The Cricket Thread 2016

[Chris Jameson]

Just read the article and can't find anything to disagree with to be honest.

[PaulWinch again]

Cook's statements and comments over the last few months have implied he thinks he's untouchable. His comments have been very disrespectful. England didn't fail to win that series because of comments from Graves. We failed for the same reasons we've failed for the last two years. We made poor, conservative selection decisions. Trott was kept in spite of obviously being short of the required quality now. We didn't play Rashid or Plunkett, which would add something else to our attack. We failed to grip key moments and we weren't a team we were a collection of individuals.

[tomd2103]

England team to face Ireland today:

Alex Hales, Jason Roy, James Vince, James Taylor (capt), Zafar Ansari, Jonny Bairstow (wk), David Willey, Adil Rashid, Tim Bresnan, Steven Finn, Mark Wood

Looks a much better ODI side and it will be interesting to see how some of them fare.  I hope they stick with this approach though and don't discard it if one or two things don't work out today.

[Villan For Life]

Raining in Ireland so as usual TMS is hugely entertaining and informative. Word is Moores will be out on his ear next week and there's a pretty strong basis to the rumours.

[PaulWinch again]

Oh really what basis?

[pooligan]

Match abandoned in Ireland.I feel a bit sorry for Rashid,gets to start a game at last and has not been involved

[peter w]

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/may/08/peter-moores-removed-england-coach-andrew-strauss?CMP=share_btn_tw

[PaulWinch again]

I'm fine with Moores going. He's clearly a good county coach, but he's not an International coach. I'd be curious to know the reasoning though.

[paul_e]

I hope he goes, he was the wrong choice at the time, we sacked a guy who'd done well only for it to drop off and decided the best replacement was the guy we sacked to get him in. Worst he's done nothing since he got the job to show that he's improved, different players but the team looks just like the naive, negative rubbish he served up last time.

[Villan For Life]

I'm fine with Moores going. He's clearly a good county coach, but he's not an International coach. I'd be curious to know the reasoning though.

It's a curious one. They've not made the job spec for this director role public so no one outside the game will have any real idea about what the director is meant to do. This will just fuel media speculation.

It looks like Strauss is the choice after Vaughan withdrew. No doubt he wants a new coach and Moores in a strange way is carrying the can for what went on before he was appointed and his own failures since his appointment.

As for a new coach I'd like to see Jason Gillespie or Justin Langer. Strauss and Langer are big mates and that could swing it in his favour. There isn't a credible English choice and the likes of Moody, Fleming etc are sat with lucrative IPL jobs. I'd like to see Fleming but would be happy with either Langer or Gillespie. The only drawback with Gillespie would be the number of crowing Tykes bleating on about losing players and a coach to England (!!)

[Villan For Life]

Some interesting comments from Atherton in The Times:

Mike Atherton says that new director of cricket’s first task will be to sack the coach before restoring team’s direction

This man went to one of the poshest prep schools in the country — to which he has now sent his sons — followed by one of the most pukka, most expensive boarding schools in the land. He is very wealthy, very Home Counties and very privileged. From just the right kind of family, as the outgoing chairman of the ECB said about another public schoolboy.

This man played a hundred Test matches for his country; he opened the batting against the best bowlers in the world for almost a decade. He captained his country very successfully, winning the Ashes home and away — beating Australia in three Test matches by an innings in Australia — and leading his team to the No 1 ranking in Test cricket and one-day cricket.

The same man, but, curiously, when it became known (not yet confirmed) that Andrew Strauss would become the new director of England cricket — and whose first act seems likely to be to dismiss Peter Moores as head coach — many observers seemed more interested in the background described in the opening paragraph, rather than the achievements in the second. It probably says a lot about England and an inability to see beyond notions of class, and breeding.

Being a grammar school lad from the North of England (for those who need to know such things), my knowledge of Caldicott School and Radley College is limited, but I know that they are irrelevant to the job that Strauss has taken.

His cricketing credentials, though, are impeccable and the surprise was that news of his appointment was greeted with such a distinct lack of enthusiasm (at least on social media, which is not necessarily an accurate reflection). You do not open the batting for that length of time against the best bowlers in the world without being tough; you do not captain your country to that kind of success without having excellent leadership qualities.

A quick recap would be a reminder that Strauss took over the England job in the Caribbean in 2009 when the team were at a low ebb — although, crucially, with the ingredients in place to forge a successful team. Those ingredients were good players, many of whom were starting to mature into fine international cricketers. They needed leadership and direction and Strauss, along with Andy Flower, gave them that. It led to one of the most successful periods in postwar English cricket.

There was a feeling that Strauss was the “establishment” choice, the safe pair of hands who would not rock the boat. It is true that Strauss knows Tom Harrison, the new chief executive of the ECB, very well and he is well connected with the head-hunting firm that has carried out the past few appointments for the ECB, but this is an appointment made on merit, as his cricketing CV would suggest. Some said that he is too close to the present players, but he will not be afraid of making tough decisions. He knows what it takes to be successful.

Initially, the ECB was looking at Michael Vaughan. Colin Graves, the incoming chairman, is close to Vaughan and the former England captain’s forward-thinking ability was admired. But when the job spec was sent around to interested parties, it became clear to him that the job was not quite what he envisaged. While the new man will be the public face of England cricket, it was emphasised that the responsibility in the dressing room would be left to the captain and coach. Vaughan wanted total responsibility and accountability or none at all. His withdrawal paved the way for Strauss.

Harrison has taken the lead on these decisions and is close to Strauss and admires him. The move away from the Graves-Vaughan axis allowed for rumours yesterday that Justin Langer, a former team-mate of Strauss’s at Middlesex, had been lined up as coach. Langer, though, is regarded as an obvious replacement for Darren Lehmann as coach of Australia when the time comes, a complicating factor.

Still, what is clear is that Harrison wants to clear the decks after 18 months in which the public image of the ECB and the England team plummeted. His first move was to dismiss Paul Downton. Moores’s dismissal is imminent, the timing dictated by the arrival of Strauss. James Whitaker will probably not survive as national selector. The main (non-playing) cast of the dismal past year will have gone, so allowing Strauss a clean slate to move forward. All these men are paying the price for the way that Kevin Pietersen’s dismissal was handled, which caused the ECB’s stock to fall precipitously.

Where cricket has to be careful is that it does not become the new football. After the 2013-14 Ashes, Flower departed; after an early exit from the World T20 last year, Ashley Giles was given the heave-ho; now it seems likely that Moores and Whitaker will go. The merry-go-round is unlikely to stop until the players are given and take responsibility for their performances, and more specifically, the captain. It would seem odd that, if Alastair Cook survives the chaos, the one man with more responsibility for how the team play than anyone else remains.

Still, the ECB is moving quickly to address one of the key concerns throughout the past year, namely the lack of credibility among its management team. Throughout the selection panel, coaching staff and management group, there was an absence of recent, relevant international experience. This was especially exposed in the selections for one-day cricket. With Strauss in place and a new coach likely — Jason Gillespie is the favourite — those concerns have been addressed.

Credibility is vital and Strauss brings plenty of that. He is also lucky in his timing. When Duncan Fletcher handed the captaincy of the England team to Andrew Flintoff for the 2006-07 Ashes tour, he sweetened the bad news to Strauss with the comment: “You will thank me for this eventually.” Taking over two years later was a blessing in disguise.

When Downton was appointed the managing director of England Cricket 18 months ago, Strauss was known to be an interested party. When asked why he did not apply, he (jokingly) said that he would wait for things to go wrong first, then step in.

Things have gone wrong, and calamitously so, but, crucially, there are the makings of a decent team in place and, at the risk of boring our readers, good players are the most important thing. Expectations are low. Now is a good time to be taking over. Strauss is fortunate in his timing again.

Moores under microscope

First spell in charge (Apr 2007-Jan 2009)
 Tests P 22 W8 L6 D8 Won three series out of seven
 ODIs P36 W14 L18 T1 NR3
 T20s P10 W5 L5


Second spell in charge (Apr 2014-present)
 Tests P10 W4 L3 D3
 ODIs P28 W10 L18
 T20s P2 W1 L1


Series record in second spell Tests: Sri Lanka (h) lost 1-0; India (h) won 3-1; West Indies (a) drew 1-1.
ODIs: Sri Lanka (h) lost 3-2; India (h) lost 3-1; Sri Lanka (a) lost 5-2. Australian tri-series: beaten in final.
World Cup: eliminated at group stage.

[Whiney MacWhineface]

Moores gone

[PaulWinch again]

Right decision but was actioned very poorly.

[tomd2103]

Right decision but was actioned very poorly.

Agree it's the right decision, but feel the timing is a bit harsh on Moores.  With the close proximity of the New Zealand series, they must have someone in line for the job.  Cook will be very fortunate if he retains the captaincy through all of this.

[spangley1812]

Right decision but was actioned very poorly.

Agree it's the right decision, but feel the timing is a bit harsh on Moores.  With the close proximity of the New Zealand series, they must have someone in line for the job.  Cook will be very fortunate if he retains the captaincy through all of this.

They may put Paul Farbrace in charge for the series v the Kiwi's and that will give them more time

It looks like its gonna be a convict in charge........Langer, Gillespie or Bayliss, I would go for Langer

My 1st choice would be Stephen Fleming but he wont quit his IPL contract