They do need to do better, but the fact is a lot of our players aren't up to it at that level, so our big players need to fire. What happened against Sri Lanka is that they bowled fantastically and soon enough they were through to the guys that just can't cope with their skill.
From my point of view, it isn't being okay with mediocrity, I actually don't care who wins Cricket games, it's being realistic. The next smallest current test nation is Sri Lanka, with 16 million more people than us. Striving to win is what every sports team needs to do, but why go mental every time you lose to a team of an undoubtedly higher quality?
And we can't afford to drop everyone who plays badly. There are just some players who need to be in the side all the time. Oram isn't one of those IMO, though. I actually don't rate him as more than a decent bowler.
They do need to do better, but the fact is a lot of our players aren't up to it at that level, so our big players need to fire. What happened against Sri Lanka is that they bowled fantastically and soon enough they were through to the guys that just can't cope with their skill.
From my point of view, it isn't being okay with mediocrity, I actually don't care who wins Cricket games, it's being realistic. The next smallest current test nation is Sri Lanka, with 16 million more people than us. Striving to win is what every sports team needs to do, but why go mental every time you lose to a team of an undoubtedly higher quality?
And we can't afford to drop everyone who plays badly. There are just some players who need to be in the side all the time. Oram isn't one of those IMO, though. I actually don't rate him as more than a decent bowler.