Not Made In China

Considered a feat of human sweat, ingenuity and imagination, 138 pyramids (discovered so far) were built across Egypt between 2600BC and 1800BC. To destroy a common myth, this meant the workers were paid in beer and bread, and in employment all their lives. Was this an unintended side effect of the quest for the afterlife or did the Pharaoh have a Keynesian economist in its inner circle?

‘Let them eat brioche’ is the quote attributed to Marie Antoinette. Didn’t work. If she had proclaimed ‘let them build a palace’ maybe her head would have remained attached to her neck. For giving treacherous minds work to do would distract their revolution seeking thoughts, which could instead be left to the brains that lacked the stomach to fight.

The Chinese Communist Party worship at the alter of extreme Keynesian. The grand bargain between the people and the government can be summed up by the following ancient Chinese proverb:

‘You can’t propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back’

A little help is needed to hit the year on year 8% growth target. Why 8%? This maintains near on full employment. Workers working. No idle minds revolting.

During the global financial crisis this key figure fell to 6.6%, sending party members into shotgun solutions. The winner. Put another brick in the wall. The latest figures from China in 2014 show the rate of growth was 7.4%. The Egyptians used pyramids. The Communists construct great walls, not to keep the Mongols out, but to keep them in power. And that’s the only choice they have. If they stop building they risk losing everything.      

Commentators cite the environmental degradation across China during their recent, rapid industrialisation as a potential reason for the walls to collapse. Around 9,683 miles from Beijing is the warning: Easter Island. Its rapid felling due to chopping the native trees so to transport their stone statues. Why the long face? Nutrient leaching. Soil degradation. Crop and livestock failure. Population collapse.     

China, too, has suffered environmentally. Its air is thick with industrial wealth. Its rivers team with extra sediment. Its arable land shrinks with global warming. But the Communist Party has shown foresight. Embracing globalisation, China has “shared ownership” over huge parts of farming land across Africa and Europe and the commodity market is driven by its polluted air.

Is there to be a hard landing in China throwing the world back into recession? No, the Communist Party simply won’t let it happen. Its very survival depends on it growing year on year, and like the Pharaoh it will keep building pyramids. That empire lasted for 500 years. 

The next economic shock will not be made in China.

The Foreign Invader

Back with the Spanish ships, that avoided the British pirates in the Caribbean, came a bounty of new world products including tobacco, tomatoes, chocolate and potatoes.

From the port city of Seville potatoes arrived in Ireland via Basque fishermen. They landed on the western tip of the Emerald Isle to dry their Atlantic cod catch. They were welcomed with open arms by the Irish women. They left. The potato stayed and was planted, fed, given nourishment and flourished.

Soon it was sneaked across the Irish Sea. Sometimes stowed on board boats crossing the border or in the possession of navvy’s coming to England to provide the sweat to plant the seeds of future empire.

On arrival the potato was greeted by natives (turnip, cabbage and asparagus) with suspicion, and they were proved correct when the potato started taking their nutrients, water and land. The indigenous vegetables were in outrage but what could they do? The potato was more versatile. It worked all year around unlike asparagus. It provided more nutrients in return for the investment of time and fertiliser compared to the low energy cabbage and offered better taste than the turnip. A counter campaign was started to combat this foreigner – ‘British land for British vegetables.’

But the potato was stubborn. It liked the peaty soils, wet climate and friendly insects of this land of no extremes. And despite the natives campaign the potato numbers grew and grew.

Four hundred years later and the potato is considered a native in its own right. A quintessential part of British culture. Without which we would have no roast potato in our Sunday lunch or chip beside our fish or creamy mash with our sausages.

It’s eaten on our beaches. It’s eaten in the fields, and on the streets and upon our hills, and it will always be eaten. And when in distant lands we eat our beloved potato we to will be reminded of home, of England.   

Who’s best placed to turn round England Cricket’s fortunes?

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.