Cricket blog: Shameful England

In 1999, England scraped the most grotty of barrels with a despicable series defeat at home to New Zealand. Today, a depressing symmetry of sorts was 'achieved'. In less than three years since that win over Australia, Michael Vaughan's men have regressed to the spineless, dispiriting rabble of the late 20th century.

England's display in the 189-run defeat to New Zealand must rank among their worst in Test history. Not only have they lost by a mammoth margin to a side recently humiliated in South Africa and missing their best fast bowler, they've done it in a style so far removed from the heady entertainment of 2005, it almost feels like that glorious summer was a ridiculous dream.

Can Peter Moores be blamed? Aside from his extraordinarily astute selection of Ryan Sidebottom, the only man who can hold his head up high, he's changed little (by choice) from the latter days of Duncan Fletcher's regime. But the manner of performances as well as results have declined steadily since last summer. If he's not feeling the pressure following this abject surrender, he damn well should be. His job's on the line.

Coaches don't win or lose matches, though. Cricket, more than most team sports, largely comes down to the individual. And too many of them look short of Test class, out of nick, mentally shot or all three.

Steve Harmison is an easy target, but he simply isn't mentally tough enough for Test cricket - and never has been aside from one freak year. England simply cannot keep "Waiting for Godot". If you've read or seen the play, you'll know he never comes. Stuart Broad must play in Wellington.

On current form, many of the rest should join Harmy on the sidelines, but what is there to bring in? James Anderson perhaps? Surely Matthew Hoggard is allowed an off-day. No, it's the batsmen who have principally let the side down with their lamentable run-rate, indecision and final-day choke. They don't score hundreds, don't adapt to conditions, don't show intent and don't justify their reputations. But they'll all keep their place. After all, Moores tells us they are "world class". And he's not joking.

Is Peter Moores on borrowed time? What should England do before the second Test in Wellington? Send in your views now!

by Chris Dempster (written at 2am in depressed state)

Comments

[Indian Cricket]

Hey thanks like a true cricket lower. I would like to contribute to your love by sharing http://www.indiancricketleague.com which has issues of your interest.

[Ian Carter]

Harmison must go, I would send him home now and cancel his central contract to let him come the family man he wishes to be, (nothing wrong with that, but either the family must take a back seat at times or he is of no use to England)
How can a team " play without confidence " in the first match of a series, some of them had just flown out after a longish rest time to cancel most central contracts for these guys as well and pay them on a result related scheme. The same pay set up should apply to the Moores or the person in charge at the time. When at home players in form should be selected.

[Dennis Higgins]

Whats everybodys problem?

[Dorothy]

It's embarassing stop it. Take time off and then go for it - what other sport does this to their players???

[Bobby]

I agree let's get them home and let them play County cricket and find out who their familys are. Next year we'll sort the rest out.

[Dennis Higgins]

Bring the England Team Home now before they make us look all like idiots,this lot are not worth a ? Whats that word now,they are probably going to set a new record for being the worst ever England Team in history if they carry on like this,it is humiliating for the country and the young men who probably should be in this team instead of the useless lot we have at present

[Dennis Higgins]

Can Anyone really remember when we last had a good English Team In Cricket

[Cricket lass]

I don't think Moores should go but maybe the ECB need to look at how cricket is run from the grass roots up. In many cases coaching top jobs go to those who have performed at County or country level, but that doesn't make them good coaches. I would love to get rid of the old boy network and get some professionalism into the way cricketers are developed at the lower levels. Hopefully this would pay off in a few years time. A quick fix would be to send some Level 3 coaches over to Australia to learn how cricketers are developed there.

[MATT]

Simple formula:-for at least 18 months or so we have a top 6 that average over 40.Not even in the days of Gooch ,Botham et al did we ever have that.However at the moment most of them seem to do precisely that,score just over 40!If you want a worse E v NZ performance then its hard to beat Hadlee's demolition of us in NZ in '84 when he got us out for 82 & 93.Interestingly 3 people in the Sky commentary box took part in that debacle!
We need big hundreds,we need Stuart Broad in,Hoggard back on form.We don't need Harmison any more,watching our supposed spearhead bowl at about 80 mph and first change was emberrassing especially as it happened all through the match.I also worry as to whether Moores knows how to work on mental toughness,clearly we know Vaughan has deep wells of self belief as evidenced by his comebacks from injury but this doesn't seem to appear in anyone else.We were stuck in neutral all through this match and apparently expected NZ would conveniently fold up when required.This has been evident since 2005.The England management seem to spend most of their time looking at the usual scapegoats(wicketkeeper)and don't seem to be prepared to take the bolder step of dropping the under achievers.Right now the following should be looking to their laurels:-
The Coaches(all of them,they all appear incapable of influencing their players' mindsets)
Harmison(must go)
Strauss(borrowed time)
Vaughan(out captained this time,Fleming still clearly has massive influence in the NZ dressing room and it shows)
KP(should he be dropped in order to get his hunger for runs back,to say he was pleased with 1st innings performance was laughable)
Bell(needs to convert those 50s to big hundreds)
Above all they need to handle Monty better,it still seems that Vaughan doesn't quite trust him.

Who do we miss most?
Trescothick
Simon Jones
Kevin Pieterson(the real one,not the uncertain less talented twin we currently have)

Having said all that we still have consistency in Cook and Sidebottom

[Brian, Carlisle]

Who do you suggest bringing in? None of the top order can be dropped. Of all of them Pietersen is in the worst form, but he clearly isn't going to make way is he? Obviously Harmison should go, but if you want to bring in, for example, Shah - where would he fit in? The most worrying thing isn't selection, it's their lack of confidence. How has this rot been allowed to set in? Why are they lacking confidence anyway? That's perhaps where Moores can be held responsible.

[Will, Blackburn]

That's it, blame Harmy - everyone else does! Yes, he's not played well but nine others were equally bad. I agree with you otherwise, though - who is better than those six batsmen? Bring back Mark Ramprakash!