johnny jacko

Local Scottish holidays like Glasgow Fair Mondays, September Weekends, January 2nd, are not Bank Holidays and you'll find that the banks are actually open on those days. Although the majority of Scotland doesn't get a holiday on the last Monday in August the banks are closed because it is an official UK Bank Holiday. To be honest I never really knew this until I had the misfortune to work in a bank and found out that I didn't get local holidays, unlike just about everybody else in Glasgow.

I was reading that KP has now fallen out with Natal, Hampshire, Nottinghamshire, Peter Moores, Andrew Strauss, Andy Flower and Alistair Cook. He may be talented but it's a team game and it can't all be about him. Maybe for once he should step back and take a long hard look in the mirror and see that maybe he is to blame for a lot of the problems.

Graeme Smith has a penchant for getting rid of England captains but Michael Clarke (and Mitchell Johnston) has gone a huge step further seeing off two top Anglo/South African batsmen, the "world's best spinner" (apart from Sajid Akmal) and apparently England's greatest ever coach (thought that was Duncan Fletcher). What a shambles of a tour but now England have a chance to rebuild and Cook is obviously the man they want to lead the team for the considerable future so I guess that's why KP had to go. One thing England have to do is to build a team to win every series not just the Ashes and the talk of this team achieving everything is nonsense as they couldn't beat the Winides away, New Zealand away, got hammered by Pakistan and are nowhere near beating South Africa. But, hey, they won the Ashes so they must be a great side. By the looks of things Ashley Giles is going to be the next coach/director of the team and he's certainly a safe pair of hands although, like the captain, lacking charisma. I would imagine a lot of younger players will come in with Cook, Bell and Broad being the "brains trust" and Anderson will probably be given a chance in the summer to find a bit of form. They have a lot to do though as they have to find a few batsmen, decide on who is going to keep wicket and find a decent spinner. Pace bowling wont be a problem if they get the selections right and Stokes should be a top all rounder for many years to come.

I reckon Cook will still be captain in the next Ashes in 2015 with maybe Broad or Bell as deputy. Despite his talent I'd ditch Pietersen as he's far too selfish with a bat in his hand, shows little or no interest in fielding and may be too intimidating a figure for Cook to skipper. I certainly wouldn't make him vice captain as he'd more than likely try to take over rather than help Cook. I think Anderson's place must be in doubt as well now that his sidekick Swann has retired. Poor Jimmy actually appeared more petulant than Broad during the series which is some doing. For the future, Bairstow is clearly nowhere near test class as a batsman and giving him the wicket keeper's gloves is a joke. Carberry won't get back in the side and apparently Compton was left out as he didn't mix well in the dressing room. Bresnan has probably blown his chances along with Panesar and Rankin was an awful pick for Sydney. Borthwick will get other chances but the spin bowling options are pretty limited. Stokes will be around for along time, although he only got his chance because Trott went home. Root will be back but must be allowed to try and score runs not just occupy the crease. Ballance will get other chances as well. As for Finn. The multitude of coaching staff seem quite happy to criticise him for not being quite right to bowl but he's in the one day squad. Is he not going to get a chance there either ? Sounds like very poor management of him and he should have played at least one of the tests. Australia were worthy winners and England's bottle went from the start due to the aggressive nature of the opposition, press and crowds. A lot of this may have been due to the arrogant stance England took after winning at home despite not playing that well. Their answer to the claim that 3-0 flattered them was just to laugh and repeat the score. Maybe they should have stood back and seen the home series for what it was, a weak opposition who got better the longer the series lasted and a home side who showed too much complacency and relied heavily on Bell's runs. But one thing that hasn't been discussed by the TV/Radio experts is why England's fielding has been so awful. Australia were miles better and missed few chances whilst England were a shambles in the air and on the ground. At times England looked totally disinterested and there was never really a time when an oustanding effort in the field raised the whole side. The seven runs thanks to overthrows in the final test just about summed it all up.

All this talk of binning the "old guard" is fair enough but what happens to these guys ? Do they all retire and reflect on past glories or do they got back to county cricket and either try and force their way back in or start playing for the enjoyment of the game ? Some of them probably don't even know what county they play for as they are so rarely allowed to play non-international cricket. The whole English team has seemed joyless since the start of last summer's Ashes campaign and their whole attitude seems to be to bore Australia into submission rather than take the game to them. It worked in England but the Aussies have been too attacking in batting and bowling to allow them to play the negative stuff in this series. Once this series is over maybe the likes of Joe Root can be encouraged to play positive cricket as he will be around for years. At the moment he's playing like a veteran of the past and trying not to score (as is Carberry) but batting out time. Maybe a new coach will help although they'll have to ask the great KP what he thinks first seeing he chased away the last non-African guy. Talking of KP, has he actually made a worthwhile contribution since he spat the dummy out after deservedly losing the captaincy ?