Annus Maximus Horribilis – 2014 Reviewed

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When England flew to Australia at the backend of 2013, I wasn’t sure what to think. We’d just won the Ashes 3-0 at home without playing particularly well and most people assumed we’d retain the urn with relative ease. Like drinking five pints on a Friday night, beating the canary yellows had become something of a habit – and a rather enjoyable one it was too.

Looking back it all seemed too easy. Andy Flower’s team won the 2013 summer Ashes in their sleep. A wake up call was long overdue, but for some reason none of us expected it to happen so brutally in what became a protracted and bitter winter of discontent.

Although I’d been whinging about England’s performances for some time – our bowl dry strategy was as dull as dust and Flower’s regime was stale – I never expected us to lose the Ashes 0-5 to a beleaguered outfit that was losing to just about everyone at the time.

Having said that, the warning signs were clearly there. The previous summer our bowlers had been flayed by the not so mighty Darren Sammy, Dinesh Ramdin and Tino Best. Meanwhile our batsmen were becoming less and less ruthless.

In the twelve months before the Ashes, all of our key batsmen’s averages were in decline. Cook, Pietersen and Trott used to boast averages in excess of fifty, but by the 2013 they were somewhere in the mid-forties. Collectively, the unit was struggling to amass 400 on a regular basis. Individual performances by Matt Prior in New Zealand papered over the cracks.

Without Ian Bell, the result of the summer Ashes might have been completely different. The team still didn’t look right to me. Something was wrong. However, I never thought we’d lose the return series so badly: I thought 2-2 was the likely outcome.

And then came Hurricane Mitch. The gorky pussycat with a comedy mo and a radar worse than Devon Malcolm’s suddenly metamorphosed into the second coming of Dennis Lillee. Power to you, Mitch. You didn’t half stick it to us.

The Ashes whitewash was as traumatic as it was unexpected. However, immediately afterwards things got worse … a lot worse …

When a side loses the Ashes 0-5, there is usually a changing of the guard: those responsible are vanquished and a new era begins.

It’s funny, but irrational optimism is often my consolation prize when things go disastrously wrong: a new management team comes in, new players are blooded, and I feel strangely energised. Hope is the antidote to despair. But this time the ECB crushed my hope within a matter of weeks.

As someone who admired Andy Flower but had become extremely exasperated at his methods (I was one of the voices crying out for five bowlers) it was a kick in the crotch when he remained an ECM employee. Change was needed but no coach worth his salt would join England with Flower overseeing things from afar.

It soon became apparent that nothing was really going to change at all. There was no Schofield type review; no root and branch reform; nothing; nada.

The first thing the ECB did was throw its weight behind the failed captain. Cook had been absolutely awful (as both batsman and captain) yet for some reason he was going to keep his job. Giles Clarke’s admission that he supported Cook because he came from the right sort of family must be an all time low for a board that presumably wants to be seen as progressive and modern in its thinking.

Even worse it looked as though Ashley Giles would ‘succeed’ Flower for a time. I found this idea absurd. Giles had done a poor job as England’s ODI coach, and appointing him would have represented continuity not the real change we desperately needed.

Although Giles took us to the final of the Champions Trophy (they say the same about Cook) our record in that competition was won three and lost two. That’s nothing special for a team with home advantage. What’s more, the cricket we played was anachronistic – building totals slowly and then relying on Buttler and Bopara to lift us to par totals.

The bottom line is that we didn’t deserve to win the Champions Trophy, and on reflection I’m glad we didn’t: it would have set back England’s one-day cricket for another decade. It would have confirmed the ostensible wisdom of archaic strategies.

When England lost to the Netherlands in the World T20 I was almost relieved. It meant that Giles, who was the archetypal ECB non-boat rocking committee man, would not be England’s coach. And then I saw on TV that Peter Moores was the new favourite …

I almost fainted when Moores was reappointed. My jaw dropped; my heart sank. As an Aston Villa fan it was tantamount to Doug Ellis buying the club back from Randy Lerner: let’s go back to the future with a proven bust.

I guessed Moores was reappointed because it had become impossible, in the wake of England’s dismal ODI and T20 results, for the ECB to hire their preferred non-boat rocking candidate. Moores was non-boat rocking candidate number two. Nobody at Lord’s seemed to care that he’d just got Lancashire relegated and still hadn’t won a limited overs trophy in his fifteen years as a professional coach.

In the meantime, of course, Paul Downton had been appointed MD of English cricket. Although some of my friends thought it would be an advantage to hire someone who had been outside cricket for nearly two decades (something about bringing a fresh perspective) I had my doubts. People who work in the City as lawyers usually work long hours. How much cricket had the bloke actually watched in the recent past? Not much judging by his first year in the job.

Thus far Paul Downton has been an unmitigated disaster. When he was appointed he gave an interview on Sky in which he enthused about his new role and talked about how privileged he was to be working alongside cricketing legends like Flower and Cook. This is where, in my opinion, things have gone so wrong: Downton was out of touch, star-struck, and took Flower’s word as gospel. He also bought into the myth that Alastair Cook is superhuman.

Having reflected on the Pietersen affair for many months (you can’t really ignore it as co-editor of this blog) I firmly believe that KP was sacked because Flower convinced Downton it was necessary. I’m sorry, but Flower was wrong. It was impossible for Flower to work with Pietersen, as their relationship had broken down, but it was not impossible for Pietersen to work with someone else. What’s more Flower was supposed to be moving on, so his rift with KP should have been irrelevant.

Although I could see some cricketing logic in Pietersen’s dismissal (he was getting older and suffering numerous injuries), I found the way the ECB handled matters abhorrent. Their distain for the fans seemed breathtaking. What’s more, their rationale made no sense: if the new era was all about developing young players, why drop a senior player who spent a long time mentoring the team’s young guns? As Michael Carberry and Monty Panesar recently pointed out (thus confirming the post-Ashes interviews with Stokes, Bairstow and Root), Pietersen was more than generous with his time in Australia. The young players liked him and needed him.

Flower seemingly wasn’t going to allow it though – and having decided to retain Cook and promote Flower, the ECB was only too happy to acquiesce. A scapegoat for the disastrous Ashes whitewash was needed and the ECB was only too happy to make that person Kevin Pietersen (the brash, abrasive South African who had always loved the IPL and been a thorn in their side for years).

The role of Downton was crucial in this process. Rather than seeing Flower for what he was: a good coach whose shelf life had expired, Downton saw him as some kind of cricketing oracle. He either wasn’t smart enough, or confident enough in his new role, to realise that Flower might have been deflecting responsibility for his own failures and had a personal axe to grind against Pietersen (whether this ill feeling was warranted or not).

Downton also apparently failed to consider that the team, especially the batting unit, could ill afford to lose another senior player after Swann and Trott’s international careers looked finished.

The decision to stand by Cook despite all evidence – his batting has been worked out to a large extent (no centuries in fifty nine innings in all forms) and his captaincy has been formulaic – demonstrates to me that Downton was incapable of thinking independently and simply bought into the Cook hype perpetuated by this blog’s least favourite journalists.

Cook is often presented as England’s answer to Sachin Tendulkar. If only this were true. His average in no better than Trott’s or Bell’s, and it’s marginally worse than Pietersen’s. Cook is not Tendulkar. He’s more like VVS Laxman: very good sometimes (one Ashes series in five) but a long way from great. I wonder if Downton has worked this out yet? England will need to see through the hype if the team is to make objective decisions going forward.

I am not, at this point, going to review every single series we’ve played in 2014. This is intended to be a review of the emotions experienced in 2014 rather than an extensive postmortem of the action. Besides, the dismal results since the Ashes speak for themselves:

Australia Test series – Lost 0-1 (the last test of the Ashes whitewash)

Australia ODI series – Lost 1-4

Australia T20 series – Lost 0-3

West Indies ODI series – Won 2-1

Sri Lanka ODI series – Lost 2-3

Sri Lanka T20 series – Lost 0-1

Sri Lanka Test series – Lost 0-1

India Test series – Won 3-1

India ODI series – Lost 1-3

India T20 series – Won 1-0

Sri Lanka ODI series – Lost 2-5

TOTAL: Won 3, lost 8.

The defeat to Sri Lanka at home was probably the low point of the year. Cook’s abysmal captaincy directly affected the result, and we lost the early summer test series for the first time in God knows how long. Sri Lanka won in all three forms of the game. Desperate stuff.

The only high point of the summer was the comeback against India in the tests. I think most of us realise, however, that this win came with caveats: the captain was still batting poorly and India had no backbone; Dhoni’s troops never win away for a reason. Losing to India would have been an utter disaster; beating them was expected. When a team achieves what it’s supposed to achieve, why celebrate as if it’s 2005 all over again?

What is more, the series showed the growing disconnect between the mainstream cricket media and the fans. What was reported rarely reflected what we all saw. Many journalists seemed desperate to be Cook and ECB apologists. Objectivity went out of the window – perhaps because the media had a strained relationship with Pietersen and / or were enamoured with Cook’s more approachable personality. Either way, many of them helped to spread stories about Pietersen that were not compatible with what many of his former teammates (who were actually in the dressing room) seemed to be saying on Twitter. Some of these stories were demonstrably false; therefore a credibility gap emerged. It hasn’t done English cricket any good.

In terms of individual players who enhanced their reputations this year, Root, Ballance and Moeen obviously spring to mind. One hopes they can maintain their impressive form against top test class opposition in the coming year. If they can’t, England will be in deep poop.

The flip side of this success was the regression made by a number of other young players. Ben Stokes, who we all hoped would bring balance to The Force, has gone from hero to scrapheap. This is a massive blemish on the new management’s CV. Sam Robson, Steve Finn and Alex Hales have also had disappointing years.

However, rather than dwelling on individual performances – there’s plenty of room for that in the comments section – I’d like to finish by discussing two off-field developments that offer real hope for the future.

Firstly, the decision to drop Cook as ODI captain suggests that Whitaker, Fraser and Newell have a backbone. Despite Downton’s incredibly naïve interview the week before the World Cup squad was announced, in which the MD put enormous pressure on them to back the skipper, they stood their ground and make the right decision. Let’s hope this new pragmatism means that all future England teams will be picked on merit rather than influenced by politics.

If Cook’s test form remains in the doldrums – as seems fairly likely – they’ve demonstrated they’re capable of making big decisions. With the gruelling and testing schedule coming up, England cannot afford to carry any passengers.

The second reason for optimism is the possible departure of Giles Clarke. I doubt there’s a cricket fan in the country who thinks he’s done a good job. If (or hopefully when) Clarke moves on, English cricket might be able to unite. Some people find it hard to root for the team when they despise the board so much. The stitch up at the ICC made me feel ashamed to be English.

With Clarke out of the way, only Downton (and some might say Moores) remain as roadblocks to progress. If Downton continues to perform so poorly, he won’t survive for long, especially without Clarke in his corner. Meanwhile, it’s hard to see Moores surviving a poor world cup and a potential home Ashes defeat.

As fans all we want is to see is an entertaining, inclusive England side, with officials we respect making decisions that serve the game’s best long-term interests. Unfortunately we’ve seen little sign of that this year: instead events at the ICC, the handling of the Pietersen debacle, the continued absence of live cricket on terrestrial TV and sky-high ticket prices have enraged and divided England supporters.

In this observer’s opinion things must improve off the pitch before things can improve on it. The atmosphere at the moment is still fraught. While England have the wrong chairman, the wrong MD and an illogical and polarising man as coach, there will be still be a significant proportion of passionate, dedicated and lifelong England supporters who don’t mind seeing the team lose. If one thing must change in 2015, then it is surely this.

So will it be a happy new year for English cricket? Let’s hope so. It can hardly be any worse than the annus maximus horribilis we’ve just endured. One thing’s for sure though, it’s going to be a long old year, with the World Cup followed by test series against the Windies, New Zealand, Australia, Pakistan and South Africa.

Our players will be absolutely exhausted this time next year. Injuries will probably mount and burn out must be a risk. But at least the ECB coffers will be bulging. That’s the most important thing, right?

James Morgan

30 comments

  • James – I can hardly disagree with you that it’s been a desperate year for England, but cannot concur with the notion of wanting the team to lose just because we dislike the coach and those in the boardroom. As I’ve said on this blog before, we need to find a way of publicly showing our opposition to those in charge while remaining fully behind those who take the field. Not easy I know, but fans in other sports have done it. Though it’s not a perfect parallel, and it has been quiet recently, Manchester United fans’ Green and Gold campaign is not a bad model to follow.

    • I like this green and gold example, perhaps we should go to the games in stash from 2005… To represent the pre moores version 1!

    • It’s a horrible thing, wanting your team to lose, but I think that’s how some people feel. I’m not necessarily condoning this myself, but I do appreciate where the ill feeling comes from.

      • Good one James! Downton, Whittaker, Moores and Flower and anyone else who walks the corridors of power at the ECB who have been responsible for this muck up should shuffle off on their bikes. Oh and someone please tell us who it was at the ECB who dropped that ruddy great clanger to John Etheridge. I have forgotten it even if Mr E is hoping that we all forget. Not a chance.

    • Last time I looked (I’m not a Manu fan) the Glazers were still very much still owners of the club, with its value increasing. The gold a green campaign was a meaningless campaign that achieved nothing except convince a few deluded Manu fans they were doing something.

      Footbal fans are now viewed as nothing more than customers. (The chairman of the premiership Mr Scudermore admitted it a couple of years ago when he said “I don’t call them fans I call them customers.”

      Unfortunately they are not as powefull as normal customers because they cling onto the belief they are fans too. The attraction of the modern sports franchise to their owners is a fan base that does not behave like a typical customer. In the normal world if you don’t like a company’s service or product or owners you walk away and go somewhere else. As long as the fan/customer keeps laying down his money. Be it at the gate or the electronic gate (sky) the owners are laughing at you.

      It does not matter whether it’s Manu fans or the 520000 who turn up at Newcastle every week neievely believing they’re “supporting the team, not the owners” You are only deluding yourselves if you think otherwise. Until you close your wallets or your accounts and walk away, you are achieving little. The only language the modern owner understands is bums on seats and merchandise purchased. After that they couldn’t give a toss.

      If Man U fans really wanted the Glazers out, they would all not turn up every week. As long as they keep going, the Glaziers will keep exploiting them until someone comes along who is prepared to pay an even higher price to buy the club. But when that day comes, it will be on the Glazers terms not the deluded fan/customer.

  • Watching New Zealand play, forget the ashes, we won’t make it past the black caps on current form.

    Fingers crossed Graves gets the chairman role and brings some Yorkshire common sense with him oh and an axe.

    • As a long suffering NZ cricket fan, we know the next abject capitulation is just around the corner. Which does mean that you really savour the good times. And overall 2014 has been pretty good for the Black Caps. Brendon McCullum, Kane Williamson and (to a lesser extent) Ross Taylor have been in princely form, Baz & Kane rewriting NZ record books along the way. BJ Watling is an old fashioned nudger as a batsman, but has shown a real knack for shepherding the tail and is a decent keeper. Add in the emergence of Corey Anderson (on good days any way) as a destructive limited overs hitter, and the luxury of choosing between him and Neesham as test match batting all-rounder means the batting rivals the great ’80s side. There’s still big question marks about openers though, as usual. And McCullum as a captain is everything Cook isn’t, innovative and aggressive – and while a lot of fans were angry about the way Ross Taylor was sacked, Baz’s batting and leadership turned things around to the point where the NZ Herald (NZ’s biggest selling daily) named him their “New Zealander of the Year”. No Nigel Farages for us!

      In the bowling Southee and Boult have developed into a top-notch pair of opening bowlers, and there’s plenty of back up behind them – Adam Milne was touching 95mph in the UAE ODIs, while McLenahan & Matt Henry are touching 90mph, and taking wickets in ODIs. The NZ selectors are having a nightmare time deciding who to keep in the world cup squad of 15, as Mills, Bracewell & Bennett all have claims. Spinners Mark Craig and Ish Sodhi have both taken wickets at key times this year, and have plenty of scope for development.

      And all that’s with Jesse Ryder in self-inflicted exile.

      If NZ win the Boxing Day test vs Sri Lanka (and thanks to McCullum’s 195 of 134 balls, and some superb swing bowling by Boult & Southee with 3 days to play it’s 441 vs SL’s 138 and 84/0 following on) and Australia beat India in Melbourne NZ will finish the year 5th on the test rankings. Anyone suggesting that when the Saffas bowled us out for 45 last year would have been committed, and even 12 months ago they’d have gotten a few sideways glances.

  • I have to say that the thing that has upset me most this year is the fact the I want England to be beaten whenever they plY. I hate feeling thisway but feel that if we co ti ue to be so bad somebody, somewhere,will do something about it. This looks as if itmight be starting tohappen but what a state to reduce us all to.

    Many thanks for all of you on this blog. You have kept me sane this year!

  • Lots of common sense spoken above. It is the way that the ECB have attempted to develop things that has narked me off so much. Like you I didn’t have as much of a problem with dropping Pietersen from the side. However the ECB coming up with a lot of demonstrably false horse**** not only has weakened their credibility but has done the opposite from what they have intended. They have driven a wedge between many cricket fans and their team. The backing given to Cook on the back of the Ashes humiliation was reprehensible. However it has merely started a chain of events that has made me feel more antagonistic towards them as time has gone on. It is clear from reading these pages and at How Did We Lose in Adelaide that I’m far from alone.

  • Good blog James, full of lots of interesting comments. Agree with most of what you say but not Ashley Giles. He was the coach who in 2012 led us to 10 straight wins in ODI cricket ( 4-0 v Pak; 2-0 v Wi and 4-0 v Aus) He created the only one day team in recent memory that you felt were favourites to win a match. It was one of the few times he was given the team he wanted. We should have won the champs trophy and outplayed Aus and SA. Just lost our nerve at a crucial moment!! Much rather Giles than Moores.

    Here are 2 stats on Moores:
    1) Since 2001 England have lost 4 home series. Moores has been in charge for 3 of them.

    2) 4 England captains have lost their jobs under Moores – Vaughan, Collingwood, KP and Cook.

    I dont hold out much hope for 2015 but hope he proves me wrong.

    • Agree re: Moores, but we’ll have to agree to disagree on Giles. He took over a team that was briefly no1 in the world I recall, and we were 5th when he left. He lost a lot more matches than he won, and I don’t buy into the ‘he didn’t have his best team’ excuse. Most teams rest players and rotate in ODIs. Overall Giles’ strategy was very old fashioned, and I’ve never been particularly impressed with his interviews. He rarely said anything remotely insightful during his stint as a commentator / summariser on Sky, and I think his strengths as a coach (getting on with people, putting an arm around players etc) can only take the team so far. He was neither the dynamic motivating personality not the tactical brain I think the team needed in my humbe opinion. I appreciate he has his supporters though, I just don’t agree :-)

  • Ah balanced and rational as ever. There is clearly a problem within the management of the ECB. I’d suggest that the management want england to be winning (anything else would just be laughable) but there is no clear plan to deliver this.

    I’d have kept KP, but if he were unmanageable (and there is evidence to suggest that) then it was right he goes. The manner was poor and I think the ECB have been trying to fight a media disaster after the event – they were only ever going to look bad. Likewise they’ve hung Cook out to dry. They’ve set him up as England’s saviour (and I can’t imagine that Cook believes it either) and then sacked him… Many have suggested that Cook should have resigned, but I suggest that is an argument flawed with logic. Being captain of your country and playing a game you love is many a child’s dream, and something that would need to be prised out of most people’s grasp.

    On the TV angle, there is a real dilemma for the ECB. They money they get from the British public via Sky is astronomical compared to what Terrestrial providers could pay. This money is the life blood of the england and county setups. Driving down revenue (and this includes ticket prices) means less money to pay players, provide top quality facilities and invest in grass roots cricket. More people watching on TV or playing does not equate to significantly more revenue. A sad fact but the ECB a is a business and needs to remain solvent.

    Here’s hoping for a reasonable 2015 on the field.

    • Hi Ian. Hope you had a good Xmas mate. I understand about the sky money of course, but I sense that we are spending increasing amounts on a diminishing pool of players (the latest figures revealing levels of participation in club cricket demonstrate this). The counties are already demanding that there be some live cricket on terrestrial TV and the chairman likely to replace Clarke is understood to be on side with this. There has to be a balance. Giving Sky a monopoly probably isn’t working now.

      Re: ticket prices, if prices were reduced then attendances would go up and net revenue might be increased. I think participation is probably the lifeblood of the game, and getting more people playing (and watching) would probably improve the talent pool available to England, even if less money was spent training / coaching the best players that emerge. If you look at tennis, British players get the best of everything, and the LTA is extremely wealthy, but we still can’t produce champions because at the end of the day you can’t polish a turd. Players will always have their ceiling.

      It’s all a bit chicken and egg, and this isn’t my specialist subject if I’m being completely honest, but that’s the opinion I’ve formed based on what I’ve seen and read.

      • Yes thank you James. Hope you guys did too.

        Understand your views, but suspect that the economics is slightly more complex. Scheduling of international matches tends to be an issue, as well as prices. The bidding process is flawed but also design to increase projected ECB revenues, most of which get distributed out to the counties. Also the structure where counties are independent of the ECB causes issue with different economic issue – unlike the Amercian sports structures. All a bit of a mess where self interest and slightly odd economics prevails.

        • “The bidding process is flawed but also designed to increase projected ECB revenues, most of which get distributed out to the counties.”

          I don’t know what the correct numbers are, but the reports of current county unrest and desire to remove Giles Clarke suggest that the main complaint is: they’re not seeing enough of the money while the ECB has too much in the bank.

  • Quote of the year, for me, was from Steve Harmison…”with the ECB on your side, who needs the opposition?”
    As the year has shown, the ECB have inflicted more damage on English cricket than a full season of whitewashes!
    Currently the team can only progress despite the ECB, not because of it!
    I class myself as a bog standard crcket lover. I love the game, and wish my team to win every match,,and yet, sadly, probably tragically, I have found myself punching the air when Cook gets out, and smirking at yet another defeat….how the hell did it ever come to this?? I would never in my wildest dreams imagine myself behaving like this!!
    On reflection, it’s because what I saw was the ECB X1 on the field, and not my beloved England!
    My deepest wish for the coming year is that major changes at the top of the utterly dysfunctional organisation are made, with the focus of actually supporting the England team proactively and creatively, rather than the current environment of weaselly politics and naked greed! It might be a wish too far…I live in hope!!

  • As expected, plenty of good points.

    Although the letter to Waitrose ultimately didn’t get past the intended target’s secretary, have you thought of writing another open letter to the incoming new Chairman?

  • Regardless of what a crap year I still watch England in hope of us winning, and do live in hope of Cook returning to the class Test batsman that he used to be. What he needs is a decent opening partner like the Strauss of old. My main worry for the future of our Test team is what happens if Anderson and Broad get injured?

    Our odi team has not been that great for a long time, and swapping captain isn’t going to change that in time for the works cup

    As for KP, regardless of everything he killed all chances of ever playing for England again with that rant of a book so it’s time to move on……

    • As for KP, regardless of his rant of a book, he’s by far the most exciting England batsman I have seen play since, and including, Botham in his heyday.
      And for that alone he should definitely play again.
      So no, not time to ‘move on’ and I don’t card if he writes another 1000 books like that if I get to see him smash Steyn back over his again again in an England shirt.

  • I predicted (BTL on The G, no less) that we would lose the Ashes Down Under. However, I thought it would be 3-1 in all likelihood. The idea of 5-0 really didn’t enter my darkest nightmares. My main reasoning is that we won in large part at home due to heroics from Anderson and Broad, making the ball talk. That was not likely to happen with the Kookaburra – and as you note, the batting wasn’t in form to provide scoreboard pressure.

    One of the horrors of the failure to conduct an inquiry is that over time a particular angle on the defeat has definitely emerged – injuries and players being pressured to play (esp. by Flower.)

    (Note: Flower rarely explicitly pressured players to play, he just made it clear that “if you don’t have the right stuff, you won’t get selected” and “players with the right stuff play through pain.”)

    As a result, we went into the Ashes Down Under with a bowling setup that could only barely field 4 fit bowlers at the start of the series. Let alone 4 bowlers fit and in form.

    And this year, the mistakes continued in this vein – witness the nonsense with Prior, the playing of Anderson in T20s, etc.

    As for Moores – nice bloke, actually did ok at Lancs given the financial situation, but nothing to suggest he was going to do better than last time around. He may yet surprise us at the WC etc. but it’s still bad decision making to have given him this second chance…

  • Sack all those who work for the ECB and any coaches that advocate their stupid ‘development paths’ etc. They are all suits and jobsworths. Get cricket people in to run cricket for the good of the game. Through that, long term you will find more people will start playing hte game at the grass roots.. a strong grass roots will produce a strong county game (backed up by higher attendances and more people watching it on tv).. that in turn will make a stronger England.

    You will not raise the game by making England or the Counties better, 99% of people do not associate with these teams as they are run by suits, paid way too much and usually their seconds/youth set ups are basically nothing more than closed shops.. ie if you don’t play for the coaches club or a ECB favoured club you have no chance.

  • James,
    The usual good sense and balance from you. I’m in broad agreement with all most of your conclusions, but I don’t see some of them quite as clear cut.
    One thing that’s surprised me reading from afar is how black and white views are, on many of these issues. KP’s sacking? Moores’ reappointment? Cook’s retention as test captain? None of them are clear cut decisions, despite the howling of those who choose to ignore any contrary evidence or views. They could all be argued either way, they’re all marginal decisions, and most of the analysis, both in the press and in the blogosphere has been much too simplistic for my taste. For the record, I’d have dropped KP, picked Ford instead of Moores, and kept Cook on – but they could all be argued otherwise.
    That said, there were 2 straightforward decisions that the ECB got unequivocally wrong. Sacking Flower was a no-brainer, both on its own merits and as a counterbalance to the KP decision. Relieving Cook of the ODI captaincy post-Ashes was also an obvious call – there’s little excuse for either of those decisions not to have been made at the time.
    Add to that Downton’s unique ability to open his mouth and make things worse and there’s no doubt he’s contributed hugely to the mess. Hopefully the Cook decision is the start of some much-needed clarity in management thinking.
    I understand those who are so disillusioned that they want England to lose. As a fellow Villa fan, I’m past the point where anything Paul Lambert does is going to shake my conviction that he has no idea what he’s doing – and it may well be that Moores is a lost cause. Clarke certainly is, and I share your shame at the ICC stitch up.
    But I just can’t bring myself to want England to lose – especially with a winnable Ashes series coming up. In my optimistic moods, the ODI batting comes together and we make the semi-finals. Cook recovers his test form on good tracks in the Caribbean and uses that as a springboard to lead us to victories over NZ and the Ashes. This is what I’ll be hoping for, because England winning is much more important than whether I’m right or wrong about KP, Moores, Cook et al. I’m an England fan, and I want us to win regardless of who’s in the team, and who’s in charge.

    • Very noble Kev. I would still love England to win the World Cup etc, there’s just part of me that would cringe at Giles Clarke basking in the reflected glory ;-). I agree that some of the calls were margin calls. I always try to see other side, and actually wrote an article entitled ‘time to move on’ earlier the summer (whisper it quietly) that tried to see things from the ECB’s perspective. It was tough though! Just a small point: I would also have chosen Ford as the next coach. He’d just agreed to be Surrey’s new coach, and I think he would’ve been released from that if he was the ECB’s choice, but I think he was discounted for political reasons. Ford and Pietersen are close, and if Ford had got the job it wouldve made sense to keep Pietersen. Who would’ve been the fall guy for the Ashes debacle then? Just a mischievous thought :-)

      • I read the “time to move on” piece in mid-summer (when I found the blog) and I thought it was brilliant – my comment about simplistic analysis was absolutely not aimed at you. I think you’re probably right about Ford too – he was never going to get the job once KP was made persona non grata. Although I said I would have picked him, his record isn’t demonstrably better than Moores, and therein lies the problem, as you pointed out at the time.
        2014 was always going to be a tough year. KP would have continued to divide opinion even if he had stayed in the team. Confidence would still have been shot. The coaching options would still have been uninspiring. If not Cook, we would have had an untried Test captain, finding his feet. I’m not convinced results would have been much different frankly, but no doubt blogs and forums might have felt a little less like a boxing match to read :)

    • Kev “One thing that’s surprised me reading from afar is how black and white views are, on many of these issues. KP’s sacking? Moores’ reappointment? Cook’s retention as test captain? None of them are clear cut decisions, despite the howling of those who choose to ignore any contrary evidence or views.”

      Well it was the governing bodies side of the issue that argued for the concept of TINA. They made it quite clear there was no alternative, and no argument against would be countered. That was just arrogant and silly. There is always an alternative in sport. As for Moores, why did the governing body hire a head hunting agency (at huge expense) to re hire a ex failed coach?

      It seems the only time some people got angry was when this drivel was questioned by so called “outsiders” like us. The establishment was quite happy with so called “black and white” views as long as their views were being implemented. The vast majority of the cricket media parroted the ECB line. Sites like this came into their own because there was no other vehicle to express a counter opinion.

      That I think explains the black and white positions. The media became the ECBs propaganda arm and did not give enough space to the alternative view. The cricket media is now viewed with as much suspicion and genuine loathing from many as the ECB is.

      Like all civil wars, ( and this has been a English cricket civil war) they become more brutal and bitter as they cut across many people, and families who for the most part are usually on the same side.

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