What a about South African's moving to England and then playing for them? Or is that different.

I was worried about Trott going home because as we all know England like to field at least 3 and a lot of the time recently 4 South Africans. Still I suppose they can replace him with a different nationality such as the Zimbabwe born Gary Balance or the New Zealand born Ben Stokes.

No problems with sledging, but I do feel that the Aussies crossed the line twice during the first test. The first was Warmer coming out with the stuff about Trott in his press conference and the second was Clarke, sledge all you want from your fielding position but walking upto Jimmy and abusing his face to face I felt crossed the line.

None of this affected the result as simply the Aussies were better than us and deserved to win.

Anderson does that regularly himself.

Five teams the premiership since it began in 1992-1993 and five teams won La Liga in that same period.

Are they near Real Madrid in the table?

The Spanish league is a better version of the Scottish league with Rangers pre-demotion. So any team that splits Real and Barca will get my support. And if they beat both, then fantastic.

It really annoys me when people say this, it is simply not true. La Liga is as competitive as the premier league the only thing different is that they have two clubs who are over years have been on another level to the rest of the league but it would be the same if Real or Barca played in England they are well ahead of anything else in the premiership as this season are Athletico.

I never thought Johnson was a trundler, on his day when he consistently hits his line he's as dangerous as any quick out there. Trouble with him has always been that on a bad day or an un-responsive pitch he can be all over the place and go for 0 for a 100.

I agree about the last series,it was closer on paper than the 3-0 scoreline suggests. Winning the toss was crucial to the outcome in each game. People are saying that in this latest test it was a good toss to lose but I don't agree. If I'd have been Cook I would have batted first, no problem.

I can't agree with you about our preparation though. It was totally inadequate. Would you have been happy coming over to England and facing scratch teams bowling with a tennis ball ?

They did this summer.

So both players were out because of technical problems which were exploited by the bowler, ie good bowling. Thank you.

Not technical problems just poor shots, Rogers usually plays the short ball very well, and if it wasn't the first session of an Ashes series he would have most likely just watched the ball go through to the keeper. Look at Strauss last series at the Gabba poor ball from Hilfenhaus short and wide outside off stump and he cut it straight to Mr. Cricket at gully, it was not good bowling but just a poor shot that he probably would not have played if it wasn't for the occasion.

The opener was beaten by a straight ifting ball, the same with Clarke (chin music the stone crushers call it). There was nothing either could have done about it. Have you played cricket ?

All Rogers had to do was drop his hands a move his body away from the ball, instead of jumping to play at a ball he couldn't and didn't do anything with.

As for Clarke he knew what was coming and he still got himself in a terrible mess because he is so stiff at the crease since these recurring back problems in the last 7 or 8 months, a really fit Michael Clarke would have just duked under that ball easily.

You are well in the game with a score of 300 batting first on any wicket, and I don't believe that this wicket will get any easier to bat on. And there is something in for the bowlers but the shots that the top six got out to were poor shots.

What a load of tripe. Broad got most of them out with good bowling.

Around 300 is a good score if we only make 250 or so but not if we make 500. We won't know until we bat.

Anything around 300 is a competitive score in test cricket and it puts that team well in the test. None of the top 6 were got out by good bowling it was just poor shot selection.

Both sides will be happy with that first day, England will be frustrated that they let Australia off the at 132-6. Australia will be annoyed that all of the top six got themselves out to poor shots instead off getting out to good bowling, however they will know that any score of around 300 is a good score and puts you firmly in the test match.

As for Australia surely Chadd Sayers has bowled his way into the side for Brisbane, but no doubt instead of giving a call up to state's cricket best bowler last season and the man who has just bowled his team to a fantastic shield victory CA will go back to Mitchell Johnson who has never and will never be good enough for test cricket and bowled poorly in the same game as Sayers at the W.A.C.A.

Put Stokes in at 6, he a good batsman and bowler and he will relish a challenge like an ashes series and excel in it.

Bailey has been fantastic in the ODI's against us. I believe his form prior to the series was great too. Not seen much of him in Test matches. Good enough?

You haven't seen any of him in test matches because he has never played one.

Clarke's record is woeful - better players or not. A "great" captain he ain't. I don't do this very often but you deserve one of these. Congratulations.

Clarke team don't have McGrath with the new ball or Warne as the spinner. Clarke doesn.'t have Langer and Hayden opening, he doesn't have players like Ponting, Hussey, Martyn, Symonds and Gilchrist in the middle order. Ponting's record is better but you only look at the players he captained you would expect it to be you don't really need to be a good captain to win game with those players. Clarke is a very good captain but he just has a very average group of players to captain hence why results haven't been good, if Clarke had captained when Ponting did his record would be fantastic. It's foolish and to simplistic to say that someone is not a good captain just on results.

I admit winding people up on here prior to my warning. Since then I have stopped and would like an opinion on a ex-drunk that has been selected by England, which for me could play a pivotal role in the upcoming Ashes series.

Only Jim has had the decency to construct a good enough response to the debate and if you ask me, you guys are just clogging up the thread with drivel, so please stop.

Just seen Clarke has been ruled out for the India series. Shame as I was looking forward to seeing him play against the best team in the world. Hopefully he'll be fit for the Ashes series. A great captain.

Come of it South Africa are by far the best team in the world. The BCCI know that hence why they are messing CSA about and scared to play a 3 test series in SA and would rather play home ODI's against the West Indies.

India aren't the best team in the world - that accolade belongs to South Africa with England second and India third.

And Clarke is not a great captain - his record proves that. He's also just got stuffed this summer 3-0.

You're being silly, Clarke is a much better captain than Ponting (although Ponting's record is far better) and in the Ashes he easily out captained Cook but he doesn't have as good players to captain as those two.

What a goal by Griezmann.

Really pleased for Nathan Lyon, hope he can get the final wicket for his 5 for tomorrow. He is only 25, he will learn working McGill at NSW and he could quite easily become a top quality bowler, he just needs to have faith from the likes of Inverarity and Lehman keep selecting him instead of dropping him for no good reason.

On England Bairstow is not a test batsmen yet and it is doing him no good playing him at the moment as his confidence looks shot to pieces, much like Compo during the NZ series. As for Prior I think the end is nigh, his wicket keeping in this series has been as poor as ever. His last test score was batting on one of the flattest test tracks I have seen against NZ but before and since then nothing of any note. He's also the wrong side of 30, so perhaps now is the time for a change of wicket keeper.

Flower needs to deliver an Alex Ferguson-style bollocking to some players for getting themselves out out against a very mediocre attack and it's also obvious the team needs a shake-up. Ballance and Taylor are better young batsmen than Bairstow while Root needs to go down the order. Why Onions wasn't picked for his home Test is a mystery too.

I honestly can't see Onions playing another game for England (I really hope I am wrong), but if he wasn't picked for this game where everything suits him and he is a much better bowler than Broad or Bresnan it is very hard to see him playing again. Especially with Tremlett back fit and lets face it the ECB will always pick a Surrey player over a player from any other county given the choice perhaps apart from Middlesex which is of course Finn's county, so everything suggests Onions has played his last test for England.

Also if you would drop Root down the order who would you open with ? I would go with Varun Chopra, he's a real classy batsman who is always criminally overlooked by selectors and the media. In my opinion he should have taken over from Strauss ahead of Root and Compo anyway, because he's a better player than Root and Compo is not an opener.

Root out. Actually struggled this series bar one innings where Aus were down after being bowled out so cheaply.

Can't agree there B&WR.

What would happen if he knicked it onto his pad and it wasn't picked up, and he was given LBW!

This is a typical beat up from Aussie tabloid TV. They're fishing for something that isn't there, IMO.

Perhaps he only has it covering the outside edge.

From the reports I have read it says players from both sides were involved, although they have only named Pietersen. Its not the first time Skullduggery has been allegedly used. The Indians where pioneers of it

http://www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/43333/hotspot-manufacturer-accuses-india-of-cheating

Complete rubbish from the obnoxious Michael Vaughn. Laxman was a gentleman on and of the field, he would never have stooped to that level, whereas with Pietersen nothing would surprise me.

Don't rate Siddle at all but I don't take much notice of the opposition to be honest. I prefer to focus on Broad's qualities.

How can you watch the game properly without taking notice of the opposition. Are you really saying that when Viv Richards was batting against England or Joel Garner was bowling you did not take much notice because they were the opposition. Your not much of a cricket fan if that is the case.

As for Siddle much better bowler than Broad i've never have rated Broad he just bowls short rubbish, Onions and Finn are much better bowlers.

Message to the traitor: some would say it is the height of hypocrisy that you see Pietersen as a "mercenary" (in fact he turned his back on SA at 19 because of their "selection" policies and has been living in England for the past decade or so) when you see fit to support a country other than your own.

The selection policies were absolutely the right thing to do in post apartheid SA. So I am traitor am I because I don't like the current England cricket team, despite the fact that I have lived here all my life and paid tax ever since I left school many years ago (two things you could not accuse Pietersen of doing in SA). I call Pietersen a mercenary because he left Notts for Hants for more money, then the way he treated Hants towards the end of his time their was disgusting. He wanted to quit limited over international's so he could go around the world making more money playing T20 until the ECB called his bluff. He is a big cheerleader for the IPL what was it he said the 'English were jealous of it'. All those things plus plenty more are why he is a mercenary.

And which of your mediocre lot are better than Broad ? Tremlett has been injured (yet again) but is back in the squad for Durham.

Thanks for the advice. BTW England are 2-0 up and have retained the Ashes

In fairness the Aussie's have many better bowlers than Broad, based on bowling Broad should never be the team above Onions or Finn, I believe they pick Broad because he makes runs down the order and not because he is one of the top 3 seamers in the country.

Sorry pg, can't accept Pietersen at all. The cricket equivalent of a football mercenary. In it for him and nothing else.

Absolutely spot on with that analysis, it sums Pietersen up.

Not idiotic at all, but Lord Tebbitt made a strong point to qualify your definition of 'British'.

http://barrettsonthisday.anorak.co.uk/uncategorized/1814/tebbit-proposes-cricket-test.html

23 years ago and unfortunately still appears to be relevent today despite many efforts and much hoo ha being made to promote integration.

I don't think Norman Tebbit made a strong point on whatever he was talking about. I'm English my parents and grandparents are English, I have lived in England all my life but I don't support the English cricket team because I don't like them. So am I not 'British'?

SR I doubt you are even aware of it but you possess a losers mentality.

I bet you were a bit miffed when Dunny scored that late equaliser v Burnley cos it didn't allow them to end 35 years of not beating us.

Can you expand on that?

I of course would disagree I don't particularly like either team in this series but I do like cricket so from a cricketing perspective it is better to have the series still up for grabs, instead now we have two meaningless games left.

Read your history, although looking at your signature you probably have a rather distorted view of history.

They take pleasure in beating us, which is why it's always good to give them a good hiding.

I don't wish to turn this into a political argument but you know as well as I do that there are a great number of reasons why they like to beat us, just look at how the British treated their ancestors.