'Ain't good enough'
English cricket castigated after Ashes defeat
Posted: Wednesday December 16, 1998 10:52 AM
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English captain Alec Stewart faces the British press after the loss to Australia AP |
LONDON (Reuters) -- English cricket was castigated Wednesday as negative, timid and hopelessly inadequate after Australia clinched the Ashes for the sixth successive series.
Australia defeated England by 205 runs in the third test in Adelaide on Tuesday to take an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the five-test series.
Few England fans were surprised by Australia's success but the abject manner of England's surrender was widely condemned.
Former England captain Bob Willis and Wisden editor Matthew Engel both questioned the work ethic preached by manager Graham Gooch and captain Alec Stewart.
"Maybe there has been too much hard labor," Willis wrote in the Daily Mail. "I cannot say I am a huge admirer of the extreme work ethic most associated with Gooch.
"It worked well for such a single-minded individual as him but it worries me that it might not be appropriate for everyone on what is still a long and grueling tour."
Engel, commenting in the Guardian, said England seemed too terrified of failure to have a chance of success.
"Maybe it would help if England lightened up and discovered a little enjoyment and a little of their own cricketing individuality and self-expression," Engel said.
Simon Barnes, a columnist with the Times, said the culture of English cricket had gone badly wrong.
"In an awful way, an on-going collapse takes the blame away from personal failure," he wrote.
"I failed; but then so did everybody else, right? Right. So that's all right then."
Ian Botham, who played in the last England side to win a series against Australia in 1986/87, said England had been wrong to drop paceman Alex Tudor after his success in the second test in Perth.
"We've got to stop being so bloody conservative and unadventurous in our selection," he wrote in the Mirror.
Television commentator Mark Nicholas, a former captain of the England A side, agreed with Botham.
"For as long as you like, England have craved a bright light on the quick bowler front and the minute one was found, it was snuffed out," Nicholas said in the Daily Telegraph.
Writing in the Independent under the headline "Laughing stock of the world," Henry Blofeld said it had been embarrassing watching England struggle to compete.
"On this last day at the Adelaide Oval, I found myself wondering if I would ever again see England win back the Ashes," he said. Comment in the tabloids was predictably harsh.
The Express announced the death of English cricket and John Etheridge in the Sun said the explanation for England's failure was "witheringly simple."
"They ain't good enough," he said.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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