The Ashes.......

[Sir Velo]

Swann home for Christmas!

No time even for a Swann-song.

[amateur51]

A sad end to a remarkable international career. I wonder how much he felt that his recent operation had affected his bowling. it must be alarming to find that suddenly you're being tonked around the ground where previously you had held sawy over batsmen.He'll be missed on the field and in the dressing room and I hope that we get a decent summation of his career soon on television. He could be a very dangerous lower order batsman too but even that seems to have faded too.

Traditionally Christmas on tour for England cricket teams has been panto time, with players dressing up. I wouldn't be surprised if it gets cancelled this year

[DracoM]

He hasn't been in totally working order for a number of seasons, and I imagine that the unstinting analysis he has been under in Oz could have concentrated the mind.

The other fear is that GS is a great mate of James Anderson's. How will his loss affect Anderson on and off the pitch?

I am not at all happy with Panesar as only spinner. Maybe Tredwell will be drafted in, or maybe even Danny Briggs or even better Scott Borthwick - a very decent bat at 3 or 4 for Durham and their leading spinner. And maybe now I hope they are regretting not picking Graham Onions.

[aeolium]

I am not at all happy with Panesar as only spinner. Maybe Tredwell will be drafted in, or maybe even Danny Briggs or even better Scott Borthwick - a very decent bat at 3 or 4 for Durham and their leading spinner. And maybe now I hope they are regretting not picking Graham Onions.

An imaginative option might be to go for Moeen Ali who is quite a capable off-spinner and talented batsman. His was the batting that most impressed me in county games (even though in the 2nd div of the championship) this summer. This would strengthen the middle order and allow them to play Panesar as the main spinner until that position has been filled, hopefully in the coming summer.

I agree about Onions. Tremlett has had it and I thought Rankin was a curious selection. Tredwell I'm afraid is not a wicket-taker in the longer form of the game.

[DracoM]

Well, well.................whaddyaknow?

http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes-2013-14/content/current/story/703301.html

[anotherbob]

No time even for a Swann-song.

IMV this is a selfish decision by Swann. It must surely have been possible to postpone the announcement till the end of the tour. Players get injured on tour and replacements are called up. Why not Swann? Carrying the drinks isn't hard.

[gradus]

No doubt, rather more to come about this story and the timing. Meanwhile my sympathies are entirely with him, it can't have been easy to do this.

[anotherbob]

....it can't have been easy to do this.

I think it might have been eased by the lucrative offers on the table for Swann to assume the mantle of pundit/presenter/"humourist" that now lie before him. However Swann & Anderson will never be Morecombe & Wise (or even little & Large)

[amateur51]

I think it might have been eased by the lucrative offers on the table for Swann to assume the mantle of pundit/presenter/"humourist" that now lie before him. However Swann & Anderson will never be Morecombe & Wise (or even little & Large)

But be fair, Eric's military medium and Ern's short fat hairy leg spin never opened the bowling for England

[amateur51]

IMV this is a selfish decision by Swann. It must surely have been possible to postpone the announcement till the end of the tour. Players get injured on tour and replacements are called up. Why not Swann? Carrying the drinks isn't hard.

I tend to agree on one hand but perhaps management thought he might be better out of the way while they're nursing the side thriugh the later stages (there are ODIs to come too I assume) especially if Prior may be getting a 'rest' too. Who ever thought it would unravel so quickly?

[DracoM]

Sorry, but many of the signs were already there in the last throes of the summer Ashes sequence. IMO, this is not new. Sudden, but not unexpected.

I do certainly wonder if Swann and Trott had made relevant noises BEFORE selection that other players might have been already wound into the fold? For me, the terror is where it leaves the VERY inexperienced, over-cautious, unimaginative, and bang out of any sort of nick Captain Cook? Wonder how long HE will go on captaining?

[amateur51]

Sorry, but many of the signs were already there in the last throes of the summer Ashes sequence. IMO, this is not new. Sudden, but not unexpected.

I do certainly wonder if Swann and Trott had made relevant noises BEFORE selection that other players might have been already wound into the fold? For me, the terror is where it leaves the VERY inexperienced, over-cautious, unimaginative, and bang out of any sort of nick Captain Cook? Wonder how long HE will go on captaining?

I don't think that I was saying anything different from you Draco, just that the process of unravelling has been so sudden on this tour. In Formula One terms, suddenly there are tyres in the air & drivers over the crash barrier But how come you & I could see it and the managment did not?

I have a feeling that Cook's character might lend itself to his being able to go back to opening under another captain. Perhaps this was the selector's first mistake?

[gurnemanz]

IMV this is a selfish decision by Swann. It must surely have been possible to postpone the announcement till the end of the tour. Players get injured on tour and replacements are called up. Why not Swann? Carrying the drinks isn't hard.

I also tend to agree. Especially if he had been told that he would be twelfth man and then chose to opt out completely instead.

[amateur51]

I also tend to agree. Especially if he had been told that he would be twelfth man and then chose to opt out completely instead.

I'm not so sure that a disgruntled Swann would be that easy to manage on tour - perhaps the management felt it would be easier for the team just to let him go home.

[ahinton]

I'm not so sure that a disgruntled Swann would be that easy to manage on tour - perhaps the management felt it would be easier for the team just to let him go home.

Ashes to ashes...