Stop sneering at Paul Collingwood
Paul Collingwood's been quite firmly branded with the 'makes the most of his talent' tag. It's pissing us off. 'Making the most of your talent' is a prerequisite for any international sportsman. The insinuation is that he makes the most of not a lot of talent.
At least one cricket writer described Collingwood as 'out of his depth' after England's first innings. He's not. He just scored 96.
It's patronising to talk like this, but mostly it's inaccurate. Paul Collingwood's not from the Mark Richardson, 'three shots including the forward defensive', school of batting - Richardson's Test average was 44.77, incidentally. He's got plenty of shots. In fact, gifted wunderkind, Alastair Cook, said after they'd both scored hundreds together earlier in the year that he was having trouble getting the ball off the square and that he admired Collingwood's ability to manoevre the ball and keep the scoreboard ticking over. Who was the grafter there?
You'd think that England supporters raised on an inspid diet of Graeme Hick and Mark Ramprakash would recognise that a God-given talent is by no means the most important factor determining a batsman's success. Ask Steve Waugh. In fact do, because Steve Waugh once said that he thought Paul Collingwood was good.
At least one cricket writer described Collingwood as 'out of his depth' after England's first innings. He's not. He just scored 96.
It's patronising to talk like this, but mostly it's inaccurate. Paul Collingwood's not from the Mark Richardson, 'three shots including the forward defensive', school of batting - Richardson's Test average was 44.77, incidentally. He's got plenty of shots. In fact, gifted wunderkind, Alastair Cook, said after they'd both scored hundreds together earlier in the year that he was having trouble getting the ball off the square and that he admired Collingwood's ability to manoevre the ball and keep the scoreboard ticking over. Who was the grafter there?
You'd think that England supporters raised on an inspid diet of Graeme Hick and Mark Ramprakash would recognise that a God-given talent is by no means the most important factor determining a batsman's success. Ask Steve Waugh. In fact do, because Steve Waugh once said that he thought Paul Collingwood was good.
Labels: Ashes, Australia, England, patronising, Paul Collingwood
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
bowled by Blue and Brown | 5:20 pm
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6 Comments:
it is always good to see mr hicks name in print, he is after all a certified legend. although i do tend to agree with your comments about collingwood, i can't help but feel that he should be played lower down the order, allowing the more flamboyant middle order batsmen, a chance to relax, safe in the knoledge that a decent bat is still to come, before englnds somewhat fragile tail. and why is he rarely asked to bowl anymore? in my opinion, one of the few england players who is currently worthy of his place.
Paul Collingwood: Greatest Living Ginger?
Ginger bloke, anyway. I'd still rather have Nicole Kidman by my side, or maybe Willow from Buffy. But I'm shallow.
Not Willow from the film of the same name then?
Oh no, wait. He wasn't a ginger.
Oh but he is: http://tinyurl.com/ym7g7j
Oooh, harsh.
Actually, is Willow related to Justin Langer?
I've always been highly amused by "langer" being Irish slang for "penis".
It does as well! 'Langer' means 'penis'. We just checked the Urban Dictionary.
That's definitely getting a post next week when there's not much news and Justin Penis has battered England into submission again.
That's likely to be the first of many mentions for Justin Penis.
Cheers Mahinda.
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