I have just sat through Paul Downton’s appearance on The Verdict.
Now, you know what I think of this clown. Please tell me if I’ve been proved wrong at any step. From the decision, to the outside cricket (which is a phrase he used in his own bio in the Cricketer’s Who’s Who in 1985), to the interview with Jonathan Agnew which blew a coach and horses through the confidentiality agreement, to his silence, to his being buried in the ECB during the summer, to his handling of Alastair Cook both in the summer and then his all-too-late dismissal from the ODI side, to his utterances in the lead up to this competition and then to today. This man is a walking incompetence. If he had one shred of dignity, one shred of personal pride he would resign. His presence is toxic, his pronouncements are teeth-itching and his appearance today, which no doubt will be painted as “bold” in ECB’s Ivory Tower, was as welcome as a jester at a funeral.
But not Downton. The interview wasn’t a mea culpa, it was a shrug of the shoulders. It wasn’t an admission of failings, but a promise of better times. Well, sorry. The Ashes, and a pretty decent England team, were jeopardised and in the case of the latter destroyed for this. The best prepared team (or it was supposd to be) ever had a man complaining that the team they put up to perform was inexperienced (note – England had six players from the 2011 squad – inexperience in World Cups was claimed by one of Moores/Downton – while Australia have five (Warner, Finch, Starc, Maxwell and Faulkner are newbies) and India four). There was focus on things going forward, more jam tomorrow, and what could I have done inheriting an ageing side shrugs. This is beyond the point of rage for me now. It’s coming closer to the point where it’s time to walk away while this buffoon appears unchallenged.
I don’t like doing this. I’d much rather be here today hoping we’d win against Afghanistan and the team might “click”. I make a confession here, in that I feel a bit for Moores, who took on this poison chalice and is now held up as the poster boy for the Flower failings as he does his desperate best not to look out of his depth. He has no credibility really, but he is an honest broker and I don’t like kicking people like him when they are down.
Sure, the players may not be good enough to win, but they are better than this. Much, much better. Downton making excuses for poor performance is a clear attempt to distance himself. There’s a penchant for cheap words, and no buck stopping with him.
There were those who painted this as a dream team. Moores and Downton. Those defenders in high positions need to take a good look at themselves. They need to watch that car crash interview (which I have, and I will burn, and I will keep for posterity) and ask themselves “what did I do?”
Downton must go. Moores probably should. Whittaker should. Saker should. Ramps needs to show some results. Flower must be disconnected asap. A clean house. A vision for the future with hope. Get them to enjoy the sport, not become Waitrose drones.
Repercussions will be long and tough. England need to pick themselves up for 17 test matches in 10 months. They need to do it without Downton. Sadly, he shows no sign of leaving. All you need to know.
Time to scapegoat the man who did the scapegoating.
https://twitter.com/DamianReilly/status/574994424163401728
If you feel up to it, read the Selvey review from WCM last year….
“…it is blindingly obvious that the ECB has found someone with a mass of credentials which could not be matched: successful Test and county cricketer; successful businessman for even longer; lawyer; qualified coach; influential committee man at Middlesex, MCC and ECB; and although not a part of the job description, a thoroughly decent man. There cannot be anyone who has a bad word to say about him.”
and…
“But the ECB has found a man who is just not eminently qualified and intelligent but enthusiastic, determined and discreet. He understands the demands of the game at the highest level and is an excellent empathetic listener who can sift information and make solid judgements.”
There will be more, a lot more…..
Being Outside Cricket 
How and why is James Whitaker our Chairman of Selectors?
How did he ever get into that esteemed position?!?
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3 out of 4 members of our selection board have a total of 55 international runs among them. And the fourth member was a no. 11!
That’s not to say Moores, Whitaker and Newell can’t be selectors, but it’s not a well-balanced committee (as awful a phrase as that sounds).
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There is definitely more study to be done on the fact that cricket appears to be governed and written about substantially by mediocre journeymen from the 1980s who played a test or two without distinction, kept in touch and no doubt secured their current jobs for each other.
These are people to whom cricket has been very kind, and who have little sense that it ultimately exists as a game to engage and entertain the general public.
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Simon K
That has bothered me for a long time. Not least because, when I was growing up, the English team was (largely) run by *exceptional* former players. Whatever their faults, even a teenager like me could instinctively understand why they were there in the first place. More importantly though, it was written about by journalists who had done the hard yards on their local paper and for whom a first-class career was not a prerequisite.
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This is not doubt terribly unfair but it cheered me up:
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I wouldn’t be surprised if the primary reason for the better players going elsewhere is money. It would seem a career in the press box is more lucrative and, not being subject to corporate politics and backstabbing, easier. I think it’s pretty poor that our press boxes (especially Sky’s) are crammed with such talent – talent which should be utilised.
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The England players have disappointed over the past 12 months. But every one of them in this squad can point to a few match-winning innings or at least heroic performances in a defeat.
England love to take the positives. Can they name a single positive thing that Downton has done in his 12 months? Has he a single good “performance” so to speak?
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Newman is not one to enjoy his revenge cold as we all know:
“And the decision to replace Alastair Cook with Eoin Morgan as one-day captain on the brink of this tournament has backfired, the new leader falling for his fifth duck in his last nine innings just when his team needed him most.
Morgan has been given permission to miss England’s first one-day international after this World Cup, against an Ireland team having a far better tournament than England, so he can play in the Indian Premier League.
That decision frankly stinks and if Morgan does not want to lead England into a new one-day era then he should give up the job now and let Joe Root, who was seriously considered when Cook was sacked, lead them from now on”.
Next to that is an article by Nasser Hussain arguing that players like Roy and Billings must go to the IPL!
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The first part of his article is absolutely laughable. They were enablers. Now they want to slag off Moores!
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Surprised he didn’t refer to the ‘Irish-born’ England batsman Eoin Morgan…
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I wondered how long before they would play the Cook card. It was always going to be the get out of jail for them.
Meanwhile on 5 live I just heard a delusional Agnew. He is still pushing this nonsense that KP can’t be picked because he doesn’t have a county. In his mind KP by his own actions has made himself unselectable. Boycott was having none of it. Pointing out that they sacked KP. But doofus Jonathon is convinced KP has chosen to make himself unavailable by refusing to play county cricket. These people live on a different planet.
Agnew is also under the impression that everything in the garden is rosy with Englands Test team. Trotting out the old chestnut that if we win the Ashes people will be more than happy. I don’t think he understands that England is living off past glories regards Test matches. He once again reminded us how brilliant England were in coming back against India. He really thinks they are going to roll over Australia quite comfortably. Boycott again put him straight. Saying when Stark, and Johnson start bowling at England “we will find out how good they are.”
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall
Humpy Dumpty had a great fall
All the Kings horses and all the Kings men
Couldn’t put Humpty back together again.
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Delusional, a very good description of Agnew. I have just read his latest missive on the BBC and he calling for Moores to stay as Test coach and indicating we should have a separate ODI coach, ludicrous! Kirsten or Fleming would not come just to coach our ODI team. I would have thought they would want the full remit of test and ODI and as has been mentioned before, to select who they want!
Allan Lamb was on 5 live earlier and although not as delusional as Agnew, he seemed completely out of touch. He said when England appointed Moores, that no one mentioned Kirsten and he did not understand why and they should get him in now. I may be wrong, but I am sure that many newspapers mentioned Kirsten when Moores was being appointed, but concluded he would not take the job, due to various factors. Lamb also stated the TINA argument, there is no alternative coach in county cricket, oh dear.
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Kirsten was absolutely mentioned, but ruled himself out. There was a fairly strong suggestion that one reason (though not the most significant) was that he wouldn’t be given the full range of players to select from. MOTWYW.
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Not for the first time, I am actually bewildered that some of these people are paid for their opinion.
Example 1: Vaughan and Tufnell ran a two-hour programme on Radio Five after the Pietersen sacking. The last half-hour was given over to a discussion of England’s next coach. Vaughan said that the ECB were rolling in dosh and should pay whatever it took to secure Gary Kirsten. No-one mentioned Moores.
Example 2: Switch Hit podcast, either the same week or the following week. Dobell went through the candidates, including Kirsten, but concluded that Giles was still favourite. He was the first person I heard mention Moores, and even then it was only half-serious, posited as a possible consequence of the KP sacking rather than an idea with intrinsic merit.
A few days later, Selvey published his pro-Moores piece and most of us hardcore followers surmised it was a done deal from then on. I know I’m on the extreme end of the cynic spectrum here, but I still don’t think Giles had a prayer unless he won the World T20 (without his best player).
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I’m replying on your post – very good it is too – because I cannot reply to the question of Gary Kirsten being offered the job.
According to the Sun newspaper Gary Kirsten was approached but said he would only consider the job if was able to pick his own players without interference? The ECB said no so Kirsten walked away. Now this is may or may not be true. Interesting thing is that Kirsten never denied this story!!!
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It was the Mirror…. the pic is on the old blog.
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I do not want Downton to stay and agree that his tenure has been calamitous and toxic. However, I will try, if i can, to play Devil’s Advocate…
Some of us may well be familiar with the phenomenon of a new leader or manager joining an existing institution and immediately making dramatic changes for no other reason than trying to appear strong and that they are in control. In many cases the actual impact of the decision is entirely secondary to them.
In addition to being hoodwinked by a bitter and vindictive Flower, I think this may have been the reason why KP went. I think it was a misjudgement borne out of Downton’s insecurity to appear strong and decisive. I don’t think it took him long for it to cross his mind that he may have made a mistake. And that is really where the downfall began.
Because since then, we’ve seen a man with entrenched hostility towards criticism; a man so utterly motivated to avoid cognitive dissonance, that he has invented the most fantastic ideas about those who have criticised him and his decisions, so he can discount them rather than be reminded of his mistake. And it’s infected his judgement and demeanour ever since.
It is entirely possible that the singular mistake he made at the beginning of his career has been the cause of every following mistake, his terrible judgement and in particular for his appalling public relations.
However, it’s not impossible that he might just be a grossly incompetent cunt. Can’t rule that out either.
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His job seems to consist of travelling the world telling former cricketers that they can’t criticise England. What a bizarre little man he is.
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never ever before, in my many years of listening to him, have i heard boycott defend his right to hold opinions which are critical of the england side.
it’s been a feature of his spoken and written word in the past month or so and there’s little doubt where it’s come from. i’m surprised he feels the need to do it.
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Dobell has hinted today that the thinking from the new ECB (Harrison and/or Graves) is that the MD job is surplus and might be deleted. I tend to agree. His ‘job’ could easily be covered by the CEO.
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I’m quite willing to buy that theory. I don’t think it necessarily discounts gross incompetence either.
Of course, the inescapable logical conclusion is that the real villain of the piece, the real untouchable, is exactly who I always thought it was from day one.
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That would be an assertion of the utmost impertinence….
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I just put his name into Twitter. It really is scary how many people genuinely appear to think that the solution is to bring him back… Some of them are even labouring under the misapprehension that he was FIRED “like KP”.
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Got sky on and can’t wait to watch the verdict later, mostly to see Downton’s unperformance! The thing that struck me listening to the match on TMS is that some of the commentators almost seemed to be willing Bangladesh on. Was it just me, or did they cheer in the commentary box when England’s last wicket fell? Boycott’s point about England not taking criticism or advice from ex-players is also very true and one which has been voiced on here quite often in the past. To be honest the list of things to fix/problems is so long it is depressing. I think the title of the previous article ‘Desolation’ sums it up, what a bitterly disappointing day…….
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Brenkley is close to getting it (an elephant in the room or two excepted).
It’s not only about Moores –
“If Moores were to go it would make Downton’s role seem untenable. They would seem to come as a package”.
All those encouraging signs –
“Much has been made about the way in which England came back to defeat India in the Test series at home last summer after losing to them at Lord’s. That itself followed a series loss to Sri Lanka. Well as England sometimes played it was not hard to discern that India did not care much about what was happening”.
The ‘it’s early days yet’ gambit –
“Downton has talked about his vision for the future without being entirely convincing that it contains much else besides nebulous ideas. He is another affable man but he must recognise by now that onlookers are beginning to see the 20 or so years he spent out of the game as something in the City might not quite be an asset”.
The ‘we.ve been here before’ gambit –
“The most concerning aspect for someone who qualifies as a seasoned observer of English cricketing matters is the air of apathy, which has barely bordered resignation, that has accompanied these defeats. In the Eighties and Nineties when England were often hopeless there remained an affection for the team. They might be underachieving nincompoops but they were our underachieving nincompoops. There are indications that this is now simply not the case”.
And the root of it all is –
” The ECB, the body that is supposed to be running the show, looks to be all over the place”.
Well, you might care to pick up that last point and run with it Mr. Brenkley but for now this shows some promise.
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LCL, in a weird sort of way I agree with you about Moores. I was certainly not impressed with him in his first spell and always believed that our beloved press overlooked that he had fallen out with two previous captains (Vaughan and Collingwood) before having fallen out with you know who and getting his marching orders. It seemed all too convenient to blame Pietersen for the fall-out from the Chennai debacle, when results had hardly been blinding.
However this time he’s found himself in charge at a dreadful time. OK it doesn’t help that he seemed to have been hand-picked by Flower, who didn’t have the grace to depart the stage after the test series from hell, and it doesn’t help that he seems to have been built up as being the coach of his generation. Both are not his fault, but if he seems so hamstrung by these data sets I fear that things may get worse for England before they get better.
As for Downton, what is he actually meant to do? Surely it should have been for the selectors to make the decision about the make up of the team and not for the executives such as Clarke, Collier (as was) and him. That all sucked at the time, both the Pietersen and the Cook decision as they were both ludicriously political and not based on merit. If Downton could fire Pietersen for looking disinterested, then he wasn’t watching too much cricket when watching Cook make a pigs ear of captaining the side once England had taken 5 Australian wickets, often rather quickly and push his field back to allow lower order partnerships to kill off any momentum the bowlers had built. Heck I’m going into a rant here, but for now Downton, Flower, Saker and Whittaker can all go. They’ve been the ones at the centre of our demise, both now and over the last 18 months. I did believe that Cook will find his test match captaincy untenable by the end of the coming summer. It will get worse before it gets better sadly.
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I think most people here might have a sense of relief that it all seems to be over after more than a year.
Now it seems only Downtown and few remaining journalistic friends are outside cricket. The rest of UK is united in condemnation of “Clowntown” I reckon
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Scyld Berry can get the wrong end of the stick sometimes but the fact that he needs 11 reasons to find what went wrong is a gem. Five won’t cover it, nor seven, not even ten – it needs eleven!
Some nails hit on the head:
“From the moment Peter Moores took over as head coach last spring and promised an “exciting” brand, what has that meant? Is it exciting to see whether England can beat Scotland? Is it exciting to see whether England will lose by more or less than 100 runs against Australia, or by eight or nine wickets against the other major countries? In the absence of any discernible vision England, when in doubt, have taken the defensive option”
“Every England innings, after a briskish start in the first 10 overs, congealed towards the 20th over”. (It’s not the Power Plays – it’s the middle overs. Will we never get this?)
“Do county players play in high-pressure situations in front of big crowds in their formative years? Answer: no”. (Your solution…..?)
“How is it England has 18 county academies, and a national one at Loughborough, and huge amounts are invested, yet the whole country cannot produce a left-arm bowler, whether quick or slow?”
“England kept saying they were flexible – but never once did they change their batting order….Inflexibility in the bowling order too: everyone had his appointed spell at the pre-ordained time”.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/11459044/11-reasons-this-was-Englands-worst-ever-World-Cup.html
As an initial diagnosis, not bad.
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When Charles Colville asked Downton if the ‘book’ stopped at him – as Downton has claimed – Downton answered another question about the future – tells you all you need to know, Downton is not to blame, is not accountable and is not going anywhere
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They are doing what elites always do when under fire. Circle the wagons, and then obfuscate.
The problem Graves has coming in is they all cover for each other. Even the press pack of hyenas howled loudly when Graves even suggested KP could come back. They were clutching their pearls in horror at the very idea this giant gravy train could all be up rooted.
It’s all a cozy insidious, you scratch my back , I’ll scratch yours cesspool of favourite and perks. My guess is that Graves will have to get rid of both Flower and Downton if he wants any meaningful change. And that will cause outrage from the hyenas.
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Hey. Hyenas are way more awesome than the English cricket press.
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Please keep the historical Selvey comments coming – they really are important and must not be forgotten.
I cannot believe MS has the temerity to question someone else’s (Moore’s) job given his own involvement in all of this.
On Moores (today): “But for all that, it is hard to see now how his position is sustainable or tenable.”
That applies to many of the main stream media…..
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How the hell is Selveys position sustainable or tenable?
The Guardian used to be for the outsider of the establishment. Now it is for the insiders. How they have fallen.
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This is what you want:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-cricket-world-cup-2015/content/story/846813.html
Compare and contrast, as they say…
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What I said on Twitter
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I find the footage of Downton having his middle peg uprooted by Craig McDermott that I posted higher up the thread helps a bit!
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Call the Social Worker and a Psychiatrist please ………..he desperately needs sectioning
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I swear he’s starting to look like Giles Clarke. Pause that video at certain points and I can barely tell the difference.
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Could not watch it all, closed the window it was playing in down after about 1 minute. To be fair he often looks torn, as if he is thinking ‘just be honest, tell them as it is, say you made mistakes’ then his city training kicks in and he just offers diversionary soundbytes and non-sensical codswallop…….I actually feel a bit sorry for him, only a tiny bit mind.
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I couldn’t watch it all either, about a minute and a half and my brain began to hurt. Is there anything important in the other 3 minutes or is it just non-stop doublespeak all the way through?
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Although that clip isn’t his appearance on the Verdict it is almost exactly the same line he took there.
One of the scary things was that Charles Colvile didn’t land a finger on him. Unlike that dreadful interview in May Colvile wasn’t a patsy this time – I’ll give him the credit that he was genuinely angry about England’s performance.
The trouble is that Colvile (and virtually all the media) accepted the framework Downton has created and can’t/won’t now challenge it:
1) England were great 2009-13 (not ‘very good 2009-11’).
2) That team fell apart in Australia (as if the ECB including, above all, the bloke Downton has rewarded with the job he most wanted didn’t have some agency in that).
3) It’s a new era showing some promise and we must be patient (as if the new era isn’t partly self-created, and the so-called promise looks like desperate straw-clutching).
The part that is making me most furious though is this bit about patience. Downton is painting this picture that we are the sugar-addicted children demanding instant gratification. He is the wise old bird sadly telling the child the realities of the world. Excuse me, but fuck off Downton. Most of us know there are cycles in sport. This team has been failing for two decades under the leadership of the body that signs your pay cheque. Two decades isn’t a cycle. Most of us had realistic expectations. England with all the wealth and resources should not look like they are playing a different game to that played by the top teams. Above all, most of us are grown-ups and understand patience. If I thought you had the right strategies and people in place I’d be patient. You haven’t. The strategy is all wrong. You’re in a ditch and keep revving the engine so the car just continues to sink deeper. Pressing harder and harder on the pedal marked ‘Flower-ism’ isn’t working. It worked once – for a while, in particular circumstances – but it isn’t the answer evermore. To misquote Barry Goldwater, patience in the face of error is no virtue.
And, Downton, stop using Moeen Ali as a human shield. I’m not convinced he’s as good as you say he is. There, I’ve said it. Heresy I know. Time will tell on that one – see, I can be patient. More importantly, the success he’s had has come from ignoring your ways. A chance discussion with a foreign umpire improved his bowling more than all your coaches and their tick-box Level Four awards. He does not vindicate you.
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I see nothing untruthful in your post Simon. If Moeen gets 19 wickets against Australia this summer I will eat George Dobell’s shoes. Swann only managed to reach that tally against Australia on highly favourable dry pitches in the very warm summer of 2013 (nine of them in the only match where Australia’s batting incompetence matched India’s). Ditto Ballance making three hundreds in the summer. The jury really should be out on both until they’ve had it tough (and boy, will they in 2015). But in the rush to over-praise England for those three wins against India, too many people in the media seem to have forgotten how few bankers we actually have for the NZ and Ashes series. Never mind the newbies though: it disturbs me how many people seem to expect Anderson and Broad to just turn up and share 40-plus Ashes wickets again. It’s the same as the arguments about Cook last summer: the world has been so massively transformed since 2013 that all bets are off with England. Yesterday, for instance, kpateldf24 appeared unaware that we’ve lost half a side since the last home Ashes, while half the Australians have gained massively in stature over the same period.
I think you might, just possibly, already know my views on the Downton framework and the generally accepted assessment of Flower 2009-13… But do let me know if you need reminding 😉
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LCL, very much enjoyed your tweet concerning a “former esteemed international” and lads’ TV presenter.
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Anyway, another former esteemed international writes:
Whatever next…?
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Wow that is pretty damning, why have we had to wait so long for this sort of thing to come out, as you say whatever next?
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The courtiers want blood, but they don’t want any real change which takes away their lofty perch. So Moores is in the crosshairs. Even Selvey is saying that now. I’m not saying he shouldn’t go, he probably should. But the senior management should go too. There will be no real change without removing both Downton and Flower.
The couriers and hyenas don’t want them out the door. They want the gravy train of insider leaks and free tickets for their editors and family to carry on.
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I have long since lost my faith that MS is doing anything than echoing the views of his ‘sources’/mates. So if he thinks Moores should be thrown under a bus it’s because Downton and Flower are thinking that.
My personal view is that Moores will probably get to continue as test coach but that Graves/Harrison will undertake a review of our approach to the short form which will end with its coaching structure being permanently decoupled from the test side, and a short form specialist brought in to coach it. While Giles was not exactly a raging success, the only reason that the role was reunified was that Lord Flower decreed that it be so, in order to present his departure as being on his own terms.
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Just to add, I think such an approach would be sensible not least because it would hopefully involve the final abandonment of the notion that the ODI side is the test side with a couple of peripheral tweaks, which logic led (for example) to the absurd recalling of Ballance in a critical position right at the start of the WC despite the fact he had done nothing in ODIs to warrant it.
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Is there any international side with separate Test and ODI coaches? I can’t think of one. The last thing we need is more bloody coaches!
Most sides also base their ODI team on their Test team with added ODI specialists. These can be an attacking opening bat instead of your Test team grafter (say Finch over Rogers or Guptill over Latham), an extra all-rounder as you must have a fifth bowler (say Faulkner or Grant Elliott), a keeper-batsman (say Ronchi instead of Watling) or a specialist one-day spinner (say Vettori instead of Craig or Afridi instead of Zulfiqur Babar).
Most sides try to produce rounded players who can play all forms of the game – take Williamson or Steve Smith learning to become one-day players for example. Trent Boult has just learnt how to become as good a white ball bowler as he is red ball bowler – and NZ have dumped their one-day specialists McClenaghan and Mills as a result. Equally, one-day players can learn to become five-day players like David Warner. English cricket is massively resistant to this second pathway which I think will become increasingly common in other countries.
Two separate teams is absolutely the wrong way to go in my view.
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The problem is not that the test and ODI sides are similar *in itself*, it’s that they are similar because we don’t take the latter seriously and think that what works in tests can be made to work in ODIs. What you describe of the other nations is a situation where the short and long forms are complementary, feeding off and improving each other. In that context a unified coaching structure is fine because the coaches understand how to get the most out of each form.
What we have in England is a situation where the short forms are treated as subsidiary, which is not only damaging in the short forms but also in tests because, as you suggest, we aren’t developing the type of explosive batsmen who can change the game in the long form too (except maybe Buttler). In that context a separate coaching structure (at least for the next World Cup cycle) is important because we need to get out of that mentality.
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Do players really perform their best if they have to play cricket all the time? That seems doubtful. You have to manage the players mentally and physically. The ECB has not had a great record on that score in the past few years, and it seems highly doubtful that “We’ll have to look at the data” Moores made it any easier in the mental department. A more relaxed attitude to the players and play would greatly benefit the players.
Not too sure if two separate ways is the wrong way to go. In theory better First Class players make better limited overs cricketers. And phenomenal talents such as AB de Villiers, Amla, Warner, Kohli, Starc, Steyn, Boult etc., really add extra firepower to whatever team they play in. The same probably holds for Buttler and perhaps for Root.
In that case it makes sense to include such players in the teams. But you honestly have a hard time selling to me that the likes of say Broad and even Anderson (in Australia) fall in those categories. The inclusion of players such as Bell, and even Woakes is questionable (his List-A record is relatively modest, certainly compared to his FC one) from a gains perspective.
Broad and Anderson are both coming back from injuries – and certainly in the case of Broad that is no excuse for the ECB, since they delayed the surgery for eons and eons. If one had bothered to check the stats beforehand, Broad’s ODI bowling average was at the wrong side of 40 in the past couple of years.
You can’t tell me that Broad offers that much extra to the team, and that a seasoned List-A specialist from the counties would have done worse. Maybe they would have, but then it would probably be due to inexperience – and who keep picking the same players over and over again, despite some of these players being patently unfit?
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Simon K,
I fear that separate coaches will just lead to turf wars and buck-passing as it did with Flower and Giles.
I agree that other teams get an interplay between the different forms of the game much better than England. I don’t see though how separate coaches would help that – it would make it worse I think.
The coach must be from overseas. The overlooked crucial decision Downton made was that the coach had to be English. English sport doesn’t produce quality coaches – I’d love to read an in-depth analysis of why. Gillespie, Kirsten and Moody (to name three) all have strong track records in long and short forms of the game. What they don’t want is to work for an employer as toxic as the ECB.
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“I fear that separate coaches will just lead to turf wars and buck-passing as it did with Flower and Giles.
I agree that other teams get an interplay between the different forms of the game much better than England. I don’t see though how separate coaches would help that – it would make it worse I think.”
I’d say the main problem with Flower/Giles was that Giles himself was subordinate, as Flower retained the “team director” title with nominal oversight of all formats. Thus he also had carte blanche to direct that the split coaching roles should be abolished with Giles getting apparently no say.
If we had a head short form coach who sat on the same level as the test coach, the domains would be clearly separate and so (hopefully) you would avoid turf wars, though I suppose there will always be issues around the management of workload.
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So how are the Guardian’s predictions for the 2015 WC looking now?
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/feb/12/cricket-world-cup-2015-predictions
Selvey’s and Marks’s dark horses have been dragged off to the knackers’ yard. The ‘which of the major nations are most likely to flop?’ section looks a tiny bit embarrassing. And Vic Marks just can’t wait to get to those QFs when the tournament might start getting interesting……
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And, once again, they were called out for it straight away. Pisses me off when the likes of westcork accuse us of hindsight.
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Downton, in firmly laying the blame on the players – ‘inexperienced’ – ‘only they can bat and bowl’ – is doing what all unpleasant little bastard MDs do. He will not resign because he hasn’t done anything wrong – it was the players who failed – not even Moores failed because the ‘management’ are operating a ‘transition’ that will take time to bare fruit. We are misunderstanding when we claim it is his responsibility because he is not accountable for anything. He’s trying his best and wants us to assist him by believing his lies. There are so many words I want to call this cretin but there’s just not the room…………….. I call on supporters everywhere to boycott the England cricket team, all its developments, all its profanities until this rotten management group is turfed out. What say you Mr Graves, you really want to work with this shower???????????????????
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