Could Kenya make life tougher for England?
St Lucia - After the frenzy of the last few days, a mood of calm returned to the England team hotel this morning and it was very much business as usual.
Perhaps this evening there will be fewer candidates for Big Chef鈥檚 32oz steak as the six players and two coaches involved in Friday鈥檚 Big Night Out have donated a combined 拢10,000 to charity
Opening batsman took his turn in front of the media 鈥 of which more later 鈥 and professed no regrets about turning his back on Ireland in the hope of playing Test cricket.
It was suggested to him that Ireland could be England鈥檚 first opponents in the Super Eight second round of the World Cup.
However, Ireland still need Zimbabwe to lose to Pakistan to be certain of their spot.
England still have to beat Kenya next Saturday, and qualification will become even more complicated if the East African side upset New Zealand today.
Were Kenya to beat New Zealand, England would have to beat Kenya and finish with a superior run rate than the 2003 World Cup semi-finalists.
I dashed to the (not Beausejour Stadium, we have been gently reminded by the local organising committee) in time to see Kenya take the first step, with Lou Vincent falling fourth ball to Thomas Odoyo, the wicket offering its usual early swing.
Whatever the outcome, this is the first chance to see whether Steve Tikolo鈥檚 side will pose real problems for England next Saturday.
Against Canada last week, through the middle of the innings and shared five wickets.
Will they be able to do a similar thing to batsmen of Test standard?
And will their batsmen be able to step up a level and emulate their captain鈥檚 maturity against an attack featuring Shane Bond and Daniel Vettori?
All will be revealed to the sparsest crowd at any group match so far. England and Canada have the biggest groups of supporters and only a handful of them are here as neutrals.
There is a small patch of beige on the far side of the stadium, the Kiwi fans sporting a banner that reads 鈥淪tay off the hash, Nash, it鈥檚 Fleming bad for your Hart鈥
It is a reference to that occurred long before Andrew Flintoff could even spell 鈥減edalo鈥.
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Can someone please explain the need to expiate guilt by making donations to charity. I am always reminded of the Kray twins when I read of actions as described above.
Saturday's match will hopefully expose the lack of professionalism of England's dilettantes, which might coincide with a similar unmasking in Israel round about the same time. It would be a delicious indictment of sporting prowess in this country were both to transpire.
Does Ed Joyce seriously not know that England might have to play Ireland first up should both teams make it to the next round? That seems once again to demonstrate how ill-prepared are this sorry bunch of losers.
Drug use has always been a problem in New Zealand; after all there is so little to do in that country and inbreeding does lose its attraction after a while.
I gather you can buy Freddie and the Pedalo badges on Ebay for 拢0.99, which seems like a good investment. Mine is on its way to the West Indies together with a request for the return of his MBE.
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james, they should never have been given MBEs for winning ONE SERIES anyway. Boycott's Hundred Centuries merited that, as should Shane Warnes' wicket taking record.
proud of that 2005 side, but not over the top proud- basically it was a political stunt by Tony and his Cronies to try and garner yet more favourable publicity and spin. remember Cool Brittania (eurgh!) anyone ?
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With a lack of intent in England's batting line up and a very average, inexperienced bowling attack, England are in my view very exosed to a Kenya side who are well known for causing upsets.
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as has been reported it was Michael Vaughan that helped" finger" -captain flintoff- should the other players be wary ?
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i personally think it is ridiculous the way Mr. Flintoff is being treated. He is an adult and therefore can make his own decisions about WHERE and WHEN he goes out drinking wiv the lads. To have to donate to charity is a nice touch dont get me wrong but they should have just recieved a quiet word in the ear and get on wiv the job in hand and that is to win the world cup. Come on ENGLAND!!! x
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Amazing how the arch-hypocrites Boycott and Hussain conveniently forget their own serious shortcomings in the past and pass judgement on Freddie Flintoff (London Lite this evening). Am I misremembering that Boycott was sacked from the England team and that Hussain abandoned ship in mid-test series, leaving Vaughan to pick up the pieces? Shurely shome mishtake.
Vaughan behaved completely correctly and as the excellent captain he is; if the team are wary of behaving badly that is as it should be. The captain's role is not to be big mates with all the players but to get the very best out of them, and Vaughan most clearly has that ability.
Before we throw any more brickbats at Flintoff let's remember that under his captaincy the team won an historic victory in Bombay and also won the Commonwealth Bank trophy - not so dusty after all.......
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Caramba, are we never going to hear the end of this? Vaughan has acted decisively, Freddie has apologised profusely and I'm not the only one who believes this incident which has brought the whole thing out into the open will be the making of him. The best is yet to come from master Fred.
It makes me sick when I read in London Lite denigratory comments from the arch-hypocrites Boycott and Hussain - one having been sacked from the England team for a complete lack of team spirit, the other who abandoned ship in mid-test series. Gus Fraser has it right in the Independent today - 'The old Freddie may have gone for ever, but the new one is still a damn fine man and a great cricketer'.
Shove that in your pipes and smoke it Boycott and Hussain!
Now let's get on with the series.
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Well I seem to have written twice to this blog because the system seemed to have broken down half-way through my first posting.
Apols for semi-repetition, two are better than none.....
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come on kenya!
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With all this old news of a few players letting of steam , what about the more important issue of who should be playing against Kenya. We need batsmen who can score, sorry KP but your recent form is lousy, get Andrew Strauss back in the team, Ed Joyce needs more batting practice but not in this team at this time. Come on Duncan, show us that you can choose the players in form not on past form and what they might be able to do.
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i sure hope Kenya can pose an upset on Saturday. They have been playing some good cricket over the past few years and along with Bangladesh shoud be promoted to a full test side.
Their performance against the Kiwis was dismal, but again it is the Kiwis we are talking about.
I feel there is still some drama to come from group C.
Go Kenya
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Andy, I'm sorry have you gone crazy? Are you seriously suggesting that Kevin petierson be dropped in favour of Andrew strauss?
I agree our middle order is having great difficulties pushing through an innings, but dropping our best batsman is not the answer. One of Vaughan, Joyce or Bell has to convert these nothing 20's and 30's scores into an anchoring hundred so that KP and Freddie have the confidence to let loose with 15 overs to go.
Strauss is a fine player, but if we are going to recall him it must be at the top of the innings and therefore either Bell or Joyce would have to make way.
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I have not read a lot of positive things about about Kenya even though they tried hard to win against an experienced New Zealand side could you please report more positively and give more credit where our country deserves!
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KENYA, you can do it....Go Kenya, Go Kenya!!! Cricket future is here with us...
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I followed the KIWI-KENYA match and i must say though the Black Caps had it quite easy in the end Kenya once again showed that with more exposure and more funds in the system they can beat any team on the day.
My money is on Kenya to beat England on Saturday.Any takers?
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Kenya showed that they are no mugs with the bats even though the defeat was big. Now, they have to improve on their fielding i.e. catching. If the chances offered earlier on by NZ were taken, then there would have been some flutters in NZ camp and who knows, maybe a different outcome. I am sure Duncan Fletcher will order extra practices now.
Improve fielding and bowling marginally (that is all is required against England) and Kenya may just pull it off against England.
As for England, well, win against Kenya, and they may just get knighted now!!! It is that desperate a situation for them.
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I am split between supporting Kenya or England becasue I hail from both countries.
But coming to think of it - COME ON KENYA!!!
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I think Ireland are going to do well but.. not going to win it. Unfortunately England are going to go out earlier than expected because of everything that has happend! HI IM COOL YAY!!!!!!
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Come on Kenya!! I really hope Kenya win against England. If Collins Obuya gets back into his groove early ... who knows?? cos england sure struggle against leg spinners. Come on Kenya!!!
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