There may be troubles ahead: England selection issues.

[Dr Cricket]

It does feel a nonsensical thought. What is the next best test of a player's ability than the next best level of cricket available.

if bayliss thinks County cricket is not good enough surely he would be pushing ECB to fix it.

TBH county cricket is fine in terms of competition, player quality and likely to produce international player.
what it is not going well and affecting the players coming through it is the schedule and number of fixtures.
playing CC in april/may or September won't make good test cricket batsman bring loads of poor habits in the technique which doesn't work in the flatter decks of Test cricket and Spin bowling isn't encouraged.
County cricket quality is actually quite good, some of the div 2 teams are strong so it can't exactly be that and if County cricket was weak, Philander and overseas signing will be destroying County cricket and at the moment vast majority of overseas signings either struggle or do their average performances can't think of many having outstanding seasons that suggest county cricket is easy.

Strauss probably agrees with bayliss on County cricket considering he changed the toss rule to make pitches in county cricket more Test like.

[Dr Cricket]

If he's saying that who scores runs in CC1 isn't the best guide to who will score them in India, he might have a point. But that's why Lions tours were useful. And CC1 will at least give you a guide to temperament.

in recent times Lions were concentrating on white ball cricket with the 4 day lions games being an after thought.
Think the last time lions had a proper 4 day tour was probably 2 winters ago in SA when their played one or two games but it was played in dry decks of port Elizabeth.

last winter it was mostly one day/t20 against pakistan A and this summer a tri series with Pak A and sri lanka A.
Haven't toured Australia for a lion tour since Coles and Stokes got sent home and never been to india for a long time.

lions at the moment are not doing anything this Winter and performance squad are not going anywhere, guessing they running out of places to visit that are near India.
Bangladesh not safe and Sri lanka might not have the facilities ECB like.

Think SA is the favoured destination since they use some private school that Spain used for the world cup and got world class facilities for all sports in pretoria but that not useful for subcontinent training so ECB generally send Fast bowlers to SA and spinners to Dubai with the batsman going to both areas.

Last time England lions went to india was when India invited a touring Domestic side to play in the 2008 Duleep trophy.

[Dr Cricket]

Flower on the ECB website gives the impression County cricket is the breeding ground with lions and under 19 stuff being used to find out about them and see what kind of blokes they are.
"So we do training camps outside England pre-Christmas, and we have time to do real skill development work in those training camps. Post-Christmas is when we have our overseas competitive series – and those are great development opportunities for these young guys.

“I think the best breeding ground for our players to play international cricket is our domestic game,” Flower stressed. “What we can do with the Under-19s and the Lions is provide opportunities for people to grow as blokes and players – and provide those opportunities in different conditions, and playing against really good opposition, the next best from the other nations.

“It’s a great job, absolutely. I love it. You’re working with really hungry and really talented young guys who are determined to make it to the top. They don’t know yet whether they’re good enough, so it’s quite an exciting place to be, working with that sort of potential – and I know the other guys in the management and coaching team feel pretty much the same way.”

Also they only had one first class tour in 3 yrs so not exactly sure they been playing much competitive First class cricket against the best from other nations, they only really tend to play List A cricket.

And the last time England lions played a first class game in Asia was in 2013/14.
Really 5 first class games in 3 yrs isn't good enough considering India A, Australia A and SA A play about the same amount of games in one year and Australia A and India A essentially play 5-6 FC games 5 list A and few t20 game a year maybe more.
England lions might have started the trend of A teams again but they now being left behind in actually playing them.

[Dr Cricket]

Even more scary when you consider england lions only played 7 first class games against other A teams since 2011.
played far more white ball cricket that really won't tell much to the selectors if the games are played in flat decks or ODI type pitches where generally home advantage isn't that huge, so really England selectors can't learn much about the players potential overseas in test if they hardly play First class games abroad.

India A must have played 3 times that figure since 2014.

ECB should just forget about the counties and just sign a deal with the bigger teams.
or even better get 3 division and have time for a proper lions set up in the summer which means every summer England 2nd team play unofficial test against other A teams and in the winter they tour.

At the moment England are not getting much out of the lions set up.

[Arthur Crabtree]

CC1 pace attacks are a decent standard.

Rushworth/Onions/Wood/etc
Jarvis/Wagner
Curran/Curran/Rampaul/Footitt/Meaker/etc
Sidebottom/Brooks/Willey/Bresnan/etc
Wright/Barker/Rankin/Woakes/etc
Gurney/Ball/
R.Jones/Harris/Finn

And what have you.

[Dr Cricket]

Arthur even some of the div 2 attack are decent, even if you include the batting line up loads of good batsman teams around in county cricket.

[The Professor]

Sam Curran making a very decent shout for a nineteen year old to be given a look in for England.

[sussexpob]

Concerning Bayliss and his opinion on the county game, just going to leave this here.....

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=20910

If you think this is BAyliss talking, then I'd ask you to wake up. Every single word of what he said sounds exactly like a certain Andy Flower.

[Dr Cricket]

What is the point of Newell, Fraser being selectors if they are too busy running Middlesex/Nottinghamshire.
"James Whitaker, the national selector, will be a busy man over the next fortnight. The assumption is his cohorts, Angus Fraser and Mick Newell, will be preoccupied by the progress of their sides which are either battling to win the Championship (in the case of Middlesex and Fraser) or to stay in the top division (Nottinghamshire and Newell)"
surely ECB should have independent selectors not linked with counties.

[sussexpob]

What is the point of Newell, Fraser being selectors if they are too busy running Middlesex/Nottinghamshire.
"James Whitaker, the national selector, will be a busy man over the next fortnight. The assumption is his cohorts, Angus Fraser and Mick Newell, will be preoccupied by the progress of their sides which are either battling to win the Championship (in the case of Middlesex and Fraser) or to stay in the top division (Nottinghamshire and Newell)"
surely ECB should have independent selectors not linked with counties.

You need to watch the Thick of It. You might understand what is going on there.

Strauss wants rid of the selection panel, and the ECB use the press to print whatever propaganda they want...... the narrative now is saying "they are all too busy" and your reaction is to question their existance.

Next step, eradication and the assumption of even more power.

Mission complete.

[Dr Cricket]

TBH always wanted independent English selectors considering Newall, Fraser only really follow Notts, Middlesex so they basically never see any other teams so the pool of players they can recommend is small.

They probably scrap the selectors after the winter when their blame the selectors for not picking a proper spinner or not being able to pick an opener and 2 middle order bats.


If Captain/Coach/Flower are in charge of the selection do wonder how they will pick the teams with them hardly watching County cricket or rating it, Lions hardly playing games.
really wanna know how doing well in Loughborough or the nets in pretoria has any meaning to Test cricket and is major prove players belong in the international arena.

[Dr Cricket]

Under 19 are going to india this winter which is good to hear, guessing india under 19 are coming to england next season.
should be a good test considering india usually get to the finals of under 19 competitions.

[The Professor]

I've read on here that Cook and Hameed wouldn't work together but I'm starting to think that Cook, Hameed and Hales at three might be worth an experiment.

[Slipstream]

I've read on here that Cook and Hameed wouldn't work together but I'm starting to think that Cook, Hameed and Hales at three might be worth an experiment.

Bayliss wants aggressive opening batsmen. Hales was meant to be one of them but with a strike rate of 42.77 it looks as if Cook has got that job s/r 67.58. Career 47.01. He has come out of his bubble. I think Cook and Hameed would be the perfect foundation builders but I can't ever see Bayliss picking Hameed. When Bayliss leaves after the World Cup maybe he will get a chance. Cook and Root made their debuts at 21. Now is the time to pick the next young batsman who will be there for the long term.

1 Cook
2 Hameed (19) - ave 53.62 4 100s 8 50s
3 Root
4 Joe Clarke (20) - ave 42.29 5 100s 8 50s

[Making_Splinters]

Hameed isn't even the top scoring English opener in the Championship, but hype is hype I guess.