I apologise for misusing and abusing the forum, but I have to let the wrold know that "WE ARE BACK AT THE TOP".

The West Indies led from in front by their inspirational captain James Adams have just beaten Pakistan by one wicket in a dramatic encounter at the Antiguan Recreation Ground. The West Indies benefitted from two harsh umpiring decisions and Pakistani fielding errors to record a famous victory. It's now on to England where we are going to pulverise England. And , not forgetting, I hate Liverpool F.C. .

You hate Liverpool F.C? Really? I never could have figured you for a Liverpool hater before!

http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/smile.gif

hehe

I really wish i knew the rules to cricket, looks like an interesting game.

Interesting.

Do you think Lara should be allowed to go on the England tour now?

Mate, that's an interesting question. I attended school with the guy and he's not Satan, but, no one can dispute that he was a poor captain and a terrible role model. The fact remains that he is one of the top three players in the world and his absence has allowed the team to regenerate self-belief. Therefore..........let him play as icing rather than the cake. He has been selected and he's a good friend of the new captain so there's no evidence to suggest that he'll try to subvert the authority of Adams as he is "rumoured" to have done under previous captains. What has emerged however is that one can never underestimate the importance of leadership and environment. The same players who hitherto looked to have forged the worst chapter in West Indian cricket history have now re-written the book. Quite frankly, there is almost no chance for England to beat us. For those who are interested we have unearthed two genuine batting talents in Hinds and Sarwan so attend the county games and the Test matches because we need the revenue.

To my mate Neutral who dares mock my bias when his name is an absolute embarassment to impartiality......... whatever my personal stresses with L.F.C., IT DOESN'T NEGATE ANY ARGUMENT I HAVE MADE. And "YES", I wouldn't pick Ronaldo if I were the coach. You have to draw the line with players returning from injury and lack of match practise. Just a few hours ago I witnessed a news report on Sky where Fowler himself admits he's the beneficiary of a dubious selection. Frankly I would not pick a single Liverpool player if I were Keegan. The lot of them are below International class. And that includes your wunderkind, Owen. You never seem able to quote goalscoring statistics for Cole to support his inclusion. Yet you craftily regurgitate excuses for the team you neutrally support. Injuries, youth, ill-luck, lack of experience. And by the way blaming lack-of-experience for their late season collapse is beneath you. You are "cleverer" than that. Remember 'your team's' cup runneth over with players of International selection. World and Euro Cup players. I guess Keegan's daliance with Hamburg and Newcastle have not cleaned the stench off his Liverpool shirt. He even selects an ex L'pool goalkeeper. Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez!

I am so happy. For once I actually got YOU riled up! http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/smile.gif

Don't get your panties in a twist, and have fun watching Owen partner Shearer upfront for England.

Rui Costa was quoted as saying the player he fears most at Euro 2000 was Owen.

Below international class my @ss.....

How do you think you'll go in Australia later in the year. Bearing in mind that Steve Waugh and the boys are on the verge of equaling the Windies test win record?

first of all thanks for your comments on Lara. It waits to be seen what he will do but I fear even a string of good performances will bring back his ego and could disrupt the team. Lara is all about himself and that remains his stumbling block. Adams with far less talent is much more team orientated and has brought the players together, i only hope he can shackle Lara and put the West Indies back where they belong.

As for Liverpool. You have seriously lost it.
Owen is a world class striker. look closely at that goal against Brazil. fowler is there by default no arguements there and James and Gerrard are there on merit both have played well this season. It remains a mystery as to why Andy Cole is kept out of the side but it may have more to do with off the field politics than on the field cermantics. Shearer and Cole do not like one another and Shearer is the England captain, go figure.

Mark - Australia have built an incredible team but as evidenced by the last series against the West Indies it will be a battle. As for the record, records are there to be broken, good luck to them, if the names of Waugh, Border and Mcdermott Boone Jones and Taylor and Warne are to have the same ring as Richards Lloyd Marshall Holding Greenidge and Haynes i'm not so sure one was great teams the other were legends. I will stick with the legends. Roll on windies cricket.

Absolutely, I have lost it, I will never see this supposed talent Owen has, and it's amazing to me that Shearer always seems infallible. The coach (Gullit) thought he was a disruptive influence, many players says he plays dirty without penalty, he obviously seems to influence selection; yet people complain about the selfishness of other strikers. Shearer seems to be the football equivalent of Lara, he has all the talent and the record to support his status, yet one wonders what sort of team England can be without him. For one they'll have other options besides looking for complimentary players to support his strengths. Australia are not as talented as the media suggests, they have been beaten by Sri Lanka and India, were tortured by South Africa and yet won that series. Given Cronje's revelation that series is now open to accusation. If memory serves me right SouthAfrica had two incredible collapses to facilitate victory.
Frankly. I disagree with you about the Liverpool newcomer Gerrard (hope I spelt it correctly, as if I care), the guy has a single season of promise and he is touted as the next Keegan. Give me a break! I say play three defnders, a midfield of McManaman, Wise and Beckham in the middle. Play Parlour if he were fit, on the wide right and LeSaux when he returns on the left. Play Cole and Phillips as the strikers. Say thanks to Shearer for excellent service and quote that England has not won a damn thing with him in the side. Has Shearer on a team ever won anything?

Shearer won the Premiership at Blackburn, he was leading scorer in the league that year too. ;-)
As for Gerrard - how can be regarded as the new Keegan when Gerrard is a midfielder and Keegan was a striker...
Not sure why you don't think Owen is a good player...oh well...

If the WestIndies are touring Australia,they won't stand a chance...the media will most likely kick things off by hyping up one of the players arriving 'under a cloud'.If that doesn't dent their confidence the umpires will [Daryl Hair et.al.].If the West Indies can overcome these 2 hurdles, they must remember that Australia are the World Champions...at sledging.

Never. Is a strong word Antithesis but now I understand why you don't see the talent Owen has. You NEVER will.

Steve Gerrard is a keegan type player, not by position but by his heart and enthusiasm. Keegan had more of that than talent believe me. Gerrard is a perfect England player, no great talent but will run all day.England loves those. Problem is Gerrard is a very talenteed player and he may surprise a few this summer.

Shearer will lead the England strike force because he deserves to and he has been a prolific score for his clubs and country.

Australia are very stong and we will find that out in the winter.

Lara is a crowd puller he will fill the stands but I hope he does not rob us of a good batsman for the series, save him for the county games and make some money the test series is pronbably sold out already.

Of course I hope he gets a double hundred every match but Lara is Lara he will do what he wants, just hope its what the team needs.

Do you know I was in Antigua when he scored his record breaking 379. When the West Indies fielded he stood in the slips for two minutes and then walked off, thats when I knew he was going to be trouble.

Wow ..... this is the first time I've seen a cricket post here, so I just could not resist to jump in, but (for once) I do not kno what to say. Ummmmm .... lets see ..... I personally hate Brian Lara. After what he did after the World Cup, he does not deserve to ever be captain again. But then Shivnarine has not been playing that well lately (well .... not like b4 the WC). I think Lara should be included, but not as captain. He is very talented, but his off the pitch leadership is questionable at best. Ummm .... Pakistan does not stand a chance against us, and neither does England. and the Australia Tour should be very very interesting. I grew up hearing my family talking of the days when the Windies dominated the cricket world, I hope that they can begin to regain some of that dominance. GO WINDIES!!!! BTW .... antithesis, where did you attend school?? My eldest cousin went to school with Shiv, and I have another friend who knew Brian Lara (but he did not attend school w/ him). Mark ... I think that Sglean put it beautifully, Lara has an ego the size of Keanu Reeves' new Matrix contract. It is just maintaining his composure and having the Waugh and Campbell and Adams try to control him and put him in his place. To bad TSN can't show cricket, does not even ahve to be live, put it on at 3 in the morning, I'll watch it.

As for Owen, antithesis, he is a great player. And even though he and Fowler have been injured, and Heskey did not play well after his transfer, this does not mean they should not have been selected. Gerrard is a wonderfully talented player and deserves to be on the team, but if you cannot see that Owen has talent, I have one question: HOW???

I'm really looking forward to the Windies tour and it can only be good for Cricket if they are a strong force again.

It may seem strange that an ex-pat Scotsman follows the game but I have a good few friends from Yorkshire (Leeds fans one and all http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/biggrin.gif ) and you can't hang round with Yorkshiremen then emigrate to Australia without getting into Cricket. It's the highlight of the sporting calendar here as far as I'm concerned.

Maybe someone should start a cricket forum, just a thought....... http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/cool.gif

[This message has been edited by Mark (edited 05-30-2000).]

Of course Owen has talent. He's playing Premiership football isn't he? These opinions are all relative, so worry not. I have a strong bias against this present crop of Liverpool players so always judge my comments carefully. I simply believe that when a coach adopts a policy of containment, lead keeping, negative football, with the players at Anfield......it suggests that the players aren't as crafty as they are made out to be.

We attended primary school together (St Joseph's Boys Roman Catholic), he went on to Fatima and I to St Mary's, but we'd meet off and on during interschool cricket and football. Anyway.he has learnt his lessons I gather and he has a stable relationship now so look for him to score "unanfield" like ,and get maybe five or six hundred runs in England. Chanderpaul can never captain West Indies for a couple of reasons......he is thought to be too close to Lara (whatever that means)and has had trouble with the law recently ( he shot at a man while parked in a deserted area with a young lady). As much of the world is, we in the Caribbean are also drifting towards conservatism, and these incident are severely frowned upon.
Finally, I am never going to comment on Liverpool again. I just hope they play more attractive football as they did in the days of old.