Lionator

If so then it’s time we send troops I think.

It’s a shame Pakistan felt the need to create a sand pit like this but I suppose it’s their only chance against a much superior. If it’s a road in the last test, we’ll batter them again.

That’s a long time but deserved 🤣 personally would love to have seen her sentenced to cleaning the hotels that she wants to burn down, then she might actually get chance to develop some empathy.

Would think it would be a decent excuse to call a victory and a subsequent ceasefire but I see discussions are now arising about settling in the northern Gaza Strip.

Poor shot. Think if we’re going to play cross batted then we’re screwed as the bounce is too variable

Good to see some local representation in the Tapal Tea tent. I bet Pakistan is an experience.

A lot of people are in bubbles too. While top class athletes aren’t going to be using hardcore illicit drugs, they’re using sleeping pills, prescribed benzo’s and a lot drink a lot. Pop stars and models are examples as well. It’s just a completely different life with completely different opportunities good or bad than any of us can comprehend. The one thing that connects them all though is that they’re exploited and pressured by toxic agents/managers/PR. Some just can’t cope.

What can England realistically chase here? I think the way it’s spinning, 250 may be out of reach. But with this England team you wouldn’t bet against them chasing 600

40-9!! 76 is their lowest ever total in india

31-4 off of 21 overs are India. Lovely stuff. None of that woke Bazball nonsense. Incidentally that’s the biggest crowd I’ve seen at an Indian test match for a very long time. Very promising.

Those snapchats were posted after the incident had happened. Apparently it’s a done thing for celebs to have scheduled posts.

I feel like there’s a bit of a pile on here against you so I just wanted to say that I can see where you’re coming from. However the reality of the system is that it’s purely about saving money from the economy in the short term. If it was about people’s genuine wellbeing, it would come out of the NHS budget or department of health. The DWP since the Blair years (read layard report) has been all about coercing vulnerable people back into work. The talking therapies/IAPT service, the only thing commissioners are interested in is getting people back to work and off of benefits, and getting as many people through the system as possible. The people that work for those services are so exhausted that they cannot give a person the compassion they need. Now if we actually decided to make long term investments into people as a state, then we could give a person the resources to manage their mental health better (access to treatment, secure housing, adequate welfare support, lack of fear of sanction) which in the long run would increase their chances of finding and maintaining employment that can add to their overall esteem and wellbeing.

Damn that’s sad, he’s only 31. I know people had been worried about his mental state for a good while.

My take is that Southgate was a really good England manager in the sense that he developed an identity and narrative that helped people to feel part of something come major tournaments. Now, he was a dreadful tactician hence why we blew the chance of winning things, but his main achievement will be the guy that revived the England national team. There is absolutely nothing to suggest that an English manager could continue that. We had Hodgson and McLaren for example who were dreadful and fans were incredibly disengaged. In fact the only other recent manager to cultivate an identity for the team was Sven, and he was a Jonny Foreigner. Tuchel is clearly a step up on the coaching side of things. Whether he can get the weird unmeasurable momentum thing that Southgate developed will be another thing. If he can then we stand a very good chance of winning things. If that dies off then it’s a problem for him. As for people like Farage saying he liked Southgate and doesn’t want a foreign manager, he’s an idiot because he spent hours upon hours criticising him over the Black Lives Matter stance.

Beautiful bowling from Sajid though. The flight he’s putting on it is stunning. The pitch is deteriorating fast.

Looks like the west are slowly strong arming Ukraine into at least considering a ceasefire. It’s a horrible situation as Ukraine probably can’t win back the Donbas let alone Crimea, but giving up on that will be awful. However if we try and get Ukraine into NATO, there’s no way Russia will agree to a ceasefire and will literally fight to the end. So who knows. A lot depends on the US elections as there’s zero chance Trump accepts Ukraine into nato.

Go kill it, remember whatever happens, you’ve come a long way to get to this position and the nerves are completely normal. Positive outcomes are obviously great but even if it doesn’t go to plan, there’ll be something to learn from for next time. I hate the term but it’s all part of the ‘journey’.

We’re definitely not unbeatable at home. In our last 15 home test matches, we’ve lost 4 (SA, Aus x2, SL). Albeit we’ve won 10 of those and drawn one. So while we win series, it’s those silly losses that will stop us getting to the WTC finals.

In Indian and Aussie conditions I’d say it is. Last winter, Bumrah was far too good for us at times but you have to remember on his day he’s probably the most difficult seamer to face. I think both of those teams have the most depth in their bowling attacks, hence why India ran out winners last tour. I fear we will struggle in Australia as our bowling attack will be inexperienced even in spite of their batting being weaker than a few years back. Their bowling attack will likely exploit the technical weaknesses that Pope, Duckett and Brook have (mainly footwork) on those decks out there.

In Root, Brook and Duckett, I’d say we have 3 of the best 5 batters in test cricket currently. Only others in the conversation are Jaiswal and Mendis.

Win this and we’d only need 3 more points to beat Derby’s record

Yes that’s the plot of hypernormalisation where he talks about the government of New York handing over complete power to the banks in 1975

I am probably of the opinion that neo-liberalism is the least worst way of running the country and economy. However it has to be heavily checked. Exploitation of our insecurities is cooked into every little orifice of this society and that stems from the early 80’s when this rogue way of running the system became dominant. It’s sickening but what’s the alternative?

Or that all policy is fed into a treasury/bank of England algorithm that essentially ends up dictating all policy. For example, it was all very funny but was it Truss’s policy that was bad or was it that it didn’t align with the way that the way that the BOE arbitrarily thinks that we should run the country and its finances? Any radical policy gets instantly sabotaged in this respect and the status quo stays in place.

Trickier deck is this but nothing that should intimidate England’s world class in form batters.