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| McCague...displaying what fans thought watching him bowl |
With
defeat at Lord's against India, England have succumbed to their worst winless
streak for twenty years. In 1994 I experienced my first ever test match, the first
day of the Ashes in Brisbane. How as a nine year old I wasn't scarred for life,
spending the day sober watching Michael Slater slap a poor bowling attack of
Defreitas, McCague, Gough & Tufnell around the Woolloongabba I'll never
know, but somehow I am a lover of cricket and a perennial sufferer of
English cricket.
But the question that I ask, is English cricket as low as it was then?
Overall
I'd say no, but I'm worried about the direction it is going. In 1999 English
cricket arguably hit rock bottom against New Zealand. In the aftermath three strong, if slightly confrontational men turned the fortunes of English cricket
around. Duncan Fletcher and Nasser Hussain are widely applauded for their work
but for me the mystery third man of David Graveney, goes without the praise he
deserves.
Under
his eleven years of stewardship as the Chair of Selectors, some great England players have
come through the ranks. Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan and James
Anderson to name just three who reached international prominence without a
sparkling record at domestic level. Anderson was plucked from Burnley
obscurity, whilst Vaughan and Trescothick had mediocre averages. I accept that
several of the players were Fletcher's picks but ultimately Graveney would have
had to have seen a glimpse of what Fletcher had seen in their temperaments.
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| Grav and Fletch...didn't always see eye to eye but not a bad thing |
In
2008 David Graveney was moved aside to accommodate Geoff Miller as
Chairman of Selectors, and recently James Whitaker has replaced Miller.
This is where I believe a lot of England's problems stem from; poor selections
from weak selectors. This winter England were ridiculed for a shambolic squad
for the Ashes. Three tall bowlers, two without form and one without international
experience, no back up wicket keeper and a reserve spinner who got into trouble
with a bouncer long before Mitchell Johnson starting bowling them! The
Australian community laughed their way to an Ashes whitewash.
This
current panel of selectors winds me up no end, Whitaker, Fraser and Newell. I
just don't see any of those men making majestic selections. Whitaker played one test long before Root, Stokes and Ballance were even born. Fraser has
been retired from the game for twelve years and Newell even longer. In this time
cricket has evolved immensely, mostly due to T20 and I just don't feel any
of these have a strong enough grip on modern international cricket. Fraser and
Newell are also tied massively to their connections with their respective
counties. It mystifies me that you can have two men on a panel of three who are full
time employees of counties. On a Tuesday how can they be expected to run off to
Headingly to watch Bresnan for instance, before hopping across the Pennines to Old Trafford on
Wednesday to watch Jos Butler, when Notts and Middlesex are playing at
Lords?
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| Buttler...box office |
Now
for my view on how England is going to get out of this rut. You've given Moores
the chance to have a go again, and I think it's only fair to give him that go for a while
longer. However Whitaker has been a selector for some time now. He may be only new to
the chairman role but I have no faith in him. As for Newell and Fraser it's just
too much a conflict of interest to be employed by county and country. If you
look at the likes of Trescothick who came through the short form to test
cricket, look across the globe and David Warner has followed a similar path. I
just don't feel this group of selectors have the guts to do that with the likes
of Buttler or Hales.
So
sack them all and employ a new selection committee, a committee not afraid to
make tough, ruthless decisions, and decisions outside the box. Here are
my front runners;
Nasser
Hussain : Ballsy, fiery and will pick players with fight and hard work.
Mark
Butcher : always insightful in the Sky box so in a prime position to watch a
large pool of players.
Matthew
Hoggard: Always need a Yorkshireman in charge.
Back
up (once retired) Marcus Trescothick: arguably best English batsman of last
twenty years.
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| Hussain...fiery character |
For
me all of these candidates would work together to provide a fantastic panel who
are detached enough from the current crop of players without having been away
from the game for too long.
For
the rest of the summer I’d like to see a line up for tests to consist of
Hales,
Robson, Ballance, Morgan © , Root, Ali, Buttler, Borthwick, Plunkett (share the
new ball with Anderson), Broad, Anderson.
The three big decisions are to drop Cook, Bell and Prior. Cook and Prior are self explanatory
but Bell is out of form and someone in that middle order needs to make way for
Morgan to lead the side. However I just don’t see these strong decisions happening any time soon.
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