job done..lets go to sydney and give em another good hiding..3-1 would be a fair reflection on the series

No go to Sydney and bore the life out of the Aussies David Gower style! Plus a draw earns me £90 for my 2-1 prediction!

Intersting claim from Pietersen in todays press 'Kevin Pietersen takes credit for Ashes triumph because he'd helped boot out former boss Peter Moores' www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricke ... iumph.html

Intersting claim from Pietersen in todays press 'Kevin Pietersen takes credit for Ashes triumph because he'd helped boot out former boss Peter Moores' www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricke ... iumph.html

Quote ="morleys_deckchair"Intersting claim from Pietersen in todays press 'Kevin Pietersen takes credit for Ashes triumph because he'd helped boot out former boss Peter Moores' www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricke ... iumph.html'" Typical bloody Pietersen this. Monumental hubris.

Quote ="morleys_deckchair"Intersting claim from Pietersen in todays press 'Kevin Pietersen takes credit for Ashes triumph because he'd helped boot out former boss Peter Moores' www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricke ... iumph.html'" Typical bloody Pietersen this. Monumental hubris.

when was Gower boring?

decent player who should have scored loads more test centuries if he hadn't had the expected rush of blood in the 60s & 70s - as a commentator he IS boring,in fact,most of the SKY team is boring including 'I better be on my best behaviour' Botham,'spot the personality' Hussain,'know it all,but crap england coach' Bumble - thank god for Warney and the greatest fast bowling action in history that was 'Whispering Death' himself

come on SKY liven it up a bit !

Actually thats true he is boring, in fact for all the good camera work and so on I find cricket on Sky very boring to watch, when I used to be able to sit through a full days play on the BBC when Richie Benaud did it. Nowadays I just listen to TMS where the chat is better, Geoff Boycott is always worth listening to. Also Michael Vaughan and Justin Langer have been good in this series.

Remember when Channel 4 had the cricket for a bit and they had Dermot Reeve going in to the commentary box coked up and slagging off Simon Hughes.

After about half an hour of the Melbourne Test, Boycs was banging on saying England wouldn't or couldn't win the game. The man has gone beyond parody.

The worst commentator by far, however, is Botham. Utterly unilluminating about the play, and also thinks he's funny despite the fact he isn't.

having being weaned on TMS with Jonners,Blowers,The Alderman,The Bearded Wonder,Alan McGilvray,John Arlott,The Boil,CMJ,Aggers,Freddie Trueman et al where probably only 50% of the listening public were actually cricket fans says it all - it was entertaining with cricket sometimes taking second place to cream cakes and butterflies on the pitch or long tailed tits nesting in the pavillion etc etc - Has there EVER been any sports commentary funnier than 'Botham not quite being able to get his leg over ' ??? I was in the car at the time and had to stop ! SKY is boring,thank God England are doing well if not,the viewing figures would be almost zero IMO

botham knows more about cricket than all of us put together..bumble is great entertainment and he to has a great insight into the game..warne is a legend of the modern day game and the banter between them is great to listen to...i agree with the likes of atherton and hussain they`d send a glass eye to sleep.

true about Botham & Bumble but it doesn't actually mean they are entertaining does it ?

it's dour stuff and needs an injection of something or other

you may think its dour stuff i dont...so who would you have out there just so they can entertain you.or was the stuff out on the pitch not entertaining enough

try changing the presenter to begin with ! great player but ooohhh soooooooo boooring.....................

as I said ,good job England are winning otherwise no one would be watching

Botham is an ass....He's the big mouth in the pub, waffling crap. His record as England captain tells you all you need to know about how much of a cricketing brain he has....Bumble is knowledgable but seems intent on playing the fool all the time....Warne is the Australian Botham. He's there to play the Australian role on Sky and he does it in the same style of Botham, that is an arrogant 'we were better when i was playing' type of way....Hussain just lacks charisma. No doubt he knows his stuff, but he is dull....Atherton is ok, was very good with Benaud on Channel 4, but now seems fed up putting up with Botham's brain-dead comments....Holding is similar to Atherton, but is worthwhile simply because he provides a neutral viewpoint.

poster of the year already..questioning the great mans cricketing brain.as if you know more than him.thats why he`s sir ian..

I think you'll find he got his knighthood for his PLAYING rather than any cricketing brain he's got....The fella's a big mouth, who is a knee-jerk reactionary rather than any great thinker.

I'd certainly take more notice of Michael Atherton or Michael Vaughan's opinion than anything Botham comes out with.

Quite.

Botham NEVER offers any insight into what's happening in front of him. One would hope that his great cricketing brain would be able to explain the intricacies of a Test match to us lesser mortals, but he seems incapable of doing more than simply describing what we can all see. At least Warne occasionally offers his opinions re field placings, bowling changes, etc.

Botham has been prone to strange views for a while. Most notably concerning himself, he's a classic example of someone who played far too long and couldn't accept he wasn't the player he was. They've been showing highlights recently of that 86/87 Ashes tour, last time we won Down Under before this, and that was also the last time Botham did anything in a Test match, although he was still part of the England set up for five and a half more years. Towards the end of his career it was embarrassing, he looked like an overweight club cricketer strolling up and bowling medium slow, but the selectors kept on bringing him back here and there. The selectors finally ditched him in 1992, and he hung around for one more season of first class cricket hoping for a recall before calling it a day. He then launched a bizarre parting shot against the selectors saying that they should have picked him against the Aussies in 1993, but they were scared to pick him because if he'd succeeded they'd have had egg on their faces for dropping him in the first place. The 93 Aussies would have loved to have had a bash at Botham for old times sake just like our players now would have loved to have smashed an ageing out of shape Warne in this series.
As a commentator I think I gave up on him in around 1999 when England were at probably our lowest ebb after the home world cup debacle and then the home series defeat to New Zealand, Botham went on the campaign of getting rid of the old guard of Atherton, Caddick, Tufnell etc and the old guard, time to blood some new talent, and his suggestion for new talent was to bring back Graeme Hick (his old mate from Worcester) who was the same age!
That said, prior to 1987 he was the most exciting cricketer England has had and his son was a good RL player.

you do put a good argument forward,,but regards to warne he`d still be better than any of the spin bowlers the aussies have..as regards to botham i think your showing him a huge slice of disrespect,our best cricketer this country as ever produced who knows what he`s talking about.whether he hung around to long is debatable,for one reason he put bums on seats where ever he played.just remember the good times instead of doing what we english do best..slag people off

Facts:
Botham - Great cricketer, one of the all time greats.
Warne - Great cricketer, one of the all time greats.

Doesn't make them insightful, witty or great presenters/commentators.

And both have a lot to answer for in terms of hairstyles.

Well said BA - got it in a nutshell

This particular series must be killing Boycott with only one draw to date. Boycott; the ultimate 'I'm better than all of them/better in my day'

Boycs is Boycs - a real enigma,unique to the game as a player & commentator - having seen him play (i'm an Essex fan) in the CC & Tests I still can't give an opinion on him - he saved us games,lost us games but for some reason my greatest memory of him is the pain of having to sit through him & Chris Tavaré batting together,it was sheer purgatory..................

He has a fair point though. Look at the bowlers who he scored runs off, Lillee, Thomson, Hadlee, Holding, Garner, Roberts etc. He was still a great player in his 40s with Yorkshire!

tremendous player and his record is there for all to see - he missed a few years Test cricket in the mid 70s and so 'avoided' some of Thompson & Lillee and all the other great bowlers you mentioned etc but faced them later on
Looking through the list on Wikipedia of his opening partners is impressive reading and brings back lots of great cricketing memories - you had the skill of Edrich,brute force of Milburn and the flair of Randall to name a few - yes,Boycs was a great player but still the great enigma to me.