Thetownend.com

How on earth is he ODI captain?

1 He's the best captain in the world
2 Continuity

What's your point? You think he's a shit captain or he doesn't deserve his place in the ODI side?

KP's done it again. He's a fucking sensation.

1. Forgotten of Stephen Fleming, Ricky Ponting et all
2. Nothing wrong with a different ODI captain, thats how the Aussies used to do it until Waugh retired.

He certainly doesn't warrant his place sheerly on batting form.

that just makes things more complicated! but he and piterson are the only ones who have shown any glimps of batting skill in this series!

1 Stephen Fleming?? Hahaha. I thought we were saying the BEST captain, not the most NEGATIVE. I think the Vaughan-Fleming comparison (and who was better) was very apparent when we beat them 3-0. Ricky Ponting - I can't think of a worse captain in the world, perhaps Inzamam-ul-Haq. The Australians know he's fucking shite, but as long as they keep winning it doesn't matter. A monkey could captain that side and they'd still win. Ponting isn't even the best captain in Australia, let alone the world.

2 The Australians used it because they felt Waugh was too old for ODIs and they could give another guy a go at it before he took over the Test side. Vaughan's not too old for ODIs and he won't be relinquishing the Test captaincy for a few years.

"He certainly doesn't warrant his place sheerly on batting form."

The same batting form that has seen him average 40 in this series and 50 over the past 15 games?

Fact is we're not very good at the one day stuff, and haven't been for some years now, personally I don't really care as its a largely tired format.

 As long as Vaughan can keep delivering at Test  level , then he keeps the job.

I disagree... when you're missing the world's best ODI player you're always going to struggle. Without Flintoff the balance of our side is lost. I always knew we'd lose this series without him, but with him we'd have won comfortably.

Disagree all you like mate, but the stats prove otherwise, with or without FF.

We beat India 2-1 last summer and we beat Australia and Sri Lanka last time we played them. I honestly think we can beat anyone if we played this team (which I think we will in the summer):

1 M Trescothick
2 A Strauss
3 M Vaughan
4 K Pietersen
5 A Flintoff
6 P Collingwood
7 G Jones
8 A Giles
9 S Jones
10 S Harmison
11 D Gough

Or you could give Trescothick the gloves, slot Bell in at 4 and move everyone else down one.

Well my recall of last summer was of England failing to qualify for the final of the three way thingy with NZ and WI.......leaving them to contest the Lords final......

  Its a bit difficult to keep track of some of these spurious tournaments which are organised.....like the one in late September,  of which I have zero recall, other than it was a bit of a farce.

just got Kallis out!  :soapy tit wank:

We were without Flintoff for that as well - which shows just how important to us he is. Plus, we had Anthony McGrath and Rikki Clarke in the side - a surefire recipe for disaster.

It's obvious our team are just more suited for test games in the type of players we have, our players don't seem to have a clue on how to win ODI's anymore.

Look at the side I posted above... who's not suited for ODIs?

It's just that we really miss Flintoff.

Sorry we all know and love Freddie, because he's the best we've got, but his stats aren't very impressive for his OD career.

 England rank 5 on the all time list.....ahead of India New Zealand and Sri Lanka, of the major players.

That's because he's only come into his top form over the past couple of years. Before that he played plenty of games and averaged about 15! That's why its so low.

Umm... Freddie's ODI stats aren't good, admittedly. They're absolutely fucking sensational.

2111 runs @ 35.18 with a strike rate of 92.95 runs per 100 balls
82 wickets @ 23.97 with a runs per over of 4.20

No doubt FF's form has picked up in the last year.....and he's by far the best we've got, but its a team game and even with his input we still seem to fall short.....bit like KP's in this series.

Freddie's form has picked up in the last year?! Since 2003 he's been the best ODI all-rounder ever. Not just the best that we've produced, but the best ever.

And we'd have won the series with ease with him. Where did the series go wrong? Us bowling at the death. Who's our best death bowler? Freddie. Also, the game where we fell just short in the chase after KP hit his ton - Flintoff would have been able to keep up with KP and see us home.

Before this series Flintoff was our best ODI batsman and bowler. That's like taking Herschelle Gibbs and Shaun Pollock out of South Africa's side. See how they'd have fared without them.

Your enthusiasm for Freddie is commendable but to state he's the best alrounder ever is just an opinion.....part of being great is being available to do the business at the crucial moments of major contests.....this summer is the time when its required, and as I've stated before I would trade winning the WC at football, for reclaiming the Ashes.

Of course, although it's backed up with stats.

And in my opinion this series was about as meaningful as a flower arranging contest.

soapy tit wank, Ian Bell