Andrew Strauss has done the usual losing-England-captain-state-the-obviousspiel “We didn’t play to our full potential”, “We need to win”, “We can do better”, “World Cup is not far away” yahda yahda yahda. When is someone going to tell it how it really is?

“We suck. I don’t know why, but we’re sh*t in the one day game. Haven’t got a clue.”

That would at least be assuring to the public that they’re know they’re rubbish and there’s work to do, rather than the empty promises of “we will get better”.

But meanwhile, Pakistan have missed an opportunity and instead doing the PC thing:

“We have been playing well in this series so far and the win at Lord’s comes as a great relief,” Inzamam told The News. “But there are still three matches to go and the series is wide open. We will have to continue playing well to win it. We have so far been better than them in bowling, batting and even fielding,” he said. “But I believe England is a very capable side and the fact that they are playing in front of home fans can help them to make a comeback in the next games.”

What a load of nonsense. That game was not wide open. It couldn’t have been more narrowly closed if it tried. Pakistan whooped England’s sorry arse soundly and Pakistan should be gloating about it WWE-style. Come on Inzy, we know you’re not a man who’s worried about making a scene, or causing a stir, so tell it how it is:

“We were amazing. The best one day team in the world right now. Our two opening bowlers would cause anyone discomfort, and out batting order is second to none. Oh, and by the way, England are sh*t.”

That would at least be more interesting than the cricket.

Post from: EveryJoe

Rubbish cricket, but man they’re polite

King Cricket pays some respect to England A bowler Jon Lewis and his 4-for-not-a-lot against Sri Lanka, and wonder whether Lewis deserves a spot in the English test side. It seems unlikely, seeing as though Lewis was only drafted in to cover for Sajid Mahmood, widely tipped to make his test debut next week. But if Lewis continues that sort of form, and all the regular English fast bowlers keep getting injured, then maybe it’s not such a silly idea after all. Personally, I’d like to see Chris Tremlett in there.

Cricket 24×7 considers yet another “we’re professional cricketers, but we’re so tired, and we play too much and it’s so hard and we’re all going to burn out and all we really want is a nice big cuddle off our mummies” story – this one from Brett Lee. It amounts to the same story – feeling amongst players is that the cricket calendar is too full and players are getting injured – the old “burnout” dilemma. Brett reckons they’d rather spend time resting in preparation for the Ashes, rather than expending energy in the Champions Trophy. Quite right too – noone gives a monkeys about the Champions Trophy.

Rick Eyre is apparently still AWOL. John, over (or is that down under?) at Cricket-Blog talks about yet another Steve Waugh tirade of which recently, there have been loads. Steve Waugh is going all out in promotion of his new biography, though quite whether the best way to do that is by slagging everyone off is anyone’s guess. John calls KP out on being Shane Warne’s rent boy. I’m inclined to agree.

The Surfer , blogging arm of Cricinfo, does its usual trick of hunting interesting cricket stories from the top newspapers, such as this one on Elton John and a delightful interview with Matthew Hoggard, and his unusual dog-walking antics.

Post from: EveryJoe

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