Ashes

1. Strauss (cpt)
2. Cook
3. Bell
4. Collingwood
5. Pieterson
6. Flintoff
7. Joyce (Englands version of Hussey)
8. Read
9. Plunkett/Broad
10. Hoggard
11. *****MONTY*****

Here is team that will bat to at least 8 and possibly take 20 wickets. You have Collingwood and Bell (underrated) as back up bowlers. Giles, Harmison & Jones to be home well in time to do their christmas shopping (by friday 8.12.06). To be quiet honest I know a few village cricketers that would have fared better than this lot. Flintoff showed that he is NOT a leader. Just because he is a likable lad does not mean he should be captain. Lacked motivation and leadership when need, body language said it all. Duncan can be faithful with his favourites but he should read a bit of history as on many an occasion the so called loyal's brought down the demise of their masters knowingly &/or unknowingly. The new guys cant fair any worse than this lot has.

One more thing to note, just because a player has had one or two good series does not make him a world class player. It takes more than 3 - 4 years on the international circuit to achieve this. It also means batsman should be averaging close to or above 50 by then and bowlers to have tidy economical rates and good averages + strike rates. So lets not get the England boys big heads by calling them world class. Compare Freddie to Kallis or Wasim, KP to Lara or Sachin, Harmison to McGrath, Walsh or Ambrose? Get the drift?? These boys have a long way to get anywhere near these guys. Heard one pundit calling Giles a world class spinner LMAO!!!