Comments on: Time for Bell to Stand Up Tall

By: David Siddall

David Siddall — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:12:27 +0000

I very much echo your sentiments Jackie. The current middle order competing in the champions trophy looks threadbare. Lets hope they can pull something out of the bag and surprise us all. Fingers, toes and everything crossed.

By: Jackie

Jackie — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:11:32 +0000

One of the most intelligent pieces on Bell I’ve read for a long time. It can’t be easy to be the butt of sneers and jeers of the media. Bell has had to put up with all that. Doesn’t do much for self-belief. But he seems to have got new authority and energy after his crucial 72 at the Oval. Not a ton but as good as on a very difficult pitch, coming in under immense pressure at 12-1. He held the England innings together and top scored. When Australia collapsed next day his 72 looked even better.

Since then he has played brilliantly for Warwickshire, great partnerships with Trott, and has scored two centuries and 93* in four innings. Always sublime to watch when on top form, he showed the TV commentators at Surrey his class and got even Bob Willis and Mark Butcher overawed by his batting. Great stuff Bell. With England’s terrible showing in the one-day games with the B team, the call is out for Bell and Trott to be selected. Too late now for the Series against Australia and the Champions Trophy (we are doomed) but not too late for South Africa.

By: Ashes 2009 England Starting Lineup | World Cricket Watch

Ashes 2009 England Starting Lineup | World Cricket Watch — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 22:09:21 +0000

[...] have been tied with the loss of KP delivering a hefty blow to their pre-match preparations. The Ian Bell recall was pretty much a formality, the nearly man of English cricket will want to break his Ashes hoodoo [...]

By: David

David — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:12:51 +0000

It is true in the past that England’s selection policy was haphazard to say the least. This improved significantly when Hussain and Fletcher were at the helm.

There are still players who have not been treated well (Shah, Key and Solanki to name three), but on the whole selection has been much more consistent and good players have been persevered with. Bell is one of these.

Clearly, Bell has a lot of talent and on his day looks World class. Personally, I think he needs to toughen up a bit and start making a habit of getting good scores even when it isn’t his day and he is not in prime form (something Cook and Collingwood seem to be able to do).

Also, as the only county players that are more talented than Bell are either retired from international cricket (Trescothick), or a return to the past (Ramprakash), it is right that Bell has been given another chance.

He’ll probably go out and score a ton now…

By: Ali Bourne

Ali Bourne — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:47:57 +0000

completely agree. Bell looks brilliant but i don’t think he is a number 4. We also need to split up Bopara and Bell so to me slotting colly in the middle seems like the right idea.

Just hope the selectors do it