Pietersen Steers England To Victory

Yeah. I think the main problem is that there isn't as many people wanting to play Cricket as there were say 10 or 20 years ago. It's like that in England and definately like that in the West Indies too, where all the best sportsman tend to go to other sports with more money potential in them. However English circket is moving along again now due to good funding and the development of academies throughout the UK and abroad, so some good players are coming through. Australia lead the way with funding their sports, especially Cricket and Rugby, and it's taking everyone else a few years to catch up. England ar almost there, but other nations like South Africa, India, Pakistan, West Indies, etc are all 5 or so years behind.

and professional contracts

Yeah, professional contracts have always been a part of Cricket as long as I remember, but until recently you couldn't earn excessive ammounts. You notice that a lot of yester-years cricketers (Botham, Willis, Holding, Gower, Lloyd, etc) resort to analysis and commentry to keep a steady income. Probably keeping themselves busy also has something to do with it, but I doubt they're millionaires from their Cricket wages alone.

Although now with Cricket firmly on the map, and the development of the 20-20 game which everybody (even non-cricket fans) seems to love, there is much more money floating about due to their being extensive amounts of TV coverage, etc.


PS. Sorry if it sounds a bit technical. Been report writing today and I've got my technical head on.

Not jsut founding is doing good to australia... main reason for australia become world dominance is due to fact that there infastructure is so good and there are always quality players to replace one or other... they are always a whole team that made it so great , unlike indian team whre there always been depend on one or two persons to due the goods... like sanchin Tendulkar is what india was obessesed with for last decad or so but now i'm really happy with team coz its more and more good player coming along and its more becoming a team game and i have to give credit to Joh wright for making indian team A Team.... but still incinsitance is hunting us... we did so well in australia and blow everything when aussie visited india and same with pakistan series too....

Oh mind you indian crickets are highest paid crickets in the world... mainly cause cricket is sort of relgion in india... hopefuly new coach do the lot of goods in coming year...

Yes i do think lot of other teams are fail to match the australia... there is need for ICC and respective county cricket board need to push other teams so in comes in par with australia... I have to admit that australia made this sports really exciting and u can see it there is hardly any draws happening in test cricket anymore and its no longer played on slow pace...

One of the main reasons also is that in Australia Cricket is the main international sport along with Rugby. England's main international sport is Football along with Rugby, so a lot of the best sportsman tend to go for those.


That's spot on. Hardly any draws do exist now due to Australia uping the pace of the game and others following. Maybe it's time the ICC made international cricket two divisional though and have promotion/relegation, so teams can find their level.

no, i was referring to the contracts which bind englang players to the national side. they have only been introduced over the last few years and means that a player's only commitment is to his test side rather than county side. this has kept a stable, injury-free, squad for the selectors to choose from and hence has helped us progress quite rapidly. the fact that the test and ODI sides are almost identical is another indication of the influence of these contracts.

Bangadesh are much better in ODI for sure... They are on australian heals again hehehe...

Bangladesh 250/8 (50 ov)

Latest score
Australia 112/3 (23.5 ov)

Its match on.......

Wow what a finals..... Match is got tied in unbelieveable way.... I never seen a final where match got tied and both have to share trophy lol..

England were came back from death to tied it... Now ashes will be very intresting indeed....