England have never been a dominating force in world cricket much like the Windies or Aussies and most often English sport seems to be about more hype and less performance... be it soccer or cricket. Cricket is a second rate sport now in England relegated to old guys with beer glasses and men with suits and ties. English cricket has no charm in it, be it on the field or off the field.

There they go soul searching again for a new leader and it would most probably be the burly Petersen. This apart; @ Sameer I choose to differ when you say that English Cricket has no charm in it. The best cricket that is played in the world is in England. Decency is what defines the crowd there and the quality of requisite furnishings is absolutely sublime. It is the English team that is charmless and not the English Cricket. They still brag off the best domestic cricket structure in the world which suffers because they hire international experts to win domestic competitions- The opposite being the only stronghold for the Aussie Domestic Structure.

Sameer, I think your observations about the decline of the game in general are valid. However, I think Atul makes an excellent case of differentiation between where in particular the charm about the England team is missing.
Jessica has put it right though; it is not for want of effort but perhaps of stepping it a little bit further. Having said, South Africa (by this Graeme Smith and Mark Boucher) showed they could face the barrage. If anything, England showed their confidence was easily subdued and they failed to maintain the intensity while South Africa stepped up their game.
Loved all three comments...very interesting.

Keep reading!
www.crickblog.com

I never thought decency was ’charm’ for a sport. ”The best cricket that is played in the world is in England”. Well, If you mean from the aesthetic point of view about the grass, the grounds and the view, the maybe Australia is better and if you mean to say about quality of cricket, then even you know that that is an absolute joke. Barring the last Ashes in England, what quality cricket was played there???

I believe Charm in sport is how the people of a nation celebrate it and how a nation receives it. Soccer in Brazil & Argentina, Basketball in USA and Cricket in Asia and Australia have Charm (Even if there is no decency).

But it seems everyone agrees that English cricket on-field and the English team are dead and dull and that is good enough for me... I’m happy :)

@Sammer-If anyone ever told you that cricket was a gentleman’s game would you understand what decency does to it. Cricket is not for hooligans for you cant shoulder past your opponent on the field and whoever tries doing it bears the blunt of the ICC. Even a mere snub catches fire so you have to be in your decent limits leaving room for nothing but sheer performance.
I know how much of a CHARM cricket is in Asia with those fixed matches ya! really charming! When teammates slap each other on TV or the captain of the team ( Azhar) gets chucked for fixing matches. We Indians are crazy for the sport in a manner insane and we always tend to ignore such misgivings.

Michael Vaughan cried on TV when stepping down as captain and earned the respect of the British Media. When Ganguly was removed The media came out all guns blazing at him with his poor stats showing absolute disrespect for his achievements. Very Charming! If this is what you call charm then I must say that Cricket is really a Charming game.