Navman

I know Sri Lanka are in transition etc but still, this has been a good performance so far. I was watching that "England in the 90's" programme the other day and it makes you appreciate the team we have now.

 

We're not without fault but more often than not we have players who stand up and contribute when it's needed.

England need to batter SL and Pakistan. No mercy. Australian style

They also need to find long term replacements for Anderson and broad - Finn looks shot and wood is injuried.

Anything but woakes

I'd bring back butler and tell Barstow to bat ahead of stokes. Someone need to tell stokes he isn't the big show, he has immense talent but he is going to flush it away if he doesn't engage his brain

Not sure about Hales or Compton. But defo not bell returning. There are some good openers floating around

Ali batting has gone to shit. He needs to actually try to play properly.

Rashid could play in these tests as he will be needed all winter long

The hard test will be Bangladesh ( who are improving and are hungry - England should beat them but they are toughing up with a great SL coach.

India will try to do to England what they did to SA but maybe it will backfire.... ( produce heavily worn pitches )

SL never used to be a decent Test team, they just hit on a Golden generation who made their name in the shorter game to begin with then carried that on into Tests, they could be in big trouble now if the don't find a few decent top order batsmen. Great catch by Finn as I type, 8 down and still need 9 to avoid the follow on.

We were decent enough to beat England at home in the nineties and for much of the 00's

It's a misnomer that we were good in one days and then tests. In reality, no one wanted to play us in test cricket

In 1996 we lucked onto a forumla, and due to the civil war, the draw was kind and we went to beat the Aussies in the final

The defeat in the 96 final is still one of Shane warnes most bitter memories - and that (plus murali vs hair) has meant that Australia vs Sri Lanka is always a grudge match ( unlike England )

Murali and blatant pitch doctoring and non neutral umpires meant we beat nearly everyone at home, but we awful away from home

All that is happened now is that we are awful everywhere

Sanga and Mahela only really appeared in the 00's - at that point we did have better form - but were robbed of the best fast bowler ( who would have easily matched Anderson and broad) in test cricket in Malinga ( a similar store to Bond for NZ )

Malinga chased the rupee and also being thick decided to quit tests

Sanga is a great player, but pretty selfish and could still be playing on. Mahela is useless now

I don't think Gough was a patch on Broad and Anderson. And I did like Gough.

 

He was inconsistent for me, as was Caddick.

Gough was very talented (I remember the 5 wickets and fifty he scored against Australia) but zero discipline and so cannot be recognised in the same breath as Anderson and broad

there was no DRS and neutral umpires so it could be argued that it's harsh to compare

Thorpe was a truely great batsmen. Underrated

Good luck to everyone. Living in Cheltenham this year but can't get down to the course. Weather has been warm and nice with no rain for a week.

Trump is going to destroy Clinton (even against the odds)

She is the prefect candidate with enough history that lets sink

Trump as president - imagine that in 2017. Can't wait for him t have a go at China (and fail)

Great knock by BMAc

The poisonous ex coach has picked Dawson I see

Abit of a pattern appearing

We are linked with or targeting young players out of contract in summer

Don't want to use the m word but it strikes me that there hasn't been much change in FSG transfer policy - ie buying proven quality rather than taking a punt on players eg markovic

Klopp is great but ultimately cannot turn water in wine

If we ever want to do anything significant again we need to rid ourselves of our 7/10 players eg MS and buy quality

It's no coincidence that when we were doing so well in Europe we had a team with Alonso, torres, mascherano and Gerard

I thought episode 2 was better, felt like they were either reaching, or retreading too much old ground, at times last night.

Agreed

Andy Burnham is really not very impressive

Problem with Trump is that he actually looks impressive in comparison to the other - Ben Carson looks like he is on heavy sedation and he is the favourite

Planted question alert!

This arguement over the police shows why no one votes these days

Soubry is drooling over this refugee question

Wait for it

Ha Ha dimbleby with total fail trying to summarise the audience member question on troops

Why did everyone just skip the answer on the funding of ISIS?

No mention of Saudi or Qatar..

Cannot trust anyone who wears a green suit, shirt and Tie combo

Brilliant day of test cricket today

England sinking fast against Pakistan - but have been good this series

Aussies smashing NZ

India vs SA competitive

I would recommend everyone getting heath insurance if you can

The end is really nigh with the NHS

Will likely go the way of dentists I imagine

I actually don't think its particularly politically party driven - but it isnt really helped by the current incumbents

All things being equal a fantastic performance by Wales

Lots of the younger players have fantastic experience now. Not as good as 2011 and need more magic behind the scrum

NZ will streamroll the boks

I'm buying one of these Amazon Fire devices with kodi built into it - is it safe? ( not buying from Amazon but a bloke from gumtree who has it preinstalled )

Not sure if I could do it myself tbh

TB really sticking the knife in tonight

Thought England were average but the score line and bonus point is key

England will get the home advantage against Wales but I think will lose against Aussies

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/story/869279.html

A good few of these players need to step up to the longer format

How long left?