IN MEMORY OF ENGLISH CRICKET WHICH SANK WITHOUT TRACE AT MELBOURNE ON 28th DECEMBER 2021.

Has there ever been a worse England performance or more pathetic post-match comments from a team's leaders ?

The Ashes have been lost after less than an hour and a half into play on the third day of a planned 5-day match. England weren't just beaten, they were destroyed, utterly humiliated and yet the leadership had only the usual tripe to serve up after the game.

Head coach, Chris Silverwood, after seeing his team lose for the ninth time in their last 12 matches, opined that he believed the players still supported him and his methods. "We just have to put performances together and start pushing back", he is reported as saying. Are such statements of what might be called "the bleedin' obvious" the best he can dream up ? Is it not HIS JOB to achieve such an end ? Are not the team's miserable performances principally a consequence of his failure to do 'HIS JOB' ? 

Then there are the words and demeanour of captain Joe Root. Poor Root seems to have but one downtrodden expression on his face and his body language is equally gloomy. He trots out the same worthless banalities after every defeat, spouting such rubbish as "My energy has to be all about trying to win the next game" and "You've got to rally the players. That's a big part of captaincy". Sadly for Root, it's also where his most abysmal failure lies. "We know the areas we need to improve. We have to keep getting better ...... ", says Root; what ? "keep getting better" ? when all they've done is get worse. This is utter rubbish and shows Root trotting out what is little more than a programmed line for the media. Where are the real words of a real leader ?

Root is a fine batsman who is, perhaps, bordering on greatness in that role, but he is no captain; Silverwood has proved to be a failure as head coach. Both must go, Root back to being the team's best batsman by far and Silverwood to obscurity. While there may be no immediately obvious alternative to take on the role of captain, the truth is that almost anyone will do as they can do no worse. As for the role of coach, surely there is some inspirational figure waiting in the wings, some former player who can take over at least for the next couple of games before a permanent appointment can be made.

And finally, there is the role of the ECB, the body ultimately responsible for the almighty mess in which England's test match side finds itself. It is the ECB that decided to banish the real cricket of the county championship to the outer reaches of the season, to days when the weather is often dull and damp and players have little chance to hone their skills in preparation for more arduous contests. Instead, the best months of the season are reserved mostly for assorted limited overs competitions in which bashing the ball around takes precedence over the demands of longer forms of the game. Rather than looking to enhance the championship with innovative ideas, the ECB has chosen to whittle it down to a point at which it is now largely pointless and played at times when spectators will often be discouraged from attending due to the weather, thus providing perfect ammunition in favour of still more cash generating, knock-about tournaments in mid-summer. 

So if head coach Silverwood and captain Joe Root have failed, as they surely have, it is not their failure alone. At the top of the pile are those at the ECB whose failure has been even greater, for not only did they appoint Silverwood and Root, but they have also destroyed the main nursery for future test match players. The ECB is a disaster, simply one of the myriad bureaucratic bodies that now infest our society and set up to meet political ends as much as the needs of the sport. 

English cricket needs a total revamp. The ECB will no doubt set up a committee to review "what went wrong" in Australia and that will be expected to "make recommendations" at some future date, recommendations that will largely exonerate the ECB itself and will suggest various bits of tinkering at the edges of the national structure. Phooey ! 

The ECB should, and must, be disbanded and consigned to the rubbish heap. A far simpler and more reactive body should replace it, with a return to a system much more like the days when the MCC ran things. The county championship for 2022 must be dramatically enhanced and promoted, while the insane concentration on ever shorter forms of the game must be ended. Touring, both to and from England, must be more realistic, with touring sides allowed the opportunity to become acclimatised by playing matches against counties, states, islands or whatever the local structure provides. Trying to cram umpteen test matches, ODIs, 20-20s and heaven knows what else into as short a period as possible must end.

English cricket is in a parlous state. Only major surgery will save it.

ENGLISH CRICKET ON THE ROPES

Former Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting has taken a pot shot at England's current skipper, Joe Root, posing the question as to why he is captain.

Thus far, the performance of the England team in the Ashes series taking place in Australia has been abysmal. Apart from a couple of decent innings from Root and Dawid Malan, England have been utterly outplayed in all departments - batsmen like rabbits in the headlights, dropped catches, poor bowling strategy, inexplicable selection - all issues which a truly involved and competent captain would be addressing. But not, it seems, Joe Root.

Comparing Root's demeanour and behaviour on the field with that of Mike Brearley, even if Brearley was around 40 years ago, is educational. While Brearley was involved with his players, moving around the field at speed, talking at length with his bowlers as they walked back to their marks and racing back to his own position before they delivered, Root seems, literally, rooted to the spot. He stands at slip looking miserable and constantly bemused; rather than exhibiting confidence and energy, he looks fearful and worn out. Compared with Brearley and others of his predecessors, Ray Illingworth and Michael Vaughan spring immediately to mind, Root is nowhere in sight. 

Yes, he is a fine batsman, but being a fine batsman does not make him a good captain. In truth, he is  not a captain although this is only one of England's problems. Geriatric fast bowlers, poor fielding and a weak batting lineup don't help either. Some have complained that the England player's had too little preparation for this series, but whose fault is that ? Not the players themselves, for sure, but a system which tries to shoe horn far too many test matches, ODIs and 20-20s into too short a period, while having abandoned the once traditional round of games against local sides, in the case of a tour of Australia, 3 or 4-day matches against the various states and an assortment of other preparatory games. In that system, the touring players had every chance to become acclimatised, but no more. Today's players are simply thrown into test matches with little more than net practice.

The consequence of this, added to the astonishing mess that is English domestic cricket, is what we've seen in Australia in the last 2 or 3 weeks - the utter humiliation of England by a dominant and confident Australian team. England's problems go deep and a 5-0 whitewash is surely on the cards, unless the weather, or COVID, intervene. Maybe that will stir something amongst the moribund mob that make up the ECB, though I doubt it. 

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ENGLISH CRICKET ?

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 ?

WINDIES EXPOSE ENGLAND'S FRAILTIES

One thing that the Europeans don't get involved in is cricket, which is just as well given the shocking performance of the English team in the first test match in the West Indies.

In the last couple of years, England have been lauded as one of the best sides, while the West Indies have been struggling to recapture their glory days. Well, if this England team thought they'd have it easy in the Caribbean, how wrong they were !

The first of three encounters has just ended with the third biggest victory by runs ever achieved by the West Indies - a little matter of 381 runs; having set England a victory target of 628, they bowled them out for 246, the last six England wickets falling for just 31 runs on a wicket that really appeared to show little venom. Astonishingly, a spinner, Roston Chase, ended up with figures of 8 wickets for 60 runs, once of the best ever performances by a spinner for the west Indies, and on a wicket which offered him little assistance.

What went wrong for England ?

In the first place, their first innings batting performance was abysmal, the top score being 17 and the team's total of 77 being one of the worst ever by an England team. Batsmen played without what might be called 'due care and attention' and simply gifted their wickets to the home side, leaving themselves over 200 runs behind at this stage. They followed this up with a pretty spiritless performance in the field as the West Indies, having subsided to 61 - 5 and 120 - 6, rallied to a remarkable 415 - 6 declared. Could this have been on the same wicket on which England made a combined total of 77 ? Yes, and it was a shocking indictment of England's batting, bowling and captaincy.

As a batsman, Joe Root is of the highest quality but as a captain he lacks authority and leadership. Watching the team's miserable performance in the West Indies second innings, Root showed no enthusiasm for the task in hand, he did nothing to galvanise his team, his bowling tactics were highly questionable and one felt he was just going through the motions. The measure of a captain is how he manages difficult situations and Root failed this one to an epic proportion. It might be the modern way of captaincy but the likes of Mike Brearley or Brian Close would have been far more involved and active; they wouldn't have let things drift the way that Root did.

The final ignominy was to see England's second innings fold up. From a good start, reaching 134 - 1, they surrendered without struggle, only one batsman passing 35. The West Indies bowled and caught well, but nothing like so well as to excuse this miserable collapse. England were exposed as a team with many frailties.

So what is the problem ? Firstly, the team seems to have been selected on the basis of having as many reasonably proficient batsmen as far down the order as is possible. Thus, only Jimmy Anderson, at number 11, was without a first class century. Secondly, players have been selected to play out of their normal positions in order to satisfy the first condition. This means that having truly international batsmen has been sacrificed for having lots of batsmen. Thirdly, the opening partnership was effectively untried and hoped that a player who had already failed would 'come good'. Fourthly, the bowling selection was wrong - Stuart Broad, a bowler who has proved himself over many years, was omitted in favour of playing a rather problematic 'second spinner', who was hardly used, although he's scored a few first class centuries ! Fifthly, the captain was the wrong captain.

To correct this list of problems, the selectors need to do various things, most of which they won't. The worst scenario will be if England rally to win the next 2 matches when, of course, they will feel totally vindicated in whatever they've done; the best scenario will be if England are blown away and change is enforced.

My solution, for what it is worth, is firstly to change the captain. Root may be a fine batsman and one of the first names on the team sheet, but he's no captain. Secondly, I'd look at picking a properly balanced team; we need 5 or 6 proper batmen, 3 or 4 proper bowlers, a wicketkeeper and an allrounder. If some can 'double up', that's fine but let's not have the number 5 batsman as the third seamer. Let's also find a genuine opening partnership and a genuine batman to be either number 3 or number 5 in the order. Root ought to be number 3, Bairstow might be a number 4 but is probably more like a number 5; this leaves a vacancy at number 4. Neither Stokes nor Butler is appropriate for this.

At number 6, Butler or Stokes could fill the role, and Stokes probably gets the vote, as did the great Gary Sobers for the West Indies in days passed. Butler could be number 7 if he doubles as wicket-keeper. At 8, it is then a choice  between Moeen Ali and Sam Curran dependant upon the conditions, while for  10 and 11 there can surely be no choices other than Stuart Broad and the ageless Jimmy Anderson.. This leaves number 9 which, depending on the conditions, could be filled by Curran, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes, Jack Leach or Adil Rashid.

In the way of this approach is that England's selectors appear to have given up on finding any real batsmen to fill the voids at opener and number 4. They've also surrendered the appointment of captain to the media, rather than picking the best man for the job. In truth, I don't really see a captain in the current team, so it may be that resolving the issues over opening and number 4 might also find us a true captain.

Captaincy is a very specific skill which few possess and finding the right man might prove galvanic to the team as a whole, even if he's not quite top class as a batsman, as was the case with Brearley. Interestingly, ever since captains have been appointed for their batting rather than their captaincy ability, their results have been shocking - Cook, Gooch, Atherton and Gower have the worst records of England captains who've survived for 30 or more matches; Root's record so far isn't bad, though it's far from the best, but is that more luck than judgement ? He often wins, but he also loses far too many.

Sadly, I'm not an England selector, so my notions will go unheeded and we'll continue to play unbalanced teams and to rely on the occasional brilliant performance to bail us out. It's an approach that certainly didn't work on its latest test.