Justin Langer's so called "dossier"

max nuggets

Justin Langer's email about the English team.

And he makes some good points about it all in his own BBC article.

purple_hatstand

Is the English press machine using this to suggest something underhand in the Australian camp in the immediate aftermath of an England humiliation....?

In order to deflect criticism away from England's shortcomings?

That's what they're doing?

Really?

And Langer's 2nd point talks about England making "all sorts of excuses" and "pointing the finger at everyone else"...

Who knew ironing could be sooooooo delicious?

dereko1969

in fairness, nothing he said is untrue and all he's saying in his bbc column is that it was given to the australian coach in confidence and shouldn't have come out.

the facts are that the dossier was lost/misplaced at cardiff and was only printed after sunday and he wonders why that was so.

he's somerset captain so it's going to look a bit embarrassing for him and that's not why he's passing the blame he stating facts.

max nuggets

After I read the "dossier" (what a stupid name for it) I was incredibly underwhelmed by it all - it's something any team would do (i.e. get all the inside information they can) when facing an opponent. And I think everyone knows just how thorough the Australians are in their preparation.

I think that it's gotten so much press because it's the way their media treat their sports star - bash them any chance they can - and this way they are doing it by proxy..."Look what the Aussies think of you, shallow, lazy, and soft".

Look at how much fuss the English made over Ponting's response (a one line answer to a question he was asked) to the booing he gets - I saw headlines about it on several English news sites.

purple_hatstand

max nuggets wrote: »

After I read the "dossier" (what a stupid name for it) I was incredibly underwhelmed by it all - it's something any team would do (i.e. get all the inside information they can) when facing an opponent. And I think everyone knows just how thorough the Australians are in their preparation.

I think that it's gotten so much press because it's the way their media treat their sports star - bash them any chance they can - and this way they are doing it by proxy..."Look what the Aussies think of you, shallow, lazy, and soft".

Look at how much fuss the English made over Ponting's response (a one line answer to a question he was asked) to the booing he gets - I saw headlines about it on several English news sites.

Disagree. The English media is doing 2 things with this story.

1. Using it as more ammunition in a small-minded, phony 'war' against the Australians. A straw poll of Daily Mail and Telegraph readers would probably reveal that a majority consider the compilation of such a dossier would be underhanded at best, if not cheating and, certainly 'not cricket'. As such, a tactic England would never employ:rolleyes:

2. Using it to deflect attention away from England's embarrassing performance in the last Test. This is simple spin-doctoring.

The fact that greater than 95% of the dossier's contents are true only serves to amplify the complete wrongness of the media response. Unfortunately, right-wing, middle-class middle-Englanders believe everything they read in the Mail and the Telegraph and have a massively under-developed collective bullsh!t detector.

max nuggets

purple_hatstand wrote: »

Disagree. The English media is doing 2 things with this story.

1. Using it as more ammunition in a small-minded, phony 'war' against the Australians. A straw poll of Daily Mail and Telegraph readers would probably reveal that a majority consider the compilation of such a dossier would be underhanded at best, if not cheating and, certainly 'not cricket'. As such, a tactic England would never employ:rolleyes:

I don't really know much about the demographic / mindset of Mail and Telegraph readers but it's naive on their part after decades of playing against (a very successful) Australia. I'd have thought most people would feel that Vaughn's use of "Australian-esque" tactics (aided by unfortunate Aussie injuries) in 2005 worked very well.

2. Using it to deflect attention away from England's embarrassing performance in the last Test. This is simple spin-doctoring.

Wouldn't a document coming out about the flaws (for the most part, save the bit about Strauss being a good bloke) in the English side coinciding with their most dismal performance of the Ashes so far (102 in their first innings) not further draw attention to their poor play instead of avoiding it?