Don't know much about cricket but I do know that they were once as feeble and as far off the Aussies as us. Not any more. How has this turnaround been achieved and is there anything we can nick?

Sarf African RL players maybe

It was more Australia having a stat laden lineup then them all retiring over a short period. England have improved dramatically and things seem pretty healthy down the system in cricket. Still don't know how the county sides survived before 20:20 though.

They introduced promotion and relegation to the domestic competition

The England cricket teams results started to dramaticly improve around the year 2000 when they introduced central contracts to the best players so particulary the fast bowlers could rest between test matches,and they made the County Championship 2 divisions to do away with soft cricket and games now mean something right up to the end of the season.

English cricket is as strong as anything in the world right now.

Each county is allowed 2 overseas players.

England have improved hugely but the Ashes win for me was more down to the fact that it was the worst Australian side in 25 years.

why are people ignoring the fact the australia have become a much weaker side. Yes England have improved but Australia lost so many great players and have not replaced them with the same quality!

If they can do it why can't we do it in Rugby League.

Very good question , maybe we should get somebody to ask the RFL ?

We had a play at it with Withers and Maurie...

And they have to have played international cricket.

England RL can't learn much. Domestic cricket is structured to provide England players. Can you imagine how fans would react if their team's best players were on central contracts? And therefore, rarely played for their club. Two different sports;

One is a club game, trying to support an international game.
The other is an international game, trying to support the clubs (counties).

Genuine question...

Are there many cricketers of Kolpak heritage to take advantage of an overseas ruling? Or do they have a different overseas ruling in cricket?

Which Ashes win,2005,2009 or 2011?

If we really want to beat the Aussies and be consistently competitive at international level then we have to sacrifice some part of the domestic game.
There are basically 2 choices:
1. Do as cricket & RU have basically done and introduce central contracts. Limiting the number of games the top players play and increasing the time they spend training together.

Or 2. Effectively do away with the Championship & Championship 1 clubs as stand-alone clubs and designate them feeder clubs to local larger SL clubs to be more like the NRL system.

Neither is appetising to me, so for now I think all we can do is lower the number of imports, increase the number of homegrown players and, far more importantly, replace the huge number of useless, egotistical and just plain sh[ii[/it junior & youth coaches with coaches who will actually teach & develop skills instead of just using the "pass it to the big kid" tactic.

Here lies one of our faulty core beliefs inherent for many years in our sporting psyche. We couldn't have been good, someone else must have been bad.

In the UK, there has been more money given to sport since the National Lottery. Is it coincidental then that we win lots more things or our performances have improved?

With regards to the cricket, it took us to get a South African and Rhodesian coaches, who have totally different mindsets to people in the UK, to get us to realise WE CAN and WILL WIN. Add that to the talent and.... 3 out of the last 4 Ashes series in the bag.

The quicker we drop the bullshıt mindset, the better. Hopefully kids will be growing up thinking of us as potential winners.

Exactly. Was the ashes win in 2005 because of a poor aussie side? I don't think so. Warne and McGrath were playing.

We don't have the same talent as the aussies, that is clear to see..... but we also lack in belief and attitude. Get that sorted and we can beat them.

Good point

I agree with the coaching point , but not with the Championship one , with loan and dual reg rules there is ample opportunity for clubs to use the lower leagues to develop players

I would take that logic one step further – the England cricket team need to beat the India by two clear tests in this four match series to become the best team in the world

India, not Australia

And yet all we hear on this thread is the Ashes – why? The Australians are fast becoming irrelevant in world cricket (5th in the current rankings) so why bother talking about them when we have the Indians in England this summer

It’s the same in RL – New Zealand are the World and 4 Nations Champions and all we talk about is beating the Australians

You can’t beat your heroes so let’s not treat them as such

Forget central contracts and overseas quota’s – the one thing we can learn from the England cricket team is that they believe that they will win games... even when they are struggling – 124 for 8 on day one to a 319 run 4 day victory in the last test says it all

Unfair this statement. The Aussies are putting this about to save some face. England were great during the Ashes and have gone on to become the best side in the world. Whoever runs cricket is doing something right and congrats to them. The RL should take a long hard look at what cricket has achieved but as cricket is an establishment game, backed by loads of money, think this is what it probably boils down to.

Fwiw, 13 of the 45 man England RU squad were born overseas. I wonder if we're going to end up looking like Yorkshire cricket did, stubbornly clinging to stringent admittance criteria that hamstring us in the modern climate.

Its also not just the Aussies...we're pushing for No.1 in the world now. We're smashing India (the current No.1) so across the board and each country we face in cricket right now we are consistently winning......it's doing that in a WC though!

The eligibility criteria are set by the RLIF, so I'm not sure why you think England are playing by different rules than everyone else?

How many players who were born overseas but meet the three year UK residency criteria would actually improve the current England side?

Pat Richards - if he decided to change his allegiance from Ireland?

I'm struggling to think of many more that would be eligible.

Luke O'Donnell apparently getting an Irish passport