WILL CRICKET'S MANDARINS EVER GET IT RIGHT ?

Onve again, those who control English cricket have got it wrong. Having rid themselves of 'Managing Director' Giles and coach Silverwood, followed by the resignation of captain Root, all following a dismal period of Test Match failure, one might have hoped for some realism. Perhaps a real Managing Director, a real coach and a captain in the mould of Illingworth, Brearley or Vaughan. Sadly, the early signs are that it's "business as usual".

While the positions of coach and captain remain up for grabs, the top job, the one which will be responsible for appointing the others, has been given to Robert Key, a former player who was, to be fair, a decent batsman, though never quite good enough to nail down a permanent place in the England team as such. That said, the same applied to Brearley although his abilities as a manager and captain were outstanding, which probably cannot be said of Key. In fact, Brearley has the best record of any England captian who played more than 30 matches in that role, followed by Illingworth and Vaughan, then Strauss, May, Dexter and Hussain, bfore Root arrives in the list. 

While Root is undoubtedly a very good batsman, a very useful spin bowler and a fine fielder, he was no great captain. He did oversee a record number of 27 victories, but he also captained in 25 defeats, also a record. His demeanour on the field was frequently one of frustrated onlooker rather than of a captain in control of events. He was far too much "one of the lads" and a "mate" to the rest of the team, and far too rarely the man truly in charge. When it came to laying down the law to the likes of Anderson, Broad and Stokes, did he dare ? How often did he really control events, rather than being controlled by them ? To what extent do England's current problems result from his reluctance to bat at the number 3 position and to rely on a battery of seam bowlers, with himself as the principal spin bowling support ? 

As for the hierarchy which appointed a gaggle of old boys, from Giles at the top to Silverwood and Root, it's the same old story. Let's keep things "in house", let's not "rock the boat", indeed, let's "go with the obvious choice". In terms of the captaincy, Root was the obvious choice, in schoolboy terms, as he was the best batsman in the team so had to be captain, too. That may work in a team of  15 year olds but such an approach at the very highest level is nonsensical. Captaincy of a group of highly talented, highly motivated and often highly egotistical individuals requires rather more than being the best batsman; it needs real leadership ability.

Perhaps Key has the necessary ability to lead English cricket to a better future but he has no track record of any such qualities. In fact, it's suggested that he is seen as being a welcome appointment by the bulk of England's cricketing elite as he's an approachable and friendly face. He's never been seen as being someone who would do anything to "upset the apple cart", which is exctly the shake up English domestic cricket needs. The effective destruction of the county championship, the only 'real' cricket still played, must be reversed, the shocking financial reliance on ever shorter versions of limited overs cricket also. Is it truly beyond the wit of the 'powers that be' to revitalise the championship, to make it what it was in previous years, when crowds flocked in their tens of thousands ? Does it really have to be abandoned and exiled to the outer reaches of the frozen and dark days of late March and early October ? 

As Managing Director of Cricket, Key will be responsible for dealing with such matters as well as for appointing the next coach and captain of the England Test team; as one of the cricketing elite, another insider who's a "pal" to the current team and entirely unthreatening to the next generation, what chance is there that he'll do anything other than "go with the flow" and appoint Ben Stokes as the next captain or, if Stokes has the sense to turn the job down, the likes of Stuart Broad as an interim until either Stokes changes his mind or another "obvious" candidate appears ? As for the abominable mess that is the domestic cricketing calendar, what will he do other than listen to the voices of the accountants who will tell him that he tinkers at his, and English cricket's, peril ? (btw, I'm an accountant who knows better, and a cricket fan who first went to Lord's in 1962, long befor the current crop of 'experts' were born)

What is needed is real leadership and the courage to look outside of the "obvious". The England team needs real management and leadership, not the pal-ship of one of the current bunch who are all far too closely knit to ever take real control. It's like one of a group of drinking buddies taking over as landlord of their local pub - can it really work ?

I have no idea who the potential candidates might be but I am sure that an effective England captain will only be found from outside of the current extended squads. I doubt that there is a Brearley or Illingworth out there, too many counties have used their captaincy as a a lure for foreign one year imports, but there must be someone. It's the job of Robert Key and whomever he appoints as the next coach, to find that person. If he does that, he'll have succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. If he doesn't, he'll just be another of the failures of the English cricketing establishment.

I have my hopes, but they're not high.

WOKE WELBY'S SELECTIVE CHRISTIANITY.

So the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, thinks that the Government's plan to send illegal migrants to Rwanda is "unGodly".

This seems to be another example of Welby's selective Christianity. This is a man who has no difficulty with, indeed he promotes, the utterly "unGodly" lunacy of marriage between 2 men or 2 womern, while denying the Bible's prohibition on homosexuality. In addition, he appears to ignore the Bible's teaching which says "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female he created he them" (Genesis 1:27). There are, of course, further references to men and women in the Bible, not least that God created a woman from Adam's rib, but nowhere does it mention that sex, or gender, is changeable, something which the "woke" Welby seems to find acceptable. The truth is that male is male and female is female, unless, of course, you are a "trans" activist or utterly "unGodly" Church of England priest. 

Welby falls over himself backwards to prove his liberal "woke" credentials, while ignoring his principal duty which is to promote Christian teaching in line with the Christian Bible, not some politically correct interpretation of the modern mania for supposed 'equality, diversity and inclusion'. While the Church over which he presides slides evermore into obscurity, Welby does his best to hasten its decline by rejecting traditional Christain teachings in favour of some misguided appeal to the masses, an approach which simply discourages the few who still believe in his Church.

Welby was a political appointee, an Old Etonian with serious connections to a wide assortment of the rich and powerful; his uncle was 'Rab' Butler, deputy Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer and more, under Prime Ministers from Churchill to Douglas-Home. His ancestry even includes descent from an illegitimate son of King Charles II. He was always a man who was going places, although he was originally rejected for ordination in the Church of England for being too evangelical though he finally became a priest in 1993. He then gained numerous promotions until being installed as the Bisjop of Durham in November 2011, before his extraordinarily rapid elevation to the See of Canterbury was announced less than a year later. For comparison, his predecessor, Rowna Williams, had spent 8 years as Bishop of Monmouth before his promotion to the Archbishopric of Wales and it was a further 3 years before his elevantion to Canterbury. In contrast, the speed of Welby's rise to the highest position in the Anglican clergy was meteoric and even suggestive of a degree of political interference. 

Welby now regularly criticises the UK's Government for its Conservative values and actions and generally makes pronouncements on political issues. He is clearly a man of the liberal-left who uses his position to promote views from that quarter, while his Church crumbles around him. He's been in office for over 9 years - it's surely time for him to go, before the damage he's doing becomes irreversible.