I recently said that England had regressed to 1993, when they had 1 world-class player in Graham Gooch. Joe Root now occupies the Gooch role. But they have jumped forward to 1999 when England were officially the worst in the world. He has not taken the Nasser Hussain role on yet and he either needs to or needs to go.
I remember watching in 1999 when England beat a reasonable New Zealand side at the Oval and won the series 2-1. Except that they didn’t. Chris Cairns was on form that summer – he battered England for 80, but it was the batters that failed big time (again) and collapsed from 122/2 to 202 all out. Mind, nowadays, that collapse does not seem so bad. In 1999, rather like 2021, England were dreadful all summer. To start with, Captain Alec Stewart and David Lloyd presided over an awful World Cup where they were given little chance because of some terrible selections. After that, Stewart and Lloyd were out – though Stewart had done OK as Captain overall. In came Nasser Hussain and Coach TBA. It turned out to be Duncan Fletcher of course, but he was not available until after the English season ended.
In the case of 1999, you can find mitigating factors. Hussain got injured, Mike Atherton was injured, Darren Gough missed the whole series. England’s new Coach was not available. However, England made some classic errors (again) – they jump out of the scorecard. The Alec Stewart conundrum should have been resolved by 1999 – we knew Stewart was England’s best keeper option once Jack Russell was out of the international picture and Stewart was no longer Captain. Yet Chris Read kept wicket for the first 3 games and Stewart opened with Mark Butcher for the first 2 games. Atherton came back at Old Trafford for the third game so opened with Mark Butcher. This would have created the ideal chance for Stewart to keep wicket as he batted at 3 in this game. Instead, England waited till the last game of the series to do this when they also dropped Butcher (actually I am not certain if he was dropped or injured but I think he was dropped despite being Captain in the third game at Old Trafford in Hussain’s absence to injury). All of a sudden England had gone through 3 opening partnerships in a summer (Butcher / Stewart, Butcher / Atherton, Atherton / Darren Maddy) and England had messed Alec Stewart about again. Even worse, Ronnie Irani (never a test match cricketer in a million years) played at 7 ahead of Andy Caddick at 8 (a number 10 at best) and 3 real tail-enders in Ed Giddins, Alan Mullally and Phil Tufnell. I guess we should be glad they did not throw in Devon Malcolm.
Does it not all sound incredibly familiar? Except in 1999, the England Captain was quite new and took action. The fans booed Nasser Hussain at The Oval, and after initially being defensive (“proud of the lads” etc), he reacted. Yes, he showed some frustration, but he also pledged to use that low point in English Cricket to change things.
“But people must understand we don’t just turn up at 10am and think, ‘Who are we playing today? Oh, it’s New Zealand.’ We work damn hard. I’ve been waking up at five or six every morning with nerves in my belly because I so much want England to do well. We have a hell of a lot of desire.
Nasser Hussian – August 1999 at the conclusion of The Oval test match
“I’ll use the papers,” Hussain concluded. “We’ll be reminded we’re bottom of the heap and I hope all my players read them. I’ll tell them ‘That’s what people think of us.’ It should hurt them.”
Kevin Pietersen is keen to let everyone know that England have a terrible system that needs to change. He says Joe Root should stay as Captain because nobody could do better. Well, English Cricket was different in 1999 but it was still the same 18 counties, and that set up England’s run to being Number 1 in the World by 2012. We have gone full circle, but we must look back at 1999.
We saw a Captain visibly distraught, who vowed to make a change. Nobody called for Hussain to be sacked after 4 games because he was new, unlike Root in 2022. Duncan Fletcher provided common sense and clarity of roles. He was also darn good and changed everything about England Cricket along with Hussain’s attitude. A year later England beat West Indies to embark on a winning streak where they won 4 series in succession, but many of the players were the same. Atherton, Stewart (with one role), Hussain, Graham Thorpe, Darren Gough, Andy Caddick…even Graeme Hick made important contributions, though never the big breakthrough sadly. Later on, Butcher came back in a big way and was a vital part of the 2005 buildup, though his career was curtailed by injury.
In 2022, we talk of the red-ball reset, but as yet, we have not seen the red ball attitude reset. We do not possess great players and will not for some time. But I do think a better attitude would help. This would start with an acceptance that these players are not playing as well as they can. We need to accept that basic mistakes are being made all the time, and they need to be stopped. It all comes from attitude.
Yet so far, Root, who is by no means a new catain, refuses to accept this. He does not get past the ‘proud of the lads’ part. He certainly does not talk about using the papers to create a reaction. It is simply not good enough.
We need a bit of grit. A bit of attitude. We need a willingness to accept England are not a good Test Match Team. How bad does it have to get before things change? England will definitely lose games this summer. But perhaps they could show that they are learning.
A new coach is half the story. Time to go Joe.
Cricketed 