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CRICKET ROADSHOWS

Week 14 Preview - 11 Aug, Taunton Where did it all go wrong?

This weekend's Cricket Roadshow combines domestic and international issues as it broadcasts live from Taunton ahead of the C&G semi-final between Somerset and Warwickshire.

Dermot Reeve will be on hand to give an insider's view of both camps as he draws on his experience with the two counties – he was captain of Warwickshire and later coach of Somerset – while Sir Viv Richards, another former west country hero, rekindles memories of glories past. Not to be outdone, ex-Bears opener Andy Lloyd puts the case for the midlanders.

Elsewhere on the programme, the mid-series post-mortem begins with Richie Benaud as he takes a critical prod at England's distinctly limp Ashes corpse.

Back in May, an engagingly naive optimism pervaded the early summer air but any thoughts of an England victory were summarily crushed by the unstoppable Aussie juggernaut as it ran roughshod over its acquiescent hosts, blaring the victory horn with obvious glee at each and every opportunity.

So, where did it all go wrong? Are England really that bad or Australia really that good? The Roadshow looks ahead to the 4th Test at Headingley and asks who should come in now that the Ashes have gone, running the rule over the latest crop of youngsters to get mentioned in dispatches.

Is now the time to turn to youth, and if so will the latest crop of Test cricket aspirants prove more successful than their predecessors?

We also ask why only one of the world-conquering England under-19 side of 1997, Chris Schofield, has so far graduated to the full Test side, and even he has failed to make the anticipated impact.

Do we discard youngsters too readily or do we have such an inherent distrust of youth that we never give them the opportunities they deserve?

James Foster, Nicky Peng and Ian Bell all look outstanding talents within their age groups, so is it time to bite the bullet and start building for the future, or should senior-pros Michael Atherton and Alec Stewart be allowed to bow out gracefully at the end of the series?

One the excuses (sorry, reasons) put forward for England's summer of discontent has been the extraordinary run of injuries to the likes of Nasser Hussain, Graham Thorpe and Michael Vaughan.

Ironically, all three could be available for one or both of the remaining Tests but the words 'bolted', 'stable' and 'door' spring to mind with the series already lost due to the 0-3 scoreline.

But why did England pick up so many injuries and could anything have been done to prevent it? The Roadshow goes to Lilleshall in search of answers and talks to Jason Ratcliffe about his proposal to create a registry of injuries and to the ECB about its latest initiative to prevent teenagers over-bowling themselves.

E-mail us with your views on any of the above topics and tune in on Saturday morning for the latest instalment of the Cricket Roadshow before live coverage of the Somerset v Warwickshire encounter

Mail the Cricket Show team at cricketshow@cricket4.com

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