***Official** West Indies in England***

FBU said:

I have a strong feeling Sidebottom will play tomorrow. The bowling pecking order has now come to an end. Whoever is doing fairly well in county cricket now gets a chance to bowl for England. Is there any point of an Academy? I expect we can look forward to Yorkshire/Sussex players filtering into the team.

Harmison
Hoggard
Jones
Plunkett
Anderson
Mahmood
Broad
Lewis
Tremlett
Onions
Khan
Footitt

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I think that's a bit short on batting.

Bob Bamber said:

Exactly how it wouldn't happen. If Vaughan opens , which I don't think he will , it would be with Strauss , and Cook at three , but no need to disrupte the opening partnership , hopefully Vaughan won't be there long anyway.

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You'd hope that if he scores 3 consecutive centuries in his next 3 Test innings, would you?

FBU said:

I have a strong feeling Sidebottom will play tomorrow. The bowling pecking order has now come to an end. Whoever is doing fairly well in county cricket now gets a chance to bowl for England. Is there any point of an Academy? I expect we can look forward to Yorkshire/Sussex players filtering into the team.

Harmison
Hoggard
Jones
Plunkett
Anderson
Mahmood
Broad
Lewis
Tremlett
Onions
Khan
Footitt

Click to expand...

While I rate the chances of Test success of almost all those bowlers as slim-to-zero (Footitt, for instance, has one hell of a lot to do to become a county-standard bowler) I still don't like the selection of Sidebottom. As Kev said earlier, it's completely random. It's based on nothing more than a handful of matches, and that's one thing I hate.

The domestic competition is the way to pick players, but not just a few games of it.

marc71178 said:

He provides variation apparently.

Left arm tripe to complement the right arm tripe from the other seamers.

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Haha, Sidebottom "left arm tripe".

Richard said:

As Kev said earlier, it's completely random. It's based on nothing more than a handful of matches, and that's one thing I hate.

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No, it's not completely random. Sidebottom has been one of the most consistent bowlers for Nottinghamshire for the past 2-3 years. The guy has improved a hell of a lot from 2001 from the bits I've seen of him on TV as he now has the ability to swing the ball back into the right handers. A random selection would be an Onions, Bresnan or Amjad Khan but not a proven performer in the county game like Sidebottom. He deserves another chance imo.

Richard said:

While I rate the chances of Test success of almost all those bowlers as slim-to-zero (Footitt, for instance, has one hell of a lot to do to become a county-standard bowler) I still don't like the selection of Sidebottom. As Kev said earlier, it's completely random. It's based on nothing more than a handful of matches, and that's one thing I hate.

The domestic competition is the way to pick players, but not just a few games of it.

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Sidey's been consistently good for more than a few matches.

I think it's a good selection not least because when Nott's were at the county ground in 2005 we switched his water for a can of Tetley's, Ready loved it too. Oh the laughs and banter we had that day. He also got us a little bat signed by the entire Nott's team and the 12th man (championship winners that year mind) and brought it back to where we were sitting after tea, so we got Cloughy to stick a few cans in his bag from us, ahhhhh fond memories.

So basically Sidebottom's a legend and thoroughly deserves another shot.

Edit:

He bowled well that match too if my memory serves me correct, does cricinfo archive domestic matches from 2005?

Yep seems they do http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC1/SCORECARDS/25-29MAY2005/GLOUCS_NOTTS_CC1_25-28MAY2005.html

Whilst I wouldn't say Sidebottom's selection is entirely random, I also think that he won't make the 11 and his selection is more of a wake-up call to those on the fringes who may have got a bit complacent about their status than anything else...

Pup Clarke said:

No, it's not completely random. Sidebottom has been one of the most consistent bowlers for Nottinghamshire for the past 2-3 years. The guy has improved a hell of a lot from 2001 from the bits I've seen of him on TV as he now has the ability to swing the ball back into the right handers. A random selection would be an Onions, Bresnan or Amjad Khan but not a proven performer in the county game like Sidebottom. He deserves another chance imo.

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It's completely random in the sense that no-one was expecting it. TBBH, I'd actually forgotten how good Sidebottom's figures had been the last 2 years. Thing is, though, they were good in 2001 - but he still wouldn't have made my Yorkshire Best XI and so, to me, him playing for England was crazy. And TBH, too, his end-of-season average looks good, but I know for certain it went up and down in both seasons.

Gloucefan said:

Sidey's been consistently good for more than a few matches.

I think it's a good selection not least because when Nott's were at the county ground in 2005 we switched his water for a can of Tetley's, Ready loved it too. Oh the laughs and banter we had that day. He also got us a little bat signed by the entire Nott's team and the 12th man (championship winners that year mind) and brought it back to where we were sitting after tea, so we got Cloughy to stick a few cans in his bag from us, ahhhhh fond memories.

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Eeek, Tetley's instead of water. Can think of nothing worse on a hot day.

Richard said:

Eeek, Tetley's instead of water. Can think of nothing worse on a hot day.

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We returned the water to him though, it was in the middle of play

Richard said:

Eeek, Tetley's instead of water. Can think of nothing worse on a hot day.

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A salt tablet?

Never tried the tablet, TBH, so have no context. In any case, I doubt anyone would swap that for such a thing.

pasag said:

Doubt it will get to a 4th day tbh.

I'll take my Greigy now thanks

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It won't if the Windies learn to catch......

Pup Clarke said:

No, it's not completely random. Sidebottom has been one of the most consistent bowlers for Nottinghamshire for the past 2-3 years. The guy has improved a hell of a lot from 2001 from the bits I've seen of him on TV as he now has the ability to swing the ball back into the right handers. A random selection would be an Onions, Bresnan or Amjad Khan but not a proven performer in the county game like Sidebottom. He deserves another chance imo.

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"Choosing between Jimmy and Ryan will be a tough decision," admitted Vaughan. "They both seem to be bowling pretty well. Ryan, bowling left-arm swing offers us a different option, something we have not seen for a while, whilst Jimmy has the potential to bowl great away swing.

"The ground has offered reverse-swing for Yorkshire this summer and Jimmy's threat with that could be key."

FBU said:

I have a strong feeling Sidebottom will play tomorrow. The bowling pecking order has now come to an end. Whoever is doing fairly well in county cricket now gets a chance to bowl for England. Is there any point of an Academy? I expect we can look forward to Yorkshire/Sussex players filtering into the team.

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Yes... Us Loughborough boys need somewhere to train!

Richard said:

It's completely random in the sense that no-one was expecting it. TBBH, I'd actually forgotten how good Sidebottom's figures had been the last 2 years. Thing is, though, they were good in 2001 - but he still wouldn't have made my Yorkshire Best XI and so, to me, him playing for England was crazy. And TBH, too, his end-of-season average looks good, but I know for certain it went up and down in both seasons.

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I'I don't have a problem with the completely unexpected nature of Sidebottom's call-up: not in these circumstances, anyway. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for consistency, but that simply isn't possible when five of the likeliest lads are unfit (Hoggard, Fred, Jones, Lewis & Broad) and a couple of he others (Mahmood & Tremlett) are reckoned to be completely off the boil. This is a very long way from the 80's & 90's approach where players were plucked from no-where for a couple of tests just because other players and had an off-game. And I can totally understand the temptation to play at least one guy who is likely to make the lefthanders play at more than one ball an over.

It's a bit like 2003, when by the middle of the SA series we were without Jones, Caddick, Hoggard, Johnson & Gough. They could have picked some kid from the academy in the name of "continuity", but decided instead to pick a couple of guys who actually knew how to bowl. Quite rightly too, as it turned out.

PhoenixFire said:

I'm off to go and watch the 4th days play, anyone else going?

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I'd imagine there will be some other people there, so don't worry

Cricinfo have just reported that Sidebottom is in the side, so presumably Anderson will miss out? I'd rather have Anderson over Plunkett tbh, although that would leave us with a looooooong tail...

Spitfires_Fan said:

Cricinfo have just reported that Sidebottom is in the side, so presumably Anderson will miss out? I'd rather have Anderson over Plunkett tbh, although that would leave us with a looooooong tail...

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haha...so Plunkett is in because of his batting prowess...uhhhmmm..OK

England win toss and bat