County cricket – the solution not the problem
As a lover of county cricket you will not be surprised to learn that I agreed wholeheartedly with this article written by George Dobell as appears on the website – CRICINFO
Paul Hayward also wrote an interesting piece reflecting on the disparity of Ashes performance in both teams home or away and calling for a level playing field by mixing up the Tests in the two countries or playing the Duke’s ball in Australia and the kookaburra in England. As we don’t publish premium articles I will not link it. Although the ball and conditions favour the home side particularly steepling Aussie bounce v English seam, it’s not the whole answer. The English mind set is too much of a jolly, famously Geoff Boycottt put “business’ in his embarkation form. If England had posted 550 as they should have done at Perth the Ashes could still be in contention.
It looks like Mason Crane will come in for Mooen Ali. I would like to see Mark Wood selected for his pace in place of Stuart Broad to give the message loud and clear that if you perform badly all those Test wickets won’t save you. Craig Overton may not be picked though because of his rib injury. Cook does not deserve his place on form and Joe Root owes us more than one. England selections are littered with “who was that?“ – remember last Ashes time Boyd Tonkin. I don’t and he probably won’t want to. So for young Crane he could either be a forgotten man as the Aussies will get after him or the answer to our spinning problems.
