THE RED ROOSTER

My Christmas has come two days late, a fantastic win in the circumstances. For al the talk about Australia missing Cummins, Hazlewood and Lyon remember England were without Archer and Wood their fastest bowlers, no recognised front-line spinner and it took 3 tests to work out Jacob Bethell should have been in the starting XIII not to mention the fact that England were down to just three bowlers. I did feel pre=tour as written earlier in this thread that while England would not win the series they would at least win a Test in this series, I admit this belief waivered once England were 0-3 down and Jofra Archer went home but I am pleased to wrong on that. One other point I have stated earlier in the thread is that the Bazball era England team is better batting second. Maybe this is down to the limited overs nature of the style of play, but they are better chasing a target than defending a total Defeat is opening a few wounds in the Australian side · Is Jake Wetherald really the best opening bat in Australia? · Should Marnus Labuschagne be in the starting XI full stop? · And how on earth is Cameron Green the highest valued player in the IPL? Which is the point about how this tour is a case of what might have been, and victory in this game should not obscure the failings of the England management or the structural problems in the game. And as we read our old friend Todd Greenberg, Cricket Australia is taking a bath this series Greenberg- Short Tests are bad for business But I will end on a positive note that this win is not only good for Cricket, but good for England as it gets the proverbial monkey off their backs as regards winning down under, restores the credibility of the Ashes Contest down under, and personally it means my 13 days of nocturnal living watching this series so far has not been in vain.

Tea England 77 for 2 in 12 Overs 98 runs needed with 8 wickets left. Great Bowling performance from England operating with just thre bowlers but I am posting nothing else it too tense and serious.

Lunch Australia 96 for 6 with Steve Smith 16 not out. Not as good a situation for England as it appears for Gus Atkinson is off the field with a hamstring injury so without a three wicket burst in the 30 minutes before lunch England's trio of fast bowlers would be being worn down by Australia. As it is we are still in it but the post lunch hour will decide the game. On the bowling, some points firstly the bowling coach is supposedly Tim Southee, currently playing in the ICL in Abu Dhabi. He has been replaced in this series by England's former bowling coach in David Saker which is the equivalent of having your child taught for a term by a supply teacher. and symptomatic or the bazball laissez faire attitude. where you employ your mates. Atkinson's hamstring injury is rather symptomatic of the point I have been banging on about that you do get fit for cricket by not playing it exposing the bazball "mentally fresh" mumbo jumbo. Another point by the number of catches going low or falling short is that England are standing too deep. I cannot think that the Australian Coaching team would not have got a message out to their players in similar circumstances. Finally, Bazball's early years were enhanced by having Anderson and Broad and to a lesser extent Chris Woakes so essentially over the last three years England have lost the experience of 1500 wickets between them . yet all were at the end pof their careers and you have to question succession planning. The only silver lining for England is that the Australian attack is currently in their mid to late 30's so come 2027 will have similar problem to that England have now.

One of the things I find troubling about the club at present is that as a Season ticket Holder, I find out more about what the club is doing from posters such as yourself on the TRL forum than any communication from the club itself. What "partnership" are you referring to here, because it seems at the moment that the club is marketing itself as an antipodean exiles club rather that appealing to the existing fanbase which comprises the "london" part of London Broncos.

Both the pitch is not up to Test standard and the technical deficiancies in the batting on both sides are being ruthlessly exposed. The main difference is that the Australian bowlers are bowling to a disciplined line one side of the wicket but for England though Atkinson and Tongue have been accurate, Carse in his first spell at least sprayed it around so pressure off at least at one end. As for Harry Brooks innings, apart from his first ball swipe with Engkand 8 for 3 - the WTF ! moment of the match . His bazball style thrash in the middle fior 41 sent a very negative message lout to the dressing room that the pitch was unplayable, yet both Stokes and Atkinson proved that you could play conventionally on this wicket. As normal, iff Root is out cheaply with thev Australians bowling a 4th stump line to him outside off stump England do not get much of a score. The game unlikely to go beyond the third day as it stands, 93,000 odd at the MGC today of which 20,000 were from the UK. The impact this tour is having on future Cricket tourism and TV broadcast rights for the Ashes in Australia is incalculable. In the next week or so tickets for the 150 years celebration of Anglo-Australian Test Cricket at the MCG on 11-15 March 2027 ar on sale. It is on my bucket list to attend, but having endured this season watching overnight on TNT I am having my doubts as to whether it is worth me going unless there is a dramatic change in the off-field management and philosophy of England Cricket.

Australia 152 all out in 45.2 Overs. Tongue 5-45. The bowlers have done their job. Australia were 91 for 6 before Neser and Green put together a stand of 52 before Green was run out by a direct hit from Carse and they then lost their last 4 wickets for 9 runs. England bat for an elongated session post-tea and I would be tempted to bat Will Jacks at number three rather than Jacob Bethell in these circumstances simply because Jacks is a white ball opening batsman for Surrey and he could be in second ball, wheras Bethell has not played much Cricket on tour.

Australia 72 for 4 in 25 overs at Lunch having been piut in by England. Atkinson and Tongue have bowled well, Brydon Carse has leaked runs. Looks promising but we have been hetre before...

No Jofra no chance eh. well Melbourne is a city in which you can have four season's in a day and seam bowlers tend to thrive there, Paul Reiffel was a Victorian seam bowler and so for that matter was David Saker who is currently England's bowling coach. Steve Smithghas stated Australia will go with an all seam attack at the MCG though that's a bit of a cheat as he has Travis Head to bowl spin of a similar standard if not better than Will Jacks. You do not have to be a 90 MPH bwler to be a success at the MCG as we will see. Roy Key in his chummy interview with fellow past and maybe future SKY colleagues Hussain and Atherton commented on Jofra Archers upcoming schedule as T20 World Cup, IPL then straight to Test Series against New Zealand, a T20 and ODI series aginst India, the then immediatety into a Test Series v Pakistan followed by T20 and ODI v Sri Lanka. This rather illustrates the problem I have been banging on about . your asking a someone who bowls 2 over spells in T20 and possibly 5 over spells in the few ODI's playe,d to suddenly switch to bowling 16-18 overs a day in 3 to 4 spells No wonder he has a side strain. To be match fiot for Red Ball Cricklet you have to play rhe Domestic Competition because bowling is a repetitive action. It was never the case that Jofra Archer was expected to play all five tests, especially those back to back tests he was supposed to rotate with Mark Wood who I have previously described as the Ryan Harris of English Cricket ablr to give you three tests out of five, and Mark only made the one test this tour. Interesting artricle in the Guardian about the privatisation of the English Summer with the owners of the having full control over England players to a greater extent that the IPL owners do What is not mentionerd is that while much is made of the £ 590 million "saving" Englsih Cricket but not only is this not being shared with the counties it's being witheld to earn interest to replenish the ECB coffers where the surplus was spent creating the competition they have sold off. ECB lacks Power to Bring about change Which brings me to Noosa and the media beat up about Ben Duckett. I have seen the video and believe me there have been far worse than that in the past on tours. In the old days ,these things were covered up because the touring press were very much part of the tour party, less so in recent years because everyone has access tio a mobile phone and social media and this is a problem for sportsmen and women. You just have to make sure you do not put yourself in that kind of situation where you are treated like a monkey in the human zoo. Noosa would not be an issue for a side that was 2-0 up in the series as opposed to 0-2 down but it does give you a clue as to why Brendan McCullum's time is limited and the lack of accountability under his reign. If you read Jimmy Anderson new autobiography on pages 270-271 England under McCullum: He is not hands on in the nets, his job is to me the players feel ten feet tall and bullitproof when they walk on the field. A freedom to show the world what you can do with unorotodox fields Bowlers are encouraged at all times to take wickets even if it means going for runs Range hitting drills and very little scrutinised training Batsmen who get out to unorthodox shots encouraged to go harder next time. Practice finishing at 12 noon with Tee off on the Golf Course at 2.00pm Now to be fair to Brendan McCullum this would work in a T20 Franchise and he was not unsucessful in the early years of Bazball taking English Cricket from a low ebb. The closest paralell to him being Eddie Jones and the Rugby Union team, But lke Eddie Jones, his tactics have been rumbled by other sides and England's one-dimensional approach and its weaknesees have been magnified. England have lurched in this series from all out attack to full block mode. wheras Joe Root does tend to plasu in the classical test match manner. A Root innings is not about hammering the ball to the boundary but clipping the ball behind squate on the legside or late cutting the ball down to third man picking up the ones and two and essentially being "busy" at the crease. Something his colleagues should look and learn from. So when McCullum goes who akes over? . For startres I find it hard to believe that results will magically change afterwards and the England job is not as attractive as people think. If you have a young family do you really want to be travelling aroundf the world 10 months in the year wearing the crown of thorns that is England Coach, presiding over a declining sport with near insolvable structural issues or would you rather be a BBL or IPL coach and have the rest of the year maybe doing some media work. The coach they have always wanted is Jason Gillespie and he does not, to my knowledge want the job, there are few names being bandied around one of which would be Justin Langer but would you really want a coach who was to intense for the Australian dressing room in the England one? Here is another video from Jarrod Kimber explaining the differ5ende in English and Australian cricket culture Should we care about the Ashes? Finally Bazball Bingo - see if you can spot the first time an England player or member of the Coaching staff comes out with the phrase "the 2027 Ashes starts here" Scyld Berry in the Daily Telegraph and Matt Prior on Talsport have already but they do not count for this quiz

Dallas Cowboys to Mexico City in 2026. If not America's team Mexico's ? https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/jerry-jones-hints-cowboys-international-000005940.html

Theres a new twist to the NFL season - organic tanking in which you let the side drfit down the table in order to get a better draft pick. There a website for this Tankathon https://www.tankathon.com/nfl And there is also "Black Monday" the forst day after the end of the regular season - January 5th whree traditionally General Managers, Head Coaches, and Other Voaching staff are fired. In pole position are Pete Carrioll, Head oach Las Vegas Raiders and Matt Eberflus, Defensive Co-ordinator Dallas Cowboys. Other Candidates are Dan Quinn at Washington and Mike McDaniel at Miami Dolphins but there are always surprises and Kevin Stefanski at Cleveland and Raheem Morris at Atlanta Falcons cannot be ruled out.

Thursday, Dec. 25 Dallas Cowboys at Washington Commanders– 1pm, Netflix Detroit Lions at Minnesota Vikings – 4:30pm, Netflix Denver Broncos at Kansas City Chiefs– 8:15pm, Prime Video Saturday, Dec. 27 Houston Texans at LA Chargers – 4:30pm, NFL Network Baltimore Ravens at Green Bay Packers– 8pm, Peacock Sunday, Dec. 28 Seattle Seahawks at Carolina Panthers– 1pm, CBS Arizona Cardinals at Cincinnati Bengals– 1pm, FOX Pittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland Browns– 1pm, CBS Jacksonville Jaguars at Indianapolis Colts – 1pm, FOX Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Miami Dolphins – 1pm, FOX New England Patriots at NY Jets – 1pm, FOX New Orleans Saints at Tennessee Titans – 1pm, CBS NY Giants at Las Vegas Raiders – 4:05pm, CBS Philadelphia Eagles at Buffalo Bills– 4:25pm, FOX Chicago Bears at San Francisco 49ers– 8:20pm, NBC/Peacock Monday, Dec. 29 LA Rams at Atlanta Falcons – 8:15pm, ESPN

Responsing to your points, During my time of playing and watchiong Cricket he sport has declined from being the national summer sport to becoming a niche sport hidden behind a paywall and its been the case that whenever given the choice of cash v exposure, administators have simply gone for short-term cash and increased the difficulties faced by the game. In Australia and New Zealand, Cricket is for everyone, it's not in England the birthplace of tje game, your chances of playing the ame are limited by the school you go to with the game having collapsed in state schools. The next potential Jofra Archer is probably walking down Coldharbour Lane in Brixton as I type this and has never been near a cricket ground. 8 of the current XI went to a private school. Private school pupils are just 7% of the UK population. Its not just educational apartheid that applies here. If you place the sport behind a Pay TV firewall then only those who can afford subscriptions wil view the sport so in short Pay TV preachers only to the converted. Add to this the fact that Test Match Ticket prices in England are extortionate at over £ 100 for a day as opposed to the relative cheapness overseas. If your not on Free to Air TV you do not attract a new audience. You do not have to agree with the author Duncan Stone's politics to appreciate the validity of the points he makes https://www.redpepper.org.uk/culture-media/books/review-different-class-the-untold-story-of-english-cricket/ You now have in England two short form leagues dominating the summer months, the blast and the and they take up the prime summer months with the County Championship geting a brief two week interlude inbetween comps. So forget about developing spinners on dry turning wickets and batsmen who can counter said spinners overseas. But the majority of players will not be playing in the so why not play the championship alongside this competition. Kent have been pushing for this but get no support from the Test Match grounds led by Surrey who want to play the Championship at a time that would suit them. To me it's an ideal situation the County Championshipp for those whand those who are not so keen can join the other event goers at the . So what is the problem? You raise the point about the shrinking of the game fron 18 first class counties, this is not new and is something that was disclosed in a letter from an ECB marketing executive to the Cricket Supporters Association a few years ago in which said apparatchik stated that most people would be living in cities in the future so the need for 18 counties was less which ignores the fact that many players at these big city clubs originally hail from the smaller counties. tHis issue is about to explode As for SKY they do influence the domestic and international schedule and a litrtle known BBC Breakfast time segment at the start of the that the ECB approached SKY with the idea and it was SKY who were the main driver as they are the main driver of jamming back to back tests in five match series in July ti suit SKY's promotion of soccers Premier League. The main subscription driver. Do not think you are going to se client journalists or client broadcasters who make a living out of ECB/BBC/ SKY making any of these points anytime soon. Though it is always amusing when people lije David Lloyd and Moeen Ali seem to change their tune when no longer playing or employed by Cricket's establishment. If you give me two hours I could rant on, but suffice to say the problems in English Cricket are cultural and structural so whether Brendan MCullum is removed as coach or not (as with Shaun Wane) do not expect any change in the result in the Ashes. Cricket needs a fundamental revamp right from the top down to bnecome relevant to 21st century Britain.

Late Lunch due to a rain brwak of 40 minutes, England 309-7 10 Overs into the new ball. Jamie Snmith played himself back into form but just at the point where England were 150 away from their target the commentators curse struck and Smith who had struck four successive boundaries skied the 5th ball to Cummins off Starc at wide mid-on. A True Bazball dismissal. More galling in that Nathan Lyon will not bowl again today having picked up an injury on the boundary I suspect England will fall tantalisingly short, leaving this game, like the series,as a case of what might have been. If Snicko had given Alex Carey out in the 60's. If an English batsman orher than Stokes and Archer had got going in tje first innings If Stokes could have bowled on day three If Harry Brook had not played another daft reverse sweep with England 177-3

Tea 106 for 2 in 27 Overs, Root and Crawley not letting Lyon settle and rotrating the strike.

England chasing 435 are 5 for 1 after just 2 overs at Lunch. Ducket pushing at a ball well outside his off stump giving slip practice to Labuschange at Second slip. The bowlers have again done their job in taking the last 6 Ausdie wickets this morning bowling them out for 349. Now I would like to be positive here and state that biger totals are being chased down more frequently in the 21st century but how close England get depends a lot on Joe Root who is the batsman the rest opf the side plays around. His is the wicket Australia wants above all others as you will note from the celebrations.