There may be troubles ahead: England selection issues.

[braveneutral]

Apparently Hammeed and Duckett being watched. Dawson popular too.

Bayliss is like the Jose of cricket.

[Making_Splinters]

It is far too soon for Hameed to be playing Test cricket. He has had a single good season and needs to have another season to prove this isn't a one off before he is selected. Bayliss just seems to spout off what ever name is in the press when he mentions potential players. As mentioned before Hameedstill isn't the top scoring England qualified opener in the LVCC.

[braveneutral]

Agreed with you MS.

[Dr Cricket]

Still no news of what England lions are actually doing this winter.

[Making_Splinters]

Don't know when the EPP tour is usually announced, I have a feeling it is towards the end of the domestic season.

[Dr Cricket]

Don't know when the EPP tour is usually announced, I have a feeling it is towards the end of the domestic season.

The actual lions fixtures are normally announced by now, generally announced by May June in the summer.
Not sure what EPP are doing since they only have a base in Loughbourough, Some Pretoria University and if ICC Academy in Dubai is free then those for a few weeks.

They would normally say by now that the batsman are going to this country or the bowlers or Spinner are going here after a month or so in loughborough

At the moment looks like England lions and performance squad are doing nothing in the Winter, doesn't actually surprise me though.

[Dr Cricket]

Just checked the ECB Website winter tours in 2014/15 and 2015/16 were announced in april and may.
http://www.ecb.co.uk/news/articles/eng- ... -announced

Also looks like the tour only took place in 2014/15 because SA are going to get A tour in 2017.
Should be interesting Since England lions would need to play 2 4 day games and 5 odi next year during the County season, wonder if that will actually happen.
Reckon SA got conned by the ECB management they never going to get 2 4 day games and 5 odis.

[Making_Splinters]

Strauss has said that players have until Saturday to declare if they are going to go to Bangladesh or not. While there clearly has to be a deadline of some description, is 3 days after the last international game of the summer really an appropriate amount of time for players to make an informed decision? Strauss has also publicly said there will be no guarantees given to anyone who does not tour, which again is relatively sensible idea, but coming out and saying it feels far to much like strong arming from the ECB.

[Arthur Crabtree]

And a change of tone, after saying not touring would have no consequences.

[Making_Splinters]

Well, he's not saying there will be consequences, just that there is a potential that there could be. He said in his interview that the situation was just like a player being injured and someone coming in, but how often does an injury replacement actually take a players place?

He's essentially backing the likes of Hales and Ali into a corner where they have no choice but to tour, but, the likes of Root and Cook have no consequences if they don't.

[Arthur Crabtree]

That's what I meant by tone. The balance is different.

[hopeforthebest]

What do players who are unsure if they'll be picked do, such as Duckett, Westley etc. They phone up and say we ready to go and get told they weren't going anyway. Surely players who are up for selection should know before they make fools of themselves.

[Making_Splinters]

I think the problem was more the original message that there would be no consequences for not touring rather than the new message which carries the implied threat. If there were genuinely no consequences then whoever toured in place of a currently selected first team player would know that regardless of performance they would be dropped for the next series when the first team came back for the India tour. That's not good for anyone.

Really Strauss should have just left it at it's up to the players if they want to tour. That says everything that is needed without the sudden change in tack. I can only assume that there were murmurings that the majority of the first team did not want to tour.

By mixing his messages Strauss has created a situation where the players who will always be selected - Jimmy, Cook, Broad, Root et al, have free rein not to tour, but the players who have not secured a place - Hales, Ali, Bairstow, Stokes etc - have to tour regardless if they want to or not or there is a real chance they would lose their place.

It's no surprise therefore that Ali was the first to say he was going to tour. The mess was created by the ECB ballsing up their words on the assumption that everyone would jump on board.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Cook has already said he's going.

[Making_Splinters]

Cook was always going to stand by his former opening partner. I can't think of many times off hand where he has gone against the company line.