Former England cricket captain Eoin Morgan has hit out at the way the team performed at the World Cup this year, describing himself as shocked at the state of the side, which looks like a ‘sinking ship’.
Morgan wanted to see the players owning up for what went wrong more, and was stunned to see assistant manager Carl Hopkinson speaking to the media before the match against the Netherlands, when this role would normally be taken on by by the captain or another senior player.
“I was very surprised and shocked by it,” Morgan told Sky Sports.
“Bear in mind the thought process that goes behind it, you sit in meetings as a leader, a captain or a head coach.
“You make those decisions in the side. When things are going wrong, you need absolute clarity and direction.
“You have to front up.
“At the moment, it’s a sinking ship and you need people to take responsibility.
“The message has to be clear and concise, and it has to be aggressive because naturally every player in the side, bar maybe Joe Root, has a better aggressive game than a defensive game.
“You don’t want to play against an England team that comes out all guns blazing.”
It was a poor World Cup from England, but their former player Stuart Broad has urged them to stick with captain Jos Buttler and coach Matthew Mott for the future.
It remains to be seen how this strategy might play out, and it will be interesting to see how that is reflected in upcoming betting odds on games, though you can read more cricket tips from Neds to get an idea of the best strategy.
For now, Broad has suggested it might be best to keep some key members of this group together and learn from what went wrong, rather than ripping it all up and starting from scratch.
“Jos will learn what has gone wrong and why,” Broad told BBC Sport.
“There are guys that they will move on from, and build some faces that Jos Buttler can lead and drive forward.”
He added: “I’m not of the belief it should be a rip up of the strategy. I would keep Matthew Mott as coach and Jos Buttler as captain.
“There are some fresh faces that need to come into the group to really stamp home what the strategy is, playing without the fear of failure and really taking the game on. That naturally happens after a World Cup anyway.”
