And so the dust begins to settle.
Let’s get something clear here, before the start of the Test series, an England win was expected by everyone. No one in the media said that the West Indies were an improving side, no one in the press said that there were grounds for concern. England might be a “developing” (a delightful euphemism for “not very good”) team, but the result of the series would be that England would win it. And they haven’t.
And here come the excuses. Colin Graves was at fault for motivating the West Indies by calling them mediocre apparently. Let’s just look at that for a moment. Say that what he said did motivate them, did do their team talk for them. Are we really saying that a few words from the chairman of the ECB, a man most of the West Indies team have probably never heard of, made the difference? Firstly, that’s incredibly insulting to the West Indies team, it implies that without such words they would have rolled over to defeat. It also says that England could only win if they were scrupulously polite about the opposition. How fragile must this England team be? How shallow must the West Indies be?
It’s a nonsensical line of argument, particularly so when Alastair Cook talked only a few days ago of how the West Indies would crack under pressure. If anything were to motivate the opposition, those words would have done it – but to suggest they did is still silly, for all the reasons above. The series was drawn because of what happened on the field, not what was said off it, especially when both instances are pretty mild.
As it happens, Graves shouldn’t have said what he did – but not because of what happened in the series, simply because it was impolite. But people who are outspoken sometimes say things, weirdly enough. That four paragraphs have been written about something so supremely irrelevant is a reflection of how some have grasped at straws. Let’s move on.
It is genuinely pleasing to see some signs of life in West Indies cricket. The wider picture is important, and they do seem to have found some young players who have a bit about them. Jermaine Blackwood had a terrific series, averaging a shade under 80. There’s little question that his innings first time around in Bridgetown went a long way towards the eventual result; his team were dead and buried without him, and he kept them in the game. Jason Holder equally looks a good prospect, while Darren Bravo played with a discipline yesterday that’s been lacking in much of his career. In all cases it’s up to them to ensure it’s not just a one off, but something to build on. It’s hard to see this side seriously troubling Australia in a month, but nor should they be expected to. It’s at the bottom of a very long and winding hill – there’s a heartbeat, that’s enough for now.
As an aside, what a sad cricketing irony it was to see Shiv Chanderpaul look like he’s reached the end. A player who almost single handedly kept them alive over a grim decade, but whose age catches up just as there seems to be some hope. No one ever said life was fair.
England lost this game in their batting. First innings wasn’t good enough; the pitch was at its best, and scoring under 300 was abject. Cook held the innings together, with an innings that was obdurate and stubborn, and he certainly deserves credit for that. His dismissal at the close of day one was likely a loss of concentration. It’s not that surprising shortly after a hundred he so desperately wanted and needed, and blaming the bloke who got the hundred for getting out misses the point as much as it always did.
Yet Cook’s hundred was not evidence of him being back and it’s wishful thinking on the part of those who worship at the altar of the blessed Alastair to assume it is. His technique remains flawed and there are serious concerns about how he will shape up against a better attack this summer and next winter. He deserves immense credit for getting it, because even the longest journey begins with a single step, but that’s as far as it goes.
Bell had a poor Test, and not a great series. Indeed, he’s struggled since his Ashes mirabilis in 2013. He clearly deserves the patience his record warrants, but it is concerning as we go into the summer that he seems so adrift from where he could be, especially so given that he doesn’t appear out of form.
We are probably saying goodbye to Jonathan Trott. There’s an extensive piece elsewhere, so there’s no point going over that again. His near tearful reaction at the end of the match suggested he knows it too. There’s no shame in attempting to come back, and no shame in not succeeding. He’s been a fine servant for England.
England’s second innings of 123 showcased all the problems that have been evident for some years, especially the way that they freeze when put under pressure. The irony of Cook’s comments about the West Indies cracking under such pressure is evident, and this is nothing new. The tour to New Zealand two years ago had a few instances of England becoming strokeless and terrified of defeat. For all the talk about England playing fearless cricket, they do the opposite. Only Stokes and Buttler tried to reverse the position, and Stokes then received criticism for the way he got out. That’s just not good enough. When a player tries to change the momentum they are taking risks to do so – sometimes it doesn’t come off. The reality is that it still has to be attempted. That England got as many as 123 is down to him, and then Buttler.
Buttler was again left high and dry. At number eight in the order that’s clearly going to be a risk, but given the side England selected, should he be any higher in the order? Probably not. The issue is that England’s lower order fold even when there is a batsman to play for. Jordan was a bit unlucky, and Anderson fought. Broad’s batting is simply not good enough for someone of his ability. There were signs in the first innings of the smallest smidgen of progress – he stayed in line at the point of delivery (he stayed legside of the ball, true) which is more than he’s being doing recently. But he’s in pieces still.
Root and Ballance both had good tours, one of the most striking features of the second innings shambles was how England fell apart when those two failed with the bat. Like always, we cannot rely on players having unsustainable runs of form to bail us out of a hole. At some point, they won’t manage it. Still, in the wider context, those two have been a success.
Moeen Ali had a curious time of it. His bowling wasn’t great, but compared to what? His first class record hardly suggests he is a world class spinner, but he is a hard worker and improving. Bringing him in after an injury and with little bowling behind him was a gamble, and one that didn’t work. He batted well in the first innings before Cook ran him out, but he needs to deliver more than he is. He’s flattering to deceive and becoming a bit of a frustration. He clearly has talent and desire, even if the blame game is trying to highlight him.
Buttler himself did well throughout the series. His keeping was good, and he’s still inexperienced in that discipline. His missed stumping yesterday cannot and should not be used as an excuse (another one). Keepers do make mistakes. The specific missed stumping is one of those that commentators and journalists who have never done it talk about as being easy. It is an abiding frustration that those who know nothing about keeping are so keen to dispense their lack of knowledge. When the ball goes between bat and pad, there is a tendency not to follow the line of the ball, but the expected path of the shot. It’s a bad miss because every keeper who has ever done it (and every keeper has) berates themselves for the error. But it happens, and happens a fair bit. A perfect example of the complete lack of understanding about wicketkeeping comes when a catch standing up to the stumps is described as good reactions. It’s nonsense. When standing up, the keeper isn’t even aware that there has been an edge until AFTER the ball is in the gloves or on the ground; the brain simply cannot process information that quickly.
None of which means that Buttler won’t be bitterly disappointed not to have taken the stumping, but some understanding is required here. He made very few mistakes behind the stumps this series, and for a young player making his way in Test cricket, that’s a good effort. Wicketkeepers drop catches and they miss stumpings. It was ever thus.
Chris Jordan is another who showed promise without ever fully justifying his inclusion. His catching in the slips was genuinely astonishing, and he bowled some fine spells without seeing quite the rewards. Like Ben Stokes, his wicket taking was below what would have been hoped for.
Broad with the ball seemed to be getting his mojo back. He needs overs under his belt more than anything.
And then there’s Anderson. The best compliment he can be paid is the frightening thought of him getting injured this summer. Like with Root and Ballance, England cannot be so reliant on him going forward and hope to succeed. He was overbowled in the last home Ashes due to desperation, and largely ineffective thereafter. He’s a fine bowler, but he’s not invincible.
Peter Moores spoke after the game talking about how players had developed over the series. Presumably he meant that Lyth, Wood and Rashid have become particularly expert on which bats to carry out to those playing, and what combination of drink they prefer. In any tour, players are left out, and often become little more than a spare part, yet this was a missed opportunity. If Rashid is not to be selected for pitches like Bridgetown or St Georges, when is he going to be selected? Is it remotely likely that he will play in the Ashes or in May/June Tests against New Zealand? England were on a tour against one of the weaker sides in world cricket, and chose not to introduce new players, but to stick with the tried and presumably trusted. Perhaps the worst part of that is the fear about what a player can’t do, not what they can. This is symptomatic of the problems in the England team, the negative considerations always outweighing the positive.
James Whitaker looks likely to pay the price for this tour, having been described (as was Moores) as a “dead man walking” at the outset. Yet it wasn’t the selectors who ignored the fringe players on this tour, that was down to the captain and coach. Whitaker has been something of a PR disaster in his role, but it would be somewhat cruel for him to ultimately be blamed for the reluctance of Team England to trust the selections he and his colleagues made.
Moores himself is now extremely vulnerable. Both he and Cook specifically contradicted the words of the chairman, in the captain’s case by his effectively partially blaming Graves for the outcome, and in Moores’ by saying there was no need for an enquiry. Repeatedly saying how it had been a “good tour” in defiance of the results simply adds to the impression of being removed from reality. And yet there should be some sympathy for Moores. A better and stronger captain would have made a significant difference, but he has helped in his own downfall by being front and centre in terms of what he wants. England are the only team in the world where the coach has such a significant role in how the team actually plays, it is impossible to imagine Duncan Fletcher being interested in such a structure – which is perhaps exactly why Fletcher wanted captains like Hussain and Vaughan who knew their own minds.
And then there’s the captain himself. It is curious how so many queue up to damn him with faint praise. He did indeed do alright as captain this series. Alright. For Moores to talk about him learning in the role is preposterous, he’s now one of the longest serving captains England have ever had. When will he learn to be England captain? 2019? When he breaks Graeme Smith’s Test record perhaps? Maybe then he’ll actually be “not bad”. Highlighting that he’s done alright merely emphasises that he so often has been awful.
The least surprising, but most troubling news came in the shape of various articles indicating Strauss would get the DoC role. Above all else, such an appointment would be a circling of the wagons and a reinforcement of the status quo. As Vaughan said last night, sometimes you just have to accept it isn’t working. Unless you’re the ECB.
England drew with the eighth ranked side in Test cricket, who in the last four years have beaten only New Zealand, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Stop the excuses.
Being Outside Cricket 
West Indies have beaten New Zealand at home in 2012. They lost 2-1 to New Zealand in 2014.
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Corrected. Thanks.
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A good measured post.
To reply in I hope a similar fashion – it’s inevitable that England will have a number of “Work In Progress” players at this time – mistakes of the past, etc. mean that’s just a reality.
I still think there are questions to be asked of selectors/coach however in terms of the composition of the team as a whole, esp. the bowling attack. If Jordan/Stokes/Ali are all just learning still and Broad is blatantly not back to full stamina (if nothing worse) then you’d imagine that only leaves Anderson as a proper bowler. And when you look at the series averages, this is exactly how it played out. (Only Anderson under 30 ave.) And you can’t run a team off one reliable bowler.
For myself I would have rested Broad and tried Plunkett or Wood. I think the rushing back of Ali was unwise. When the 3 Tests are back to back, if he’s not fit for the 1st, you have to wonder if he’s really fit for the 2nd – or are England just repeating past mistakes in injury management.
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Washing-up? Wait for the whitewash over the next few days from ECB and MSM… keep our powder dry until then
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the ‘fairy liquid’ will be truly flowing…
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Looks like they selected the wrong South African veteran……imagine how the likes of Hales, Stokes, Buttler et al would be inspired by someone like Pietersen playing fearless cricket.
I’d love to see Graves and Harrison ring the changes in the summer: Hales (if he continues to make runs in the longer form) and Lyth to open, Ballance at 3 followed by Pietersen, Root, Stokes and Buttler I don’t thnk there’s room for Stokes and Jordan at the moment; they won’t take enough wickets between them and it reminds me too much of the bits and pieces players used to pad out England teams in the late 80s and 90s: it didn’t work then, it won’t now.
Time for a reboot. It might happen. Probably not, though.
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Vaughan:
“‘What worked in 2009-2012 is irrelevant now, but if you keep playing attritional cricket you produce attritional characters who can’t think any other way”.
That, a million times.
He also said:
“It is time for some honesty from England about the Test team and accept they are not as good as we, and they, think they are. There is a chance England can move forward once they accept that state of affairs”.
I wonder if he thought that before, or as a result of, his ‘clear the air talk that didn’t go well’ with Cook?
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I had a feeling he’d come out and say what he thought today – just from his “FFS” tweet last night.
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Flower, Strauss and Cook. If that isn’t the inverse of the Dream Team, then I don’t know what is?
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What it is, is bloody depressing! Heaven help us if Strauss is given the job. He’s already said that KP will never play for England again. So that’s gone. Boycott has it right on the money in every respect:
“Dead right, if Strauss gets in nothing will change. Cook will have the captaincy for as long as he wants it.”
“Alistair Cook, stop blaming Colin Graves for his pre tour comments & accept you and the team YOU selected f….. Up! Nobody else to blame!”
Yes and Yes.
Bloody hell. Andrew Strauss whose only grasp on vocabulary starts with “C”
I feel so depressed! I’m off out. Can’t stand the thought.
Oh and Moores says he needs more time and had a pop at Graves. Nice. So elegant and mature and professional words from Cook and Moores.
Unbelievable.
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Colin Graves comments had no effect on the first 2 test matches, so that issue is a complete red herring. As you say, if they want to make a thing about motivation of the opposition then look at Cooks comments on the eve of this test match, the one they lost.
The biggest problem is the captain. Because almost everything is connected through him. Selection? England have a myriad of requirements in selection policy. Being good enough isn’t the only criteria. You have to fit in with the cult. You have to be no threat to the captain. And good luck if you are a young spinner because the captain is hopless at managing you. First time you get hit for four a man goes back, the second time you get hit for four another man goes back. A final four and you will be taken off. Cook has no feel for trying to buy a wicket by temptation.,The only policy is bowl dry.
Then we come to the biggest problem of all with Cook as captain. There can be no honest appraisal of this team as long as he is there. He is all tied up with you know who? Because so many people in the media see keeping KP out as more important than giving an honest judgement of Cook and England. Selvey is exhibit A. His constant excuses for everything Cook does wrong is not helping Cook or England. When keeping a man in a job is more important than progressing the team you are up shit creek.
We can all disagree about KP and whether he should have been dropped or if he can come back. But that issue is completely separate from Cook the captain. The ECB and the media have done England and Cook no favours by mixing up the two issues. We have now had over a year of this mess and it’s time to end it. We need a new captain who can be openly judged by the media as a whole without side issues and conspiracy theories. That way we can improve.
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Mark – If only those ECB shirts would read your post, and those supposedly ‘in the know’ MSM too.
Cook, as captain, must go
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He won’t though, will he? He’s going to there for at least the summer.
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I slagged my boss off in a meeting once and i got the sack.
I cannot remember an England team i have liked less than this one. And thare is competition for that. Before we even start thinking about changes Stokes, Roo,t Anderson, Broad, and Buttler should shut the fuck up, seriously it’s embarassing.
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Agree!
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Mike Walters gets it as always:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/cricket/alastair-cook-wrong-no-positives-5635001
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Indeed, I particularly like the reminder that Rahul Dravid found that opening was substantially different to being No.3 in the lineup.
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Where Cook is wrong is believing the sheer existence of positives means the tour has therefore been good.
There are almost always positives. Finding them is easy. Even after the last tour of Australia, England could point to Stokes and Broad playing well.
But do the positives outweigh the negatives? On this occasion, no. The result is obviously not what we wanted, and there are several problems surrounding both team performance and individual performance.
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It’s a good point that you can always find positives if you look hard enough. Focusing on the positives has value, but not if you ignore the negatives and pretend they didn’t happen. Which is what England do.
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It’s all very well always seeing the positives, but for me it is a smokescreen they use to hide from the truth. Now if they were to say, do you know what there were some good aspects, such as Root’s batting, Anderson’s bowling and Jordan’s slip fielding, however, there is a lot we need to improve. We lacked intent and calculated risk taking/attacking play with our batting in the second innings. We messed up with selection, yes in hindsight a fit spinner and a sound backup was needed for this test. Yes we underestimated the West Indies and were complacent about beating them. Yes, we got a lot wrong and we need to improve these things to marry them with the positives!
Bassically be honest, admit mistakes and we would not mind so much.
Lastly you can’t always take the positives, yet adopt the opposite approach to selection. They choose not to select a player due to his negative points and choose to ignore his positive points; what he can do that might win/turn a match.
To my mind, these two differing approaches do not chime, yet they should. If we are always going to look for positives after matches, especially losses, then this should be our whole approach. Play positively, select positively, the whole shebang!
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I am just listening to Agnew on 5 live.
Lucky I am listening through the TV on sky. Good thing because if it had been a small radio I would have dropped kicked it through the window,.
Apparantly Graves is to blame because of what he said re the WI, and because he offered an olive branch to KP. FFS, Oh and because Graves is firery we need a calm head, ie Strauss.
Same old, same old. They could make a Carry on film about it. Carry on Crap.
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Called it on last night’s blog. He was barely listening to Boycott and just kept saying “Colin Graves” whenever he could.
Meanwhile, this evening we have some spectacular Pollyannabollocks from…. do I even need to say?
Get your popcorn.
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So West Indies are “a young side that no longer relies on the play-as-you-please likes of Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo. They are most obviously better off without them”.
Subtle that.
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Jonathan Trott’s announced his retirement from international cricket. I wish him well.
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Yes second that, a great player and fantastic number 3. Great for England, but ultimately let down by some within the Engkand setup…..
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Bowled out for 123 and the captain thinks it’s the chairman’s fault. hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Thank you Alastair Cook! I love it. Nobody does it better. Encore! Encore!
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Unfortunately (for Aust fans) I suspect Moores will get the chop sooner rather than later. He sounds like he already knows it too. I wonder how Gillespie and Cook will get on.
Moores still refuses to admit it was a mistake to open with Trott. What on earth is stopping him from admitting it? He just sounds like a fool, insisting that an obvious failure was the right thing to do. It’s a pity, because I don’t think he’s fool. But there’s something about this whole set up that makes otherwise sensible people talk like gibbering idiots. (I do, however strongly suspect that Whitaker is genuinely quite a fool. He will also be out on his ear soon, unfortunately.)
Cook and Moores have obviously made a complete dog’s dinner of selection. And to insist that continuity is important just shows that they don’t even know they did anything wrong.
I do genuinely think Cook is telling the truth when he says he thought it was a good tour because they “played some good cricket”. I saw a flash of anger in the post match presentations when Atherton suggested that things didn’t go so well. He controlled himself, but he clearly felt it an affront to be spoken to with such impertinence.
But above all, I’m glad to see WI get a win. I’d love to see them do well against Aust too.
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I am particularly interested in how Nathan Lyon does. I suspect most of his wickets will be attributed to the WI batsmen throwing it away, which will be a disservice to both sides of the transaction.
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Lots from Selvey onTwitter recently (about the director of cricket and Trott mainly).
Too much to post any examples but go have a look if you wish to raise your blood pressure!
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I would love to but he has blocked me
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I find it strange that members of the TMS team talk about WI having/expecting a calypso collapse or Cook saying WI crack under pressure is not motivation. However Graves saying what he did is “motivation” for WI.
F..k this man has serious power with his words. Can you please tell the UK to vote for Labour?
I could simply ask Moores and Cook, why these words were not “motivation” to your team? If somebody said to me I had to deliver in the next three matches or get the chop, I know I would be doing my best to make sure I deliver. If anything I would be hyper aggressive in my decisions, whereas England were safety first! The fact that they knew only a handsome victory would do and didn’t deliver simply highlights they are the not the right people to lead England.
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Hear hear!
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The new Geek and Friends podcast is up. With Dave Tickner: the anti-Pollyanna.
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First hearing of Moeen Ali being awarded a ‘reverse Pietersen’ there.
“He’s 25 or 26”. No – he’s 27 and not far off 28. I get irrationally peed off at English cricketers being portrayed as young and inexperienced when in any other cricket culture they wouldn’t be so regarded.
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I didn’t enjoy it much actually. Particularly irritated by the casual dismissal of FTA coverage as lacking quality. Channel 4 were bloody miles ahead of Sky at the time, and I was quite happy to save £45 per month for the sake of a few interruptions.
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Such a good read and do true.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/11582181/Alastair-Cook-is-so-up-himself-he-thinks-he-is-untouchable-as-England-captain.html
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It did occur to me today that if Andrew Strauss gets the DoC job he may have a shock. I don’t know how much he’s seen of Cook since the days when they opened the batting together – they’re supposed to be friends but they may not meet all that often. Cook has quite obviously changed, particularly in the last year, and Strauss may be surprised to find that the amiable bloke he played with and thought he knew has now reached levels of arrogance, obstinacy and delusion scarcely seen since pre-revolutionary France.
Though I still cling to the hope that either it won’t be Strauss or it will but the job won’t be very important after all.
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I really am so delighted that someone inside cricket (Boycott) has spotted the creation of a monster and called it out. It’s been so obvious to many since last summer, and all that puffery from the usual suspects has only exacerbated the dauphin complex.
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Like with Vaughan, I had a feeling he was going to let rip. He’s been getting progressively more pissed off recently, and it’s been clear to see. If memory serves, Nick Hoult does the ghosting for him.
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That’s an excellent piece. Lucky he didn’t post it BTL on one of Selvey’s articles — it would have been moderated quick smart.
In the past when he’s post of Cook, I’ve noticed he always says “He’s a lovely lad, but…” None of that here. Cook is really, as Warne said, on a different planet, and either doesn’t know or it doesn’t concern him, how stupid he looks to every outside it.
This bit stunned me — I hadn’t it before:
“When Cook was asked about West Indies being mediocre, he was disparaging about Graves and all Yorkshire people. “That’s a Yorkshireman for you, they’re quite happy to talk a good game,” he said.”
As Boycott points out, how will the Yorshiremen in his team feel about that? And for heaven’s sake — Cook ridiculing someone for “talking a good game”?
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Geoffrey retweeted me. Does that mean I’ve completed level one of Twitter?
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Good work! I will say he’s remarkably democratic. And doesn’t try and cultivate the insiders. Mind you, he did end up causing the Tripe Marketing Board to end up following me. Unforgivable.
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@hatmallet– I’d say that’s a much higher level. Level one is getting blocked by Selvey. I hope you haven’t skipped that one!
Also– I notice Cook said he didn’t bother about “external” criticism… aka outside cricket.
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We know they really don’t give a stuff, but it’s normally polite to at least pay lip service to those who pay their wages. It’s impressive how little regard he has for such lowlifes.
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Ha. That’s a great piece. Let’s assume Boycs is overplaying Cook’s remarks to poke Graves into action.
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Newman predicts:
“it looks certain that Andrew Strauss will be named [director of cricket], possibly even before England play Ireland on Friday”.
And the coach?
“I believe Moores should be given that crack at the Ashes denied him in 2009 by another Kevin Pietersen-inspired controversy”.
To fit that amount of wrongness into one sentence is really quite impressive in its way.
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The one consolation of having Strauss get the job with Cook as captain is Strauss will have to give interviews defending Cooks England., I can promise you Mr Strauss you will get sick of being interigated by Nasser.
Of course you could fall back on your old broadcasting trick and call Nasser a c**t. But I don’t think that will play well with either Nas or Sky.
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Go Sir Geoffrey!
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