Joking aside, Avery, can I send you some images to edit into the first post here please? I'm thinking some classic cricketing images of the years and possibly below some vital statistics? Eg list of World Cup winners, overall test match records for the major countries, that kind of thing. Would be a cool first post for the thread i think.

this new forum sucks. but anyway we deserve to lose this series 2-0 today is a disgrace. this wicket had plenty in it and between hauritz's atrocious bowling and ponting's spineless captaincy we threw away a real chance. who the fuck has one slip when the ball is 8 overs old? you have the field back because you think they are running out of time? they only need 160 in a day you tit.
:bangs head against wall:

God dammit, Australia!

Yeah, sure. Good idea.

Warne slagged off the field settings on twitter I believe.
Anyway, 2-0 to India and they lost the toss twice. Good job it wasn't a 5 test series cos this has whitewash written all over it.

Gee stick the boot in a little harder there Nick!

The first test was as close as you can get and this 2nd test India batted very well in the 4th innings, but with a bit of luck and better tactics it should have been a lot closer than it was. If Tendulkar had say, only averaged 50 in this series we would have won both matches easily.

And England don't have a Tendulkar! We're going to crush you in the Ashes!! Bring it on!

Good idea for the first post though. WG Grace is a must have on the front. Bradman, Sobers, Imran, Warne, Tendulkar, Ashley Giles etc are other greats deserving of having their picture immortalised on this thread.

Oh and please remove Douglas Jardine's photo from this thread. This place should encourage discussion of decent cricketers, not evil criminals.

yeah, we should still win the ashes comfortably. will that get us out of 5th place on the ICC rankings ?

At least we've given England a false sense of security now, they even have Phil Tufnell coming out saying the ashes is theirs! lol.
It was always going to be tough in India, it always is for any side. India played well as expected, we bowled with little purpose or plan. Hilfenhaus tried hard as usual, Johnson was erratic,and Hauritz was just plain ordinary and predictable. I think we need a decent leggy in the test side, whether Steve smith is an option i dont know. I do know that Liam G my son is making his debut this Friday, so we might have a decent leggy for the 2021 series.

Mint,
I can include a pic of WG if you like. I actually looked at a few but for some reason didn't send Avery a link.

can you be more specific re "comfortably"?

Boycs on Laxman:

I've always said he is one of my favourites. I christened him in Australia, when I was doing commentary years ago, as the Magic Man. That's mainly because he is a quality player, a touch player with lovely strokes, he's a great timer and placer of the ball. He's a big-occasion man, has a good temperament and is a superb batsman.

I love his batting because he has lovely hands, great wrists. You can bowl him two balls of similar pace and length, and he'll play two different shots to them. He's an amazing talent. An unassuming, quiet lad but underneath he's as tough as teeth. He's tough and up for the challenge. There's a gracefulness about his batting that just makes it look easy. I'm sure it isn't and needs practice like all of us.

No I like him, I love him. I love his batting, he's the Magic Man. He's as good as anyone there is [in the middle order]. Who's better? Probably only Jacques Kallis. Kallis is a fantastic cricketer and his whole career has been wonderful. But Laxman, he's so unassuming. He makes runs under pressure, he makes runs when you need them, and that's when I look at people. When you're 420 for 2, my mum could bat at No. 5 and 6. But you want someone to play well when you're in trouble, like that famous 281 in Kolkata against Australia with Rahul Dravid that won the match for India. That's what you want to see. I want a guy who's up for the challenge, someone who is the go-to guy, who'll get me out of trouble. Not the guy who plays well when everything's going well.

Chappell & Boycs are easily the best pundits for me.

haha. 3-1 or something