This week, in the wake of England’s Women’s Ashes drubbing::
- Alana King weaves a web around England in the Test
- Australia’s brilliance vs England’s mediocrity
- U19 World Cup: has JonBall infected the entire pathway?
- Donate to Pitch Our Future here: https://asf.org.au/projects/its-game-on/pitch-our-future
CRICKETher 
You are a good sport wearing that T-Shirt Raf.
Kind regards
Richard Harrison
http://www.amazon.com/author/harrisonrichard
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Its 38 degrees over here as well, only Melbourne is using centigrade and I’m using Fahrenheit.
I think it’s pretty widely accepted now that England have a systemic problem; in other words, there are various aspects not working in an optimal way and its not just a coach, a captain or player thing. The deeper the hole, the longer it will take to climb out so England won’t solve anything with an overnight magic wand.
I’d suggest the last thing England need is a home T20 World Cup in 2026. Why ? Because that’ll be the focus (as will to a lesser extent his year’s ODI World Cup) but that’s a distraction. World Cups are fickle. You have one bad day in the knock out stages and you are out. This even happens to the mighty Australia. The true barometer of progress will be in 2027 when the Ashes are next played. This will be a true barometer not merely because it’ll be against the best team in the world but also because the multi-format series is THE best measure of progress. It tests every aspect, there are no hiding places and, yes, you can have a bad day without finding yourself on the plane home.
So, when England come to pick the bones out of the, well, ashes, I would opine that the 2027 Ashes (and, yes, even the 2029 Ashes) should be their focus even if that means a few bruises, bruised egos and experimenting along the way. Given where England are relative to Australia it’s not crackers to think it will take up to 4 years (or perhaps more) to turn the tables.
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So Clare Connor has promised an “honest review” according to Ffion Wynne’s piece on the BBC. But if Jon Lewis remains in his role, there will be no changing of course from the reckless, unaccountable, “cosy” (not my word) cricket that has got England to where they are. I actually think the Knight captaincy thing is not as big a part of the puzzle, although it will obviously influence the way we respond. Lewis is clueless about a lot of things, and must go.
The fundamental issue will be, then, that there is no chance of Mel Jones’ bright idea, her suggested “programme of accountability” coming to fruition with the Jonball/Bazball mindset. Getting out is OK if you were trying to score runs, well no actually – this is demonstrably not the case, in all but the possible exception of T20/Hundred cricket.
Is this 16-0 score really good for England? Well it depends how they respond to it. I have serious doubts if the right thinking is going on behind the scenes. We need to shake off this “challenger mindset” that followed the Aus rise to dominance, and served us OK for a few years after that. The idea that we can beat Aus by being more attacking, more spectacular than them has failed now – and of course the true answer to the problem is much more prosaic. The basics have been left by the wayside, it seems, and England will need to focus more on graft and grit going forward. Less poor shot selection, and more cricket smarts.
I’m OK with the performance of the U19 team. They’re a good talented young side and still definitely 2nd or maybe 3rd in the world, no worse. The Aussies don’t dominate as much at U19, which means their improvement is happening after that stage. England lost to what was by far the best side in the comp, India (and by less than SA did in the final, I might add). That same SA team which beat Aus! A few good players to look out for in that England side including Davina Perrin and Abi Norgrove.
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