Lions but Samit Patel would have been a good call imo (I know hes not the fit looking player we expect nowadays) and I really donot like him as he always stitches up Essex,but as a player to do a job he would have been on my list
I still strongly believe we can turn this around if Root and the backroom staff instill confidence and experienced players like Anderson,Broad step up to the plate and just as important talk to bowlers finding line and length a problem
UTE
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