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Have England made the right choice or missed a trick?

19th April, 2014
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Have the Poms made a good choice by going back to the future with Peter Moores? AFP PHOTO / ANDREW COWIE
Expert
19th April, 2014
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At one stage not too long ago, during the captaincy of Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh, the Australians were riding roughshod over anyone in their path.

Over in this part of the world, we stared enviously at all things cricket, even though they were 12,000 miles away.

They’ve got a productive academy, why don’t we do the same?

They’ve got a match-winning leg-spinner so let’s look for one of those, available or otherwise.

This grade cricket system, apparently, is really good, so we should embrace two-day club cricket.

Hasn’t the Sheffield Shield only got six teams? That must mean we’ve got too many sides and too many players.

And so on and so on.

We stopped short of going fully Australian. That is, encouraging workmen to sit in the pub of an evening in just their high-visibility vest, skin-tight Rugby League team of choice shorts and boots, but we weren’t far off.

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No thought given to culture, climate, history, demographics and numerous other factors, just a myopic ‘they do it, so we should imitate.’

As with all very successful teams and systems, the Australian model had plenty going for it. Some of the elements were well worth trying to emulate, but it got quite giddy at one point.

Then, things started to change.

The England team had proven to be not all crushing defeats and gallant dead-rubber victories. Their antipodean counterparts had been shown to possess a few cracks of their own.

That, however, was the case prior to Mitchell Johnson finding his range in Brisbane and the rest is, as they say…well, you can add your own description here.

Now, the Australians are back towards the top of the tree. The English have just taken their first steps on the rebuilding ladder by appointing a new coach in the shape of Lancashire’s Peter Moores.

If the decimation of an excellent side – I reckon seven places will have to be filled for the first Test against Sri Lanka in just under two month’s time – was the result of the on-field drubbings handed out, the toppling of the coach was the damage inflicted by the shockwave.

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Before the Ashes started, a good case could’ve been made for it being a final stand in England colours for a handful of players, but the coach would’ve been deemed almost untouchable.

But defeat doesn’t limit its impact. Here we are with Moores being handed a second chance at the job which was snatched from him a few years ago.

And this leads back to the aforementioned point about copying the Australians.

My jury’s out regarding Moores’ appointment. He’s well regarded as a coach, you’ll find few who have a bad word to say about him and his record in charge of Sussex and Lancashire is good.

But there’s a sneaking feeling that a chance has been missed, that by harking back to the past and a coach who was unceremoniously dismissed from the position, the England hierarchy have potentially hindered a clear path in the future by being overly conservative.

A virtually clean slate has been presented by the debacle of the winter months, yet when the opportunity arose to cap it off with a fresh face, the bait couldn’t be taken.

Hark back to last summer (the English one) and the Cricket Australia’s decision to jettison Mickey Arthur and bring in Darren Lehmann.

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A side at a very low ebb in need of real direction, the recognition of a malaise that couldn’t be allowed to stretch any further and a gung-ho selection.

It could’ve been foolhardy or even plain daft, but there was a bull on the loose with horns to be grasped.

The England of the recent past had got away from the leash and yet, and yet…

However, that’s the way it is, there’s a big task to undertake and Moores will have the green light to tackle it head on.

And after watching a battered carcass of a team being dragged around the five Test centres last winter, I just want to see that stopped.

I wish him well.

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