Hmm

This isn’t the first time he’s written negatively about McCullum. There definitely seems to be something he doesn’t like about him, it’s almost personal in tone. He has a point about his demeanour. I’m not sure it’s relevant though.

I’d agree about the bowling - wickets were taken, but the short and wide thing was expensive and frustrating. Australia outbowled us by using Anderson-style consistency in line and length. Boland and Neser were his pace, and relentless.

Where I don’t agree is the need for total renewal whenever there’s failure. Out with old! Let’s do something else! This has been a failure of English cricket for years: players given a handful of tests, no team building, bickering between coach and captain. Australia stopped doing that in the 90s. It looked like we’d stopped as well in about 2005-10, hence the improvement, but then that fell apart. So rebuild that team ethic 3 years ago, I thought was good. They should carry on and refine it, not lurch around from one thing to the next like an aimless Frankenstein’s monster.

Posted By: APB, Jan 9, 11:48:38