And you thought the Ashes nightmare was over …

As I boarded the train home on Monday evening I thought I’d better check my phone to see how Cook & Robson had ended.  Ended they had, and numerous of their colleagues had too.  57-5….what the hell had happened?!

Being a chap in his mid-30’s I was brought-up on England in the 1990’s.  Doing battle against some class sides, sometimes winning, but more than often being taught how one should really play cricket.

I remember seeing the likes of Boon, Border, Healey, Hughes, etc. One felt Australia was always the better side, but it in no way stopped me supporting England through thick and thin.

Looking back at those days and seeing what happened at Headingley on Monday, it could be a watershed moment for the England team and management.

During TMS Monday commentary, Jonathan Agnew and Graeme Swann discussed how there are some England supporters who want England to fail, and how shocked they were that some would think this.

They are, of course, quite right.  One should never want England to lose.  They have, though, picked up on a growing unease amongst England supporters.

This unease was born from watching England in Australia, slowly being destroyed, whether it was by Mitchell Johnson or more importantly, perhaps, the internal ‘disengagement’ issues.

Why then, from a team that was so well drilled and experienced, and with all the expertise to hand, did the wheels come off so spectacularly and even now (after all the ECB spin), we are still feeling its impact?

Over the past fifteen years England has changed.  They have become more professional.  Wrestling power from out of the counties hands and into the ECB’s; funding has increased to huge levels, with a batting, bowling, fielding, wicketkeeping, spinning coaches, and the technical data from the analysts of players shots, to the averages.

The old military saying, ‘Amateurs talk strategy, professionals talk logistics’ springs to mind, as the England set up has got better and delivered the goods.

Even though England won the Ashes series in the English summer 3-0, some commentators had remarked that all was not well in the England camp since the poor showing in New Zealand at the start of the 2013 (even if they did save the last match with a great performance from Prior).  After the subsequent thrashing in Australia, England descended into a quagmire they have yet to truly escape from.

Swann was the first to run to the lifeboats as HMS England went down (a subject for another article). Then poor Trott withdrew suffering mental health problems. Finally, as we have come to learn, there were back room chats of ‘he said this about you’ and coaches confronting players.

The Downton review was meant to put an end to this – a clear sweep through the England camp.  KP was sacked, a new coach and staff, a re-energised Captain Cook and a new positive approach for the team.

Here we are several months down the line and England has lost a home series against Sri Lanka – not something even the most cynical of England fans would have called.

It is never nice seeing England lose especially being so close to drawing the game, but the shocking events on Monday are extremely worrying and put the team at a crossroads. A humiliating bowling, fielding and cricketing display has shown there are fundamental problems no amount of logistics/resources can solve.

The players – and one might add a few members of the ECB hierarchy – need to recognise that their behaviour and attitude are still the most pressing issues hindering England. A re–evaluation of the their relationships and how they work together going forward should be a top priority.

Like someone trying to over come their addiction, they must first recognise they have a problem.  Until England do that, the road to recovery will be a long one.

Alex Moore

11 comments

  • Alex. Some interesting thought here. I agree that whilst many of us got used to England being taught a lesson during the 90s we still supported them. So why is that not quiet the case now?
    Back then you felt the players were trying but just not as good as the opposition. In this more professional era, well they just appear unprofessional.

    Cook, rightly, is due some criticism but he is perhaps the symptom and not the (entire) cause. There are other issues around management and organisation of the set up.

    This isn’t about talent or ability relative to the opposition (as it was in the 90s) but about the ability of 20 or so people to work together in a coordinated manner to achieve their shared goal.

    In any poor performing team, sacking a few people and backing a leader with weaknesses will not solve the problem (though it may be part of it). This isn’t about talent or ability relative to the opposition (as it was in the 90s) but about the ability of 20 or so people to work together in a coordinated manner to achieve their shared goal.

  • Cook, rightly, is due some criticism but he is perhaps the symptom and not the (entire) cause.

    Indeed. Having not known about the International scene as well as the home scene, I found myself utterly aghast at the role Giles Clark had in power-grabbing, resulting in money-grabbing on a massive scale. Along with his Australian and Indian counterparts – with the Indian becoming Chairman; the very same man who has been banned from national cricket in India for alleged corruption! Nice aye? So when I am told – as I am on numerous occasions both in the Telegraph and Guardian – that I have a problem with seeing conspiracies at the ECB, I am actually not far from the truth? If Giles Clark can act in this way at ICC level then I am convinced he will act in this way about anything including telling porkies about so-called “maverick” players. I find myself disgusted and ashamed of what is going on right at the top of our game. The ECB has a lot to answer for in so many ways about their management, so-called, of our cricket. How far does such alleged “corruption” reach in our national game?

    Scyld Berry, Telegraph: Everyone knows that the Big Three’s move for change at the ICC is utterly unethical – and also that if corruption and match-fixing are bad now, we may not have seen anything yet…Ehsan Mani, has calculated that $300 million will be cut from the ICC’s Development Program in the next 10 years – money that will go into the pot for the Big Three to hog. The prospects of cricket expanding into China and the United States and becoming a global sport will be diminished, along with the budgets of Affiliate countries. The Big Three want to be big fishes in their own small pond…Most disturbing, and disgusting, of all is that the Big Three will control all matters relating to anti-corruption, ethics and integrity issues: the very three people who have violated cricket’s core values.’

    Let’s not forget that we are “outsiders” according to Giles Clark. So one cannot expect to be consulted on such matters. No wonder our national game is in such a mess. Only one place to look and that is at the top of the ECB going downwards!!! These people make me ashamed.

  • Meant to say: Good piece Alex. Very good indeed.
    I do apologise for not putting it at the head of my post. Cheers.

  • It maybe that there is another ‘underlying’ issue here that will appear obvious but is hardly mentioned. I say this having been reminded by this post today in the Guardian (I think):

    “brilliantusernamepun Krapotkin9
    26 June 2014 10:53am

    “The lack of form and frankly exhaustion, of core players”
    Exhaustion? I think this excuse needs to be dropped from the team excuse list. It surfaced in Australia, being cited as one of the major reasons for England’s poor form. Careful analysis showed that players like Cook, Trott, Anderson and Bell hd played about 2 days cricket in 3 months after the end of the English summer and the tour to Australia.
    A brief check of Alistair Cook’s recent innings shows he played a first class match on 27 April (batted once, made 4). In the 42 days between then and the start of the first test, he played a total of 5 ODI’s, one t20 and one local one-dayer. That averages about 1 day of cricket per week. Bell and Anderson – about the same.
    Most of the Sri Lankans played the World T20 Champs in April (which they won) and then played the IPL. They weren’t tired”

    This analysis is based on players ‘physically’ playing cricket. But, think for a moment of the mental impact of the Ashes defeat, playing back-2-back games,having the inner turmoil to cope with, the loss of 3 players one defined as having stress problems, so called management reshuffle, acknowledgement that all is not well but having only individual means to deal with it, scapegoating, odd selection choices, rank absurdity of the ECB, fans unrest, further defeats in all forms to Sri Lanka, the denial of poor support and captaincy as probably just some of the mental issues for all to deal with as well. The term ‘burnout’ wouldn’t go amiss here. Moores notion of ‘hardwork’ being the answer to everything is NOT going to challenge any of the feelings that may abound in the dressing room. Cook’s passive aggressive stance in public doesn’t augur well for what goes on behind the scenes. The problem is we, as outsiders, don’t really know what goes on. However, at a personal level it is almost impossible to move from one state to another if there is something in the way. How much more so in a dressing room of 20+ professionals, managers, support staff, advisors and know-alls?

    I may not have been as clear as I could here but I hope the gist of what I’m saying is obvious. The alternate version would be that the English set up, management, dressing room and systems theory bollox STINKS TO HEAVEN – so there’s no wonder they appear to have aged, have no energy or free thinking ability, nous, intelligence or desire – there’s a total group disconnect.

    • Usually ignored is the fact that players, bowlers more so than batsman, spend around half each match sitting on a chair watching their team’s innings progress.

      As Boz says, we don’t know what goes on behind the scenes. When there is no match, what are they doing to the players? Is there maybe a demanding programme of gym work, 5 mile runs, practice, practice, practice. From outside, it seems to me that as England have become more “professional” and more coached, we see problems with fitness, tiredness and stress that previous generations didn’t suffer – at least to this extent.

    • the quote about Sri Lankans wasn’t mine – nor was it a salient point – what’s yours Giffenman?

  • If the players were exhausted then one has to ask why? England have the “best coach of his generation” and so one must turn to him and ask why are these players so tired and exhausted. Some wrong in management. Something is very wrong in our Cricket. Deeply wrong.

    • Right, so in the first test Sri Lanka batted 30 more overs than England. Additionally, of the overs that were bowled by each side, Herath did about 60 over both innings and Ali + Root together a bit under 30. That’s a difference of 60 more overs to the fast bowlers on either side after the first test.

      Of the second test, Sri Lanka batted about 203 and England 232, so 30 more overs on Sri Lanka’s bowlers. But Herath + Jayawardene 83 vs Root and Ali 25. That’s 58 difference, so to the quicks England’s took 28 more overs.

      So, England’s fast bowlers bowled 88 more overs collectively over the two matches. Admittedly one is comparing 4 front line fast bowlers vs 3 + an all rounder. And SL changed their squad between Tests, so let’s include only Pradeep, Eranga, and Mathews who played both. So let’s look at what each non-spin bowler bowled over the series:

      Eranga – 104.4
      Anderson – 94.4
      Plunkett – 92.5
      Broad – 90
      Jordan – 89.4
      Pradeep – 77
      Mathews – 37

      Some observations:

      Eranga and Pradeep aren’t in the ODI side; Anderson and Jordan each had 42 overs in it. All of England’s bowlers’ workloads are quite consistent, I’ll grant that.

      I could go and dredge up the same sort of data for the Ashes, especially after Swann left. But the point is, can’t there be a marginal consequence of being unable to say in some way to say to someone who isn’t a fast bowler ‘Here is the ball. Your job is to Shut This Party Down for the next hour’ ?

      (It would also help the over rate)

      And apparently the only one of the whole squad released to county play before the first Test with India is Moeen Ali. When does the joke stop being funny?

  • I think it’s plain to see to anyone who’s watching, Jimmy Anderson is exhausted. He can’t play back to back tests anymore.
    We have 5 in 6 weeks against India. The temptation will be to make Anderson an automatic selection because of his reputation and his past, but it’s an impossibility.
    He will have to miss at least 2 tests in my opinion.

    As for the general situation. I think it’s being overplayed by the Pietersen apologists, there isn’t a crisis, however there is confusion.
    The selections of the new players (and Plunkett) have all been a success, this should have translated to team success, for some reason it hasn’t.
    Most are blaming Cook, 1 for the decleration timing at Lords (I’d have only gone about 8 overs earlier) and 2 for the dreadful day 4 performance at Leeds. Cook does have to hold his hands up for that one. It was shocking and surely a catalyst for change? Cook will get first chance to prove we can play positive, pro-active cricket. Let’s hope he takes it.

    • Mmmph. “Pietersen apologists” rubs me up the wrong way, I have to say.

      Cook’s also being blamed because of his truly dire form and his inability to rotate his bowlers properly.

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