Musings

A remarkable year for our British Cricketers...

Matthew Hoggard, of all people, helped the team to a 2-1 test series victory over the South Africans which was swiftly followed by a thrashing in the one day series against the same country with the only positive being the gung-ho batting of some lad with a silly haircut.

Obviously, the anticipation for the Ashes series was immense and the players didn't disappoint. Australia arrived, lost in the 20-20 match, got beaten by us and then by Bangladesh and struggled to find top form until Glen ripped through our top order at Lords. The 2 run win at Edgbaston was fantastic and the rest, they say is History. We thoroughly deserved to win and then looked ahead to the Ashes 2006 dismissing the threat of Pakistan.

What a mistake that was. We end the year looking less and less like the team that can challenge Australia as the best team in the world in either form of the game.

Our batting is pretty rubbish. On paper, we have some extremely talented players but they can never perform as a unit. It was probably down to this that we lost in both the test series and the one-dayers although the dire state of our spin attack also had a part to play.

Things aren't all doom and gloom, but we certainly don't look like a team who can retain the ashes or win the world cup. Our seam attack is still reliable but all other areas need to improve before we become a well rounded team.

Just a quick thought...Should James Anderson or Liam Plunkett force their way into the Test Squad after they both impressed in the one-day series?