English Cricket Thread

[Durhamfootman]

Liam Livingstone enjoying life away from the England set up. Highly critical of Key/McCullum

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/liam ... ch-1528115

[sussexpob]

The sad thing is, he's not telling anything we don't already know, Rob Key has bragged about all this stuff before when appearing on endless podcasts self-promoting himself. He has said he doesn't call players and Baz does it. He said they don't care about techniques and don't give advice on them. This stuff should get you instantly fired from your job, but instead all I see in response to this is Laurence Booth going on the counter-attack to defend the cult.

[Durhamfootman]

The sad thing is, he's not telling anything we don't already know,

indeed

[Slipstream]

We have Will Jacks, 4 MOM's in WC and James Coles so Livingstone will have to rely on the IPL,

[sussexpob]

We have Will Jacks, 4 MOM's in WC and James Coles so Livingstone will have to rely on the IPL,

All those runs against Nepal, Scotland and Italy putting the argument to bed finally.....

[Arthur Crabtree]

Blimey, there's a game of cricket going on in Taunton. We're one week out of winter.

[Durhamfootman]

I was at the Riverside yesterday, sitting in the sunshine for a couple of hours. I won't be going today and nor will any cricketers if they have any sense at all

[Arthur Crabtree]

Suddenly cold again. Not the weather for cricket.

[Durhamfootman]

according to the cricketer, Zafar Gohar is now England qualified.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Did they say if he would play for England? Or just wants to play in the CC?

[Durhamfootman]

they said that he has been on the England radar and they also proclaimed him the best leggie in the county championship.... which, given baldy Lehmann's comments, feels like a contradiction of terms, because if he's the best leggie in the CC, how would England know?

[alfie]

Is he not actually slow left arm orthodox , rather than a leggie ?

[Arthur Crabtree]

Wiki says he is SLA... But maybe Rob Key wrote it and how would he know?

My bet was on them recalling Leach.

[sussexpob]

according to the cricketer, Zafar Gohar is now England qualified.

I am pretty sure he qualified in 2024 when his 3 year period of not playing for Pakistan expired, as he had a British passport. Certaintly registered with Middlesex as a domestic player after they signed him at the end of the season that year, so he has been available a while.

Did they say if he would play for England? Or just wants to play in the CC?

So the story goes, he was seen as an exceptional prospect in Pakistan as a youngster, and when Pakistan lost a couple of bowlers at the very last minute before the 2015 series v England in UAE, he was given a call the night before the test to get his backside on the first flight to Abu Dhabi to play the following day in his test debut. Arriving at the airport in the middle of the night, he promptly checked in to his flight, then fell asleep at the boarding gate, missing his departure. Pakistan ended up having to go into the game with Shoaib Malik as a front line bowler, Alistair Cook batted for about 2 days, England made a huge score, and Gohar was left to get the blame for leaving the side a bowler short on a flat wicket.

Ever since then, it seems he burned his bridges with the Pakistan selectors and got a rep for being undisciplined, and he says the Pakistan selectors have told him wickets in England are meaningless for his selection chances so he will not play for them again.

So yeah, he has chosen England

[sussexpob]

England picking Gohar would be an interesting departure from the ECBs previous stance of blocking non-British born players from the team. I am not sure if there is truth in it, but if there is I like the intention behind it. English cricket thrived in the era of Kolpaks, the county game was much tougher and produced better players - the nationalistic nonsense that followed in the late 2000s to go after them damaged our national game.

You pick the best players available to you, irrespective of birth places or playing for other teams. Picking Gohar would be acknowledgement of that.