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Reply | Cricket 2026 County/International Thread
at 10:31 13 Jul 2026
I'm a Kent man so always had a soft spot for Key but I don't quite understand why he hasn't gone too.
Thinking about Kent and England, it's not a good mix. We don't get many picked, but when they do they get slated until they inevitably fall apart - I can think off the top of my head of McCague, Crawley, Key (both as a player and manager). It's quite odd. Only Ealham and Billings, of which the fomer did pretty well, seem to have escaped the onslaught.
Crawley has been absolutely mullered by the experience, to the extent his entire cricket career is wobbling. A man who scored a 180 in an Ashes test and a double ton against Pakistan. Don't get many England bats who did that, so not quite sure why the absolute vilification has to continue on social media, even once he was (rightly) dropped.
I shudder for the next England player off the Kent ranks...Dawkins. Good luck, son! |
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Reply | Summer transfer rumours 2026
at 07:42 10 Jul 2026
I didn't see any bed wetting hysteria. You could argue the hysteria is the other way round, fans confident we've signed two top quality goalkeepers having never seem them play - and considering our record with signing keepers I am keeping my fingers firmly crossed they are right.
All I saw was surely fair criticism that we've made an absolute long-term horlicks of the goalkeeper situation, meaning that in July we've had to sign two goalkeepers. I know many disagree, but for me endless signings does not smack of great, or successful, planning. Surely the masterplan would have been to develop Walsh, sell him at a decent £2m+ whack and then have tracked some £1m+ keeper and bring them in. I thought that was what we were supposed to be doing in this wonderful Brentford-lite plan?
Just going out and signing two keepers, one of which is in effect a PL loan, to me is more like the planning of Tony Fernandes.
Obviously, hope I am wrong, hope they are the next Stejskal and propel us to glory and then I will realise the planning was genius. |
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Reply | Cricket 2026 County/International Thread
at 08:06 6 Jul 2026
The Aussies are an incredible team and the difference between their players and every other women's cricket team is vast - not necessarily in the skill any more, but in the attitude and the athleticism. Even just seeing so many of our players crying at the end; if the Aussies had lost they would have been furious and using it as fuel to win the next one.
Edwards has done a straightforward, but OK, job in improving the fielding and fitness. If she wants to compete with Oz she now has to make the big calls - moving on the timid players who never produce under knockout pressure (Jones) the good but ageing (Knight) and build the team around the bright new skip (Dean). Stick Kemp up the order in T20 cricket and give it a real go.
Such a shame yesterday was a no-contest, women's cricket deserves better than that. I would much rather watch a skillful women's T20 than the total muscle-fest, slogathon the men served up yet again on Saturday. |
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Reply | Summer transfer rumours 2026
at 12:29 5 Jul 2026
Totally agree Hunter. For me, it's nothing to do with whether you rate Joe Walsh or not.
What I don't understand is that the whole Nourry plan has been to make us sustainable as a football club, building gradually etc etc. How does that marry with being in a position where we've got little choice but to buy probably 2 goalkeepers and we're coming up to the second week of July?
It's not as though we haven't all seen this coming from the moment Nardi was declared persona non grata.
I don't care if we have "agreements in place" or whatever - to me this is typical QPR, just make a million signings to get us out of trouble. Always the next signing that will make the difference. |
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Reply | Summer transfer rumours 2026
at 13:09 4 Jul 2026
Bizarre, our whole long term gameplan with Walsh has been a shocker.
How can we justify - yet again - to be just about to start pre season with literally zero first team experience in the squad in a vital position?
And then they wonder why we start so slowly.
Nourry's so big on competitive advantage in the transfer market, doesn't take much for a selling club to know that we rather desperately need a goalkeeper and won't be likely to walk away.
Steady, long-term planning? Nothing to see here. |
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Reply | Greatest Sporting Commentators
at 09:45 30 Jun 2026
Ah brilliant - Bill McLaren. What a voice. Never been a big rugger fan but that voice was spine-tingling.
Johnners great on TMS too, so good that almost everyone since tries to emulate him with forced banter. Problem is, his banter was natural and warm and brilliant. Not forced.
But yes, probably just getting old. |
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Reply | Greatest Sporting Commentators
at 09:28 30 Jun 2026
Thankyou Brian - I thought I was the only one who never particularly loved Moore, Davies etc in the commentary box but now apparently they are total legends. More to do with how bad most of them are today! My favourite was Motson but then he read his own press and became a parody of himself.
Best commentator, along your lines - Richie Benaud. Magnificent. A commentator who knew when to speak, when not to speak, could be very funny and above all had a massive knowledge and love of the game. All he wanted was a great game, no partisan stuff and that from an ex-captain of Australia.
Only Andrew Castle comes close. Probably.
Worst commentator - David Lloyd's tiresome buffoonery often interspersed with "first time I've seen this lad bat" - erm, it's your job mate? Perhaps do some research? Ah well just tell us the same story about old players you've told a million times, that will cover for it. Botham put a phone in Dickie's pocket! Ha ha haaaarrgghhhh.
Gower and Botham were similar, they just got lazier and lazier and were totally entrenched in their opinions. The hoo-hah when they were sacked was ridiculous, they were past it and Athers and Hussain are so much better. |
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Reply | Cricket 2026 County/International Thread
at 06:57 30 Jun 2026
Hey - NZ were fantastic. They always seem to be patronised a little on the Test stage "getting the maximum out of their abilities", but for all the chat around England's increasingly bizarre approach I though NZ were just the better side. You've got grafting batters like Mitchell that we so desperately need more of and superb bowlers in Henry, Smith and O'Rourke - each one of them would play 100 tests for England. I thought Henry missing would be crucial - but no. O'Rourke's going to be brilliant. [Post edited 30 Jun 7:14]
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Reply | Cricket 2026 County/International Thread
at 12:47 29 Jun 2026
I really hope you are right, Hunter, of course. I am also a big fan of the county game, as well as Super Kent, and I would quickly add Dawkins and Singh to your list.
But your post all feels a bit 90s to me, where after every single Test defeat we were drawing up fresh XIs and the next bloke off the country rank would be the key to our turnaround.
Let's face it, after their starts to the season we all hoped Baker and Rew would be the magic bullet. They could still be, will of course take time.
I still don't look at your list with any great hope - some of them (Lawrence, Hameed, Potts, Foakes, Cook) have already had a go without huge success - where are the true world-class performers amongst the youngsters going to be? Agreed that the new regime (surely inevitable) will need to rely on the county game so much more. But if Stewart takes over, all it means is we go back to Burns, Sibley, Foakes. Sideways and backwards, everywhere we go....
The one Surrey man I would like to see back is Sam Curran. Proper grit as well as talent, and I feel like Mitchell's innings yesterday should be played on repeat to the squad by the new management.
I'm just down on it all at the moment with the disappointment I think. Someone will come riding to the rescue and get us all going again :-) |
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Reply | Cricket 2026 County/International Thread
at 12:21 29 Jun 2026
That's a good shout, RBlock. His famous Headingley innings all you see now is him going beserk when he was stuck with Leach, but didn't he start really slowly and just dug in? It seems to be the fatal flaw of Bazball, you have to go hard from Ball 1 and also go hard regardless of circumstance, be it the pitch or the game situation. Why can't they just tweak this? Doesn't seem that hard. [Post edited 29 Jun 12:21]
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Reply | Cricket 2026 County/International Thread
at 08:43 29 Jun 2026
Brook's a batting genius but a grade-one plank in the brains department. If McCullum can't coach him how to build an innings then a Flower-type disciplinarian has to come in before the guy's talent is completely wasted. He's still got an incredible record, so wanting him out of the side - especially this one - is ridiculous.
I agree that he can't captain the side. Root is an average captain and hates the job but we have to beg him to do it. Then at least he can message Stokes before the Ashes and ask him for one last hurrah - if he's fit he would do it for Root I reckon.
But where does all this leave the side? In shambles. Rehan has to play against Pakistan and as an all-rounder too.
Duckett
Gay
Bethell
Root (capt)
Brook
Ahmed
Rew (wk)
Atkinson
Robinson
Archer
Tongue
Hardly sets the pulse racing, does it? Aussies must be loving it, all their OAPs queuing to get on the plane next summer to achieve their dream. Warner will probably come out of retirement. |
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Reply | Cricket 2026 County/International Thread
at 19:23 28 Jun 2026
As a man whose love for English cricket is the only thing to come near to QPR on the sporting front, I sincerely hope I am wrong, but regardless of how we play we just aren't good enough. Everyone forgets how bad we were before Bazball and Stokes. They tried, and sometimes succeeded, to drag us away from our relentlessly timid approach that doesn't work either.
When Alec Stewart or whoever comes in and tells everyone to defend for 100 overs, we will still lose. We lack the talent. The ECB has made sure of that with their murdering of the county game. Now we are removing our best bowler, skip and fielder so good luck with that. The Ashes next summer fill me with dread. No change of coach or MD is going to turn our bowling attack into a good one.
Brook as Test skipper? The mind boggles.
To be honest I would try and get Flower back and go full bore on his highly disciplined, mechanical approach and hope it works with an average cohort.
I mean seriously...if you have watched O'Rourke, Smith, Henry - each one would be our best bowler.
I just don't know where we go from here. There's no Gooch or Hussain to pick us up from the floor. [Post edited 28 Jun 19:28]
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Reply | Cricket 2026 County/International Thread
at 15:38 28 Jun 2026
What a shame, that's 18 months of a world-class cricketer we've been denied.
And this team without him? All the best
But thanks Stokesy, for everything. And stuff you ECB suits. |
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Reply | Cricket 2026 County/International Thread
at 08:52 28 Jun 2026
Good Test match this, and I fancy we might have a decent crack at a 300+ chase but fall short.
It seems from the media that, unless we win the Test, Key is gone. Stokes is staying, and probably Baz too as he has a £1m+ compensation clause.
Will be interesting to see who replaces Key. Vaughan looks like he may be making a subtle pitch for it - there is something about him I just don't like, Strauss is always a solid pair of hands and I expect Der Gaffer Stewart will either be in line for that or the coaching job.
Still don't think it will mean we suddenly turn into a decent side. [Post edited 28 Jun 8:52]
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Reply | Cricket 2026 County/International Thread
at 11:39 27 Jun 2026
What a turn around, as disappointing as it is, Test cricket at its best.
Quite what Smith was doing I have no idea. He looks totally devoid of confidence. |
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Reply | Cricket 2026 County/International Thread
at 15:40 26 Jun 2026
Excellent post, Hunter. I was a fan of Key and McCullum's efforts in trying to snap out of the norm, but in a way all they ever do now is revert to their own norm, if you know what I mean. We are now one dimensional in a different way.
And yes, the heart that Stokes displays is awesome, just like Flintoff before him. Sheer will and guts to make things happen. I wish all our bowlers could replicate his effort, we would be far better off.
I have higher hopes for Bethell that you, I think this one call England have got right, but it will take time. |
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Reply | Cricket 2026 County/International Thread
at 14:13 26 Jun 2026
After that Bashir wicket, another brilliant aspect of Stokes' captaincy. Furious with Archer for not coming to join the celebrations - especially as Bashir had just dropped one off Archer's bowling. |
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Reply | Cricket 2026 County/International Thread
at 10:55 26 Jun 2026
Bethell has huge potential, hope you are right that he reaches the stars. Needs to get some consistent playing time and leave IPL to later, he will easily become a millionaire in his own time over there.
I'm desperate to keep Stokes as long as we can. We've always needed the blockbuster all rounder - Botham, Flintoff, Stokes...although thinking about it we didn't have one when Flower and Strauss pulled off the miracle of 2010. Had a world-class spinner though. Maybe Bethell will be the next man, as you say. |
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