The ****e he took over the Pietersen affair was disgusting. It was right to sack him. He just needed to rebuild the side. Ballance looks a beast at three and Joe Root is finally been given a settled spot.
Woah, hang on a minute. Let's be brutal here, in these last 2 games India have plumbed levels of sheer ineptitude and have been so poor they're making Bangladesh look like the West Indies side of the 1980's. Also, the charge sheet against Cook and the clowns of the ECB hierarchy is still quite sizeable. *Sacking a player for expressing an opinion *Taking a player on tour knowing he had personal issues *Carrying on picking a clearly unfit wicketkeeper *The ruination of one of the most promising fast bowlers in world cricket *The discarding of both Compton and Carberry, for no real reason *Having no discernible plan in place to replace Graeme Swann Cook and his coaching staff have still got a long way to go to get back in credit with a lot of English cricket fans. Winning the Ashes back next year will undoubtedly help, but don't let 2 wins against a poor side let you think a corner's been turned. It hasn't.
While I don't agree with all of the above (I'm anti-KP), I applaud most of it. Captains get too much criticism when a team (ie 11 individuals) play badly and too much credit when they do well (or, as was the case this week, the opposition has a shocker). When judging a skipper you have to take a long-term view and look at his tactical and leadership decisions, and in those Cook has consistently fallen short. The only thing that has saved him is the lack of an obvious replacement, with Prior falling from grace, Bell being right out of form (until the past fortnight) and Broad still being a big baby. Anyway, England have shown in the past that they can win without a tactical genius in charge (not just Cook, but also Strauss and even Andy Flower and Peter Moores), so they might be OK. But Cook will never be a particularly smart captain.
*Kevin Pietersen is a ego maniac. He just wouldn't play for the team. His attitude clearly effect the team. *Jonathan Trott had problems for the last three years and had manage the problem up until the Ashes *Every team has picked unfit players, his experience was needed. *It was Finn himself who remodelled his run up because he kept hitting the wicket *Compton and Carberry are to old and are just not good enough *Unfortunately world class spinners don't grow on trees. Look how Australia struggled to replace Warne and South Africa can't produce one for love nor money
*Funny how Pietersen's attitude was only an issue when the team was losing. Number 1 in the world, T20 champs? Not a whisper. How odd. *If ANY player expresses a sign of unhappiness, don't pick him. *You think a sports team picking an unfit, out of form player is normal? Ok then. *Journalists, good judges, many on the county circuit will tell you that David Saker and the rest of the coaching set up messed with Finn's attributes and mind to such an extent, he effectively has had to start from scratch again *Too old? What, like Brad Haddin? Sangakkara? Jayawardane? Misbah? Or do you think it's because they both spoke up for Pietersen? *The ECB knew Swann couldn't go on forever, and instead of looking around for a test standard spinner, concentrated on one day specialists instead, which led to the farcical debut of Kerrigan last year. Fortunately it looks like they've unearthed an accidental gem in Moeen Ali. England's cricket team is fast becoming a closed shop, where regimented structures are implemented and criticism is frowned upon. Unfortunately, it appears some supporters are being dragged into a similar way of thinking, and hang onto every clichéd sound bite emanating from within the camp, along with those spouted by the ECB's cheerleaders Agnew, Pringle et al. I'm sure there's a comparison to be drawn in another sport somewhere about people blindly following something without reason, I just can't quite put my finger on it.........
He is still a **** captain, India are a horrendous team away from home, losing 1 of the 5 tests to them was bad enough, and its not just one bad series, SL at home was embarrassing, ashes were a shambles, even the ashes at home were tainted with wide spread criticism of Cooks negative captaincy. I do not deny that he is a top class batsman and should be opening for another 6-7 years but if he doesn't go as captain after what we've seen this last 12 months, he'll not go for 6-7 more years. FOr the long term good of English cricket he needs to lose the captaincy
As an Aussie I have to agree...tactically he's clueless. India have lost the little master and only care about the IPL any the money now. If you're going to have any chance in the next ashes series he's needs to lose the captaincy. Problem is who do you replace him with? Broad? Anderson? They're the only two with any experience but they're both bowlers and Anderson cracks under constant sledging...and there'll be plenty of that next series guaranteed.
The only viable alternative to me as captain is Eoin Morgan - but we all know the perils of picking someone who isn't in the team already on merit (Mike Brearley being the exception that proves the rule).
*Players react differently when things go wrong. Pietersen acts like a spoilt brat. West Indies 2009, South Africa 2012 and The Ashes. *Finn had ask the coaches to remodel his action. It's upto him to take responsibility for his own game. Saker has a great job with Anderson and Broad. *Where did I say it was okay? Are you telling me no team has never picked a unfit player? *The different between Haddin, Sangakarra etc is they've been international players for years. There a reason why teams pick younger players and let them develop. The one I can name picked late in his career and turn into a world class player is Mike Hussey. *It's okay saying planning for it but if there isn't anyone there you can't do much. England aren't the only team to fall a part after a successful period. It takes time to rebuild. I'm not saying it's all Rosie in the garden. But there some massive positives. Ballance, Ali and Butler all look very good. They're younger players like Finn, Stokes, Bairstow, Lees, Gregory and Overton are with huge potential.
