No great surprise to hear Shane Warne giving his views today on the issue of Andrew Strauss deciding not to tour Bangladesh later this month.
As an Englishman I sometimes think, should I be pissed off with Warne criticizing English cricket? And the answer is, No, I don’t believe I should be.
Warne dosen’t just slag something or someone off when giving his view, his comments are generally constructive and in my view are generally right. And on this occasion he is probably right again.
It is disrespectful to Banglasdesh (if not Test cricket as well), and if England come unstuck over there I’m sure there will be no shortage of takers waiting to say serves you right.
With my England hat on I have stated that I think the rights or wrongs of Strauss not touring will only be judged at the end of the Ashes series. But with my cricket hat on, I do believe the captain should always be there to play Test cricket when fit and available.
I can just imagine the amount of England fans thinking, Warne is slagging England off again, when they heard his remarks today. But in my view he isn’t, it is constructive criticism.
In a time where players are media trained to give interviews without actually saying anything, it is refreshing to hear someone giving their views without worrying about upsetting someone or a cricketing body. Long may Warne continue to say these things, in my view cricket is all the better for it.
Brian Carpenter
I completely agree, Dean, both about the consistent intelligence and refreshing originality of Warne’s comments and what Strauss is doing. As has been well demonstrated, Strauss would have had 5-6 weeks off between SA and Bangladesh, and more time off afterwards. How much rest does he need?
If the Tests were against any other country you can bet your bottom dollar (an appropriate phrase for this blog) he’d be there.
Dean @ CBB
Thanks for the comment Brain, your right, Strauss has got a lot of time off already and should be playing in the Tests. I’m sure no one would have objected if he had just sat out the ODI’s instead.
I don’t care what the England mouth pieces claim, it is disrespecting Banglasdesh as he wouldn’t have done it to any other Test nation, I just hope England don’t slip up as his position could come under serious media scrutiny if we lose, and we could do without that.
With regard to Shane Warne, what I like about his comments is that he dosen’t just make ‘McGrath like’ slurs, insulting the other teams. During the Ashes series he was far more constructive than one or two of Sky’s other commentators (in particular 1980’s allrounder), who just criticized for the sake of it.
His remarks have substance and English cricket could do a lot worse than take them on board.
He was right about Monty’s bowling, he also said that Stuart Broad wasn’t ready to be promoted to the No.7 position ahead of the SA tour, that he needs to carry on developing his bowling, and that his batting isn’t up to an international No.7 yet, which it cleary isn’t on the evidence of SA.