Degs62
Player Valuation 10"
Absolutely not, just trying to make the point that even though he can be selected to play for England by way of an English mother he is actually a born a bred saffa who has a bit of a history in stirring up trouble.
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Kevin Pietersen dropped for 3rd test by England for text message dispute
- Thread starter toffeejack
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Absolutely not, just trying to make the point that even though he can be selected to play for England by way of an English mother he is actually a born a bred saffa who has a bit of a history in stirring up trouble.
Elong
The fire rises
Oh yeah I meant I was tempted to argue the point, but I'm not really arsed about something as serious as that
He certainly causes trouble for sure. But there's no doubting his quality. I think England are lacking some experienced middle order batsmen especially if he never plays again. Look at Bopara, Morgan etc, never settled or made a huge impact.
Oh yeah I meant I was tempted to argue the point, but I'm not really arsed about something as serious as that
He certainly causes trouble for sure. But there's no doubting his quality. I think England are lacking some experienced middle order batsmen especially if he never plays again. Look at Bopara, Morgan etc, never settled or made a huge impact.
Make no mistake, the English success of the last few years has been built on the bowling. We've got some good depth in the bowling, with the likes of Finn, Tremlett, Panesar all proven to a reasonable degree at test level. Even Onions has done ok when called upon. So whilst the South Africans have bossed our bowlers in this series it isn't a huge concern.
In the batting though the depth just isn't there. We still haven't replaced Collingwood two years after he retired. Morgan/Bopara/Bairstow have all been tried and not really delivered yet, whilst there are still doubts for me on whether Bell can deliver when the chips are really down. Bell had a great year last year averaging over 100, but he's averaging just over 30 this year.
Add in the iffy form of Strauss at the top of the order and the batting isn't in great nick. Cook hasn't really hit the heights this season either, averaging under 40 this year. Trott likewise has struggled a bit after his amazing start. He averaged 40 last year and just 37 this year.
And this kinda sums up KP for me. He's averaging 42 this year, which is the best of the English batsmen, but still below what his talent suggests it should be. Compare that to Kallis, and since 1998 he's only averaged less than 45 in a calendar year twice. If KP wants greatness that's the level he needs to be at. The talent is certainly there, but legends wouldn't have got out to the 2nd ball of the day having got the team into a position to win the match.
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The fire rises
Some terrific points there Bruce. For sure he will never be a legend, don't think anyone would make a comparison to Kallis. He'll be remembered as one of the better players to play the game, but there's a big pool of players in that group.
Batting is a concern though, in the past England's saving grace has been when 2 or 3 failed, someone would always, always step up. The Ashes were a great example of that, and also Stuart Broad scoring a fantastic ton. But it hasn't been happening lately. Team moral can definitely be a factor in that.
Batting is a concern though, in the past England's saving grace has been when 2 or 3 failed, someone would always, always step up. The Ashes were a great example of that, and also Stuart Broad scoring a fantastic ton. But it hasn't been happening lately. Team moral can definitely be a factor in that.
On paper a major strength in our batting has been the depth. Prior is a fantastic keeper/batsmen, and Broad and Swann have been capable of getting runs down the order. In theory Bresnan should fall into that camp as well as he has some hundreds to his name in first class cricket, but he hasn't contributed with either bat or ball this series.
What with the poor winter against Pakistan and now this, it really hasn't been a good year for the team.
Kallis though for me should be feted waaay more than he is. 57 with the bat and a shade over 30 with the ball. Those are insane figures. They're better than Sobers figures. I mean not only is his batting average higher than Tendulkar, Ponting, Lara et al but he has 200+ wickets as well. Incredible cricketer.
What with the poor winter against Pakistan and now this, it really hasn't been a good year for the team.
Kallis though for me should be feted waaay more than he is. 57 with the bat and a shade over 30 with the ball. Those are insane figures. They're better than Sobers figures. I mean not only is his batting average higher than Tendulkar, Ponting, Lara et al but he has 200+ wickets as well. Incredible cricketer.
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The fire rises
He's got some crazy amount of catches too, 180 in tests, best cricketer to play the game for me, very humble man too. When asked about if it bothered him he doesn't get mentioned as often as Tendulkar when they toured over here, he said he was grateful not to be as he preferred to go about his business out of the limelight and took a lot of pressure off him!
I can certainly understand that. Great player though. Hopefully when he hangs up his bat he'll be given the recognition he deserves.
Looking in the 'best batting averages of all time' list, Sangakkara is the next highest contemporary player. Again under the radar a bit but he's got his average over nearly 100 tests so very consistent.
Looking in the 'best batting averages of all time' list, Sangakkara is the next highest contemporary player. Again under the radar a bit but he's got his average over nearly 100 tests so very consistent.
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The fire rises
I'm a lefty too, I can tell you nothing makes me more aroused than a Sangakkara cover drive. Him and Jayawardene have some outstanding partnerships, both will be remembered in the elite group in my opinion.
Suppose one reason why neither have had much press here in England is that neither have really done it against England. Interestingly, only 30 of his 111 test matches have taken place outside of Asia. That seems low to me.
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The fire rises
If you think about it though, 3 teams in Asia plus half the games playing at home, that'd be 2/3rds of his cricket in Asia? Only 9 test playing nations n all.
He absolutely bosses NZ everytime he plays them, mind you that's not uncommon these days.
efcwarrior
Player Valuation: £25k
hes south african anyway, hes a tit
Elong
The fire rises
He's proud to play for England. Sad thing to say really. Bet you cheered when he scored his hundred last week.
Walter Ego
Player Valuation: £30m
Ssn say ECG about to make an announcement on pietersen shortly
linglong
Player Valuation: £25m
Dunno mate Amla is a cracking player that would,had the old system still been in place never have played for SA so it has a place i suppose but only if theyre good enough and that means white or coloured.
As for Kepler fair do's he saw things where changing and hot footed it back home,he'd been long since dropped by the aussies hadn't he so i supposed that helped his move back home.
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