To start, I don't mean the one day knockabout stuff, I mean real cricket, the game played over 3, 4 or 5 days and the one that needs a bit of genuine ability and application.
Following defeat by New Zealand in the recent 2 match 'series', England have now lost to South Africa in the first of a 4 match series. Captain Joe Root has put the defeat down to a batting collapse in England's first innings, but surely the problem is much more than that.
England started by winning the toss, something usually considered to be a benefit and one that usually results in the winners of the toss batting first, unless there are strong reasons not to. There were no such strong reasons but Root, nonetheless, decided to allow first use of the pitch to his opponents. His bowlers didn't do badly and managed to restrict the South Africans to only 284 runs, a relatively poor score.
Surely England were now on top, and so it seemed when they reached 142 for the loss of only 3 wickets; whoops, 7 wickets then fell for the addition of only 39 runs and the South Africans had a lead of 103. The gamble of putting South Africa in to bat had failed and England's only chance was to run through South Africa's batting quickly at the second time of asking; this they also failed to do, hampered by having an attack comprised only of seam bowlers and poor strategy.
The outcome was that England's batsmen were left with the task of scoring 376 runs to win the match, a very substantial target for a 4th innings and many more than anyone had ever managed at the same ground in the past. Unsurprisingly, they failed and lost the match by 107 runs; this time, the score reached 204 for 3 before the last 7 wickets went down for just 64 runs. So much for the first innings collapse being pivotal.
The decision to bowl first was wrong. The bowling strategy was wrong, Not including a recognized spin bowler was wrong. The batting, apart from the first 5 in the order, failed in both innings. However, above all, England lacked leadership. Joe Root may be a good batsman, less so in recent times, but as a captain he lacks the dynamism, vitality and positivity that is needed for such a role. His demeanour on the pitch and in after match interviews is that of a man tortured by his responsibilities; on the pitch he exudes no aura of authority and rarely gives any impression that he's in charge. There is no sign that he's a natural leader and he provides no on-field impetus.
If England are to sort their problems out, they must start with the captaincy. Joe Root is well worth his place in the side as a batsman but he cannot be the captain. Playing a raft of all-rounders is also a poor approach; Stokes, Butler, Bairstow, Curran, Pope - how many more ? They need 5 quality batsmen, a quality 'keeper, one all rounder and 4 main bowlers, exactly as was the case in the past. Quite simply, if 4 front line bowlers can't do the job, why would 5 be any better ?
Troublingly, the national county championship has been cut to the bone and finding players of the right skills and quality is now far from easy. Given that Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad are both at the ends of their careers, it is time to leave them out in favour of the next generation, whoever they may be. For the spin bowling department, Jack Leach, Dom Bess or young Parkinson may be the best available but there must be an effort to change the championship in order to encourage the development of more spinners.
As for the batsmen, are there no Boycotts or Barringtons out there ? perhaps a Graveney or a Steel, a Thorpe or Gatting, a Gooch maybe ? Our modern bunch simply don't begin to compare even with Strauss, Atherton and Gower, let alone the truly great players of passed years, those who played on uncovered wickets without a vast range of body protection and still managed to far exceed the achievements of today's molly-coddled crowd.
English cricket has lost its way and it needs serious attention. What chance that such attention will be forthcoming while all attention is on the money-spinning knockabout variety of the game ?
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