So all is rosy in English cricket’s garden after all. Give us overcast conditions that suit our medium-fast bowlers, shortened games that remove those tricky middle-overs, and we’ll win every time … as long as we’re playing Afghanistan.
Make no mistake about it. Today’s game was utterly irrelevant. The only thing we learned is that the Afghanistan’s bowlers are faster than ours. It’s a bit worrying, isn’t it.
No doubt this result will relieve the pressure on Downton and Moores somewhat – yes, I think the decision makers probably are that shallow – but the facts remain: we were utterly unprepared for this World Cup and the management have been found wanting big time.
Before the World Cup, Moores told everyone that 270 odd would be a winning score. We were told that with two new balls, on bouncy Aussie pitches, proper batting in the early overs would be required; the team could then accelerate later in the innings.
Not for the first time, Moores was proved utterly wrong. He was naive and behind the times. He did not do his job well enough.
He then compounded his initial mistake by tinkering with the side at the eleventh hour, hiding our best batsman down the order, and implementing bowling plans so ridiculous the rest of the world laughed at us.
All these mistakes are utterly unforgivable. Nobody deserves to keep his job when they perform so badly – irrespective of the broader structural problems with English cricket. We have done badly before, but never this badly.
Meanwhile, Downton recently expressed genuine surprise at the extent to which T20 has revolutionised ODIs. I’m afraid this simply isn’t good enough. How can English cricket move forward when those in charge are so out of touch?
Both Downton and Moores are woefully out of their depth, have made mistake after mistake, and must be sacked immediately.
The fact both men look set to keep their jobs tells us everything we need to know about English cricket. Peter Moores has the worst combined record of any coach in England’s history. Yet he’ll remain in his post because of petty politics.
Once again we hear pundits and officials talking about the need for ‘fresh starts’ and ‘wiping the slate clean’. I ask them this: how on earth are we supposed to start afresh when the MD and the head coach remain exactly the same?
If no heads roll (as seems likely) we’ll repeat exactly the same mistakes made after the Ashes. I wonder who the sacrificial lamb will be this time? If I were you, Eoin Morgan, I’d watch your back mate.
Someone will have to pay for this debacle, and you can bet your bottom dollar it won’t be those really responsible.
James Morgan
@DoctorCopy
Is there any possible way we can bring back KP quickly, then blame him for the World Cup disaster and sack him again?
Vaughan already tried that — he blamed KP’s book for making Anderson go all shy and quiet and bowl tamely to avoid being called a bully again…… Yes, of course he was serious. You don’t think he’d mention KP just to get a catchy headline do you?
2 things I found interesting:
1) How much better and more clinical England’s bowling and fielding became once they picked a team closer to the one they had in SL (with Taylor back at 3; Jordan, Bopara and Tredwell back into the attack). Changing the team at the 11th hour before the first match against NZ was clearly a panic move, and made our campaign even worse than it would otherwise have been.
2) Hales starting to get into form. 37 would normally be a cameo, but with a strike rate of 112, in a match needing just 101 to win, it’s a substantial contribution at an excellent speed. The lesson: back talented players through their early struggles, and they’ll quickly start to reward you for it. Having players constantly in and out of the playing XI doesn’t make them – or the team – better.
Couple more things, now I think about it:
3) Jordan and Bopara get the best bowling figures. Both players out of the playing XI for most of the WC. Anderson and Broad retained throughout despite consistently dreadful showings. Selectors clearly think A & B being fantastic Test bowlers automatically makes them fantastic ODI bowlers – i.e. they think Tests and ODIs are the same game. Could this selectors’ fallacy be the root of England’s ODI troubles?
4) Is Ian Bell the Shane Watson of England ODI cricket? Bell played well today. In fact, he’s played well throughout his ODI career. And yet he’s only made 4 tons in nearly 200 ODIs – and how many ODIs has he actually won for England? He’s had a long ODI career, and he’s massively underachieved. Is it time for him to go?
Answer to 4 is Yes, it’s time for him to go and No, he’s nothing like Shane Watson in ODIs.
He is like Shane Watson in one way: marvellous talent; staggering underperformance over a long period of time.
Watson has not underperformed in ODS. He really hasn’t. There is just no comparison between him and Bell in that format.
Forecast: Downton will sack (sacrifice) Moores in an effort to shift the blame and hang on.
Yes I agree. This is Downton’s modus operandi. Only one thing does it for me: Downton, Whittaker, Moores (because he is out of his depth, but not a nasty piece of work) and Flower. If Clarke was still in a position to be ousted then I’d get rid of him as well. Sadly that ain’t gonna happen, anytime soon. Let him have his way with ICC and mess it up and sneer at the world and then send him packing.
This should’ve been a World Cup for English experimentation with 2019 in mind but yet again there was a failure to throw out the English cricketing handbook and a raising of expectations. The biggest fall out will be young children turning away from cricket unless we change and build a young an exciting team. KP could’ve contributed to this tournament before retiring but Broad, Anderson and Bell should retire from all short forms of the game. Shake up the coaching team new bowling (Dawes) and fielding (Colly) coaches
Barry, you don’t experiment in World Cups with the next one in mind.
It’s pure stupidity in every way possible, World Cups are the pinnacle, you have 4 years in between to prepare for them!
You don’t prepare during them for another one in 4 years time, on what planet must people be on to think this is in anyway logical?
Just home from SCG England lucky to win the toss and put Afghanistan in to bat.They couldn’t handle the Eng bowling although it wasn’t anything exceptional.Was glad to see Ravi in the team although he needs more on field practice.Rain broke up play and made it difficult for the batting side.Was impressed with Afghan bowling. Quite fast D\L made it more difficult but Eng were always going to win.If they continue to play the way they did today they might as well forget about ODI cricket and probably T20 too.They have to change their whole attitude towards these games.Just an aside – Moorsey was still on his laptop.
How do the players get more experience when the likes of Hales do not get bought in the IPL ?
And if he is supposedly that good why is he not bought ?
What has the IPL experience done for Morgan ?
Good questions. Some putative answers:
1) Hales hasn’t done much in ODIs yet, but he’s ranked no. 3 in the world in T20 batting. There’s no question he’s good enough to play in the IPL. Could he be out because of limits to the number of foreign players each team can have? Or because of his poor form in the BBL?
2) 2 years ago, Morgan was by far England’s best limited-overs batsman. His form has been terrible since then, but we know what he can do when he’s at his best. (He did score a quick century a few games ago.) And I think he’s been put in an impossible situation in this WC, taking up the reins just a few weeks before the tournament. I say give him another series or two, and if he doesn’t turn it around within that time, he needs to go for good.
“….implementing bowling plans so ridiculous the rest of the world laughed at us…”
Yes, and making us all laugh again, by sending Broad out to explain that all countries bowl 89.3% slow-paced half trackers at the death; and then again by later denying it and saying they don’t know why the bowlers wouldn’t pitch it up.
…Some interesting stats from Dobell:
“James Anderson was in his fifth over before he bowled a delivery that would have hit the stumps”
Bopara was “on average only 4.5mph slower than Stuart Broad”
The reason why they always bowled when they won the toss was because of that stat that said they had the most successful “first 10 overs” bowlers. Morgan referred to it repeatedly in post match interviews when asked — “Winning the toss and bowling, would you do that again, do you think, if you know how many times you’d be running into the car park to get the ball?” The Answer was always “Yes, absolutely, statistically we’ve got the best attack for the first ten overs…”
From the post:
“If I were you, Eoin Morgan, I’d watch your back mate.”
— Yep, and the poor fellow has practically hoisted himself by parroting all those absurd stats all the way through, as instructed by Moores.
Scyld Berry is on the money with his tournament ratings http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/11469756/England-player-by-player-ratings-from-World-Cup-debacle-by-Scyld-Berry.html?frame=endScreen
I’d give Moores and Downton a -10 on that basis!
I thought he was rather generous!
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/former-captain-michael-vaughan-puts-hand-up-to-help-england-20150311-141abq.html
good points from vaughan for gettign mroe successful ex players involved in the game, but form the looks of what he says seems ECB consider them to be outside of cricket too
Classic English rubbish middle-managers: never hire anyone who might know more than you.
That is interesting though, because I’d always imagined the ex-players kept out of things by choice. If England aren’t using Nasser in particular, they’re even worse idiots than I thought – he’s the one who can really analyse what’s going wrong.
ya this has been going on for sometime too, i remember steve harmisson applying for some staff position and didnt even receive a courtesy call, while i dont know about how good a staff harmy can be but certainly better than saker
Yes that is good! Glad you sent the link to that. Brilliant. If only Downton were gone & Whittaker and Flower, then we might see this happening. If Graves doesn’t make the necessary changes in management then as Mark Butcher said, we’d better all hide behind the sofa when the Aussies arrive. I keep hearing the phrase that the players are “in transition?” What a load of crap. They’ve had a year and nothing is working. Time for massive change. I’ve said all along that they should bring in some of the ex-players: Vaughan, Hussain & Collingwood but leave Strauss behind the mic effing & blinding as only he can. Not in same league as Vaughan & Hussain.
yes every other cricket board is making use of their former player’s experience, while vaughan or hussain may not be great odi players themselves, but i can certainly say they would have done more than DATA to the team and at the least got the team to put up a fight at the very least
Can I risk being burned at the stake here and spend a moment ignoring the numpties Moores and Downton and suggest a couple of thoughts . . .
Hales might not be as good a batsman as we hope.
Ali might not be as good a batsman as we hope.
Just wanted to put that out there. All caveats about coaching, team environment, place in the order and confidence accepted, of course.
James here. Those are perfectly legitimate arguments. The players must share some blame too.
I think there are definite questions about Ali as an opener in international cricket, but I think he could work well further down the order. I think he’s inherently vulnerable to the fast yorker given his stance – and in ODIs at least, opponents will tend to open with the bowlers most able to exploit that.
Hales is, I think, the real deal for the short form game, if well looked after.
But that’s a big but, because he’s a tall guy and his knees will take a lot of strain (much as KPs did) to be successful.
Much less sure about him in Tests, as he’s had some rough times in CC…
You could add to that
– Anderson a swing bowler who won’t pitch the ball up and let it swing (judging by his test record, that may work in England but it doesn’t work anywhere else in the world)
– Broad who is not fit
– Finn who will never be as good a bowler as we hope
– Jordan, a fast-medium bowler who lacks control and movement
– Saker who is already on the Australian Cricket Board’s payroll (surely the only explanation for his performance???)
Perhaps a bit harsh but I’ve exceeded my tolerance for bullshit.
Eion Morgan is quoted as saying this to the BBC today:
“My experience as captain has made me a better player…”
121, 0, 2, 0, 0, 17, 45, 27, 0
He must have been even shitter than I thought.
Eoin Morgan is a dickhead, he really is.
Captain Eoin Morgan says he has “no regrets” despite England being knocked out of the World Cup in the first stage.
A campaign that saw England lose four of their six games ended with a nine-wicket win over Afghanistan in Sydney.
“There are no regrets, absolutely not,” said Morgan. “We’ve given it everything, including myself.
“The personnel we have are the right personnel. We haven’t clicked. We haven’t had guys in form.”
What a prized penis, I know the suits/coaches deserve our ire but hearing Morgan come out with this is a massive wind up and slap in the face for the fans.
How on earth can he have no regrets over this humiliating World Cup? Is he out of his mind?
One of the most stupid, patronising and downright deluded things I have ever heard a sportsman say.
Just shows how they don’t give a flying F about the fans, not even any regrets about putting the fans through the absolute shower of shit you and your team dished up hey Eoin?
Can’t wait to see the back of him.
Morgan used to speak plainly and honestly when interviewed. Then he became captain. The transformation has been remarkable.
That seems to happen to all of them. Coaching ala England management is patently not working.
What was Flower’s role again? Something to do with future leaders wasn’t it?
well hello my dear pommy puddles…enjoying urselfs cribbing and sobbing over on a sport blog huh..get of your seats go to your ,telephone, email, or twitter what not and Shout “I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!” to ECB
Thanks for the advice, Bruce :-)
I already have, yesterday received a corporate speak reply to my first, silence to all my follow-ups @ECB
It doesn’t seem to be widely quoted in the English press but after the match Morgan said, “Have we been adventurous enough? I think when we’ve earned the right to be adventurous, yes, we have. But when we’ve had bad days, you can’t afford to be adventurous.”
“You can’t afford to be adventurous.” England’s epitath right there. Because if you were, it might go really wrong…. errr, right?
One example: England hit 18 sixes in the tournament. Every Test nation has hit more. Ireland and Afghanistan have hit more. ABDV on his own has hit more.
I hope Colin Graves takes the bull by the horns and does what he needs to do. I can’t imagine he will just leave things as they are. Or am I deluded?
Y’know, I can accept being second to great teams. NZ, Aus, and SL are really good. They deserve to be 1, 2, and 3. Bangladesh? OK, they can be a handful more than a few times a year. But they have faster bowlers than us? That’s more than a bit shameful.
I ask you, when do we get to be special? When do we ever get to be more than just ‘a handful’? We were utter toss, and everyone with anything approaching sentience knew it was going to be like that. Everyone except the deluded and/or deluding coach, CEO and – yes – the captain, it would seem. I bloody hate the buzzword bullsh-t they spout. It was crap in the 80s, it was crap in the 90s, and it was crap in the 2000s. It ain’t ever coming back into style.
Pray for a draw in the West Indies coz after that it’s going to be Cricket Hell on Earth. The Kiwis are gonna tear us a new one, and the Aussies will bite off our heads and poo down the hole. I swear this will happen unless we find, at least, a Darren Lehmann-style leader within the next month. Someone who won’t play the ECB game even if they think he will. Good results will make him bulletproof.
Moores… Cook… Downton… Whitaker… Saker… sheesh, that’s a lot of redundancy money. But let’s get ’em gone. We won’t ever improve with them.
The quote of the day must go to George Dobell as he attempts to describe England’s underwhelming win over Afghanistan: ‘Like winning a bowler hat the day after losing your head!’
Good old George, giving me a good laugh after the miseries of England & ECB.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/kevinpietersen/11471854/Kevin-Pietersen-will-bring-the-fun-back-to-England-in-what-has-been-a-dismal-era-of-fear-and-conservatism.html
well KP has put the ball back in Colin’s court
On BBC Breakfast this morning, a nice little touch of schadenfreude I thought…” Who would pay to watch England now, either live or on TV” …Which cast my mind back to Giles Clark’s weasely machinations over the TV Crown Jewels issue, which, according to Clark would cause massive damage to English cricket??? Oh how things turn to bite you on the arse??
I appreciate that’s he very busy – but please alert Maxie! I’d love to know his take on this.
How can the ECB claim to be concentrating on the World Cup when they are scurrying around to name the team to tour West Indies on Tuesday????
I’m not sure if you’re worried that the Afghani bowlers are faster than ours or just that we learned nothing else from the game. If you read contemporary accounts of the Afghanis by the British Army who tried and failed to subdue them three times in the last 150 years or so, they found them tall, powerful men and bonny fighters in times of need. We all want to see them playing top-level cricket one day and I don’t doubt they’ll be providing faster bowlers than ours for many years to come.
Ironic isn’t it — Pietersen, after being sacked for being “disengaged” is willing to skip a couple of hundred thousand IPL pounds to try and make the England squad again, while the ODI captain is missing games for the opportunity to warm benches in the IPL.
This whole thing is a train crash, with the driver trying to restart the engine while taking potshots at the rescue helicopter.
Ironic isn’t a word that I’d use.
Sad and despicable are more appropriate IMHO.
“This whole thing is a train crash, with the driver trying to restart the engine while taking potshots at the rescue helicopter”
Do you mind if I use that quote one day? Nice one!
“Taking potshots at the rescue helicopter” is dead right.
And it’s not just the ECB doing it. Most England supporters don’t even WANT England to be good at limited-overs cricket as well as Tests – or rather, they don’t want the ECB to do what it would take to make England no. 1 in the world in all 3 formats, and then stay no. 1 for as long as possible.
England supporters view limited-overs cricket – i.e. 2/3rds of the game – with sneering contempt. And even when it comes to Tests, the only country they care about beating is Australia. That’s how low they’ve set their sights.
You are not suggesting that an elite crowd of public schoolboys on a million pounds a year held to ransom by an elite cabal of brainless managers trying to only engage the middle classes of the UK as support in a small and petty a schedule of rivalry is not a winner are you?
Thanks… By all means, but I doubt you’ll ever come across another situation like this!
And according to the guardian — Moores “is privately understood to be more relaxed on the subject than those who ended his England career 14 months ago.”
So how is Downton going to spin this? “Well of course, we always hoped that Kev might bounce back, after he’s had time to reflect on his past errors…”
Did anyone pick this up from something on the Guardian? Interview with Aggers in which it was said that Flower was making on field positioning and not Moores? That would explain a lot. How is Moores to stand a chance if Flower is actually pulling the strings? You know I feel sorry for Moores. He has been used as a stooge for Flower and Downton. Whilst Downton, Flower and Whittaker get angry about the possibility of KP coming to town and Moores is relaxed about it. KP said he’d be happy to work under Moores.
However what is far more important is the upcoming games for this beleaguered team. What if they lose in West Indies? The pundits seem to be saying that England will easily beat the Windies, but will they? What happens if England lose? Then NZ and then the Ashes. “Hide behind the couch” says Butcher. I think I might go and have a glass of wine somewhere. It doesn’t bode well.
Have you got a link for that story about Flower? If that is true, it is absolutely outrageous.
The fact that somebody said it means either a) the rats are turning on each other, or b) they have so lost the plot they don’t comprehend how scandalous that is.