New Zealand v England, 1st Test, Hamilton, 5th day

David Lloyd: England need a kick up their arse

March 9, 2008

England have been very disappointing, and a lot is to do with the mental make-up of the players. It's time that the management shook the players up and brought in some change. For New Zealand, it was a clinical performance and the captain Daniel Vettori will be proud of his boys

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Comments have now been closed for this article Good on ya Black Caps. Why don't all you poms just stop your whingeing and accept the fact England was beaten by a better side on this occasion. The Black Caps batsmen batted with intent and followed that with great line and length from their bowlers that put England under immense pressure. Quite frankly, apart from the twenty/20, England have been out played on all accounts. Get over it chaps... Posted by zippychap on March 10 2008, 08:36 AM GMT The Fact IS that New Zealand outplayed England, you can say what you want, but the fct is that with the exception of Sinclair the whole NZ team contributed, whereas Sidebottom and Bell were the only Englishmen who did, Short and Simple Posted by iamasexybeast on March 10 2008, 07:03 AM GMT after struggling to bowl at 130kmh i think we need to forego harmison. even though i'am a fan of his. we need someone who can bowl straight at 145kmh. selectors must bite the bullet and bring in broad, tremlett or a wild card . also the batting needs to be settled even if some are a bit out of form. Posted by pominoz on March 10 2008, 02:27 AM GMT When is Michael Vaughen leaving.We are talking so much about Steve Harmison, Hoggard, but when is the captain going.Vaughen best days has gone and he himself is a burdon for the rest of the team.He is not scoring any big runs,there is no energy in his captaincy and he is showing no agression.On top of that he is part of a game,where he don´t want shah in the team,because then he could be replaced, if not strauss.He is picking Harmison,but not giving him the oppurtunities to show his class, and if Harmison can´t show anything,then he should also go.There is a lot of other players who can play test cricket for England - bring them in.Get Mark Ramprakash back.Don´t look at his age, but is for second time been named as cricketer of the year in England.He can still score runs,until we get some young blood, who can perform on test level.My team is for sure that Shah should come in for sure, instead of the captain or Strauss, and it is not to late to give Ramps a surprise call.Get Broad in as Posted by Sunny_dk on March 10 2008, 00:37 AM GMT With all due respect, Mr. Lloyd had lambasted the pitch a few days back in his match report, and now, he is blaming the England batsmen for having it all in their minds. How exactly was the pitch then? Posted by laddu323 on March 09 2008, 22:31 PM GMT @ RJ_Hadlee: I guess when you've just beaten England for the eighth time in 89 attempts, you need to crow all you can while you have the chance. (Aren't you ashamed of yourself bandying around a great - a world-class - cricketer's name like that?) Posted by CaptainPedant on March 09 2008, 22:24 PM GMT I think England need to start thinking about (especially in the Domestic Off-Season) to have the probable 15 working out at home together prior to leaving for Tours. If you take Sri Lanka out of the picture the 2 main Test bowlers haven't played since last summer or earlier. There is no way that 2 weeks prior to a tour is the proper timing to getting ready for a match. Look at the Aussies for instance they go into a month long workout camp before there season starts. This gets your players in shape, gets continuity in the side, gets the players use to following the coaching staffs wishes, coaches to pick out weaknesses and work on them, and developes that Team Concept. The other thing the ECB needs to look into is establishing a covered ground/retractable roof for the players to practice on during Englands cold and wet seasons. The days of leaving everything up to the Domestic Staff to do are gone, the side should play Domestic Teams during breaks not for them. Posted by Garp on March 09 2008, 20:55 PM GMT For goodness sake surely first and foremost Peter Moores should take most of the heat for another ghastly England performance, you just have to listen to the stupid comments after the debacle, the man is just Steve Maclaren in everything but name fronting up to the media after yet another defeat does not make a great coach ,he is mediocre at best.Bring back Duncan Fletcher at least he seemed to instill some sense of self belief, alright i didn't always agree with his selection policy but at least he had the good grace not to appear before the cameras after a match looking like some third rate goverment minister telling us all how everything was alright and we shouldn't worry our little heads over it!! If that's not what he said it's what i thought he said and that's the problem the man is as inspiring as a wet lettuce!!As for Harmison same problem really ok so he's honest about he's situation but that's just not good enough get on with the job you're paid for. Posted by vid63 on March 09 2008, 20:39 PM GMT England needs to stop its Ashes obsession and start taking other test-series seriously. It always seems to me that they only care abt playing the Ashes and nothing else!! They should start playing more international cricket. The players seem to fatigue or injure so often that they cant play a consistent 11 for a long time. Go back to the glory days of Gooch, gatting, gower and botham!! The world of cricket needs a strong England!! Posted by DineshIyer on March 09 2008, 19:33 PM GMT England to pull themselves together in three days? its been more than thirteen months since Adelaide and they are still reeling from that! They have performed terribly throughout the winter and we all know from experience that they will again until there is a change of culture. We can only speculate as to why, but the players aren't showing their ability. If we were a bit rubbish and didn't have the players it would be bearable, but to see good players squander their talent with a dearth of belief in their own abilities is painful. We have seen ALL of them play very good test cricket before. I wonder if Steve Bull, the team psychologist, is on performance related pay... Us England fans should really enjoy the next few weeks, for we now know that things have to and will change, the last straw is broken, we will not see performances like that of Harmison from this team again - we would be better off with ten men, so destructive to morale it must be to see him shrug for 5 days. Posted by Hurts_Like_Stink on March 09 2008, 19:29 PM GMT Read all 31 Comments  Top ^