I don't like Cricket

A statement from The Collective

Collective Responsibility

We are the I Don't Like Cricket Collective.

You will be familiar with our manifesto. You will be familiar with our identities.

You will know our differing personalities. Perhaps the only two things that tie us together our shared loves of cricket and cheese.

But what we have is a collective identity and will; a collective desire for England to win the Ashes; a collective energy to attack the Australians wherever possible; a collective responsibility to play our part, whatever that may be.

And we have done that. We have entertained, informed and harassed in equal measure.
Its just a shame that the team we have backing so ardently for the past 114 days lack this notion of collective responsibility.

Let's not kid ourselves about how we nearly won this Test. In the wash-up it was exactly the same as the First Test - one big innings and one abysmal and embarrassing innings. A patheticness driven by negative selection (to secure an extra twenty reasons at the expense of the ability to take twenty wickets) and the killer extinct of a vegetarian Labrador. And some poor, poor bowling.

The question that has to be asked is: where is the hunger?

This is no longer a question about selection or tactics. It is a question of whether they are bothered. The Australian's woke up thinking they might win today. We woke up thinking we could get a draw and that would be a good result.

We went from a winning situation to a drawing situation and then, of course, things got much worse.

How can we stand here and barrack John Buchanan for predicting the Convicts will win the Test, when they actually do? How can we ridicule Glenn McGrath's 5-0 prediction when they are well on course for this? How can we mock Shane Warne for being Shane Warne?

This wasn't the greatest comeback in Test Match history ™. This was a capitulation on England's part.

The Collective are changing our mission. We will now look to celebrate hard, aggressive and passionate cricket wherever we find it in this series.

Signed

The Collective.

(To understand quite how bad this result is for England and this series, read this cricinfo article or go to John - our spiritual aussie equivalent.)

posted by wes @ 3:13 pm