I agree, but you know what annoys me the most ? In the first innings, he was bowling a. Cross seam, b. Slower balls - like off cutters, lots of them as well, clear as day you could see it on the footage. I was watching the criket with a mate, who's I think a pretty good bowler, and we chatted about this for ages, looked to get extra bounce out of the surface by hitting the seam and whatnot, anyhow I digress a tad. Second innings starts, Cook wafts at one, KP gets a beauty etc, then Struass & Prior both fall to these cutters, when Prior is dismissed it shows you Struass on the balcony doing the motion of this cutter.

That's where my beef is, they don't learn, these are our elite cricketers. You would have at least thought that they'd have reviewed the 1st Innings, team meeting or whatever, even as individuals you see them looking at them monitors for hours. They should be looking at what he bowled and how best to combat it. Instead, he comes out and tears through them.

It's stuff like that, that's just not very good.

Are they using St Johns? I thought they'd moved to the Sir Vivian Richards stadium, which was built for the World Cup.

Oh, and I think you're right on those Lara games ending as draws, I seem to remember him getting stick for batting on to 400, effectively ending the game as a contest.

A game that smacks of a team believing its own hype.

For once I am defending Pietersen, yes he got out like a plonker in the first innings but at least he made 97. Flintoff undid all his good work on day 1 by getting out early on day two. Sarwan and Gayle showed the way to play on that stinker of a pitch.

IMO, the only change excluding injuries should be Bell or Collingwood (probably the former, although I say that with a heavy heart) being replaced by Shah. It simply has to happen. The rest of the squad should be given a chance to redeem themselves, although I'd say once again Harmison looked rubbish and Sidebottom rusty.

You never know, this might just be the kick up the backside the squad needs.

Disgraceful batting performance. For all those wanting Bell and Collingwood out of the side (I agree btw) what about Cook? In the last 14 months he averages less than both of the other two yet seems to be exempt from any criticism?

I can't believe Bopara has not travelled, he should replace Collingwood and Shah should be replace Bell. I would also look at giving Rashid a go, has to be worth a look at.

Is there a limit imposed by the ICC on the size of touring parties, or is it a self-imposed one from the ECB in order to keep costs down? 16 simply doesn't give you much scope for changes, particularly when you take five seamers, three spinners and two specialist keepers.

I beleive it's purely self-imposed and we could take more players if we wanted to.

Yes, you're right, so in fact the conditions for the next match will possibly be completely different to what I expected. There's also the Stanford stadium on Antigua now just for good measure!

Apologies, I thought Bopara was in the touring party.

I should have known better than to expect us to pick a young, very talented and very confident player to tour



Im sure there's no limit to touring parties, we've definitely taken 18 on tours to the windies and oz before.

I think the start of the domestic season is going to be very interesting and there will be quite a lot of batsmen out to try and force their way into the England reckoning...Denly, Key, Horton, Moore, Vaughan, Carberry will surely be knocking on the door if they start the season with a barrage of runs??

As far as I can see there's only been 1 test match there, versus Australia last year, and that ended up in quite a high scoring draw. The full card is [url=http://content-www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/319140.htmlhere[/url.

Hardly any wickets for spinners, wonder if England will go with just seamers?

whats going on . i read england got bowled out for 51runs

I hope not. If 4 seamers can't get the job done, then I don't see a fifth guy doing anything massively different. Of course, we could go in with 4 bowlers and Shah, but I'd much prefer a batsman to make way for Owais rather than Monty.