The Cookie Monster

Cook has a great temprament, probably one of the best tempraments ever seen in the game, but his technical flaws would've got exposed futher by the likes of Marshall, Lillee, Wasim, Hadlee, Imran, Holding, Donald etc.

He would've still been a fine batsman, but he's playing in a very poor era of bowlers. England have a decent attack, but he never has to play them.

Not only is it a poor era of bowlers but the entire cricket in general has slipped below par over the last 10 years. Never before has there been a more even bunch of rabble then we have at present....we need someone to jump out of the pack and give the other teams something to strive for, a team like the OZ & Windies teams during each of their reigns for lengthy period of time.
I blame the pyjama & bash-a-thon for this down fall in talent available in todays test arena.

Funny that, I have never enjoyed a cricket era more, in all more years Just think if we had beaten Pakistan, you would have had nothing to say against this wonderful England team. Saying that, surely one series defeat in the UAE isn't actually a major drama either, for us.
Yepp, we are that team that has jumped out of the pack, and for the past 3 years we have played superb cricket ( given the defeat in the UAE).
Cook will undoubtebdly become the best player in the game, and the others will just have to knuckle down and help him out. Our bowlers will continue to destroy everything they face

neon......when Warnie retired we had no-one to replace him and still haven't being the quality of player he was, he may never be repeated again......my question to you neon is this, who do you have in mind to replace the likes of Dravid and Tendulkar when he eventually retires.
The likes of Tendulkar like Warne may never be replaced or compared to in the current era, whilst openers like Dravid are as rare as rocking horse dung, do you have some hopefuls in mind..???

Kohli is the answer and the count down to his 100 100s has already begun

Never before has there been a more even bunch of rabble then we have at present....we need someone to jump out of the pack and give the other teams something to strive for, a team like the OZ & Windies teams during each of their reigns for lengthy period of time.
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why does that indicate that the overall standard is poor ? it appears to me to have no bearing on the matter.

He is just hacked off because his team keeps getting creamed in the Ashes JPB. The very man this thread is about was averaging over 300 against his weak bowling attack at one point during the last one, and that was down under.
Cook is certainly not worse than players from yesteryear, and neither are our bowlers?

We do not have the individual talent in our bowling department that some teams have had before us. What they may lack individually in terms of greatness though they seem to make up for by their dedication in the field and ability to work as a unit. For me, the mark of a top quality test team is that it always has the ability to fight back in the field, even when it looks like the batters are getting on top. This England team has that very rare quality.

Agree with every word of that JPB. Can you imagine where we would be at this stage in our development if we had managed to beat Pakistan. Take away that poor series and we have had an astonishing 3 years?
I look forward to the short test series against Sri Lanka to see if our boys have learnt anything at all. I am expecting them to give Sri Lanka a very diffcult time.

I didn't realise the defeat at the hands of Pakistan had cut so deep and caused so much pain as it obviously has.
I enjoyed every moment of the Pakistan victory but if I had of known the full extent of pain I would of enjoyed victory even more......Bah!!!!...