Saturday 19 April 2014

The Moores has not made me merry

UNLIKE some of the media and certainly the ECB, I am not embracing Peter Moores and Alastair Cook ‘future of English cricket’ mantra.

Never before has a coach who was removed first time round been given the job for ‘a second go’, but then never before has a player been declared ‘unavailable for selection’ and not be injured, retired or banned.

This ‘future of English cricket’ mantra being spouted by Paul Downton, the new managing director of the ECB, is complete fallacy.

The new coach is someone sacked five years ago while the captain is still in position despite leading the team to a 5-0 whitewash in Australia.

Yet both have been paired together? It’s frankly bizarre and the ECB have effectively said Cook should be absolved of any blame when truth be told the buck should stop with him.

Moores also talked about being ‘open’ and ‘connecting’ with people, yet the moment KP came up it was clear there was no way back for England’s outcast.

My question is what has made ‘the outstanding coach of his generation’ suddenly attractive to an employer who jettisoned him five years ago?

The answer? He doesn’t like KP and fits the ECB anti KP mantra being spouted from every orifice, leaving facts behind.

So as a result we have a coach and captain who have blocked the route for KP to come back and already sent a message out that opinions and challenges to authority will not be welcome.

It’s a dangerous combination as in any team sport, not every member of a team will say yes, sir no,sir three bags full sir.

Is Wayne Rooney someone who comes in, does his job and goes home again? No he’ll speak out if things are going badly.

Look at cricket, were Gower, Boycott, Botham ‘easy to manage’? Of course not, but they were integrated into the overall set up to help win test matches.

This winter was not down to KP, it was done to a complete failure of the English cricket set up. From no one spotting how Trott was feeling, to the leadership on the field and to the atmosphere off it.

England didn’t lose 5-0 because they are a bad cricket team, they lost because  everything off the field was in near chaos.

Moores and Cook are the future? Don’t make me laugh!

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