I hate to say I told you so

England Lions v West Indies A

Ashes series in Australia currently are scheduled in the same year as the Cricket World Cup. ECB and Cricket Australia agreed in 2007 that this must be addressed when the new Future Tours Programme is considered and we are pleased to say that this has now been agreed. In order to break the cycle we shall play back-to-back home and away Ashes series in 2013

ECB Annual Report, 2010.

They’ve had four years to prepare for this World Cup. A tournament for the sake of which the board cleared the decks – disastrously scheduling back-to-back Ashes, disrupting the roster at the expense of South Africa, and shelving a whole winter of test cricket.

The ECB moved heaven and earth to give England a stable and productive build-up to the most important event in world cricket.

And then eight weeks before it starts, they sack the captain.

It turned out that Alastair Cook wasn’t good enough. Who knew?

If only people had mentioned it before.

What an astonishing revelation that must have been for the selectors, as they sat down with their flat whites and mince pies at Lord’s today.

Whitaker and his merry men diligently poured over the form and results. And with uncanny precision, they lasered in on a thorny problem which had hitherto escaped everyone’s notice.

A forensic examination of the scorecards revealed, to dropped jaws, that Cook had been losing matches and failing to score runs for two years.

Congratulations to everyone involved.

Oh, to have been a fly on the wall in that selection meeting. I would give every penny I possess to have seen the look on Paul Downton’s face when he realised the game was up.

Was this the quiet rebellion of Angus Fraser and Mick Newell?

Let’s be clear – this was the right thing to do. With knobs on. Sarcasm aside, far better to make the break and risk a mild slice of disruption, than soldier on pathetically with a ten-man team carrying a skipper who can neither captain nor bat. Australia demonstrated last year, with Mickey Arthur, that the wrong man is the wrong man, however tight you are for time.

So ineffective has Cook been – not to mention Eoin Morgan’s pretty extensive captaincy experience – the other players won’t even notice he’s gone. The news has probably come as a great relief to them. The elephant in the room has been harpooned. The team will be stronger. Now they can just get on with their cricket.

Many, many people will say – fair play to the selectors. In the end, they did their jobs. They stood up to Downton. Perhaps he didn’t even interfere with the process in the first place. Our conspiracy theories are now proven to be exactly that. Cook wasn’t unsackable after all.

Maybe those people are right.

And yet. Was this bravery – or panic? A rational cricketing decision, or the extremely reluctant acceptance of reality?

We are entitled to ask – why wasn’t Cook removed a year ago, when it was already amply evident he was unfit for purpose? Why did the selectors cling on till so nearly the bitter end?

Paul Downton stands exposed as a toxic buffoon so ludicrous you almost can’t believe he exists. Why didn’t he just say, on Tuesday, that Cook’s position was beyond his remit and the selectors would decide?

On Tuesday, Cook was a “natural leader”. Now he’s holding a P45.

Downton said:

Why do we think he’s the best person for the job in Australia? In reality, in September the selectors got together and spent nearly a week kicking the tyres and working out were we best to stick with Alastair, given that we were to going to be playing a World Cup in Australia and in New Zealand, with two new balls, where his track record is good, where he has been captain for 3½ years. Yes, he’s in miserable form but form can change. We felt strongly that all his experience, all his toughness, would come out.

Three days later, it transpires, none of that is actually true. Or it doesn’t matter. Or something. Answers on a postcard.

Are we to believe that during the September Symposium, the eminence grises stroked their beards and resolved that Cook was the only man to lead England to the World Cup – unless he messed up again in Sri Lanka, in which case they’d sack him at the last moment. With a plan like that, what could go wrong?

Here’s another analysis. Following Tuesday’s media round and England’s concomitant defeat, Downton became a laughing stock – and he knew it. His last vestige of credibility – and perhaps employment – hung by a thread. Lo and behold, Cook didn’t even survive till the weekend.

Cook has been both a punchbag for the public and a lightning rod for the ECB. But loyalty is no match for expedience. The compassionate and pragmatic course of action was to remove him in January. Instead, Downton hung Cook out to dry until he glimpsed the hangman’s noose. As Mark said on our comments board:

The delicious irony is its now the turn of the pro-Cook people to turn on the ECB. Just heard Harmison on BBC 5 live. He is furious with the ECB because of “all the punches Alastair has taken on behalf of Downton and the ECB, and now having taken all this they drop him on the eve of the World Cup.”

I said in the summer that when Cook was of no further use to them he would be dumped.

Who could disagree with this?

An awful lot of people have tonight expressed sympathy for “poor” Alastair Cook. I don’t share it. Sport is a competitive business, and he wasn’t up to the job. I fail to see in him the integrity and decency which others do. Remember, after the infamous Melbourne players meeting he immediately reported Kevin Pietersen’s comments to Andy Flower. Cook sold a team-mate down the river to serve his own ends.

Besides, Cook retains the test captaincy. But for how long? He is now irreversibly diminished. For the first time in his nine year career, the selectors have conceded that Cook is fallible. Their Iron Man has feet of clay.

The case for Cook as test skipper rests on his character, not his leadership skills. He is supposed to have immense inner steel. He can rise to any challenge. But the ODI job has defeated him. Cook’s “experience and toughness” weren’t enough. The ECB admit this. So if his personality is too porous to cope with the less demanding of the two captaincy roles, why will he be good enough for the Ashes?

And although Eoin Morgan is nowhere near the test team right now, TINA has collapsed.

Stand by for a pincer movement of reaction and justification. Social media will be blamed for hounding Cook out of his job. And the selectors will almost certainly use the line Nick Hoult forecast on Wednesday in the Telegraph. (Apologies for quoting this for the second time today, but it’s still relevant).

The selectors have to weigh up whether or not picking him for the World Cup will overburden him as he faces up to the biggest batting crisis of his career in a year when England will be tested by the world’s best attacks.

There will be no respite in 2015. The England summer starts with a series against the two men who started this process, New Zealand’s Tim Southee and Trent Boult, before Cook faces Australia’s pacemen, then Pakistan in the UAE where England lost 3-0 last time, before four Tests in South Africa against the best attack in the world. A break now from one-day cricket would free Cook to work on his batting.

As Hoult scooped Cook’s dismissal in the same story, we can assume his source is first-hand. So we know how the ECB will explain their volte-face. It’s for Cook’s benefit. To help his batting. To help his test career. Even when he’s getting sacked the world still has to revolve around him, like Spoilt Bastard in Viz. Cook is more important than the World Cup. Cook is more important than England.

Rooto wrote on our earlier post:

I’m not going to read the papers in the morning. I just want to remember this moment, without the self-justificatory quotes from selectors, managers and coaches; without the bad new about leaks meaning that the ECB hasn’t changed; without the naysayers talking about Morgan’s average in 2014. Without the reality of the team intruding.

No matter what happens in the World Cup, we’ll always have tonight.

Spare a thought for our writer Tregaskis, whose very elegant post, published this morning, was prematurely overtaken by events. Still very much worth a read, though, because so many issues remain unresolved.

Cook is still test captain. Is quitting ODIs guaranteed to restore his best batting form? Will it make him any better a skipper? Will the contraction of his portfolio only increase the political stakes? And is he the man you want to lead out England against Australia at Cardiff next July?

This isn’t over.

57 comments

  • I do not have any sympathy for Alastair Cook. He is a badly deluded, selfish man who has never been a good captain. If he had England’s best interests at heart, he would have resigned the captaincy after the Ashes. Let us hope that the test captaincy is also taken away from him, sooner rather than later.

  • “The news has probably come a great relief to [the players]”.

    According to Paul Newman in the Mail, the players found out via Twitter.

      • You missed:
        “These pages have been consistent in saying that one-day cricket and Cook were not comfortable bedfellows and should never have got beyond the first date…”

        Is he referring to the comments section ??

      • To be fair, Selvey has expressed doubts about Cook in the ODI team for some time, but ‘these pages’ …

      • Just heard on Guardian thread that Agnew has really had a go about Cook. Really laid into him on the BBC. Anyone seen anything? If this is so how on earth could Mr Agnew have accused so many of being Cook Haters? Just unbelievable.

    • Well I am shocked to hear that. It just says it all one needs to know about ECB management — so-called! Just terrible. How are these people still in their jobs?

    • Jennyah46
      Perhaps it is because, like me, he is still waiting for someone,anyone to come up with definitive proof that KP is the name that Strauss called him and that his misdemeanours are real whilst we have all had to suffer the evidence of ” IRON RODS” incompetence as shown by his performances.

        • Hi Jenny – I hardly reviled him. I only pointed out something which comes from the ECB’s own documenyt. Cook’s character *is* an issue – because it’s the bedrock of the case for his defence. So when his advocates invoke his character, it’s perfectly reasonable for sceptics such as me to point out contradictory facts.

          As for Cook/KP scrutiny levels – one is still test captain, and the other is sacked, so clearly the former is more deserving of scrutiny.

            • KP has for many years been portrayed by the media as everything from a complete Henry Kelly to no 4 on the FBI’s most wanted list. Cook has been portrayed as the sort of chap who won VC’s before breakfast and rescued cats from trees.

              Maxie has taken the position of contrasting perception with known facts.

    • I do not see that at all Jenny. Maxie has always been fair but shown he is honest enough to say that Cook is just not good enough as a leader. I do not buy that Maxie has excused KP of everything. If one was talking about Agnew I could accept that given he has, seemingly, turned on Cook in a very aggressive manner. I am astounded that you would think that Maxie has not been even handed Jenny.

      • I’m sure that in his own mind Maxie is as fair as he is passionate but it is so difficult to remain scrupulously impartial when feelings run high. I confess to being very partial when it comes to Alistair Cook and therefore I have no doubt that my own judgement is equally clouded. :)

        • Oh I do so understand Jenny. It is all so very sad and was always so unnecessary. At its very heart it has always been a management catastrophe where the bosses at the ECB didn’t care what they did nor how they did it. They used Cook appallingly forcing him to be the bulwark between them and those of us “outsiders” who asked just too many questions. Now they have done to Cook what they did to KP, although Cook will be able to play for England again in Tests whereas KP probably won’t unless the whole lot of the current ECB failures is sent packing. All our judgements in this matter is clouded in a way, but this has been largely due to the shenanigans by the ECB. Innuendo, lies, leaks, and using all their friends in the media to prop them up. Now we hear that the ECB sacked Cook and appointed Morgan and didn’t even tell the England players. It is alleged that they found out through Twitter!!! It would seem that the ECB really is a shower of incompetents who have singled handedly ruin a lot of fine cricketers careers and reputations. Moreover, none of this shambles needed to have happened. How many times do we see this happening in our world outside of cricket? Miscreants who run companies and sporting entities who foul things up because their focus is all about money and power. They do not care about the players and what has happened this week end shows that in spades!

          • To be fair the ECB probably wished to speak to Morgan before issuing any kind of statement to anyone. That does not explain however, the means by which Nick Hoult obtained his scoop. Maybe there is a worm within the ECB that puts out these snippets without official knowledge or sanction? Or am I being too kind?

  • Well, Cook goes. Captaincy not good enough, can’t score runs. Check. Job done.

    Morgan in. Can’t score runs, captaincy meant to be better than I’ve witnessed though….

    Two new balls in Oz. Guys like Steyn. Johnson, Philander, Boult, Harris to use them.
    Moeen and Hales to face them. I do wonder if their techniques are remotely adequate.

    Be careful what you wish for.

    But at least Cook got was due to him. And Downton, Moores and co.

    • Hales is very respected in Australia and is the prize wicket in the BBL. He was ranked no 1 T20 player in the world, to a great extent on the back of his limited overs cricket in Australia. Whether he’ll be in-form or not is another matter, but he certainly has the tools to be successful in the WC.

      • Hales is running out of time to make a score though. Whether you blame the selectors for that for yanking him in and out of the side, or whether he’s not quite up to it at the very highest level, is the question – but if he’s going to force his way into the side, he needs a score.

        • Which goes to the point I made about form. He’s demonstrated he has the tools, but form can be elusive at crucial times.

          I think this was the more important element of the Cook problem; having him in the side meant unnecessary pressure for other players. Hales, I think, had two problems related to Cook: he was being expected to score particularly fast from ball one to make up for Cook’s stodge, and he knew if he didn’t make a big impact very quickly he’d likely be out of the side.

          Whether that coincided with a drop in form or caused it – or a combination of both – is hard to say.

  • Maxie, this really is a self indulgent blog. You have complained about the ECB for months. They finally do something that you’ve been shouting about and yet you can barely find a positive word to say. They got there, may be not as quickly as you’d like, but they got there.

    Oh and Jennyah46 above is right . Whether or not Cook was the right man for the job others offered him the job (a job that many wouldn’t be able to turn down) so you can hardly blame him or pick at his personality when they stick with him. KP certainly has a number of personality flaws, yet he is rarely critised, and often, defended here with ‘management’ blame for a failure to manage.

    • If this blog was about hatred they would be happy with sacking of cook.. but this is one were the community cares for English cricket..and what has happened is too late and too little ..so excuse the people if they are not bouncing up and down in joy!

    • Hi Anonymous – thanks for your comment.

      In fairness, though, I did say this.

      “Many, many people will say – fair play to the selectors. In the end, they did their jobs. They stood up to Downton. Perhaps he didn’t even interfere with the process in the first place. Our conspiracy theories are now proven to be exactly that. Cook wasn’t unsackable after all.

      “Maybe those people are right”.

      Also, even those who normally sympathise with the ECB are saying today what a rotten farce this all is, so I’m hardly the only one.

      As for Cook/KP – I tackled that in reply to Jenny above.

      Thanks.

      • Cheers Maxie. It was moi! I am away at the moment so it came up as Anon. Sorry about that. I think you and James are good eggs. I am sincerely grateful to you and James and others who have allowed us all to let off steam. Julie is right tho that none of are aware of our true motives sometimes. At least we are all honest about it. As for the ECB, they wouldn’t know or understand integrity not even if they fell over! Have you heard about this BBC rant by Aggers laying into Cook? I can’t find it but I can hardly believe him. Nor do I get Strauss either. Selvey is still in cloud cuckoo land trying to spin everything. It’s all a bit weird now. I just hope that all these people at the ECB are shown the door. And I should still like to know who told John Etheridge that porkie pie about returning all his “gifts” to the ECB. That is the mark of the ECB though, isn’t it? Never explain, blame someone else, never take responsibility. Miscreants all.
        Cheers chaps.

    • “KP certainly has a number of personality flaws, yet he is rarely critised”

      Do you mean he is rarely criticized on this blog or in the media in general?

  • The decision (Cook goes as ODI captain, stays as Test captain, Morgan new ODI captain) has been officially announced. Morgan plays in the Big Bash tomorrow (Hales has just made a duck).

    David Hopps points out that some said Cook’s appointment as ODI captain was a mistake from the start:

    “From the outset the decision was questioned; Tony Greig called it “deadly dangerous” and an error of judgment by England’s team director Andy Flower”.

    Tony Greig? Another figure hated by the English cricket establishment….

    http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/current/story/812071.html

    • Michael Atherton also said Cook was the wrong appointment at the time. But don’t tell the pro ECB trolls on here. They think such opinion and fact is self indulgent. Far more important to march over the cliff, lemming like, loyally defending our wonderful masters.

      Perhaps if their beloved and incompetent management at the ECB didn’t take such a hostile line to the IPL (the cause of all the initial trouble with KP) maybe we would have better ODI players. Because certainly the coaching and tactics provided by ECB has not been much good.

      Also I would just like to go on the record as saying I don’t think England will win the World Cup or even do particularly well after Cooks sacking. But that is not the point. You need to go with the best players you have. Cook was not one of them and hasn’t been for nearly 2 years. His replacement won’t be given the same benefit of the doubt. He didn’t go to the right type of school.

      • “Incompetent management at the ECB”.

        Steve Harmison:

        “The ECB said he’s our man, he’s our captain, we’re going to back him and then they get rid of him at the last minute.
        “When you’re playing international sport and you’ve got these people in charge of the game, who needs opposition?”

        http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/30558999

        • He’s not wrong is he? It is unbelievable turn around. I am not a “fan” of Cook. He is a very good batsman in test matches. He is not a captain in any form of the game. That is a criticism of his cricketing prowess. He and his friends were shameless in the way they treated KP. Cook has been easily lead by all the people around him. He has been used and abused by those in and around the ECB who said they cared him and the team. Well, said people certainly did not care about him. As soon as failure was looking likely they showed Cook the door. It is the ECB who have been conducting a no holds barred in terms of Cook’s prowess and now the same people are saying he is no good. On this thread and Dmitri’s thread as well as Guardian and Telegraph a whole raft of people have been saying the same things for nearly a year now. Those of us who did say it have been called just about every name under the sun by certain journos and members of the ECB etc etc. Now many of these people are now saying what many of us said months and months ago. According to Selvey however we are still in the wrong by treating a man with such a “status” in such a terrible way.

          Oh and according to Paul Newman, the rest of the England players learned of Cook’s demise via Twitter. Shows real management skill aye?

  • Here’s the ECB press release on sacking Cook for Morgan.

    http://www.ecb.co.uk/news/articles/eoin-morgan-appointed-england-one-day-captain

    Whitaker wasn’t quite as dissembling as a I forecast:

    “We spent a considerable time yesterday discussing the make up of a squad that gives England the best possible chance of success at the World Cup which begins in less than two months. Having reviewed the recent series against Sri Lanka we came to the conclusion that there was no place for Alastair Cook amongst our strongest 15 one-day players and therefore recommended Eoin Morgan be appointed One-Day captain.”

    Paul Downton, Managing Director England Cricket, said: “I have complete confidence in the decision made by the selectors

    And here’s the squad:

    http://www.ecb.co.uk/news/articles/ballance-included-15-man-world-cup-squad

    Eoin Morgan (Middlesex) (Capt), Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), James Anderson (Lancashire), Gary Ballance (Yorkshire), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Ravi Bopara (Essex), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Jos Buttler (Lancashire), Steven Finn (Middlesex), Alex Hales (Nottinghamshire), Chris Jordan (Sussex), Joe Root (Yorkshire), James Taylor (Nottinghamshire), James Tredwell (Kent), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire)

  • and so, it came to pass…I have opined, ad nauseum, that Cook was the Lee Harvey Oswald of English Cricket…The Patsy! They bet the farm on him, and lost! What happens to the farm now I wonder? Downton has made himself monumentally untenable. Giles Clarke will have to do some mastertstroke of weaselry to save his crumbling edifice? There’s gonna be some unbelievable about turns, volte faces, pirouettes and back flips than you would wish to see at Billy Smart’s Circus from the embedded ones “We said all along” etc etc
    However, going forward “yuk!” we must look at the positives eh?
    We now have the long overdue appointment of an Irish street fighter at the helm, someone far removed from the hallowed quadrangles much beloved of the cricket establishment. Some one who can think on his feet and give the flair players the environment whereby they can free their minds and arms, go on the attack and start winning! I trust also that the second thing to get thrown out of the dressing room is Moore’s laptop!
    At long last I feel that I have my England team back, a team I now truly want to get behind, rather than the ECB Select XI :-)
    If Carlsberg made utterly incompetant governing bodies the ECB would win by a country mile!!

  • So its not Cooks dressing room anymore and we are free to pick our best team. Does that mean that Pietersen is good enough??

    Team is short of senior players with his sort of experience, Id have to say he probably should be in contention if our goal is to field the best side with the greatest chance of winning and Morgan as a captain should be able to contain him.

  • This by Peter Miller:

    http://cricket365.com/news/story/16140/ECB-damaged-Cook-s-career

    “England have made the decision to take the family Labrador to the vets and do the kind thing. Having the poor thing carry on like that was unfair on everyone”.

    Elsewhere, Downton has talked to David Hopps on Cricinfo. He doesn’t really have any power! Don’t blame me guv, I’m only the Managing Director! It was a collective decision….

    • What did I say about Billy Smart’s Circus! The acrobat’s just come on, in the guise of Coco the Clown!!

  • Andrew Strauss has written in the Sunday Times:

    “The ECB’s image has taken a battering every bit as significant as the reputation of some of its players over the past 12 months. Refusing to talk about Kevin Pietersen’s banishment from the team, allowing Cook to carry the can for the move, leaking the ‘dossier’ on Pietersen’s misdemeanours at the precise moment when they should have been taking the moral high ground, and now filtering the news of Cook’s demotion through to the Twittersphere and other unofficial channels smacks of clumsy subterfuge or incompetence or both. It is hugely disrespectful to a captain who has given everything to the role.”

    Wow!

    • Maybe Strauss has realised finally he’s an independent journalist and “Team England” don’t pay his bills anymore? Maybe he’s just pissed off his mate’s been dumped on?

      And if he’s finally seen the Free Press daylight perhaps he can do the ECB – and us – a favour and tell us what went on with the team and what KP’s misdemeanors were – you know, why he was a c*nt?

    • Hmm. Strauss getting into seriously dangerous ground here. For a start, if he thinks the ECB should have been taking the moral high ground over KP, then that rules out talking about his banishment. They’re mutually exclusive options.
      Also, if he’s suddenly so keen on full disclosure, he can of course contribute to it – by telling us exactly why, in his opinion, KP is a C U Next Tuesday.
      On first sight – a really odd piece from Strauss.

      • if he thinks the ECB should have been taking the moral high ground over KP, then that rules out talking about his banishment.

        Why ?

        (Once, of course, any agreement not to discuss it has expired.)

        • Nigel,
          To answer your question – it’s clear that KP was dropped for non-cricketing reasons. Reasons that go to his conduct around the team, and his relationships with certain players, captains and coaches. So if you’re ever going to explain that, you’d need to air a lot of dirty laundry – specific examples of what he’s alleged to have said and done around those individuals. It’s the cricketing equivalent of Blair vs Brown – where both parties’ reputations were trashed and both were irretrievably diminished.
          It certainly makes any moral high ground impossible. Although the ECB lost that when they started leaking like a busted tap.
          I’ve argued all along that the nature of the reasons for the decision makes it impossible to explain in full. How is trashing the reputation of one of England’s greatest ever batsmen a good thing? But then again, that’s happened anyway – so maybe the ECB should go all in with whatever they’ve got – full disclosure. Personally I don’t think it would make any difference – the pro KP ultras will never accept any explanation they’re given. Trying (and failing) to keep quiet hasn’t worked, but the alternative is even worse. It’s the definition of a no-win situation.

    • It would be very interesting to hear an explanation from Strauss re the c*nt comment but he is highly unlikely to go in for that kind of tittletattle in the Sunday papers. Just not his style.

  • KP blew any chance of ever being part of the England set-up with his ranting book.

    On Saturday he tweeted “Despite the rather disrespectful comments by Paul Downton and James Whitaker yesterday, I remain determined to regain my England place!” A bit rich I thought to be honest as his book wasn’t exactly short of the odd disrespectful comment or two. Which is a massive shame as I do feel the ECB treated him and cricket in general really badly and I would love to see an on-form KP in the England team again. But if rather than just burning them you absolutely nuke your bridges, then there is no way back

    The ECB’s treatment of Cook was shoddy and the personal attacks against him are a bit unwarranted. He has been an excellent test batsman for England and had some great achievements as Test Captain. The ECB let him down by encouraging him to continue to be the ODI Captain only to finally jettison him when they realised that despite all the pig-headedness and stupid comments about him being from the wrong family, etc, etc that they had got it wrong. The announcement of his dismissal being leaked was very poor, as was announcing it before they’d spoken to Morgan.

    As for Morgan, I am not convinced by his captaincy skills in the 50 over format but hope to be proven wrong. I am also not too convinced by an opening pair of Moenn Ali and Hales being able to survive a barrage of quality bowling. Again, let’s hope I’m wrong…

    • I agree with you on all of this. I’m also hoping for the best from Morgan. Earlier I would have had no hesitation in dropping him, but I am not going to quarrel. It will serve little constructive purpose and I don’t think the selectors had much of a choice with neither Bell nor Broad playing at the time. I wish Morgan well for the future and hope that his appointment will breathe new life into his form and the team. I am puzzled by the fact that he managed to miss 19 calls from James Whitaker on a day which he knew was crucial for England team selection.

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