A team decimated by retirements to key players. A loss in
the Ashes. A team heading into transition. This could be the current England
team, but it’s actually a description of the great Australian Test team that
fell in to decline in 2007-8. They lost the backbone of that team: Warne,
McGrath, Hayden, Gilchrist and Langer. Champion cricketers who redefined their
positions. Attacking wicketkeepers (the Gilchrist position) the attacking openers
(the Hayden position) alongside the greatest leg break bowler of all time,
Warne.
England, too have lost their backbone. Trott, Pietersen, Swann, and Prior all gone. Either pushed or voluntarily.
It took Australia six years, in 2013-14, to build a team
capable of regaining the Ashes under the stewardship of Darren Lehmann. It’s to
England’s advantage that they can forgo six years of pain and take a peek at
the blue print Australia used.
The formula like Lehmann’s outlook is forged in simplicity.
Pick your most attacking batsman. Select your quickest bowler. Play your best
young all-rounder. And choose your best spinner. This meant David Warner, Mitchell
Johnson, Steve Smith and Nathan Lyon were now fixtures in the Australian team. His
best player, Michael Clarke, remained captain. A man like Lehmann, forged with positive
attacking intent. The other element Lehmann brought to the set up was to tell
the players to relax and enjoy themselves, for this would bring out the great
qualities they possess. A simple but incredibly effective approach. An Australian
approach. Positive and attacking.
Now we come to England. Who in the last Ashes were negative
and defensive, and thankfully we don’t need to talk about Kevin anymore. For
better or worse he has been dismissed. So how do England turn around their fortunes?
They must fill the current vacancy for head coach with a man
who trusts youth and has an attacking mind set to Test match cricket. The
malaise of negativity seen in the recent Ashes series must be swept away.
Unlike Darren Lehmann and his fellow Australians (Tom Moody, Trevor Bayliss) England don’t have a single coach working within the IPL. This is systemic of the problems England face. Their coaches like English football managers don’t have enough experience outside of their domestic competition and it’s for this reason that in the short term, before an English coach can perform in this role, that a non Englishmen be appointed. This maybe controversial but England have been at their best under foreign coaches. First Duncan Fletcher and then Andy Flower. Next, Tom Moody.
Moody would be an ideal candidate. Experience coaching in
the IPL with Sunrisers Hyperbad and Kings XI, he also had a long and successful
career with Worcestershire as both player and coach. He understands the nature of
county cricket. He also has previous experience working with young talent and
nurturing it. Shoaib Akhtar, referred to him as a father figure when playing under
him at Worcestershire.
To copy the Lehmann blue print it would then fall to the
selectors to pick the best spinner, fastest bowler, most promising all-rounder,
attacking opener and new wicket keeper from the English county scene to play
alongside Cook, Bell, Anderson, Broad and Root. And these players should be trusted
and not discarded at the first sign of panic.
Finally, we must come to the England captain, Alistair Cook.
Is he the right man to lead this new positive, attacking England Test team? New
eras often require new leadership. Cook should remain the England opener but he
shouldn’t captain them. Instead the captain should be the best player in the
team. A man with attacking intent. A man rooted in optimism. A man known for
the adventurous. That man is the current T20 captain, Stuart Broad.
These changes as well as the ECB encouraging English coaches
and players to work in the IPL, the Big Bash and to seek employment in overseas
teams is the key to getting England to be less like England and more like a
modern cricketing nation forged in this new era of attacking, positive cricket.
An England that can, once again, bowl, bat and catch their way to the summit of Test
match cricket.
