Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Ashes squad of "losers and malcontents"?

Well, the English selectors have spoken and named their anointed 16 for the Ashes.

Online newsletter Crikey has pooh-poohed the omission of Michael Vaughan, describing him as "the winner of the 2005 Ashes" and adding:

Look at the losers and malcontents they have picked before him.

Andrew Strauss (captain) James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravinder Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Andrew Flintoff, Graham Onions, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Adil Rashid, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann

A bit strong methinks given the contributions made by other squad members in the 05 series and subsequently. To my eye, and I've watched a fair amount of England cricket on TV in the last few months, there are one or two surprise inclusions eg Ian Bell and perhaps Monty Panesar, but it should be possible to field a competitive eleven from the 16.

A little light relief. See if you can match some squad members to their less than complimentary descriptions in Crikey:

1. "that weird little boy who doesn’t make runs".

2 "a rough Essex lad who didn’t go to a public school".

3. "the portly all rounder who can’t tuck his shirt in."

4. "a singer in a terrible pub band".

5 "a guy who looks like he should be a drummer in a terrible cover band".

If you want to cheat or check your answers see http://tinyurl.com/npdz74


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