Now don’t get me wrong. I really like Eoin Morgan. He’s done a tremendous job as England’s ODI captain, and he’s a very good white ball batsman too. In fact, I think he’s one of our best ever players. People just forget how good he is because he’s surrounded by so many other fantastic white ball batsmen these days.
However, the one thing I dislike about Eoin is how he’s become completely subsumed by the ECB’s communications culture since becoming captain. He used to be ‘real’. Now he talks like a corporate mouthpiece. He’s become a walking cliche in recent months – as if he’s being controlled by the same robot that operated Andrew Strauss.
Why is it that everyone employed by the ECB (in senior roles anyway) speaks in a language that’s best described as corporate windy drivel? It basically involves expressing very simple concepts in as many long words as possible. It’s management speak on steroids. I used to think it was just Strauss, who’s a bright chap and probably enjoyed management concepts, but now Morgan’s become infected I’m not so sure.
Eoin’s recent talk of team ‘culture’ and ‘outcomes’ is supposed to sound impressive, but instead it seems self-important, aloof, and makes him sound like the most boring man alive. It’s also incredibly cheesy. It’s verbal camembert of the highest order. And it doesn’t sounds clever. It’s sounds naff.
Take Eoin’s recent press conference when Alex Hales’s name came up. He claimed that Hales’s indiscretion had tested the team culture like never before. He even suggested that a similar incident might have derailed the whole World Cup campaign in previous eras. A quick tightening of my corset was required to prevent my sides from splitting at this point. How can one bloke getting dropped (a guy who wasn’t even first choice) possibly undermine an entire squad?
My suspicion is that Eoin is taking himself, and what he does, far, far too seriously. Take the following as a prime example:
Our values as a team include the words ‘courage’, ‘respect’, and ‘unity’, symbolising the three lions on our cap, and taking that cap forward across all three formats and all squads
Someone pass the bucket please. I can see why words like ‘courage’ and ‘unity’ might have a place in an army commercial, but to use them in reference to a cricket team seems bizarre. What words would he use to describe the Victoria Cross if he’s getting all emotional and hyperbolic when describing the blokes he plays cricket with?
One wonders where all this is ultimately going to lead. If England win the World Cup, I imagine Eoin is going to burst into tears and start quoting Ronald Reagan or Wilma Rudolph: “Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit, the potential for greatness resides within each of us”. The team will then presumably unleash fifteen white doves, hold hands, and sing Kumbaya on the Lord’s balcony.
Although team spirit does have some role to play in cricket, Eoin has been going well over the top. After all, team bonding is probably less important in cricket than any other team sport I can think of. The result is decided by a series of individual battles – batsman against bowler – rather than eleven men working together in concert.
I can see why this language might have more relevance in rugby, where players put their bodies on the line, and it takes several players to clean out a ruck or lift a jumper in a line-out, but using cheesy military language in modern white ball cricket just doesn’t compute. There are dancing girls parading around the boundary for Pete’s sake. This isn’t Gladiator starring Russell Crowe; it’s a slogathon featuring Andre Russell.
I’ve always worried when England captain’s start talking about ‘culture’. It takes me back to the days when Graham Gooch banished David Gower, and when Andy Flower banished Kevin Pietersen. I’m not going to cry for Alex Hales, but it’s this kind of mentality that sometimes robs England of their most entertaining players.
One senses there simply wouldn’t be any room in the England dressing room these days for an Ian Botham with his celebrity lifestyle, David Gower with his Tiger Moths, or even Mike Gatting with his penchant for reverse sweeps and pork pies. We’d probably even banish someone like Shane Warne with his poker, new-casinos.uk, and love of excess. Free spirits aren’t tolerated any more. And if they become captain then look out. They have a complete vocab reboot.
The bottom line is that although England might well win the World Cup – and I pray they do – it won’t be because of their culture. And if they lose in the semis after being bowled out for 50 on a green-top it won’t be because of their culture either. England’s World Cup campaign rests on whether they’ve got the best players. Nothing else really matters.
Just look at the great Australia teams of the recent past. Some of them couldn’t stand each other and their team culture left plenty to be desired. Here’s what Brad Hogg said about it in his autobiography:
The whole Australian dressing room wasn’t a pleasant place to be … it could be a brutal environment, even for those who had been around long enough to feel like part of the furniture. There was always a heady mix of ego, hierarchy, insecurity, respect (or lack of it), bravado, sycophancy and fear in the room.
Yet Australia swept everything before them in all forms of the game. Why? Because they could bloody play. It’s hardly rocket-science.
One imagines that particular Aussie side, which was also one of the most resilient ever, would’ve laughed at England’s corporate management speak. And they would’ve fallen off their chairs had anyone suggested that their World Cup could be derailed by an Andrew Symonds doing something stupid on a night out weeks before the tournament.
Historically English cricket hasn’t needed any help making itself a laughing stock. We’ve had defeats to Zimbabwe, defeats to Ireland, and defeats to Holland too. So now we’ve finally got ourselves a decent XI, I beseech Eoin and the ECB to stop the nonsense and just speak like normal human beings.
They might find this helps to grow the game more than cheesy soundbites ever will.
James Morgan
The modern world is run by corporations not individuals. These anonymous institutions have their own code and you must expect everything they touch to be infected with this sort of control freak mentality, where the ‘my way or the highway’ philosophy rules. When you have this sort of surety of purpose, like a religion, it saves having to think for yourself. Everyone seems scared to go against any institution that puts them in a position of power. This is how the status quo is maintained against what we call ‘common sense’ and otherwise apparently quite intelligent people resort to psychobabble without a hint of embarrassment.
Nonsense, James – culture will score more runs and take more wickets than anyone at this WC! It isn’t simply that overpaid managers have to come up with reasons to justify their existence….
“He claimed that Hales’s indiscretion had tested the team culture like never before. He even suggested that a similar incident might have derailed the whole World Cup campaign in previous eras”.
This particularly annoyed me. The ECB and their stooges use history (except the 2010/11 Ashes, for some reason) like the drunk uses his lamppost, for support and not illumination. Morgan implies his bunch as so much tougher than those weaklings of the past. How does the self-inflicted loss of a reserve batsman compare with the ruckus over Zimbabwe in 2003? How would this bunch of milionaires have felt if they were paid as much for a WC as for an ODI series as Alec Stewart revealed was the case in 1999? How much help would ‘culture’ have been against the awesome WI teams of 1979 and 1983 or the Australian teams of 2003 and 2007? Would it have helped with Wasim Akram’s genius in 1992?
In the long term, there’s a contradiction that’s going to blow up on the ECB one day. On the one hand, players have to submit to this culture; on the other hand, it’s superstars and not teams that are increasingly driving the game. The potential for conflict is enormous. The ECB have got away with it so far because they have enough money to throw at players and by brainwashing players in the development stage to accept their nonsense. With Costcutter Colin in charge, it’s not a model that can hold much longer.
Well said.
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”. Mike Gatting after Peter Drucker
Mike Gatting eats breakfast for breakfast. And then moves on to elevenses.
Don’t forget the pies.
Morgan is only doing what he’s told or fed or brainwashed into. I don’t blame him. The non-Asian teams all spout that corporate drivel, it’s the least appealing thing about them.
Symptom of modern society I’m afraid. Generally spoken by idiots with no common sense who think they will look superior to Joe Bloggs because they talk in gobbledygook. In cricket everyone is expected to sing or talk if you like from the same hymn sheet. Unfortunately it rarely works with a team of grown men with different personalities does it. But the ECB can’t manage individuality. You know part of the silent revolution coming in politics is people pissed off with this PC filled, prude, regulation obsessed, skinny latte drinking society. Let’s have more wallop men (and women) I say.
I like this blog but you and your readers do like a proper whinge don’t you? Its obviously just corporate waffle but if the whole culture nonsense helps them (and results indicate they are doing something right) or gives them confidence then who cares?
Checked out the blog expecting to see some analysis of the final squad not a piece just looking for something to complain about.
We analysed the final England squad earlier in the week. It’s the 3rd item down on the home page. Here’s a link https://www.thefulltoss.com/england-cricket-blog/willey-wont-he/ Sorry if you missed it.
There’s really not very much to discuss at all today – I can’t go over all the squad stuff again – so I thought I’d do something for fun. A rant, which is obviously exaggerated for effect, normally gets a good response. Most of the stuff about England in the papers over the last few days discussed Morgan’s presser and the ‘culture’ thing, so I thought I’d give an alternative irreverent perspective.
I think this is James having another go at the dropping of Alex Hales and on the so called attack on individuality and maverick players. We had a good airing on it and many of us disagreed with James without accepting the corporate speak of captain Morgan. Incidentally if you don’t want to hear bland answers don’t ask bland questions. The media feed cricketers with the most boring questions. And then edit out the questions. So is the media onside with the ECB? It seems so especially the TV media. In the meantime an article entitled White Line Fever in the Wisden Cricket Monthly seems to suggest that the drug in question was cocaine. The author under the pseudonym Deep Cover looks at the game’s relationship with recreational drugs. He kicks off with a discussion about taking cocaine (not him). He admits that alcohol was his vice and then goes on to ask a simple question of Hales. “Why the hell would you risk it?” He also says clearly his behaviour had begun to affect the team environment: ‘Taking drugs and sleeping around.’ What was interesting was the kind of discussions taking place. They are young men we need to remember. And they can end up in the wrong environment like the Surrey lads or even worse the Worcester trio. I think there is a duty of care re Hales and that’s the other side of the bad lad picture being extolled.
Hales is a druggie with a cock sure attitude. Deserves to be dropped. Not that he cares in the slightest as he’s earning mega bucks and couldn’t give a toss.
Riff raff like that is better off being kicked out of representative sides
Excellent article. I couldn’t agree more.
Just noticed that a grand total of 2 of England’s Pool games are on the weekend. Can anyone offer a plausible explanation for this other than they can get more money from corporate jollies on weekdays? (BTW, as with all aspects of tournament organisation, I’m well aware the WC is technically organised by the ICC and not the ECB. However only a simpleton thinks the host board hasn’t got massive clout over how the tournament is organised. See the fact that the ECB wanted 10 teams, at least three boards opposed ten teams publically and ten teams was what we got).
Meanwhile, Andy Bull shows that he is just the journalist we need to expose a crisis… 5 to 10 years too late. Five years ago all Bull could write was how brilliant the ECB and anyone who questioned the Sky monopoly wanted to deny the handicapped or was guilty of “misty-eyed bollocks”.
There is a problem with oversimplifying each side of this issue. Clearly a culture of good habits is not going to harm any team’s prospects, but there can only be one winner of any competition and most of the teams will adopt most of these good habits as they are widely recognised as essential building blocks to success. They include dedication, commitment, teamwork, practice, preparation etc etc (all the usual suspects).
However my experience of winning teams as a player and punter is that the culture of confidence, brought on by winning, produces a self belief that almost precludes failure. As James pointed out there were plenty of personal divisions in the Aussie dressing room under Waugh and I also understand this was so during the Bradman era, where strong personalities frequently clashed, but it seemed to spur things on even more. The success England had under Nasser Hussein was not without conflict, yet we developed a backbone far superior to anything we have now, where you feel any England team is beatable on any day by almost anyone, despite all the psychology employed. Clive Lloyds all conquering teams of the seventies had all sorts of ructions going on behind the scenes. Clearly during the genetleman-player era there would have been cliques in the England dressing room. Most cricketing biographies point to how hard it was for youngsters to make their mark in an established team, having to overcome the fear and resentment of older players and livelihoods threatened by their presence. It had been equally as difficult for them so they made it difficult in turn, like an initiation, the excuse being it builds character. Illingworth was a a prime example of this mentality, yet he won the Ashes in Australia. Hopefully this culture has been replaced by something more constructive nowadays. Just think of the the difficulties Black cricketers had making their mark in South Africa, odds which are clearly improved in today’s climate.
Personally I think its the raw material players bring to the table at the start of their careers. Talent is deemed enough to work on, whereas attitude is more difficult to train once its become part of the personality. How many youngsters display the ‘grunt’ mentality in any walk of life. Everyone wants to be told how good they are and criticism is taken so personally, so when they get into the world of work, in whatever field they find the matter of fact nature of being expected to give a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay without acknowledgment, difficult to terms with. How many of us have grown up with only hearing from your bosses when you screw up. It may not be civilised but it’s always been in my ken, the way the world works.
He’s right. Culture is important. That really should be beyond dispute.
We England fans are a funny lot. It seems, regardless of how good things might get, we will always find something wrong.
How about a truly left field idea and something positive about the ECB?
If there is anything positive about the ECB I’d be very interested to hear it.
You know they schedule the last RL One Day Cup Final on the SAME day that England play Australia in some naff WC warm up, hence removing Vince and Dawson (who got injured) from the Hampshire side. Completely devaluing the last County showpiece final at Lords. Positive? Jesus.
If there is anything positive about the ECB I’d be very interested to hear it.
You know they schedule the last RL One Day Cup Final on the SAME day that England play Australia in some naff WC warm up, hence removing Vince and Dawson (who got injured) from the Hampshire side. Completely devaluing the last County showpiece final at Lords. Positive? Jesus.
A cunning plan to lull teams into thinking that the 290s are a good score!
Not as good as India’s cunning plan though so some work still needed on that front….
Jofra Archer going through a familiar England rite of passage where players are required to spout bollocks:
“‘There’ll be no home advantage. We just played in Cardiff and there were a lot of opposition fans there and the same was in Leeds as well – they almost had as much as the home team! I know that if we play India they’ll have a big following as well, for example”.
One excuse manoeuvred into position. Home advantage isn’t home advantage! If it all goes tits up, don’t blame us – you’re too blame for not paying our ridiculous prices (and they’ll probably add not cheering loud enough in soon but couldn’t yesterday afther the booing of Smith and Warner).
Archer was speaking exclusively to the DM as part of the ECB’s Express Yourself campaign. The £700k man says “The Express Yourself campaign celebrates the courage of self-belief as well as the ability to put your team ahead of individual success. It’s a powerful message” and the head of the ad agency behind it says ” “The campaign was designed to encapsulate the electricity and excitement that players express on the pitch. We wanted to highlight their unique personalities and differences stylistically, through the use of strobe-like visual effects combined with a rapid-fire dance track.”
So, “unique personalities” means spouting the same old bollocks and “strobe-like visuals… with a rapid fire dance track” means exclusive Daily Mail interviews? And this is the bunch who we have to believe are going to sell The Hundred to this new audience?
I have literally just thrown up all over my keyboard mate. Yuk!
I can’t believe that all the cricketers are the collossal cucks they appear…
So one would presume that this verbal diarrhea flows downhill from the chap who drains the ECB’s finances of £440 every hour.
You might wonder how many lower league clubs this £719,175 a year could save.
The success England had under Nasser Hussein was not without conflict, yet we developed a backbone far superior to anything we have now, where you feel any England team is beatable on any day by almost anyone, despite all the psychology employed.
Here you can get the information about ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. Clearly, during the gentleman-player era, there would have been cliques in the England dressing room. Here you can watch ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 Live Matches Most cricketing biographies point to how hard it was for youngsters to make their mark in an established team, having to overcome the fear and resentment of older players and livelihoods threatened by their presence.