Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2015 15:37:05 GMT
I have a feeling something has to give in English cricket management before the Ashes series, as Moores, Whittaker and Downton now appear to have alienated Cook, just as they alienated KP before him.
Quoted in the Telegraph, here's a rather bitter sounding Cook - emboldened by how pathetic England were without him - on the selectors' decision to drop him:
"Hindsight has probably proved them wrong.... I think you saw in Australia at the World Cup the dangers of making such a big decision so close to the tournament. I don't know what's gone on on that tour, but it did look like the lads were shell shocked from the first two games. That's when you need real leadership to help steer you through that. I would have loved to have had the opportunity that was taken away from me."
Cook needs to be very careful over the next couple of months. No whistling and no looking out of the window during team meetings, or he might find himself served with a lifetime ban like KP!
Memo to Colin Graves - better solution: sack Downton, Moores and Whittaker...
|
|
|
Post by flashblade on Mar 18, 2015 15:42:26 GMT
Cook is sounding rather pathetic. His criticism of Morgan and the selectors is very bad form. What's happened to the school swot?
There appears to be a good deal of dissension (is that a word?) in the England camp at the moment. Someone needs to sort this out - now.
|
|
|
Post by coverpoint on Mar 18, 2015 19:34:09 GMT
Why doesn't Cook concentrating on doing his own job properly before pointing out the shortcomings of others.
|
|
|
Post by jonfilby on Mar 19, 2015 8:40:20 GMT
Cook is sounding rather pathetic. His criticism of Morgan and the selectors is very bad form. What's happened to the school swot? There appears to be a good deal of dissension (is that a word?) in the England camp at the moment. Someone needs to sort this out - now. For my money it's the journalism that's pathetic not Cook.
He was probably asked something like "do you think that England's performances in the world cup showed that the selectors were wrong to sack you as captain" and replied "yes" which led to the quote in BMs post, which I don't think is really very damning is it?. He probably also said a whole load of other positive stuff about Peter Moores and his team mates which has not been reported.
|
|
|
Post by flashblade on Mar 19, 2015 9:03:44 GMT
Cook is sounding rather pathetic. His criticism of Morgan and the selectors is very bad form. What's happened to the school swot? There appears to be a good deal of dissension (is that a word?) in the England camp at the moment. Someone needs to sort this out - now. For my money it's the journalism that's pathetic not Cook.
He was probably asked something like "do you think that England's performances in the world cup showed that the selectors were wrong to sack you as captain" and replied "yes" which led to the quote in BMs post, which I don't think is really very damning is it?. He probably also said a whole load of other positive stuff about Peter Moores and his team mates which has not been reported.
Aren't you just making an assumption there, Jon. Have another look at the article - there are some longish quotes from Cook - not just yes and no answers. www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/story/852195.html
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2015 9:15:52 GMT
Cook is sounding rather pathetic. His criticism of Morgan and the selectors is very bad form. What's happened to the school swot? There appears to be a good deal of dissension (is that a word?) in the England camp at the moment. Someone needs to sort this out - now. For my money it's the journalism that's pathetic not Cook.
He was probably asked something like "do you think that England's performances in the world cup showed that the selectors were wrong to sack you as captain" and replied "yes" which led to the quote in BMs post, which I don't think is really very damning is it?. He probably also said a whole load of other positive stuff about Peter Moores and his team mates which has not been reported.
If you had listened to the interview - which was played in its entirety in the break between innings on TMS this morning - you would have heard that is not how it happened. The interview was conducted not by a jaundiced reporter from the the Daily Telegraph, cricinfo or the BBC, but by UAE Radio. There was no 'slant'. Cook was simply given the opportunity to express himself and did so in forthright fashion. After they had played the interview, Agnew and Vaughan discussed it in the studio and were clearly taken aback by some of Cook's comments. Agnew called it "a right shemozzle".
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2015 9:32:30 GMT
"It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.” Benjamin Franklin
|
|
|
Post by flashblade on Mar 19, 2015 10:03:50 GMT
"It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.” Benjamin Franklin You never spoke a truer word, BM! I would also add that the duty of those in authority is to serve their 'citizens', not vice versa.
|
|
|
Post by theleopard on Mar 19, 2015 10:05:23 GMT
The England players and staff just can't win, can they?
If they reel off an interview full of "taking the positives" and "going forward" they are slated for giving bland, generic interviews.
If they open up at all they are criticised for what they say.
No wonder relations between England and the media have soured so badly. I honestly wouldn't blame them if they just stopped giving any interviews or press conferences and just released written statements.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2015 10:13:28 GMT
The England players and staff just can't win, can they? Well they certainly proved that in the world cup. But be fair. They did beat Scotland and Afghanistan!!!
|
|
|
Post by Wicked Cricket on Mar 19, 2015 10:46:29 GMT
Michael Vaughan has come out this morning and described Team England as "a soap opera". He adds, "If any producer is willing, make a movie." He puts the present situation down to "terrible management" and points out: "There are leaks coming left, right and centre from the ECB. That has to stop." Colin Graves needs to take the present humiliation by the scruff of its neck and show who is boss, although unfortunately, he is not the actual Chairman until May. Surely, Whitaker, Downton and Moores have to be dismissed, if KP has any chance of returning to the England fold, and as for Cook, why not release him too. It seems that Graves has created a hornets nest with his KP open door promise and it's up to Graves to resolve it. Either fire the management or tell Pietersen the door is now shut again. Whatever the outcome it once more puts the ECB in a terrible light and the media will keep baying for blood until the political in-fighting ends. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/31958418
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2015 11:16:51 GMT
Yes, Vaughan made the "soap opera" comments on TMS after they had played back-to-back the interviews with Whittaker and Cook.
Vaughan and Agnew then also discussed the story in The Guardian this morning from 'a source close to' Graves that he has had at last one phone call with KP and has set-up a meeting with him when he returns from his commentating stint at the World Cup.
They also suggested that Graves was using the KP issue deliberately to destabilise Downton/Moores/Whittaker and Vaughan, who said he knows Graves well, seemed to think he will move against them all if England lose in the West Indies.
Whittaker knows this and is apparently prepared to use the media to fight back; his repeated comment that Graves was "entitled to his view like anybody else" over KP was pretty provocative, I thought, given that he isn't "anybody" but is Whittaker's boss.
As Vaughan said, a veritable "soap opera"; or as Agnew put it, "a right shemozzle".
By the way, I wouldn't make too much of the fact that Graves doesn't formally take over as ECB chairman until May. He's vice-chairman and the outgoing chairman has already been sidelined and so Graves is de facto already running the show.
An interesting side issue from the Cook interview: he said words to the effect that a franchised EPL is now both inevitable and desirable. I believe Graves and Harrison have already deciced that it will be in place by 2017, however much the non-TMG counties whinge about it.
|
|
|
Post by flashblade on Mar 19, 2015 11:28:45 GMT
I wondered if Cook had felt emboldened to criticise the selectors because Graves may have whispered in his ear that these selectors were on their way out?
|
|
|
Post by hhsussex on Mar 19, 2015 11:35:32 GMT
Yes, Vaughan made the "soap opera" comments on TMS after they had played back-to-back the interviews with Whittaker and Cook. Vaughan and Agnew then also discussed the story in The Guardian this morning from 'a source close to' Graves that he has had at last one phone call with KP and has set-up a meeting with him when he returns from his commentating stint at the World Cup. They also suggested that Graves was using the KP issue deliberately to destabilise Downton/Moores/Whittaker and Vaughan, who said he knows Graves well, seemed to think he will move against them if England lose in the West Indies. Whittaker knows this and is apparerntly prepared to use the media to fight back; his repeated comment that Graves was "entitled to his view like anybody else" was pretty provocative, I thought, given that he isn't "anybody" but is Whittaker's boss. As Vaughan said, a veritable "soap opera"; or as Agnew put it, "a right shemozzle". By the way, I wouldn't make too much of the fact that Graves doesn't formally take over as ECB chairman until May. He's vice-chairman and the outgoing chairman has already been sidelined and so Graves is de facto already running the show. BTW, an interesting side issue from the Cook interview: he said words to the effect that a franchised EPL is now both inevitable and desirable. I believe Graves and Harrison have already deciced that it will be in place by 2017, however much the non-TMG counties whinge about it. It does now look as if camps are being formed around the Chairman-elect and his CEO, on the one hand, and the loose axis of Downton and the selectors on the other. Regardless of where one's sympathies lie, be they pro or anti Pietersen, pro or anti franchise, this is a bad thing for English cricket. No well-ordered enterprise, private or public, would ever contemplate a system of governance where the Chairman (or Chairman-elect) is seen to be directing the senior management team in the detail of their job. Here at Sussex we would be appalled if Jim May gave leaks to Steve Hollis suggesting that Robinson should pick Prior ahead of Brown, or that he was wrong to spend money on bringing Jayewardene to the T20 side in preference to developing local talent. A Chairman may disagree with the direction his CEO is taking but it is then up to him to talk with the other non-executives and explain to them why he feels it is so wrong and to work with them to resolve the problem. In the case of the ECB those non-execs would be the county chairmen and other stakeholders, and it wouldn't be any of their concern whether Pietersen should play or not, only that Downton was taking the ECB in the wrong direction and something should be done about it. I was doubtful a couple of weeks ago that Graves was being misquoted, but there now seems to be a weight of evidence that he is interfering in things that shouldn't be anything to do with him. Rather than a soap opera, this now seems to me like a boardroom imploding and risking the destruction of the company's reputation as a result. England's playing standards are likely to remain low until all this is resolved, but if the process of resolution is to ensure that the only people who play, and the only forms of cricket that are played are those that the Chairman wants, then the independence of the ECB will be compromised, to the detriment of the game in England, and as a force for influence worldwide.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2015 11:49:38 GMT
It does now look as if camps are being formed around the Chairman-elect and his CEO, on the one hand, and the loose axis of Downton and the selectors on the other. If so, there can be only one winner. The Chairman and CEO have the power to sack everyone in the other camp, who - as Stalin said of The Pope - don't have any tanks...
|
|