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Losing Is Not Bad, Not Really Trying Is
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Where From The Ashes Of Defeat?
27th December 2006
The below is all good stuff but whilst the conclusion was the need for greater professionalism it missed the thing that has become obvious the need for hungry driven cricketers. Lucrative Central Contracts have to stop being for a year. Players have to be under some pressure to keep trying and wanting to win. OK we will be unlikely to match Australia there but it would still mean England playing nearer their maximum more often.
This is again a function of leadership so maybe it should now be 'In a Word Leadership' or is that Hunger....
18th December 2006
Is there a Phoenix about to arise from these Ashes? What can be done to ensure that the England cricket team does not become a self satisfied team of tossers that it has? How do we get England Teams (all sports) to push for the top with our media and mentality?
Selection
Selection should not be the preserve of anyone in the team. Even on tour after their input coach and captain are told the team and then get on with it. Read was dropped on the basis of nasty innuendo by the coach. The coach and captain too close to Geraint slaughtered a player without a feather of evidence - ironically also piled pressure on Jones as well. This could not happen if they were seperated from selection. As it is we have 1 wickie not good enough and another labelled weak.
Management
The team needs a manager above the coach and captain to make dispassionate decisions ala a football team. Someone needs to make the tough decisions on whether players can bring their families and crucially to send malingers home in disgrace.
Central Contracts
These may have benefit but only a fool would say that not having bowlers, especially young bowlers, bowl more would not improve fitness and bowling technique. How an England bowler can improve not playing cricket is beyond me. How a malingerer gets fit without bowling is also beyond me. We need to make people play more between tests and ODIs.
Look Forward
Unlike Australia England will always have to pick young unproven up and comers because county cricket is not a hard grounding. I fear the focus on the academy has lessened despite the talent and competition for places it has produced - It should be brought back into focus with a high profile appointment like Rod Marsh was. We need to assign to each of the next Plunkett, Mahmoud, Cook, Bell, KP etc. someone to look at their development to help them up each step and crucially to demand more when they plateau. Someone outside the coaching staff of the England team, someone personally responsible for them (does not have to be one to one).
The flip side is of course that players who do not try or get injured should not be mollycoddled and kept in the family. If Harmison does not want to be fit or trying for most matches the best long term view is to thank him for his service so far, even if it weakens you short term. Ditto giving central contracts to injured players like S Jones and Vaughan making them feel they will not have to earn their place again. Make it a meritocracy and Harmison will shut up and beg to be be selected and the nauseating sight of Vaughan hanging around like the flu will not happen again.
The Ashes have been lost in the worst way with a team of players on the down slope of their careers. It would have been even worse had Trescothick played. Almost all good bets in horse racing are progressive horses on the way up. There is a time and place to back a steady old player and indeed were I playing Panesar I'd sooner have had Gilo than a 4th seamer - Flintoff did not bowl them anyway so why they played in beyond me.
Decide On An Ethos And Why You Have It And When To Change It
Fletcher started the Ashes saying Giles inclusion allowed 5 bowlers. Then Giles is dropped and we still played 5 bowlers. That makes no sense. It is one thing for a team to have an ethos, 5 bowlers, but another to continue it when the circumstances change. Flintoff and Jones lack of runs combined with Giles dropping made a case for a batter all rounder like Joyce or even a full batter like Key. This decision was surely even easier to make with captain and keeper reasserting themselves as the weakest 6 and 7 in any major test playing nation.
Get A One Day Team and Take It Seriously
Despite England being the only country when One Day failure is tolerated we have to do better. Too much negativity comes from headlines like England lose and we play at least as many one day games as tests and lose considerably more. It dampens enthusiasm and creates a down ward mental spiral. With the sport on Sky continual messages of the team losing will be very damaging combined with only late night highlights and half hearted stuff on Five. Worse the so called 'management' have created a situation where some think it does not matter and is an excuse to do some fitness work, it is not.
Get a Captain
Captain just has to say 'BAT' for me unless he is a fool who divides the team between his men and everyone else. However aside from removing the captain from selection one other thing needs doing. Ignore personal considerations and pick the best man for the job. We got in the ludicrous position of a player frequently seen drunk on TV as captain and effectively a man who has not played for a year as the real captain! Whereas Strauss should have been confirmed as captain. The reasons for Flintoff were they did not want to demotivate him, that worked. Having Vaughan hang around did work either.
Merit
Whilst selection should be progressive as mentioned earlier a further enforcement should be it should be entirely on merit. For instance Panesar was England's best bowler over the summer and yet dropped for a seamer on a seamer's wicket. Yet he would bowl better than subpar seamers like Harmison, Anderson, Madmoud and Plunkett on almost any wicket bar the ones Harmison can bowl on.
Rotation
Now England have a squad of 15 or so who have had some success rotate given the over crowded schedule. Rather than constantly have players slacken off between test matches and turn up unfit for series let some players have time off. The current schedule of matches is ridiculous and players are being worn down. Young players would get a proper chance. We could still pick our best XI for Australia and India home and away. The extra time off would allow us to demand the players turn up fit and ready for the fight when called upon. This would be better than wear people down mentally and physically as is happening. It would also create the world where team is more important than individuals.
Harmison
3 options: Drop forever which I am angry enough to back: Only play on hard bouncy wickets: Basically give him one more chance or the 1st two options are enacted. It is one thing to just not be good enough another to not want to be.
The Players To Start From
For me the only players whose fitness regimes make them untouchable are Strauss, Cook, KP, Collingwood, Panesar and Hoggard. The rest is up for grabs for me. The management need to make this as clear as Mourinho to Sheva. No more tweely letting people have a year off, be unfit and stink and think their place is still there.
In a Word
Professionalism.
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