This is an English cricket blog, in which we look at events from an English point of view. But it’s impossible to analyse what happened in this match, and particularly yesterday, without discussing India.
Theirs was the worst performance I have ever seen on a cricket field in thirty years of following the game. A decent club XI would have easily done better.
First they conceded 101 in 11.3 overs of the morning session, in a disastrous display of poor bowling, woeful fielding, and clueless captaincy.
And then India allowed themselves to be dismissed in just 29.2 overs. England bowled well, and the conditions were helpful, but these were not circumstances in which 94 was an acceptable total.
They conceded two run-outs, for no discernible reason. They limply swished their bats, unprepared, unwilling, or maybe simply unable, to offer any resistance whatsoever.
Oh to be an Indian supporter today. From at one stage leading the series, they have successively been dismantled, crushed, and then abjectly humiliated.
It was principally their decision to condense five test matches into just six weeks. It was entirely their decision to play no tour games between tests, thereby allowing themselves no opportunity to regroup or regain batting form.
As the Sunday Telegraph’s Scyld Berry has cogently argued, five test series – the true test of cricketing strength – will become unviable if this approach continues. If the visiting side has no opportunity to repair damage, then once the home side gains an advantage, the margin between the teams rapidly widens to insurmountable proportions and the final tests become foregone conclusions.
Look at what happened to us over the winter. Although we did play one tour match outside the tests, by as early as their victory in Adelaide, never mind Perth, Australia’s momentum was unstoppable.
There is a related factor. I remember a few years ago Michael Vaughan suggesting that home advantage was becoming more important in test cricket. Looks like he’s right. On Sky yesterday, Andrew “absolute c***” Strauss came up with a remarkable statistic: of the forty test matches played in 2013, only one was lost by the home side – and it was Zimbabwe.
With the exception of 2010/11, the Ashes have been won by the home side in every series since 2001.
What about England’s performance? The turning point came partly with Jadeja’s drop – which may still prove the moment which won the 2015 Ashes for Australia – but also with Broad and Anderson’s rediscovery of their form. As I’ve said before, when Anderson is good, England are good.
The due’s renewed potency in the third test, allied to a large first innings score, shifted the balance of power and allowed England to feel confident and virile for the first time since the Durham test last year. To their great credit, the hosts harnessed and retained that self-confidence, and began to overcome periods of pressure with the bat – albeit minor – thanks mainly to Root and Buttler. Combined with home advantage, once England began playing with self-belief they gained the upper hand, at which point their greater strength in depth meant they would ultimately prevail.
In many respects, but not all, England played very well in the final three tests of the summer. In recognition I will declare today a sniping-free day and magnanimously allow the frenzied national celebrations to continue untarnished by my scepticism.
Well, almost. There is still an awful lot of unfinished business, and plenty of talking points to discuss over the days and weeks to come. As ever, of course, we warmly welcome all your comments below.
It transpires that we have Mrs Cook to thank for the England skipper staying in the job. You might well have been startled by the BBC Online headline Wife convinced Cook not to quit as captain. I mean, I knew he and Downton were close, but not quite that close.
“Without my wife, I don’t think I’d be standing here as captain,” he told Test Match Special yesterday. “You don’t often say things like that – I don’t know why I just have – but it’s the way I feel. You can bare your soul quite often to Alice and she’s very good at getting me back on the straight and narrow”.
A few of us might not agree that good reasons for a failing England captain refusing to quit include his wife telling him not to, especially as it would probably have involved a reduction in his earning power for the household.
The general emotional sense emanating last night from Cook, his supporters, and the ECB management, was of rather self-indulgent relief that their reputations and authority had been vindicated. Downtonism has triumphed. Rather less in evidence was gratitude to the England supporter base who’ve had to a lot to put up with over the last nine months.
England don’t need nor are particularly interested in the paying public. With TV rights and guaranteed Central Contracts this lot are the equivalent to a bunch of mercenaries. Why anyone should care about them can only be down to one thing – I’m Inglish innit???
I don’t blame the players themselves too much for this – they are cossetted by an insular Team England culture which protects them from the real world. Little wonder Graeme Swann thinks test match tickets cost £20.
“Without my wife, I don’t think I’d be standing here as captain,” he told Test Match Special yesterday. ”You don’t often say things like that – I don’t know why I just have – but it’s the way I feel. You can bare your soul quite often to Alice and she’s very good at getting me back on the straight and narrow”.
As the late Sir John Junor may have said. “Pass the sick bag, Alice!”
You are a hard man Maxie. Give Cook a break. He survived a witch hunt that would have broken many people. Had it been successful we might well have been looking at a team in disarray rather than the series winners. The England team and the England supporter base at the grounds have been behind Alistair Cook. Maybe more in sympathy for the relentless criticism levelled against him rather than for any other good reason.
India were more than a disgrace. I have to say it makes me wonder. Were there issues here other than a lack of cricketing ability
As you say there is a lot of unfinished business and a lot to talk about. The opening pair both in the ODI, Wotld cup and the West Indies being crucial.
As always a very interesting analysis and a great read even though I can’t agree with all the points made.
“Relentless criticism”? From who – certainly not the mainstream press, who kept on banging on about what a splendid chap he was/is or from his employers who reminded us of his credentials to lead a successful sports team by saying of him and his family being exactly the “right kind of peopel” to lead England…
Cook and the team were, rightly, under pressure having overseen our worst run of form in 23 years. Not really a witch hunt, in fact, as you say he’s been pretty well supported throughout.
It will be going on for a minimum of 2 years between test centuries, during a period in which he oversaw a period of 10 tests without a win, frankly how he wasn’t sacked or dropped is a mystery. fair play to him for turning things around in this series.
They deserve credit for turning it around in spectacular style against an increasingly abject India and just as I didn’t deny Australia for beating the rabble that was England last winter, neither will deny England for beating the rabble that India became.
Some real positives in the performances of Ballance & Root with the bat and flashes with the ball from Ali, Jordan, Stokes plus an encouraging start from Buttler. Much tougher tests and still a lot question marks over the team.
Let’s hope they grasp the nettle and name a bold ODI team. Cast minds back to the series against Sri Lanka, where we were abject, they need urgent surgery on the top 4. Cook, Bell, Ballance, Root is not the top 4 of an even semi succesful ODI team in Australia…Hales has to be given a go and the likes of Taylor, Patel, Roy need a look at some point too.
Cook should step away from the one day team.
Cook was not sacked or dropped because there was no other viable alternative. ‘Anybody but Cook’ not really being a sensible option.
His background is immaterial. Not something he can do anything about. Downton made an ill phrased comment which seems. to have been seized upon as further ammunition against Cook We surely don’t need to go down the road of social engineering when it comes to choosing a cricket captain.
A lot of the criticism of Cook was both personal and unhelpful. It abounded amongst well placed persons in the social media.
Agree with and appreciate the remainder of your very well written, generous and perceptive comments.
I doubt wether we will see an ODI team that it much different. I expect to see a few new faces but being overly innovative is not the current style unfortunately.
Cook is likely to stay. I see that as a difficult one. He could make an invaluable contribution but on the other hand his batting is still far from right.
Hope the team go forward from here.
When sceptics make reference to Cook’s public school background, they are not criticising him personally but rather, the ECB’s mindset . What’s at issue is this: why was Cook earmarked at such an early stage of his career as the next captain despite the fact he showed no obvious predisposition for the role.
It’s tempting to think that what mattered to the suits was that Cook was natural officer class – a well mannered public schoolboy with clean fingernails and. as Giles Clarke said, the right sort of family.
I’m sorry, but I don’t buy the no alternative argument. Why would a new captain who might not be good be worse that the current captain who demonstrably isn’t any good?
If Cook was ruled out of a series by injury, would England cancel because they don’t have anyone else who could captain?
Joe Root has been marked out early. Not because of his background but because he seems to have both talent and the personal qualities required. Cook captained U19 and stood also stood out as having both talent and respect although he did not seem to be ideal in other ways. Looked to be the best of what we had got. Personally I never rated him as a captain from the start. Hoped for the best like everyone else I think. No other obvious candidate at the time.
Why did Cook stand out rather than Bell? Because Bell didn’t play for Essex?
Ballance has been very impressive – he just looks the part as a test cricketer. Calm, authoritative, resourceful. Some way he might come unstuck against genuinely quick bowling on a length, but to my (untrained) eye he looks tight enough. I also hope Buttler continues to fulfil what appears to be huge potential. His addition to the team at Southampton injected a great deal of energy.
A witch hunt? You are joking. He has been defended to the hilt by the cricket establishment. (That includes all the newspapers)The ECB even carried out a dawn raid on the Sky commentators box to shut down criticism of him from Warne.
I find increasingly that A. Cult comes over as a very needy individual. He was going to resign in Australia. (Was talked out of it) Then he was going to resign after Lords (was talked out of it) now we are told his wife talked him out of it as well. Talk about indecisive. And needy. Some one should do some tabloid psychoanalysis on him. They could not wait to do the same on KP and his needyness.
As for England’s so called triumph, the best comparison I can come up with is Ronald Reagan’s invasion of Grenada in 1983. This was heralded as a great military victory. Yet dear old Alexander Haig rather let the cat out of the bag when he admitted they could have achieved the same result by sending the New York fire department.
What should worry all cricket lovers is,I fear, this is climpse into the future. India, and more importantly India’s public don’t care about Test match cricket anymore. Some of them are even calling for India to stop playing test cricket all together. And if they are going to put up 3 day surrenders like the last 2 test matches thenECB should be very worried indeed. Because no one is going pay very much to watch this tripe. And we know how much the ECB love their money.
Rumour is (according to some well connected cricket journos) that A.Cult is going to be the 1 day captain. Oh well as long as it keeps the sponsors happy.
Why am I not surprised that the initials KP had to come into this somewhere? There were very many well qualified people prominent in the social media who were gunning for Cook in a personal way.
I do agree with you about the glimpse into the future and the problem/s with India. Not a good portent.
“As for England’s so called triumph, the best comparison I can come up with is Ronald Reagan’s invasion of Grenada in 1983”.
Great analogy!
I share your concerns about the future of test cricket. if even India’s *players* don’t seem very motivated by it. I wonder why so few British-resident India supports came to watch this summer?
)The ECB even carried out a dawn raid on the Sky commentators box to shut down criticism of him from Warne.
I have seen this comment repeated a couple of times on this blog (probably from yourself) – can you provide the source of this comment please – has it been reported anywhere else?
It wasn’t quite a dawn raid, but Clarke told Sky to tell Warne to lay off.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/10710978/ECB-chairman-Giles-Clarke-childish-for-having-go-at-me-over-criticism-of-England-and-captain-Alastair-Cook.html
Name one other England captain who would of survived a 5 – 0 thrashing by Australia followed by an encore of loosing 1 – 0 to Sri Lanka at home. (At home!!) I can only assume that either Cook is Giles Clarke’s illegitimate son or Giles Clarke likes doing unspeakable things to farm animals and Cook has the negatives to prove it.
…and Kevin Pietersen had got hold of some copies.
Which witch hunt? certainly not by anyone ‘inside’ cricket.
Thanks for your kind words, Jenny, and thanks also for reading and taking part. There is no obligation for you to agree with me on anything!
I’d concur, though, with the comment below about the witch-hunt – Cook was indeed heavily criticised in some quarters, but only after a long period of dismal performances and form. He’s in a very important and privileged position – one which will always invite scrutiny and analysis. I also can’t think of an England captain in history who’s been given so much support by the ECB and friends in the media. Think about mercilessly David Gower and Mike Gatting were both axed in the 1980s.
Kevin Pietersen was sacked for sending a perfectly reasonable private e-mail, after which the ECB began a systematic campaign of undermining him via media leaks.
By contrast, Alastair Cook makes a complete horlicks of everything, but because the ECB have bet their house on him, they pressurise the media, behind the scenes, into giving him an easy ride.
I would love to know what was said to Shane Warne, and by whom.
as I mentioned above – where is the evidence that anyone said anything to him? perhaps Warne thought to himself – I’ve been a bit of an A**e and apologised in person – why does everything have to be a big conspiracy.
I enjoy cricket, I enjoy reading an writing about cricket – but over the last few months it has not been that enjoyable due some of the petty comments and unfounded accusations and conspiracy theories perpetuated by a very small number of bloggers who all appear to post the same tosh on a number of different sites.
Dave – in addition to the link below, there is also this phone call:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/10974847/Shane-Warne-settles-row-with-England-captain-Alastair-Cook-after-phone-call.html
Who exactly engineered that?
I’d like to think that if you go back through everything I’ve written about the Pietersen scandal, that everything I’ve cited as fact, rather than speculation, is grounded in the evidence which is the public domain.
The ECB declared war on England supporters who would not fall into line over Pietersen. The media gave them an easy ride and failed to ask any of the important questions. Downton’s “explanation” is so full of hole that you can’t be surprised that many of us BTL have had to fill in the gaps.
You don’t even need to scratch the surface to notice that Downton has dissembled and evaded at every turn, and there are some examples here:
https://www.thefulltoss.com/england-cricket-blog/paul-downton-speaks-kp-fights-back/
Well, I’ve been banging on about this “Big Three” stitch up on every thread lately, and look what happened! The worst possible advert for a five test series! India are down there with Zimbabwe, probably worse!! The Indians are probably right, Test cricket is beyond their abilities, stamina and application and probably should confine themselves to 20/20 as only a few hours on the field is about their limit!!
Has this left egg on the face of the odious Carke? I doubt it, as some unbelievable bullshi….sorry, spin, will come from the BCCI and ECB.
Like millions of us, outside cricket, I struggle to understand the ramifications of the stitch up, but, when Clarke and Srinivisaran are telling us it’s good for cricket the only thing I believe is it’s bad for cricket but a shitload of money for those inside cricket!!
As for the ODI’S…unlike many of the myopic test purists who call it the pyjama game, or hit and giggle, many cricket lovers, including myself really enjoy it, and like to think that when the lads are pulling an England shirt on theyre giving it everything!
Cook shouldn’t be anywhere near a ODI side, the archetypal conservative English opener simply does not have what is required for this format…Morgan for Captain, Hales for Cook
I listened to the TMS lunchtime piece that had Downton and the chap from the PCA on it. What became pretty clear to me, other than Downton running as far away from the FTP as he could (“nothing we can do about it”) so that when it goes wrong it won’t be his fault, was the PCA guy not really going overboard about the schedule. It seemed clear the players quite like the rewards of the international gravy train, and that missing out isn’t an option. While he mouthed platitudes to Agnew’s more than decent points about “B” Teams, he was really saying, we want more of the high profile stuff, and the cash that comes with it.
Oh, and even if we did give a stuff, the ECB don’t, and there’s naff all we can do about it.
Spectators be damned. This 5 test series had me longing for a 3 test series.
My feelings exactly. I was disgusted by what I heard that lunchtime.
Personally, I thought he handled the question with aplomb.
As you’ll have seen, Cook is retained for the ODIs. World Cup here we come. In fairness, his home ODI record is good.
‘especially as it would probably have involved a reduction in his earnings power for the household.’
Jeez, that’s a pretty low quality remark about someone you don’t know and their marriage.
Well said Edward. I have only recently started reading thefulltoss.com and, whilst I do so agree with the thoughts about the state of English cricket, I feel that some of the comments are getting very close to being personally abusive, and are showing a lack of objectivity.
Of course England won the final test because of India’s total surrender, however, if England’s fielders had not held their catches, and if the runs had not been on the board, it may well not have been the same story.
As far as the captaincy is concerned, I have yet to see a cogently argued case for any replacement. Joe Root is, no doubt, a definite possible, but on the basis of his cricketing ability – I’m not sure what going to a private school has to do with it, and in any case I’m sure it was not his decision to go there.
I have just recently retired, and now have the time to watch live cricket – but the resources are stretched to afford the dirty digger’s organisation’s subscription.
In spite of that ramble, it’s great to be able to read a diverse range of non-establishment opinions. More power to your collective elbows!
Ross – thanks for joining us here on TFT and I’m glad you’ve found it worthwhile to read view and opinions from “outside cricket”. I can also highly recommend Dmitri Old’s blog.
I honestly don’t think, though, that anything here has crossed the line into genuine abuse, as opposed to trenchant criticism. As for objectivity – we all feel passionate about cricket, and usually English cricket, and sometimes it will get a little emotional. The objectivity comes with the bigger picture – in the comments there’s room for every point of view.
Hope we see you here again.
It was Cook who brought up his wife in public, not me, and he who used his wife’s views as public justification for staying in a job which almost everyone said he should quit. That makes it valid for scrutiny. And what I suggested is plausible. What would your partner say if you said you were thinking of giving up the best, and maybe the best paid job you’d ever have, especially when you’d just started a family?
I can answer that – she would let me talk it through with her – provide me with her opinion which I value and leave the final decision to me. she would be more concerned about my personal happiness than the state of the family finances…and ftw it is unlikely they end up living on the streets
The keys to this victory have been Cook’s luck with the bat (as much as his form), the return to form of Anderson and Broad, and a schedule that has crucified India, unable to arrest the slide in form.
What was telling was Anderson talking about the fact that they went back to concentrating on bowling good deliveries rather than bowling to rigid plans for individual batsmen. Hopefully this will see a less structured approach in the future. My main problem with Cook’s captaincy has always been that it looked as if it was captaincy by numbers – Southampton was the only game that it looked like he was making decisions that didn’t follow a prescriptive plan. Unfortunately, India’s rank capitulation meant he wasn’t required to make any decisions after that has so for me, the jury is still out on whether Southampton was a blip or an actual change in attitude. What is clear is that any captain is determined by the quality of his bowlers and the standard of opposition (Remember, even Brearley had Botham at his absolute height backed up by Willis and never faced the West Indies)
As far as the ‘non-sniping’ part of your post, I heard Cook thank supporters at the presentation. And the whole ‘Downtonism has triumphed’ line is a bit OTT. For a start, what is ‘Downtonism’? He is tarnished for his part in the KP sacking which was unpleasantly done by the ECB, especially that interview earlier in the summer where he should have just kept quiet. There were enough cricketing reasons to move on from KP without the spiteful ‘disengaged’ nonsense.
Since then, all Downton has done is publicly back the under fire captain – is that so terrible? Having backed him in the aftermath of the Ashes, whether you think that was right or wrong, they had to back him through this summer, or risk going back to the bad old days of the late 80s and early 90s.
The test for Downton and Moores is how they handle the next 12 months and the key issues of the one day side and whether they remove Cook from it, which is the right thing to do – Hales, Vince and Roy all have to be given their chance between now and the end of the year in the lead up to the World Cup, so that when the triangular tournament starts in Australia in January, the one day batting is settled on.
Well said Hamish. You made very good points in a balanced way.
Seconded. Well said Hamish. Beautifully summed up.
Cheers for another excellent comment Hamish. I agree with you that there were good cricketing reasons for sacking KP.
I’m on holiday in France atm, so missed most of the 5th test, but I agree that the test for Moores/Cook will be the upcoming ODIs and on to the World Cup. It’s also the test of what Maxie called Downtonism (and whether it exists).
Like you I don’t think Cook should be in the ODI team. I reckon 80% of fans agree with you. However I bet 100% of this 80% are 99.999% certain that Cook will be in the ODI team regardless of logic or what the majority think (and leading the team of course so he cannot be dropped whatever happens). Perhaps that, right there, is what Downtonism is.
James, James we can’t have this elusive ‘majority’ selecting the team. Neither one of you is making sense about this ‘Downtonism’. Have a lovely holiday. Looking forward to seeing you back. Usually, but not always more temperate than Maxie!
James, I can’t agree that there were good cricketing reasons for sacking KP. Too many people are justifying the dropping of Pietersen on the back of his mixed T20 innings over the past few months.
On the basis of performances up to and during the Ashes series, apart from Stuart Broad, there were good cricketing reasons to drop every current England player who also played over the winter. Ahead of Pietersen.
Jenny. My point is simply that Cook is untouchable whatever the format. That’s Downtonism (or what I think Maxie means by the term). An ‘ism’ isn’t necessarily a bad thing either. Capitalism has worked out pretty well. We probably wouldn’t be having this conversation of the internet without it :-) Downtonism simply means Downton’s way of doing things.
Tregaskis, i do believe there were sound reasons cricketing reasons for dropping KP and they have nothing to do with his recent T20 form. It’s based on a long term view I’ve held about Pietersen from the first time I saw him play. He is an eye player pure and simple, who plays exclusively off the front foot. By his own admission his technique ain’t great. You can’t keep pulling the likes of Brett Lee off your front foot when you’re 35. Sky’s gadgets showed that KP hit the ball a yard or so further forward than all his teammates last summer. The truly great players play late not early.
Based on these facts, I always thought KP would deteriorate quite quickly once his eye stated to go just 1% (it makes a huge difference at the top level). His test form over the last year had dipped, and the likelihood was he wouldn’t be any better in 2015. It would’ve been a brave call, but the selectors could’ve said ‘we want to try some new blood who will be at the best / improving rather than possibly past their best in next year’s Ashes. It would’ve been a lot more credible than the disengaged nonsense IMHO.
“Sky’s gadgets showed that KP hit the ball a yard or so further forward than all his teammates last summer. The truly great players play late not early.”
Eh? KP’s contact point was ahead of the rest because he was getting further down the pitch to counter the swing and bounce. It’s a really good way to deal with English conditions.
He’s consistently done that throughout his career, trusting his reactions and utilising his long reach and height.
The arguments based on Pietersen’s T20 form are ridiculous. Don’t people realise how hard it must be for him now to reach the same heights he once did, knowing he has nothing to play for? And if Cook had only played T20 this season, what kind of scores would he have made?
An excellent analysis, Hamish, and thanks.
“What was telling was Anderson talking about the fact that they went back to concentrating on bowling good deliveries rather than bowling to rigid plans for individual batsmen. Hopefully this will see a less structured approach in the future”.
Hurrah for that – but it’s a revealing remark which says an awful lot about how and why England have lost control in the field in recent times.
“What is clear is that any captain is determined by the quality of his bowlers and the standard of opposition (Remember, even Brearley had Botham at his absolute height backed up by Willis and never faced the West Indies)”.
Very true. Atherton often had very little to work with. Vaughan (a very good captain) had the awesome foursome.
“What is ‘Downtonism’?”
Downtonism is reacting to a catastrophic Ashes defeat in Australia by sacking the best player for irrelevant reasons, shoring up a failed captain, promoting the discrediting coach, and then spending the next few months dissembling and downright lying about what actually happened.
Downtonism is contempt for supporters; it’s a closing of ranks around a cosy clique of insiders; it’s the philosophy of favouritism. Downtonism distrusts individuality, suppresses dissent; and holds that the way forward for England is to keep repeating the mistakes of the past, with a failed captain and coach in charge. It promotes dullards who keep in line and obey the spreadsheets above genuine talent.
“Since then, all Downton has done is publicly back the under fire captain – is that so terrible? Having backed him in the aftermath of the Ashes, whether you think that was right or wrong, they had to back him through this summer, or risk going back to the bad old days of the late 80s and early 90s”.
Since then Downton has made no effort whatsoever to repair relations with supporters. In fact, he’s made it worse by patronising us with his transparent fibs. Did he continue to back Cook to save the team from a terrible fate – or to save his own skin?
Pleased you made that clear Maxie.
Maxie,
You seem to be convinced that Cook’s captaincy alone is going to be the difference in the Ashes next year – which implies that you have an alternative in mind, one who would actually win us the Ashes if appointed. Do you mind telling us who that is? Because when I look at alternatives to Cook, all I see is either a Test player who hasn’t captained at that level, or a county captain who hasn’t played at Test level. If you can see any conclusive evidence that either of those scenarios would produce someone better than Cook, you’re a better man than I am. And you’ve got a hell of a crystal ball.
India were the rabble that I was expecting at the start of the tour – they just held it together for 2 tests longer than I expected. As you say, it’s increasingly clear that Test cricket is no longer a fair fight for overseas sides (as Jonathan Liew also argued excellently yesterday) – and that added to India’s habitual disregard for Test cricket meant they were bound to revert to type at some point.
As much as I disagree with you about Cook, I share your sense of foreboding at the ICC stitch up and it’s ramifications for the game. I’m an England fan, and I enjoy watching them win. Especially after the horrors of the summer. But it’s impossible to think too far ahead without being very worried at where our game is heading. Such a capitulation from the de facto superpower of the game will only do further damage.
“Because when I look at alternatives to Cook, all I see is either a Test player who hasn’t captained at that level, or a county captain who hasn’t played at Test level.”
But isn’t that the dilemma faced every-time a side needs a new test captain? What were Cook’s qualifications for the job other than being ear-marked as a “future England captain” at an early age? When he gives up the job won’t we still have the same problem?
Absolutely we will. And there is a whole discussion to be had around the merits of a system that enables the vast majority of our test cricketers to arrive at that point with zero captaincy experience at any level. In Cook’s defence, he did at least captain England at age-level (Under 19’s I think).
But if you turf Cook at this point, you’re still taking a massive punt. Which isn’t to say it might not be worth doing – but let’s call it what it is. A massive punt. Some on here seem to think it’s automatic that life under any captain would be better than under Cook – it’s not automatic at all, and to characterise it as such is disingenuous. There is evidence that the matches invested in Cook as captain may be bearing fruit. The new players seem to be confident and relaxed enough in the team environment to produce good form. Handling of Moeen Ali has improved to the tune of 19 wickets in a 5 test series. Team spirit appears to be good – as evidenced by an excellent comeback series win, and even a rearguard action at Leeds that was one ball away from being history-making. Cook deserves some acknowledgement and credit for all of those things.
Where I do agree is, it’s time to move on from Cook in the One Day side – both as captain and player. Ballance and Bell between them can provide the required solidity, and the rest of the batting line up should be strokemakers. Hales to open and Morgan to captain. I think Morgan has more imagination and upside than Broad, and if he could work his way back into the Test side that would be perfect succession planning – but that seems to be a long way off.
Thanks for your comment, Kev.
The problems with Cook as captain go way beyond his on-field tactics and team-management. Cook traps England in the past, because he validates and perpetuates Flowerism, which may have worked very well for quite some time, but has now run its course. In other words, an approach to test cricket based on systems and plans, rather than instinct or purity of skill. And a philosophy of picking the acquiescent yes-man instead of someone more talented but awkward.
Cook’s continued tenure means that the England team will still revolve around this belief system, partly because that’s how he will run the team, but also that his survival validates the backroom regime which prefers more of the same to change.
This is why Cook’s bullet-dodging is good news for Australia. even without the fact that captaincy has ruined Cook’s batting.
Beautifully put point about instinct and purity of skill. That is what has been missing. It doesn’t come round every day and there are times when we just have to make the best of things.
According to Harmison ‘Jimmy can be very awkward’ and he gets picked.
I’m probably less concerned about Cook’s captaincy than I am by the flaky batting at 1,2,4 & 6 and the Eng Management’s belief that Woakes is a test standard cricketer!!
We need at the very least 1 more wicket taking bowler to back up Jimmy and Broad and another reliable bat to support Ballance and Root. Do Yorkshire have any decent openers?
Conspiraticalities….. Hmm…. The ‘Big’ Three….England only want to play tests v Aus, India want IPL to go global, Aus want Eng to be downtrodden….
Hence…
India temporarily shake Eng up then make sure Cookie scores enough to keep his captaincy (his place too?)
Aus say ‘cheers’ to Ind, knowing poor Eng Cap, worn out front line bowlers, and newbies with problems against new ball will still be in place for next ashes
India show that they’d rather have 1 test, 5 odi’s and 11 T20’s
Eng think test team is good enough for odious odi’s and tedious T20’s – Cook opens, Bell fails to ring, opening bowlers, on pitches that are unsuitable, get bowled into the ground, Woakes still gets a place….
Hence…
Hales, Lumb, Taylor, Patel (Notts top-top order) get one game each in odi’s leading up to world cup and are dropped immediately for not ‘moving-on’, James Vince is ignored because he captains Carbs and thus may be ‘disruptive’ especially with his ‘Vaughan stylee’ . Moeen gets dropped for having a classical look in batting and bowling yet being potentially ‘disruptive’…
Mrs Cook appointed senior selector and team psychologist…
Some of this seems all too true and had crossed even my mind in dark moments. Loved the bit about Mrs Cook. Fab! Lol!
Thank you Jenny, I’ve kept m powder dry over the failings of the past year or so, and so many others put the facts down much more eloquently and more informed than I could, even if i had the time! So the occasional dark rant with humour (and maybe some poetry?….that’s what I do on social media usually), is my lil ol input! lol
The ECB and the Cook eulogisers love to accuse those of us who have many issues with English cricket as being 1 issue people. Eg we are only about KP. But it is they who are the ones who are only interested in the KP issue. Hence the lengths they have gone to defend a captain of limited captaincy ability. They even admit he his no great shakes as a captain. ” Alastair is not a natural leader of men” they will say……………. ” he can’t do the Churchilian speeches” they admit. They even try the “he has only been doing it for 2 years” line.
So why have they defended him like no other captain I have ever seen in 40 years of cricket? There have been more natural leaders who could do the Churchill stuff that have been viciously attacked by the media. So why do they defend Cook so slavishly?
The answer Is he represents as a figure head the whole rotten shambles behind him. If he went ,the Downton’s and Clarke’s and Flowers would be exposed like a saw thumb. That is the real reason for the absurd triumphalism we see today. Not because England have won a series against a hopeless opponent. After Australia Downton denied that KP had been scapegoated for the whole winter disaster. And that was more credible to believe since the coach went out the door with KP. However, Flowers hasty return through the revolving door shows that was all a lie. They so wanted to dance on KPs grave, but as long as England were loosing, and captain cult was failing the dance could not begin. Now they can dance all winter. Shoving it up KP is all they were ever interested in.
As ever, Mark, you nail it.
Perhaps the most extraordinary moment came at the Ageas Bowl when Alastair Cook’s half century was greeted with a lengthy standing ovation of genuine warmth for a good man emerging from the dark side. It showed that social media, in its various forms, should not be taken as representative of the cricket-supporting public in general. Mike Selvey in the Guardian.
He just can’t let of it go can he. The continual love fest for Cook as he continues with the development of the cult.
And a mean spirited swipe at social media because of course those outside cricket should not be able to voice their views and if they do they certainly shouldn’t be taken seriously. And the view that a few people at the ground are overwhelmingly more indicative of general opinion than those who either cannot attend or cannot afford to attend is somewhat contemptible in my view.
Hello IanRSA, NOC here.
That, right there, is why so many of us just keep posting day after day. The man who wrote it quit Twitter calling people who had the temerity to question his analysis “fringe idiots” and “know-nothings”. Upon his return he blocked the first person to throw that quote back at him. The parallels with “outside cricket” are so obvious they don’t require further comment. He said social media was a valuable place to “pass on information”, not debate it, or indeed debate the way in which that information is presented. He called a long-standing regular poster “impertinent” for asking why Flower was talking to James Whitaker at Edgbaston; since then we have of course learned that Flower is in charge of the England Lions and even Andrew Strauss sees more reason to question that appointment than do most “serious journos”. He has put the boot into the Indians all summer, using the word “pathetic” on more than one occasion, yet when England capitulated in remarkably similar fashion at Sydney he stated that: “It has been desperately tough for a young man who has held his dignity throughout.” At one point this summer he was even arguing that Nottingham was in the north, just to defend the ECB over the Ashes tour venues for 2015 (including county games and short formats, the tourists do not venture north of Derby/Nottingham until September).
It’s a farce without end.
Hi NOC, nice to know your name.
I have continually tried to find reasons to like Selvey but I just keep head butting into his contempt for the opinions of others that don’t align with his.
I recognise that we all have strong opinions but I’d like to think that the most of us are reasonable and can be swayed by reason and fact based argument. Unfortunately Selvey wont even engage and dismisses we outsiders with contempt and probably a toss of the head to boot.
You just don’t get this in any other form of journalism – a correspondent who hates his own readers and seems determined to prove them wrong. A hack who cares far more about the feelings of his personal acquaintances than he does reflecting the mood and concerns of his readership.
Nice to see you here at TFT, by the way, Arron.
Thanks; it’s nice to be here. I spend time here and at HDWLIA because I grew up reading the likes of Martin Johnson and I cannot bear the propagandist piffle that passes for cricket journalism in the Sky/ECB/Clarke era. I should thank Mike Selvey really: amidst the, er, national rejoicing there was a danger that people who argued there is a clear personality cult around Cook would look out of touch. Well now all you need do is link yesterday’s article as Exhibit A and Pringle’s “grown women swoon and boarding school tested his character” rot as Exhibit B. Perhaps add a bit of Newman as well.
I would also urge the disillusioned to seek out page 16 of the March issue of The Cricketer: still my choice as the nadir of cricket writing in 2014. It’s a piece by the same writer on Andy Flower, with the same arguments he’s now using about Cook. That is, failure is due to senior players letting down the coach/captain, and success was due to the coach/captain. And everything Flower or Downton said about the winter should be taken as gospel, no difficult questions asked, no serious analysis carried out.
Meanwhile, it seems that a Venn diagram of Cook sympathisers and Cook sceptics would have “should not play ODIs” in the middle. Even some journalists have argued this. Well, following the squad announcement, we now know he’s untouchable, and that if there was a debate to be had it was shut down by the national rejoicing. It will be interesting to read what some of those journalists have to say about that.
Finally, here’s an old article I found from the Guardian about an England cricketer’s wife helping him make a decision about his captaincy future. Compare and contrast the language used.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2008/aug/05/cricket.englandcricketteam1
Thanks for the link – interesting stuff. On the ODI squad – well, which other country would have selectors who, if asked to pick the best available batsman to open in ODIs, would choose Cook?
I remember you posting that Cricketer piece on HDWLIA. It was like a piece of corporate propaganda. Doesn’t Selvey realise that dispassionate journalism requires one to keep a distance from one’s subject – not fall in love with them?
Does this kind of thing happen in football journalism? I’m not a great expert on that game, but as far as I can make out, the most influential correspondents aren’t nearly as close to the managers and players they write about.
Pringle made the same point today. They fail to grasp that the many, many England followers who are disaffected and angry are no longer prepared to pay £80 to the ECB for a ticket. The upset stayed away. By definition the people who went are content with the status quo and therefore likely to support Cook.
By what logic is the applause of 3,000 or so people at the Ageas Bowl (tellingly, the poorest attended test of the year) representative, but six months’ worth of Twitter/BTL comment by thousands of England supporters isn’t?
If Twitter backed Cook, but the ground spectators had booed him, would Selvey have said the same thing?
Selvey hates Twitter because he has an extraordinarily self-regarding sense of entitlement. His role, as he sees it, is to deign to pass on his wisdom to the great unwashed. He sees himself as a Victorian clergyman who takes Sunday School for the urchins who work in the mill.
He’s been doing the job for a long time and isn’t used to people answering back or having the temerity to disagree with him.
But quite why he’s so painfully desperate to shore up Cook at every opportunity is hard to completely fathom.
By the way I thoroughly enjoy the look of this blog it has an extremely clean interface but could you include a tool for italics as it would help to differentiate quotes, especially when like me you forget to put qoutation marks around said quote…doh!
We will try to sort this out Ian. We might be a bit restricted by what our WordPress theme allows but I’ll see if a new plugin can help. Cheers.
So the rumours were true. It is now official. Cook is captain for the 1 day series. Unbelievable! Please spare me the usual “there is no one else” that so many have used do justify his Test position.
Alastair Cook (capt), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Gary Ballance, Ian Bell, Jos Buttler, Steven Finn, Harry Gurney, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Eoin Morgan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, James Tredwell, Chris Woakes.
There is no one else…that is as efficient with the lambs :)
I’ll bet his wife made him do it.
There is no need to get personal. Everyone is entitled to an opinion but getting personal is counter productive. It undermines what you have to say.
The trouble is, Jenny, that Cook’s personal life is being used for PR purposes. That’s why it gets mocked.
Hi Zephirine, spot on as usual.
But two wrongs will never make a right. In any case, it hardly seems fair to mock someone’s personal life based on publicity-seeking statements made by their bosses. Personally I don’t think he himself made that remark about his wife’s support to curry favour, call me naive but it seemed genuinely spontaneous. Anyway it wasn’t a massively surprising revelation was it, Strauss always used to make a point of thanking the team’s partners and families at the end of a series, which came across as a classy touch. Even reading their individual autobiographies shows how crucial that support is. Funny how we often lampoon our sportsmen for their reliance on dull cliches and generic comments. Maybe this is why they are so guarded and characterless?
Agree with you. I think Cook was simply expressing thanks for his wife’s support in an emotional moment. He has obviously been living very close to the edge. Understandably so.
Hi Jonathan – thanks for your comment. I don’t think, though, that anyone’s mocked Cook’s personal life. The fact is, as I said earlier, that Cook chose to play the ‘wife’ card on a scaldingly hot potato – his remaining as captain. That doesn’t validate discussion about Alice Cook or their marriage, but no one here has done that. What it does validate is the asking of the question – was that a good reason not to quit? And was it an appropriate thing to say?
Boy you’re going to enjoy Tregaskis’ comment below. :)
I did :)
It is terrific that the Full Toss is attracting so many new posters. It is testament to the quality of the writing here and the range of views encouraged by its broad-church approach.
It strikes me that the narrative has shifted on the back of England’s 3-1 series win over a hapless India. The weight of opinion has surged back in support of the team. This is wholly understandable with so many of the new, and relatively new, faces doing so well. Ballance and Buttler, untainted by past failures have been sensational, and not just for what they have achieved, but also for the sense of solidity and excitement each has brought, in their own way, to the team. Who does not shift to the front of their seat a little when Buttler comes in? Root has been magnificent in an established middle-order position, with the caveat that he had a mare in Australia against exponentially better bowlers. Anderson was at his unplayable best when he stopped being a South Park caricature. I am almost carried away on this tsunami of euphoric support along with every other Polyanna.
The problem is the tide is littered with detritus, destruction and deceit – the flood of a murky culture that swamps and infects our national game.
Let’s forget the toe-curling press conferences, the misleading, apology-inducing interviews, the lies, the alienation of fans, the hubris, the unexplained discarding of test-winning players, an unquestioning press in breach of every bedrock ethic of their world-renowned, historically liberal employers. Let’s just adjust our eyes to the light as we look up to the skies and marvel at Cook on his elevated, cloud-clapped pedestal.
Cook has ceased to be a cricketer. He has become a soap-opera star. In an ECB-Disney co-production, Julian Fellowes, with a score by Elton John, has been commissioned to script a storyline that elevates a petit-bourgeois, sanctimonious, whiney, shell-shocked, wasp swatting, former chorister and flat-track run machine into a steel-cored, fragrant-wifed, scene stealing, genetically modified Beckham-Brearley super-hero. Harsh? No. Just an antidotal response to his hagiographic press.
Cook has scored three scratchy, tick-ridden, mind-numbing, luck-blessed innings after a run drought so long Leatherbum was alive to see his last century. Yet, inexplicably, Cook is now portrayed as the Don Bradman de nos jours, with the four additional runs attached.
The Guardian’s Andy Wilson did the kind of end-of-series, marks-out-of-ten piece that space-filling, thought-vacuum, intern journos file to curry favour. He gave Cook extra marks for his captaincy! It’s like giving Lance Armstrong extra marks for integrity! As Geoffrey Boycott might say, sorry but . . . this is the same kind of organised sycophancy that voted Margaret Thatcher The Today Programme “Person of the Year” 76 years in a row.
Cook is getting plaudits for setting age-group fields. The bar has been set so low, Flat Stanley could not slide beneath. Cook disintegrates mentally, when he is under pressure. It is disingenuous to suggest he is a natural leader who unites the dressing room through charisma and force of personality. He failed to unite the last Ashes dressing room. He wilted against Sri Lanka. He was absent without leave during the first two tests against India. He now leads a largely inexperienced squad that is only too aware what happens to any player who is anything less than ejaculatory about the cult of Alastair. Cook is shamelessly basking in the light and glory of others. He inhabits a landscape sculpted by the capable. He’s Uriah Heep with Peter Mandelson handling his press.
It is lazy nonsense for the slough of journalists and posters to argue in favour of Cook’s continued captaincy because there is no alternative. There is always an alternative. Ian Bell has been poorly portrayed as an air-head shrinking-violet by those attempting to keep the field clear for Cook. Bell has captained England U19s, Warwickshire and England Lions, and is well regarded as a skipper by those who know him.
The 22 year-old Graeme Smith was made South African captain, after just eight test matches, to loud criticism that he “lacked leadership credentials.” The much-lauded Chris Robshaw captained England rugby after just one test, aged 23. Joe Root is 23. Whether or not there are alternatives to Cook as captain is being judged by closed minds rather than open imagination.
The last three matches do not represent the end of the old era. Nor are they proof of the new era. They may just be the beginning of one or the other. After their victory at Lords, India were as toothless as Shane Warne after a chat with Paul Downton and a fat cheque in his back pocket.
I encourage all cynics like me to embrace the green shoots of success with cautious optimism. I would remind serial apologists that three pyrrhic wins to not airbrush a year of abject failure from the records. At the same time, I urge all bright-side cricket lovers to temper their euphoria with a little of the disquiet that has energised these boards for the past nine months.
Indeed Tregaskis the quality of the writing here is superb and diverse as evidenced by your comment here.
Age must be compromising my ejaculatory processes because the pornography written about Cook, witness Selveys latest dribbling on the Guardian:
( http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2014/aug/18/alastair-cook-england-india-peter-moores?commentpage=1)
Has more of en emetic than ejaculatory effect on my system.
That article gets more risible every time I look at it. It would be easy to start drawing comparisons with Pyongyang, but fortunately holdingahighline has skewered it in a far more original manner.
Is that you Clive? holdingahighline did a wonderful send up worth reading twice I thought.
No, that was me again – I forgot to put my details in (they automatically appear on Dmitri’s blog but not this one).
Hah, the tyranny of the unsaved details.
I have the cheapest package on WP too!
Though after yesterday’s Botham events, maybe that isn’t an appropriate turn of phrase.
Botham labelled the perpetrators “idiots”, and in this case, unlike MW Selvey, you can see his point.
(With thanks to Finbarr Saunders).
Have a bunch of virtual recommends, Tregaskis. A splendid bit of fulminating.
Bravo ,Bravo Tregaskis
Still come back to the question why? Why are they covering for him? Why are they eulogising him? Why do they claim he is a cross between Edmund Hillary and Scot of the Antarctic?
He seems to have descended into Chauncey Gardiner. Where his throwaway banalities are interpreted by people who frankly should know better (I’m looking at you Selvey) as gems of wisdom and genius. It’s all very odd. There is a whiff (say it quietly) of Princess Diana about the way he is covered.
The real story here is not Cook, but the middle aged,male groupies who cover him. There’s an Ealing comedy here just waiting to be made.
If you lot are searching for the reasons why Captain Cook has turned into Princess Diana look to yourselves! Enuf said! :)
I didn’t say Cook had turned into Princess Diana. I said the way Cook is covered by the media resembles the hysteria that marked the way Diana was covered. Cook is Cook. It is the way the media have tuned him into a Greek God which is very strange.
Those corporate jamborees the ECB lays on for the media must be top notch. Because none of them will go off message. Tabloid or broadsheet, right wing or left wing papers. All bow to the cult of Cook.
As ever, the best description of AC I’ve read in a while….. “a petit-bourgeois, sanctimonious, whiney, shell-shocked, wasp swatting, former chorister”
I believe you forgot “square jawed and dreamy eyed” though…
You are just jealous.
Jealous? Well, I would like to be England captain, ’tis true. But find me a cricket fan who wouldn’t want to be England captain and I’ll show you….er Alastair Cook in the Winter.
Alice must have been left at home.
I enjoyed that!
Properly nailed sir…
Many, many thanks to all of you for your excellent comments. It’s great to see a mix of new names and more familiar faces here.
It seems this discussion has not impressed Croleoi on Guardian, BTL:
http://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/39631994
Mind you, I’m not sure he’s TFT’s biggest fan anyway, describing us as “such a bland and poorly written blog”.
Meanwhile, any thoughts on Ravi Bopara getting the one-day chop?
Bland? Probably. Boring? Possibly. But badly written? Ouch that hurts ;-)
God knows how Maxie and I ever got published elsewhere. I’m off to cry into my beer.
Maybe he was confusing my poorly written, over-rushed rants with your considered prose.
Hey. It works for me. We get more comments BTL on our posts than most aricles on the Telegraph, and how much do they pay the likes of Vaughan, Pringle and Hoult?
England playing for the draw before the ODI’s have started
Cook the current queen of England
Root the future queen of England
Hales given the opportunity but not the chance
Morgan living on past glory (one)
Tredwell can’t get a game in a street match
Ravi the usual make-way for someone more inept
Finn another with the opportunity whilst it lasts
Once the opener is out there is the non-free flowing bulwark of Bell,Balance Root and Morgan to waste several hours before Buttler arrives at the crease with 5 balls to go and expected to sore a century
Moores says Cook’s run rate “probably” as good as others! – Says nowt and says it all. Moores really is a willowy character……..
England, learnt nothing, deserve nothing
I think you are being a bit harsh on Bell, Balance, Root and Morgan, who have all scored at above average rates in Tests, when settled. Root’s 149* was almost at a run a ball, and I remember Ballance going through the gears well at Southampton.
Morgan has one of the best strike rates in the team.
I’m talking about the forthcoming ODI’s – net Tests – where the pressure to score and score well and quickly is different. I also thought it was common knowledge that England do not score quickly enough which is precisely why Hales has been called up, as well as no other top 6 changes – England learn nothing presumably because they believe their own hype!!
It seems a bit rich to call up one player into what will be a new form for him and appear to place all the responsibility on him to score whilst Cook, Bell, Ballance, Root and Morgan pussyfoot around. What is it with Morgan anyway – he’s successfully captained a poor Middlesex team to the bottom of the league? I do not rate Morgan rather think he’s been given too much ‘air’ by the powers that be including the media!!
If anything I’m not being hard enough – the problem with being too ruthless on social media, as I’ve found on the DT and the Guardian is that you end up being ignored and deleted and banned – strong views are not the province of the ECB and those supporting English cricket – rather you are expected to swallow the propaganda, not see things with your own eyes and tow the ingenious party line – if you want to do that, fine, but don’t expect me to
Small sample size, I know, but I saw Eoin Morgan make a 120 not out against Surrey at Lord’s that was an amazing knock, the likes of which I’ve not seen in domestic one day cricket in years. It was casually, contemptuously brutal. Once in, he didn’t so much as go up the gears, as just chuck the damn thing out and installed warp drive. He never looked like getting out.
I’ve questions some of the media about Eoin Morgan, and why they are blowing smoke up his behind (a cute little American phrase) especially as captain, when Middlesex have been rubbish. Their views are that in ODI Cook does have “an alternative” and I think his outspoken comments when he was captain somewhat endeared them to him.
I think, and I can’t prove it of course, that this love-in for Cook at the moment is almost over compensatory. If you push hard enough, you’ll find many of them who think he’s not up to the job as captain and he should go. What I can’t understand is why they think they have to go out on a limb to keep him. They will have to answer to that themselves.
“If anything I’m not being hard enough – the problem with being too ruthless on social media, as I’ve found on the DT and the Guardian is that you end up being ignored and deleted and banned – strong views are not the province of the ECB and those supporting English cricket – rather you are expected to swallow the propaganda, not see things with your own eyes and tow the ingenious party line”,
Well said.
Sorry to keep using this phrase, but cricket is the only field of journalism in which the correspondents deliberately try to suppress debate and rebuke dissenters.
Normally when it’s the little guy v the big man, the press side with the underdog, but not in the cosy world of “inside cricket”.
I seem to remember the glory days of 1985,after we reclaimed the Ashes after the Blackwash of the Year before and our 2-1 Triumph against India the previous Winter made against the backdrop of Mrs Gandhi’s assassination et al. I still re-read now and again Matthew Engel’s excellent book covering that time and the thought came into his mind as a result of Botham, Gower, Ellison’s etc’s heroics that the likes of Garner and Richards might be over the hill and we would stand a chance in the West Indies….And We All know what happened there in 1985-1986.
I can’t help thinking that this lauding of Alistair as a combination of Sobers, Bradman, Brearley, WG Grace, Hobbs, Hutton, Trueman etc. has a swiff of the Tony Blairesque “Draw A Line and Move On” feel about it and that History will repeat itself next Year when we play Australia in the re-match!
[…] torrent of comment on yesterday’s post revealed that England supporters can’t quite agree, to put it mildly, on where England stand […]
I will NEVER draw a line under the way KP was treated by the ECB and several England players. And this after all the enjoyment he gave England cricket lovers like me for several years (after I’d had to endure the pain of the 80s and 90s).
So no, I will never move on and never forget or forgive.
Personally, I can’t draw a line under it until we have some kind of resolution. A start would be Giles Clarke publicly recognising that their actions, even if they felt them correct, caused dismay, hurt and confusion.
That won’t happen.
Expect Pietersen’s autobiography to be met not with an official response, but by fibs and smears fed through their embedded journalists.
I believe that Pietersen was unjustly treated ever since the Moores e-mail in 2009. From that moment onwards, he was deliberately isolated, undermined, and made the victim of outrageously double standards.
“I believe that Pietersen was unjustly treated ever since the Moores e-mail in 2009. From that moment onwards, he was deliberately isolated, undermined, and made the victim of outrageously double standards.”.
I completely agree. And Cook was one who, at the very end, took part in this treatment, which (in my personal opinion) reflects extremely badly on his (i.e. Cook’s) character. In fact, I have no admiration for Cook left whatsoever after what he did to KP.
The same goes for the supporters of the ECB in the media, like Selvey and Agnew. In fact, after being a listener of TMS since 1975, I no longer am (though since CMJ passed away, it hasn’t been the same anyway). Strangely, I now feel quite free of the stress that I used to have while listening to Agnew on TMS.
I’m not quite sure how KP managed to play on after the way he was treated in 2009 – I guess it was just his strength of character.
“Cook was one who, at the very end, took part in this treatment, which (in my personal opinion) reflects extremely badly on his (i.e. Cook’s) character”.
This is the point which seems to get overlooked. In all the talk about what a nice guy he is, the accusations that he’s been the unfair target of a witch-hunt, a good man persecuted, and so on, the fact remains that Cook stabbed a loyal player in the back (and yes, he *was* loyal, in every meaningful respect), either because he felt threatened by him/couldn’t face or was unable to manage him, or because the bosses wanted to sack Pietersen and Cook was too timid to resist.
At this point people often say – well, we don’t know both sides of the story.
But what other explanation can there be? According to Downton, there “is no smoking gun”.
When people pick holes in what Pietersen did in 2012, they don’t think about how things must have seemed from his point of view – bullied, lied about, ostracised, picked on. Should he be blamed for harmless lapses of judgement such as that You Tube video, or (to an unknown extent) complaining about the situation in a private message to a friend? In the middle, he still tried his best for England and delivered again and again.
Here are two analyses of the situation we’ve posted in the past – the first is by our excellent contributor Tregaskis, the second, written more in the heat of the moment after Moores was reappointed, by me.
https://www.thefulltoss.com/england-cricket-blog/inside-the-turtle-tank/
https://www.thefulltoss.com/england-cricket-blog/the-real-reason-peter-moores-got-the-job/
is anyone old enough to remember Gooch resigning as captain after being on the wrong end of an Ashes thrashing?
He resigned before at 0-3 down, after the fourth test in 1993 – Atherton replaced him for the last two tests.
[…] again to everyone who’s taken part in our epic discussion thread which followed the conclusion of the fifth […]
[…] only have to read the discussions boards, either here or cricket site, to realise the depth of feeling and extent of division. England have […]
[…] only have to read the discussion boards, either here or any cricket site, to realise the depth of feeling and extent of division. England […]
[…] the diabolical fourth day at Headingley earlier in the summer, before his wife talked him around. England hammer India to win the match and series. The result secures Cook’s position as 2015 Ashes captain and ensures he will continue to […]