Am I the only one but did anyone else find the sanctimonious cant and hypocrisy of the post-mortems last night by the Sky Sports "experts" somewhat nauseating? Whatever one might feel about England's performance in the recent series, now thankfully passed into history, one might question the credentials of those pontificating at such length on the reasons for England's defeat.
Whilst there were lots of references to "the first time in 86 years" England had lost 5-0 to Australia there were no references to the two consecutive 5-0 defeats, home and away, England received at the hands of the West Indies in the mid-1980s. One might cynically wonder if that omission had any thing to do with the fact that the England captain in both those series- the only Test captain to have led a team to two 5-0 defeats-David Gower, happened to be the chairman of the discussion last night.
The most trenchant critic of England's performance was Ian Botham who holds the overall Test record for the greatest number of appearances as captain -12- without ever ever winning a single Test (only equalled in October 2004 by Khaled Mashud of Bangladesh). Nasser Hussain at least had the grace to admit that the side which he captained on the last Ashes tour 4 years ago which lost 4-1 had not performed much better than the present team. Michael Holding might be exempted from these strictures as at least he was part of a generally winning side but his international captaincy experience was limited to 2 ODIs (both of which West Indies won).
Whilst anyone is, of course, free to criticise and voice any opinion they like about England's performance the idea that England have been uniquely bad in the last 5 matches or that English cricket has suddenly gone dramatically downhill is patently absurd. I have been following England's Test fortunes since Gary Sobers' West Indian side inflicted a 3-1 home defeat in 1966 and, if anything, England have simply reverted to type, especially when playing the world's strongest side, and it was the 2005 series which was the true aberration.
Originally posted by Allan D: .,,,and, if anything, England have simply reverted to type , especially when playing the world's strongest side, and it was the 2005 series which was the true aberration.
The older I get and the more I travel, I am coming to believe that how we play sports, and in some cases our achievements, is really an extension of the national character, or a culture as a whole.
Of course that reasoning doesn't account for phenomena such as why the Windies are so bad now when once they were great.
............................ "The prisoner Pierre Laval is in no danger of dying"
The older I get and the more I travel, I am coming to believe that how we play sports, and in some cases our achievements, is really an extension of the national character, or a culture as a whole.
Sports is not isolated from the national culture and the social environment of the country, and these play a large part in it. However there are just as important, if not even more important traits like physical characteristics which come into play as well.
Originally posted by Purgatory: I think the problem is that many of them see it as a job rather than an honour. In Atherton's auto-biog:
"Your first Test match is for love, the rest are for the money"
Or words to that effect. Bad memory for these things.
Contrast that with the late lamented Fred Trueman who, during a radio interview, when asked what his proudest cricketing moment was, replied that it was every time he put on an England sweater. Jack Hobbs and Len Hutton were paid a pittance compared to the pampered, sponsored "stars" of today. WG, Ranji, MacLaren, Jessop and Fry were paid nothing for their England appearances.
