The Right Stuff...

It’s Monday and while the days slowly tick down to our summer hols, we were heartily cheered by Lewis Hamilton’s win at Hockenheim yesterday.

Okay it’s just over half way to go in the championship now, but the MP4-23s are starting to look seriously quick (well Lewis's one anyway)and Hamilton was absolutely serene yesterday. Even the team’s rather naive tactical blunder in not pulling him in when the safety car was deployed, just gave Lewis a chance to show what a driver he is passing Massa and Picquet in supreme style.

But if Lewis has got the right stuff, quite clearly the England cricket team haven’t. The talent is there, but the selectors are failing to give Michael Vaughan the right side to lead into battle. Against South Africa selection has been appalling: Ambrose shouldn’t bat a six and arguably shouldn’t be in the side at all. His gloveworks fine, but he’s never going to average 30+ in test. It’s got to be Prior for our money.

The selection of Mark Pattinson is all kinds of wrong. Nothing against him personally but his bowling’s been innocuous and to leapfrog him above squad players like Chris Tremlett, Simon Jones, and even Steve Harmison is so foolish to the point of ridiculousness. We can’t even pick the good Australians.

At around 80mph and edging towards 30 he’s never going to be a long term prospect. Surely they can’t have picked him so he’ll slot right out when Ryan Sidebottom’s fit again?

At 130-4 on Monday lunchtime, England are not so much staring down the barrel as having it rammed into their collective eyeball.

Modesty Forbids

Where we spurt others most surely follow and while modest forbids and all that, it was undoubtedly the Spurt wot done it with Wednesday’s fine upstanding column finally tipping the balance and ensuring Cristiano went public on his fondly held desire to head off to sunny Spain next season.

But enough of our triumphs and onto England’s. Ahem. Following yesterday utter disarray when our middle order made a Saturday night post pub kebab shop queue look orderly and well disciplined, it was down to good ol’ KP to rescue us with a thrilling century which not so much hauled the fat out of the fire, but shoved it to bottom the freezer and supercooled it for three months.

With a fine supporting act from diminutive Tim Ambrose it was the best last hope stand since a combined Welsh XI held off the Zulus at the Rorke’s Drift oval in 1879.

There’s been much talk of not changing a winning team, consistency of selection and backing players even if they’re totally out of form and couldn’t hit a ban door with a sledgehammer and to an extent that is true; to the extent that it’s absolute bollocks.

Not changing a winning team? If the Fred was fit he’d walk straight back in. End of.
Loyalty to players in a bad trot is fine up to a point but just like certain deranged evangelical Christians who went faced with a difficult dilemma ask ‘What would Jesus do?’, the cricketing equivalent is asking ‘what would the Aussies do?

The answer is drop Bell and Collingwood like a shot and bring in Ravi Bopara and poor neglected Owais Shah.

Toodle pip.