Tyrone Shoelaces

Fair enough Tom, give him enough rope and he'll hang himself.

What happened pal ? You forgot your first two sentences ?

You mean Green and Gold Rover ? He's skating on thin ice again. Permanent ban this time ?

We'll see. Just remember who told you first.

It won't be long before we'll be seeing punches thrown. Next thing it'll be players rolling around on the ground trying to kill each other. You start behaving like footballers and you'll have a game with the lack of standards that sadly football has become.

You may win this series but the game of cricket on the whole has been a loser. I fear for players behavior on future tours now the line has been crossed and the standard set.

I couldn't agree more. They're still the Worlds worst winners.

Mm, best venomous, deadly creatures as well. You can keep it for me. I'd rather live in Burnley !

We need a performance from our guys today, when did we last win a session, never mind a day? Winning the toss would be a good start.

Botham was talking @#/?, Gower ? Well I can't argue with any of that. The culture bit ,- " if the cap fits, wear it ". As far as the rest is concerned they're doing their best to prove him right all the time.

You want to read Glenn McGrath in The Guardian. Just a cheerleader for the Australian team. I don't think he's mentioned England so far this series. I'm amazed a quality paper is paying good money for such one sided tripe.

I'm not talking about sledging during the game, I'm talking about rubbishing your opponents after the game.

No I don't think both teams are as bad, if I did I'd be honest enough to say so. You can celebrate a win that has been hard earned, that's natural and for me fair enough. Having said that, again there is a line you don't cross. You don't rubbish or denigrate your opponents. When England won in 2005 it was like Rovers winning the Premiership. We'd been down so long being up there was great. At no point did any of that celebration reflect on the Australian team, we knew how good they were and how close that series had been. If Warne had have caught Petersen on the final day of the final Test it could have so easily gone the other way.If you took the OBE's seriously you're more of a chump than I take you for.

That would be ironic.

I've been a sports player and then fan for 50 years Dave and nothing has changed re Australia. Last real sportsman to lead the Australian cricket team was Ritchie Benaud. Since then it's been a succession of snarling guys. Nobody likes losing , I understand bad losers. Bad winners I can't figure out. You've won that's enough. After the game you sympathise with your opponents, we all know that in most games the line between winning and losing can be a fine one. A dropped catch, a dodgy umpiring decision, most games hinge on little stuff like that. Funny how several other posters have all picked up on the same point.

Could be, there was certainly an intent to injure people more than get them out.

You said it mate, the World's worst winners. Plenty of ability as players but no class as sportsmen.

Prior's not on his own Jim, he's just one example. Do you think Bairstow would be an improvement all in all, probably not in my view. I had a lot of time for Clive Lloyd up to that game, with him playing for Lancashire. We were talking the other day about the sporting line in cricket you don't step over. Lloyd and his team crossed it that day. They were seriously bowling to knock people out not get them out. As I said every over had about 4 or 5 bumpers ( this was in the day when you could bowl what you liked ) and the odd yorker. No real chance of scoring many runs, just head high stuff. Close and Edrich braved it out but how somebody wasn't seriously hurt I'll never know.

Yeah, that's the game were the fans touch the ball more than the players.

We need to grow some balls here. Facing fast bowling isn't pleasant but with the amount of modern protection equipment available to batsmen these days it should be do able. I remember Clive Lloyd letting loose the West Indies dogs of war when John Edrich and Brian Close were batting for England. Five bouncers an over, no helmets, just caps. In the papers the next day the photo's of Close in particular were awesome. You could see about 15 ball marks complete with seam lines on his torso, he didn't flinch. I'm not saying for one minute Johnson has stepped over the line with his bowling, he hasn't , but the Windies did that day. I lost a lot of respect for Clive Lloyd in that match.

Thank God it's not on steam tv. I haven't seen any of it, reading about it's bad enough. Following England and Rovers at the moment is like a bad dream. Too many players in both teams have got inflated ideas of their own ability. I'm not picking on one bloke but what has happened to Prior ? Even the wicket keepers who couldn't bat a lick ( Bob Taylor, Jack Russell etc ) did better than this. I can't remember an England player ever having such a bad run of form and still getting picked. Since Jim bigged him up earlier this year he's done nothing !

Me thinks you are being a bit economical with the truth.

Yeh Jim, you're right. Without style we'd just be err, Australians !

Exactly, this is cricket. If we lose the element of sportsmanship that cricket has we might has well pack it in. When I played you clapped opposing batsmen to and from the wicket. Yeah, Peter Sellars , very funny. It's 2013, well it is here anyway.

Wiser councils than Clarke an co need to get a grip on this ASAP or one of the World's greatest sporting institutions will be permanently damaged. This latest incident with the announcer in Alice Springs thinking he was the first Ausie comedian is a disgrace. If this tour carries on like this I shudder to think what will happen when Australia tour here next time.