Ashes 2013/2014 Thread

5-0! Whoever would have thought that in November and with huge margins of victory in all 5 tests as well.Some serious rebuilding to do now,the only bright spot of the tour has been the emergence of Stokes.I agree with Jon L in his post above that there aren't any obvious candidates for the captaincy but i think Cook must resign for his own sake as much as anything else-his batting and catching have gone to pieces and he's far too good a player to go to waste.A rejuvenated Prior may be some sort of short term answer but not an easy problem to solve.Credit to Australia,they were miles ahead of England throughout the series but i still don't rate them as a great side.It will be very interesting to see how they fare against a Kallis-less South Africa.

Total humiliation....thrashed everyday played....captainless and rudderless at all times.....other than that I shall sit on the fence.

In fairness, there were clues that this was a possibility last summer, the balance was shifting but I'm sure nobody expected a collapse of this magnitude. Trott's illness was probably the tipping point.

I'm very much looking forward to the Cape Town test at the beginning of March, hopefully the 3 match series will still be alive.

thank god that's over!

They will be smuggled out of Australia with more guile than the Nazi's ever had after the defeat of the 3rd Reich.

PS...having second thoughts...they'll probably get that wrong as well ....DOH.

Batting failure, bowling was not to bad, need to relieve Cook of the burden of captaincy. How about Broad???

Bowlers never had a day off and never had a total to support their bowling efforts...result no recovery time and no spark in their bowling...end result knackered bowlers.

Broad and Stokes are about the only two who can hold their heads up and say they gave it everything.

Might be time for a complete overhaul with Cook either backed to the hilt or stripped of the captaincy to allow him to regain his form.

Carberry, Bell, Pietersen, Prior and Root were awful, so was Panesar who is an embarrassment as a cricketer!

Cricket is becoming an all year round sport, not helped by the IPL and Big Bash leagues, but Pietersen has been allowed to miss the limited overs matches so he should get a decent break unless he goes chasing the $ instead of relaxing.

I'm not sure that Andy Flower is 100% committed at the moment. He doesn't look like someone that bothered about this humiliation so for me it's time to go.

Darren Lehman has totally revitalised the Aussies in a few months which is exactly what England need right now. There must be other up and coming coaches available who'd love the chance to coach England so get looking.

The ECB needs to conduct a full and frank investigation into why this tour was a complete disaster and act firmly on the findings made ready for the India/Sri lanka tests coming up later this year. I suspect one or two in the squad will be dropped for good, some coaches fired and Cook given another chance but will lose the odi captaincy to his successor in waiting if he doesnt shine.

Lessons need to be learnt by all involved with the tour so they are never repeated again.

Greenjock wrote:

Broad and Stokes are about the only two who can hold their heads up and say they gave it everything.

Might be time for a complete overhaul with Cook either backed to the hilt or stripped of the captaincy to allow him to regain his form.

Carberry, Bell, Pietersen, Prior and Root were awful, so was Panesar who is an embarrassment as a cricketer!

Cricket is becoming an all year round sport, not helped by the IPL and Big Bash leagues, but Pietersen has been allowed to miss the limited overs matches so he should get a decent break unless he goes chasing the $ instead of relaxing.

I'm not sure that Andy Flower is 100% committed at the moment. He doesn't look like someone that bothered about this humiliation so for me it's time to go.

Darren Lehman has totally revitalised the Aussies in a few months which is exactly what England need right now. There must be other up and coming coaches available who'd love the chance to coach England so get looking.

I'd like Gus Fraser involved. Someone who knows the County game and is outside the current set-up and also someone with a decent relationship with the bowler we have with the most potential (Finn). It'd be Giles, though if Flower steps down. I'm not sure that'd be a bad thing (I want Woakes involved over Bresnan from now on!) but I would want whoever is coach to be coach for all three formats at the very least.