England captain’s goose is Cooked

“I’ve never quit on anything…..I’m incredibly proud to be England captain. If someone decides I’m not the right person to do the job, then fine. Until that moment , I’m desperate to try turn English cricket round.” – Alistair Cook

Words of defiance from a man who knows the knives are being sharpened and certain quarters of the media and (once supportive) public are baying for blood, will not be enough to keep the hounds from the door.

Alistair Cook’s primary role in the team was to score runs – not polish the ball between overs because he sweats the least – and has done so with such regularity that he has fast entered English cricket folklore and the record books.

However, as the nation’s leader, concerns have been growing about Cook’s ability to captain at international level;  victory away in India and an Ashes series win last summer at home, being the high-water mark of his tenure, has fast become forgotten amid the noise and rancour of poor results and his captaincy style.

From the beginning of his international career he was touted as a future England captain – just as Joe Root is being put forward incase Cook is fired or abdicates the throne – with no real evidence that he was up to the task.

As impressive an achievement those two series wins are is not in question. Runs are a batsman’s currency and victories are a captains.

Should one dry up, a captain can rely on the other to get him through the tough times. Cook has neither.

Cook has gone 12 Tests without a century, overseen the farce of a 5-0 whitewash, the Kevin Pietersen saga, coaches resigning and being fired, dismissing his batting mentor, Graham Gooch himself and threatening to resign the ODI captaincy in Australia.

His mind is frazzled and the pressure over is “conservative” captaincy, media battles and a humbling 1-0 series loss to a limited Sri Lanka team, has left Cook on the brink.

Public opinion is turning, calls for his head are mounting. How did it come to this? Waging a phoney war with past captains, players and the media will only tighten the noose.

The 29-year-old has not helped himself by having a public spat with the master of mind games, Shane Warne.

Warne is highly regarded for his cricket brain, tactical nous and informative insight of the game.

One of cricket’s most respected television broadcasters, former Australian captain, Richie Benaud, described Warne as the greatest player never to captain Australia.

That Benaud holds Warne in high esteem while Cook flat bats any notion of picking the great man’s brains indicates a certain arrogance and disregard.

Rebuking someone of Warnes stature with disdain and calling for “something to be done” only highlights Cook’s scrambled brain at the moment.

The former leg-spinner’s comments may be “negative” but he is on the money when he said:

“When I’m asked my opinion I’ll tell you what I think and that is Alastair Cook needs to be more imaginative.”

Warne’s reputation for foresight and planning and execution set him apart from every player of his generation. His take on Cook, equally so.

Speaking before England’s 5-0 Ashes humiliation, he said:

“Alastair Cook can be negative, boring and not very imaginative, still win and be very happy.

“But I think if Australia play well and he continues to captain the way he does, I think they [England] are going to lose the series. I don’t think he can captain the side like that.”

“He lets the game drift. He waits for the game to come to him… to me, I don’t like that style of captaincy and when you’re playing against the best sides in the world under pressure it won’t hold up,” he added.

This was evident on the fourth day of the second Test versus Sri Lanka at Headingley.

Cook’s tactics were baffling; field placings were terrible to Angelo Mathews, giving him boundaries with the field up and singles to keep strike and protect the tail, enabled his opposite number score 160 and take the game away from England.

His use of James Anderson and Stuart Broad defied logic; bowling them into the ground; the selection of Moeen Ali as the front line spinner, using him reluctantly, only enhances Warne’s critique of him.

Mahela Jayawardene twisted the knife, echoing Warne’s assertion by implying that this England team under Cook, are mentally brittle, said:

“We’ve seen that under pressure they’re not up to it.”

Cook took umbrage to this during the post match presentation, saying that he thought it was “unfair” of Jayawardene because the (distant) past’s results didn’t reflect that.

Cricket, like all professional sport, is a tough, results driven business. Social media added to a blood-thirty press and murmurs and whispers of an axe potentially being wielded, will only go away if Cook starts winning and scoring runs.

This will not happen by whining and picking fights through hubris and stubbornness, but by learning from mistakes and being adaptable to different game scenarios.

India arrive soon and nothing but a series win can keep the captain from going down with the ship. Talk is cheap and money buys the whiskey, so they say.

 

 

 

Silence from within deafening in KP debacle

The sham that is the fallout over the Kevin Pietersen sacking by the England and Wales Cricket Board, continues to beggar belief. Still no nearer to an explanation as to why the ECB has taken the decision to end England’s best and most influential player’s career. However, the less said in support of Pietersen by his former employers and team-mates, the more the whispers turn to rumour and innuendo.

This sorry saga has stirred up a hornets nest and there has been no let up in the criticism levelled at the ECB from former England players and celebrity fans. Ian Botham wrote a scathing attack on the game’s administrators in his Mirror column, stating that he is ”baffled”, ”exasperated” and ”disgusted”, that the ECB sought to brush the issue under the carpet without a statement issued to to the player or fans.

”The ECB can’t hide behind their blazers and wait for the fuss to die down. They can’t leave everyone to speculate why England have ditched one of their finest players.” Botham said.

The biggest supporter of Pietersen has been Piers Morgan, whose constant Twitter attacks on the ECB, new managing director, Paul Downton, former England team director, Andy Flower, captain, Alastair Cook and vice-captain, Matt Prior has gone viral. Former England captain, Michael Vaughan, called the decision to sack Pietersen ”madness”.

Morgan called the ECB ”clowns” and Cook, the ”worst captain in the history of English cricket”, ”treacherous” and a ”weasel”. The opinion of many pundits, former players and commentators, is that the full story is not being told. The ECB’s statement needs to be transparent because the question everyone is asking is: What did Pietersen do exactly, to warrant his omission, and Why the omerta?

Despite all the mad frenzy surrounding talk of treachery, backstabbing and dislike amongst many in the England squad, Cook was agitated during press conferences in Australia, during the One-Day-International series, when quizzed on his relationship with his star player. Rumours of confrontation before the fifth Test match in Sydney, have been dismissed by all parties, but it has been acknowledged that Pietersen had questioned the ”overbearing” nature of Flower’s leadership in a team meeting, called by senior players in Melbourne, after the defeat in the fourth Test.

It has been revealed in the Telegraph that Cook and Pietersen did disagree over training, the next day; Cook wanted to hold a physical fitness session, blaming their defeats on not being fit, Pietersen disagreed, feeling that the team was as fit as at any time in his career. This would not have gone down too well with either, captain or coach, and only caused more resentment between them.

For whatever the reasons are for his dismissal, his reintegration, had obviously not worked. Graeme Swann, known not to be one of the South African’s allies, felt differently and said: ”He made a huge effort to improve the dressing room. I saw or heard no issues with him in Australia this winter, his approach was exceptional.”

Swann added: ”Clearly, Kevin must have upset people enough, for the England hierarchy to decide he is no longer wanted.”

Swann had been accused of targeting his former team-mate when he made disparaging remarks about players ”heads up their own backsides”, but denied it was about Pietersen. If they were not, then who? Players don’t always all get on, so this might be seen as a rift involving other members of the squad; the tour was a disaster and there were bound to be some grumblings from within.

Perhaps the most damning verdict on this fiasco is the silence of Pietersen’s former team-mates. There has been no support or sympathies expressed towards him from anyone who was on the tour down under, other than Swann. It is known that Pietersen was respected by the younger players but the antipathy still runs deep with the veterans of the team. Not a peep from Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Ian Bell, Prior, Cook or Flower.

The less established players, players coming into the fold and players playing for their places. Michael Carberry, Monty Panesar, Tim Bresnan, Chris Tremlett, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Garry Balance, Ben Stokes, Scott Borthwick, Boyd Rankin, James Treadwell and Steven Finn (it must be assumed due to non-existent  public support) have not spoken out. This could be for fear of mistrust, and do not want to rock the boat and put their careers on the line for a doomed man. The silence is deafening and speaks louder than words, the verdict clear and brutal: you’re not welcome anymore.

Superb Australia blow England away

Emphatic! Preposterous? Wonderful. England’s 5-0 emasculation at the hands of Australia in the 2013/14 Ashes was one of the most remarkable cricket victories in an age. Alastair Cook’s team were lucky to get nil. So comprehensibly dismantled (after retaining the Urn in the previous series with such authority), this turnaround is one of the most astounding in the game’s illustrious and rich history. How was this achieved?

Out-and-out fast bowling. Mitchell Johnson’s revival, like Lazarus, beggars belief. His hostile treatment of England’s lower order can be likened to the scene of a car accident; devastating, you want to look away but cannot. The element of schadenfreude was in abundance and it was sweet: Australia simply blew England away on fast, bouncy pitches, not seen by the opposition batsmen brought up on feather-beds.

Australia’s demolition of England was sport at it’s most spectacular. There are many reasons for this. Cook’s England still play to the tune of Andrew Strauss’ book of captaincy: attritional, dull and boring; a corporate vehicle for the mundane, mollycoddled to such extremes, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that they travelled down under with a wet nurse. Michael Clarke’s team revived the old approach of attacking, confrontational, exciting cricket backed by intuition and initiative.

The manner in which England’s players taunted and revelled in embarrassing Australia during the 3-0 series win in England,  was seen in the celebrating of wickets taken and reaction of both bowlers and fielders. The biggest offenders being Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad. Shane Warne had mentioned, during the previous series, that he felt some England players were ”arrogant and smug”. At the time derided by many as a hypocrite,  he had a valid point. This led to the change in attitude and tactics from Darren Lehmann and Clarke to have their bowlers undermine England’s top order. Jonathan Trott’s weakness against the short ball sparked this rejuvenation. Such was the ferocity, Trott left the tour citing stress-related illness; his team mentally disintegrated too.

The tactics for the top order were carried out perfectly. Cook was deprived of his cut and pull shots by immaculate bowling outside his off stump. Kevin Pietersen had been seen practising clipping through midwicket in the nets, leading to Clarke positioning two fielders in this region. It worked immediately in Brisbane, KP couldn’t resist and got out consistently to this plan. Ian bell struggled with the pace of the wickets and got out trying to play his favoured dab to third man. None of Cook, Pietersen or Bell, scored more than 300 runs in the series.

Matt Prior was done by Nathan Lyon’s leg stump line twice in the first Test and ultimately, his form behind the stumps disintegrated and was dropped by Melbourne. Joe Root didn’t last long and Jonny Bairstow looked more a first class cricketer than Test standard. Trott wasn’t the only player whose mental fragility was exposed by smart tactics. Graeme Swann had been rendered impotent by the second Test in Adelaide, that he retired after the series was lost in Perth; his bowling being picked apart, his 7 wickets in three Tests costing 80 runs apiece.

Australia’s batsmen had targeted him from the start and by the end, it was too much. Swann retired — but not without a few parting shots at unnamed players. Anderson without swing, is well, tepid at best and undone by playing conditions, was found out. David Warner and Brad Haddin time and again, attacked the bowling; Australia scoring at a rate just over 3.75 runs per over during the five Tests, setting big totals. England passed 300 runs twice.

Such was the battering England took that they used 18 players in five matches whereas, Australia fielded the same XI throughout. Ben Stokes was the only player to score a century for the away team; Australia scored ten. Australia managed to take all 100 wickets on offer (the first time in a five-match series). This is where the series was won. Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle were a perfect foil to Johnson’s pace and Lyon’s graft. Clarke’s captaincy was inspired, Cook’s was bemusing. He set creative fields and rotated his attack perfectly. In the end Australia outplayed, outthought and were hungrier than England.

 

 

 

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Myth of England’s greatness revealed

Illusion of team’s ‘greatness’ answered after thrashing in Australia

England have been humiliated in Australia, meekly surrendering the Ashes and all dignity as well. Battered and bruised, thrashed and bashed, Alastair Cook’s team has been exposed and found out, again. Is this England, under the guidance of Andy Flower, really as good as they have been made out to be? Some would say yes. The brutal truth is no; they are not and never have been. When facing up against a stern opposition, England disintegrate.

England’s rise to number one in the ICC Test Rankings in 2011, looks all the more baffling when revisited in hindsight. How did this come about? Well, bullying weaker, uninterested teams (India, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and New Zealand) on home soil certainly helped. Beating a very poor Australia at home in the 2009 and 2013 Ashes only increased the notion of superiority and hype; a team that couldn’t quite muster the same bravado against a top cricket team when confronted with the challenge.

Before the post mortem begins, it must be said, the England of the past four years has played some wonderful cricket, none more so than at the high summer of their ‘goodness’. The stunning comeback series win in India in 2012 and the away demolition of the worst Australia since the 1980s in 2010/11. Both series wins were impressive. England played stunning cricket, the core players producing outstanding individual performances backed up by a collective togetherness and aggression.

Under the leadership of Andrew Strauss and now Cook, England were good but never truly great, despite what the pundits, media (and results against weak opposition) said or indicated. When asked to prove their worthiness against South Africa at home in 2008 and 2012, they were outclassed. The series in South Africa in 2009/10 was celebrated because on two occasions, Strauss’ team saved a Test with nine wickets down. This resilient was measured as success; celebrating a draw, showing the value put on it by the team not losing the match they couldn’t win despite being severely outplayed. Moral victories count for nothing in sport.

As has happened in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth with Mitchell Johnson, the Proteas, led by Dale Steyn, beat England convincingly in the final Test at the Wanderers. Fast bowling on pitches with pace and bounce exposed the English batsmen. Teams that don’t take a backwards step in the aggression and verbal department left England’s veneer of toughness in tatters; like a school yard bully, when confronted, retreat is imminent.

The myth of the Three Lions’ quality can be gleaned with a trip down memory lane; loses against a strong South Africa and rejuvenated Aussie team, the 3-0 whitewash by Pakistan in 2012 in the United Arab Emirates and the fortunate 0-0 series result in New Zealand. The theme of all these series is one of defiance; anytime a side stands toe-to-toe England wilt. The size of the defeats in the loss to Pakistan, Graeme Smith and Michael Clarke’s sides, is damning evidence of the true measure of England’s success.

Heavy defeats: South Africa, Australia and Pakistan

3rd Test: Australia v England at Perth – Dec 13-17, 2013 Australia 385 and 369/6d; England 251 and 353 (103.2 ov, target: 504) Australia won by 150 runs

2nd Test: Australia v England at Adelaide – Dec 5-9, 2013 Australia 570/9d and 132/3d; England 172 and 312 (101.4 ov, target: 531) Australia won by 218 runs

1st Test: Australia v England at Brisbane – Nov 21-24, 2013 Australia 295 and 401/7d; England 136 and 179 (81.1 ov, target: 561) Australia won by 381 runs

1st Test: England v South Africa at The Oval – Jul 19-23, 2012 England 385 and 240 (97 ov); South Africa 637/2d South Africa won by an innings and 12 runs

1st Test: England v Pakistan at Dubai (DSC) – Jan 17-19, 2012 England 192 and 160; Pakistan 338 and 15/0 (3.4 ov, target: 15) Pakistan won by 10 wickets

3rd Test: Australia v England at Perth – Dec 16-19, 2010 Australia 268 and 309; England 187 and 123 (37 ov, target: 391) Australia won by 267 runs

4th Test: South Africa v England at Johannesburg – Jan 14-17, 2010 England 180 and 169 (42.5 ov); South Africa 423/7d South Africa won by an innings and 74 runs

2nd Test: England v South Africa at Leeds – Jul 18-21, 2008 England 203 and 327; South Africa 522 and 9/0 (1.1 ov, target: 9) South Africa won by 10 wickets

Flower and Cook will need to lift their deflated team, stave off another whitewash and bring a semblance of respect back to English cricket. New faces will need to integrated before the return Ashes in England in 2015 and the next away tour to South Africa and many questions need answering: Why is Jimmy Anderson still ineffective if overhead conditions and the pitch don’t assist? Is Graeme Swann past it? Why is Tim Bresnan still getting Test match caps? Flower’s future needs addressing, is he going to stand down? What to do about Kevin Pietersen? Has Matt Prior’s time come?

All very tough questions, but it’s time to start refreshing the team. No matter what the outcome of the next two Test matches, serious thought must be put into finding a way to bounce back. England must stop celebrating being ‘flat track bullies’. The unhealthy arrogance must be replaced by humility and the hype tempered. Right now however, the hubris of the vanquished, has come home to roost and there are many cricketers and supporters, basking in the sweet schadenfreude of England’s travails, served cold by Australia.