Test team management: time to ring some changes?

[Postman]

I usually find Mog's contributions full of insight and common sense and while it's tempting to agree with his parallels between England and Essex, I think this time he's being a bit simplistic. For a start, it's some 30 years since Collier worked for Essex (in a fairly minor capacity I think) and he was actually there when the club was highly successful. Cook developed much of his cricket at school and I suspect owes less to the ECC structure than some people think. Flower was one of Essex's best overseas signings, and a major loss when he moved into the England setup so suddenly rather than perhaps having a spell on Essex's coaching staff. The reasons for England's implosion recently are more multi-faceted than this and imho they have more to do with the insane commercial greed of the ECB with its endless series and tours than any connections with Essex. After all, if Essex had just enjoyed 5 or 6 pretty good years, winning more games than they had lost and including a period as the best team in their competitive orbit, we would be less p***ed off than we are about things.

[afinetickletoleg]

 Cook should stand down. Nice but dim, more worried about his pregnant wife and buying his estate in Bedfordshire than whether to attack in the field?

Laughable.

Oh, and you think Cook's the next Mike Brearley or Nasser Hussain? Obviously he has strength of character to achieve as a player, but like Gooch or Boycott, what makes a good run scorer doesn't make a good captain.

Ironically, the above list seems to suggest an inverse relationship between runs and man management...

He might not be the best captain in the world but why are you bringing his wife and home life in to the argument and suggesting that his mind is not on the game?
That is what is laughable about your criticism.

[afinetickletoleg]

Reading Johnathan Agnew's piece for the BBC Sport website today, then listening to his interview with Alistair Cook, is rather illuminating and all too similiar to those familiar with the attitude of No Change Essex over several decades.

He wrote;
"You can look at every aspect of this tour - the attitude of the players, the fact England arrived as favourites, the 82-page menu  - and it all paints a picture of a team which has become far too insular.
That was illustrated when I put a question to captain Alastair Cook.
I asked whether the opinions of those outside of the team - those who have played cricket all their lives and have watched the game for years - were worth seeking, and he said no. He said essentially it was for those within the team to work out what has gone wrong. That is a worry to me and shows there is no real awareness of what is happening outside the team's bubble."

This derives straight form the insular little world of ECCC - from the corridors of CM2 0PG. Perhaps it is time that Cook, Flower...and Gooch, plus the England hierarchy started listening more to George Dobell (who is of course detested by ECCC), Michael Vaughan, Geoffrey Boycott and Aggers, etc. and a little less in belligerent defence of the ECCC "Essex Way" of East, Hilliard, Irani, Fletcher.

The thing is about seeking the opinions of those outside the team structure is who do you go to?

For example Greg Dyke has put together a FA commission but has received more criticism about who is not involved and who should be involved rather than praise for who is involved.

[nat]

...

The thing is about seeking the opinions of those outside the team structure is who do you go to?

For example Greg Dyke has put together a FA commission but has received more criticism about who is not involved and who should be involved rather than praise for who is involved.

Well, I'd suggest they simply read the newspapers and forums for once and they would get some good feedback. Discounting the nutters there are several common themes raised by most interested observers, namely;

1. Poor player selection. Most cricket-knowledgeable people knew that Tremlett is/was finished as an international bowler due to the cumulative effect of injuries. Rankin is a 'scknote' and Finn has been over-coached.

2. The tour schedule was poor. Too few tour games, both pre the 1st Test and during the Test series. More tour games would have allowed the batsmen in particular to find some form.

3. Cook is an under-cooked captain (pardon the pun).

The solutions should include;

4. A clearer line of responsibility rather than a collective one.

5. Centrally-contracted players *must* play more county games.

6. Cook (or an alternative) needs more captaincy experience. Either Cook becomes Essex captain or appoint someone else as England captain who is better suited.

There you go, I've sorted it. Now, where do I send my application for England coach?

[Andy]

Oh, and you think Cook's the next Mike Brearley or Nasser Hussain? Obviously he has strength of character to achieve as a player, but like Gooch or Boycott, what makes a good run scorer doesn't make a good captain.

Ironically, the above list seems to suggest an inverse relationship between runs and man management...

He might not be the best captain in the world but why are you bringing his wife and home life in to the argument and suggesting that his mind is not on the game?
That is what is laughable about your criticism.

It explains why he seems to be mentally on another planet. Either do the job or take a sabbatical.

[firehazard]

...
5. Centrally-contracted players *must* play more county games.

6. Cook (or an alternative) needs more captaincy experience...

Absolutely. The two things go together. The almost total separation between the centrally contracted players and the county game means that there's no one in the England squad with much (or anything at all) in terms of captaincy experience.

If Cook had ever had captaincy experience at county level, it would either have improved his captaincy abilities, or alerted even the England management to the fact that he's a pretty terrible captain, who doesn't learn from his (and others') mistakes, which sadly seems to be the case.

[Andy]

Clearly the potential banana skins for the modern era of Team England is that it comes to replicate the failings of the county sides that it has been designed to replace: cliques amongst players, an ever growing coaching gravy train of yes men, an unwillingness to look beyond the club for talent.

The development of Team England was not a misguided one. However, like all systems, it has the potential to work well or not. Partly, this is a product of those who actually operate it, particularly the trend towards homophily whereby birds of a feather reinforce their own partial view of how to recruit and train players towards a particular strategy, whether it is appropriate to context.

Micky Arthur's Business School Balls approach to coaching reflects how too often there is a lack of understanding that what interests or works for one may not for another, similarly Gooch's Evangelical belief in supreme physical fitness seems to have ground down the side to the point where players are walking away from the game and newcomers are no longer able to play their natural game. It would appear that Boof has the ability to mix levity with a seriousness to preparation - quelle surprise that once bemused players come back to form.

Whether this lasts once they meet proper opponents and/or players pick up injuries, we shall see, but Boofs luck in having Johnson finally get his health together and Mia Haddin's remission is a reward for ditching the Power Point and introducing 'joke of the day' contests...

[Andy]

The problem is that Team England plays a lot of cricket over 12 months. Cook has faced more deliveries than anyone else in the international game, despite the low scores, so it is difficult to expect him to turn out regularly for ECCC without him ending up with mental issues. The counties rely upon flogging our Test/ODI sides around the world in order to generate their income.

Ironically, I think that one benefit of the likes of Swann retiring is that we replace them with more incremental contracts. Let's face it, there are no obvious replacements, so we need to cast the net wider and keep the young fish in the net for longer, allowing them to play as much county cricket as necessary to provide the experience they won't get on Performance Squad tours. My concern is that there is a tendency to talent spot and filter out a little too early: e.g. is Foakes really the natural successor to Prior?

[Diatribe]

e.g. is Foakes really the natural successor to Prior?

Based on Foake's first class performances thus far, a more poignent question might be, is he really the natural successor to Foster, never mind Prior.

[pablo]

I agree Andy with much of what you say but the fact remains that Cook did not pick up a bat in anger in a competitive match for three + months before the Australia tour and neither did many of the rest of the squad and this cannot be an ideal way to prepare.

In any event Willis has the solution in the Sunday press today. It is the structure of County cricket that's at fault and has led to this disaster. Get rid of a couple of counties and play less four day cricket on a regional basis. Yes. That should do it !

[Valentines Park]

If Cook had ever had captaincy experience at county level, it would either have improved his captaincy abilities, or alerted even the England management to the fact that he's a pretty terrible captain, who doesn't learn from his (and others') mistakes, which sadly seems to be the case.

We've been alerted to Fozzy's terrible captaincy for several years now.

He's still in place regardless.

[Essex Way]

An Essex without Keith Fletcher and Graham Gooch would not have won any major honours.

We would be in the same place as a county like Somerset..........still without a first county championship success!

[oldhasbeen]

This derives straight form the insular little world of ECCC - from the corridors of CM2 0PG. Perhaps it is time that Cook, Flower...and Gooch, plus the England hierarchy started listening more to George Dobell (who is of course detested by ECCC), Michael Vaughan, Geoffrey Boycott and Aggers, etc. and a little less in belligerent defence of the ECCC "Essex Way" of East, Hilliard, Irani, Fletcher.

Sad but true.
How about the ECCC inviting Aggers or Vaughan to join the selection panel- but at the cost of giving up the easy money they earn from Sky/BBC?
Might be interesting ....

[afinetickletoleg]

This derives straight form the insular little world of ECCC - from the corridors of CM2 0PG. Perhaps it is time that Cook, Flower...and Gooch, plus the England hierarchy started listening more to George Dobell (who is of course detested by ECCC), Michael Vaughan, Geoffrey Boycott and Aggers, etc. and a little less in belligerent defence of the ECCC "Essex Way" of East, Hilliard, Irani, Fletcher.

Sad but true.
How about the ECCC inviting Aggers or Vaughan to join the selection panel- but at the cost of giving up the easy money they earn from Sky/BBC?
Might be interesting ....

It would not be interesting at all.  Like most on this board it is easier for them to criticise the decisions of others from the outside rather than putting themselves on the line and becoming part of the decision making process and putting themselves up to be shot at by others.

[tonk]

Seems to me we are in the same position as we were when Nasser took over and we need someone with a similar passion to take over the side again.Need more of the street fighter type that will call a spade a shovel and impose themselves on the team and not just work from the manual but be more match wise.Who that is I have no idea as it seems even at county level the coach calls the shots.