Ashley Giles a victim of "Montymania"

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Ashley Giles has hit out claiming he was a victim of Montymania. Apparently he wasn't dropped because Monty is a better spinner and more capable of taking wickets. No, he was a victim of media hype:

"I was battling not only against Australia but against Montymania. There's nothing personal between us but Monty had become such a major figure it seemed he had to play. It was almost as if they were stringing up effigies of Fletcher and burning them in the streets of London town because Monty wasn't playing. It was more than just competition for places - it was the hype around Monty, leading to the talk of Sports Personality of the Year and everything else (don't forget 'Beard of the Year', Ashley). There are moments when you think, 'Have people forgotten what I've done for this team?' But I suppose everyone gets p..... off at work sometimes."

He goes on to say a spinner needs to do more than take wickets, he needs to score runs also. But Giles seems to forget that as a bowler, he's selected to take wickets before anything else. Throughout the Ashes series, England were only able to take 59 Australian wickets out of a potential 100. You cannot win a Test match without taking 20 opposition wickets (barring a declaration then a Day 5 brain explosion). England only took 10 Aussie wickets in 3 of the Ashes Tests. I'll concede this is also due to their batsmen unable to build defendable scores but the English bowlers undeniably struggled to take wickets. Giles is right about one thing - he didn't drop the Ashes in Adelaide. The selectors dropped the Ashes when they failed to drop Giles in Brisbane (not that it would've made any difference).

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Posted by JC on Fri 26 Jan

5 comments

Dear Mr. Giles, Yes, there was a lot of media hype drumming to get Monty into the side. Why, you ask? Well you played two tests and took three wickets at an average of 90. Then, Monty came in and he took 10 wickets out of the remaining 40-odd Australia wickets at an average of 38. As for batting, you scored 74 runs in two tests and Monty 35 in three. Does that help you understand why you people wanted Monty in the side from the beginning?

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Posted by TA on 2007-01-26 12:09:08

What a sore loser! Giles needs to go far away....

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Posted by Omar Haq on 2007-01-26 17:00:43

I see. Giles is to Jesus as Montymania is to Beatlemania.

Except somehow I don't see any resurrections in Giles' future.

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Posted by Lliam on 2007-01-27 03:43:18

The Gilo was talking rubbish about Monty's selection, but he wouldn't have been if he said Anderson/Mahmood instead.

Jimmy is clearly a better bowler that Mahmood and the latter's inclusion for Perth smacked of the selectors being spooked by the media.

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Posted by Tony.T on 2007-01-29 15:08:28

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