Quo Vadis England (8 June 1999)

8 June 1999

Quo Vadis England

Trevor Chesterfield

Manchester (England) - Inquests of England's lamentable failure to rise above the general mediocre state of mind which led to their World Cup demise are now going on in high powered discussions at Lord's and other parts of the capital.

As the Super Six reaches a stage of frenetic interest across the globe: Asia, Down Under and Africa, the country which exported the most perfect sport there is languishing in pavilion lockers marked 'self-doubt', 'inadequacy' and 'old boys club'. It is the sort of malaise which has led to a general feebleness which seems to haunt the committee rooms when it comes to self-examination.

We all know that such inquests can be unpleasantly messy: the results of which are often lost in a laboured report and rhetoric which confirms failure but declines to point out who must take the blame or the responsibilities of Team England's bungled performance.

On a bleak, murky day at St Lawrence Ground, Canterbury, the tournament barely five days old and an afternoon when a hot toddy would have been handy, Alec Stewart did a 'rah, rah' speech of great the victory over Kenya was: how accomplished and how brilliant had been the performance.

Well, really. Kenya . . . one of the toddler's of the international scene, a former colony and where the game's roots took time to grow because of the negligence and patronising attitude of the previous masters.

Stewart's after-match comments smacked of the 'we murdered 'em' bravado of David Lloyd when he was the team's coach against another former colony, Zimbabwe, once known as Rhodesia. Just the sort of smug brashness you would expect from a neighbourhood bully grabbing a bag of jelly babies off the unsuspecting little 'un and running off with the loot.

There had been times during that match where England's bowling was as dishevelled as the weather and but for Darren Gough would have been in serious trouble.

Much of the after-match commentary and Barmy Army cheering of the team on the balcony was just as stupefying. After all, Kenya is still regarded as one of the development countries and here they were being hailed as a genuine threat to England's advancement in the tournament. Sure Kenya had beaten the West Indies. In time they will be able to parade their colours with pride at Test level.

Yet a country where there are less than 1 000 players and where about 15 percent of those are good enough to earn selection to their international side being able to upset a major Test nation with an alleged first-class population of almost 400 shows the level of thinking the administration, at some levels, has slunk to in recent years.

Former Yorkshire and, England batsman Brian Bolus, who also did his bit for Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire in his day, is chairman of the committee which looks after Team England's affairs and which hides under the name England and Wales Cricket Board's Management Advisory Committee. A grandiose handle if there was one.

Perhaps if Bolus, who if you remember was one of Ray Illingworth's advisors in the days when the former England captain was manager and so-called supremo, poked his head into a meeting of the Barmy Army and asked some of them what they thought, he might get a few surprises. Their fanatical support for England 'No matter what' may irritate, but some of the guys who make up the various groups have a few thoughts of what England should do.

Employ an overseas coach to look after Team England is one of their more probing suggestions.

We have had names such as Duncan Fletcher (Glamorgan, Western Province and South Africa A), Dav Whatmore (Sri Lanka and Lancashire) Bobby Simpson (Australia) and even Clive Rice are names which have been mentioned as possible replacements for Lloyd.

Fletcher's name has been floated often, so has former Free State coach Jack Birkenshaw back with Leicestershire where he has done a good job. And Bob Woolmer's name is still being linked to England.

But the ability of Team England's players and poor team selection is only part of the problem. There are better players in the England county; there are coaches such as Dave Gilbert down in Sussex who did much to turn Surrey's fortunes around several seasons ago.

Whether the meetings will come up with anything may or may not emerge for some time: identifying those culpable for the team's poor performance, the state of general Joe Public's view of the game and its demise all need to be addressed. The findings and their recommendations need to be acted on

If not then there is a real fear for the welfare and future of the game in the country which if not its birth was certainly its cradle.