OPINION: England are still numb after succumbing to a humiliating 5-0 Ashes defeat and, as always in such circumstances, people are looking for those to blame.
James Buttler suggests those looking for scapegoats are looking in the wrong places…
While Andy Flower and Alastair Cook continue relatively unscathed after being given a vote of confidence from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), others are more unsure of their international futures.
Cook and Flower are extremely fortunate to have such understanding employers. How many people reading this could work towards a crucial project, watch it completely fall to pieces and walk away with their embarrassed bosses saying carry on regardless.
The reason England lost so badly was that their most important players did not turn up. In team sports the collective group can carry a few strugglers if the rest are somewhere near their best. Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes were going to do rather well to bring home the urn alone.
Cook, the absent Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Matt Prior, Graeme Swann, James Anderson - where were you? That they failed can only be down to one of a number of reasons. I cannot believe they weren’t up for, nor do I think they bottled it in front of a hostile home crowd.
That they were out of form is either ridiculously unlucky or down to poor preparation. It’s hard to argue against the latter. If the preparation was perfect, if the players were primed and raring to go, if the tour matches allowed players to hit a groove and stay ready, then England would have played better. It’s simple.
There are many players that have been criticised and that’s understandable as the performances were well below par.
I have watched Jonny Bairstow since he first debuted for Yorkshire in 2009.
He excelled as a youth in many sports. Once he chose to concentrate on cricket he continued to dominate, progressed effortlessly to the Yorkshire 1st team and then onto the England Lions squad and into the full national side. He has rarely missed a step and I’ve witnessed him play some scintillating cricket.
For this incredibly talented young man with a bat capable of making bowling attacks look ordinary it is the first time in his life that he is experiencing failure. It’s a tough time for him that he will take in his stride.
Ask me whether he is capable of overcoming a couple of technical flaws in his batting to forge a long and distinguished international career and my answer is a complete ‘yes’.
Ask me whether a media intent on having someone to blame will allow Jonny to do that and my answer is more guarded. The biggest test for Jonny, and many of his England teammates, is how they bounce back from this Ashes thumping.
Hearing Bob Willis suggest he is not fit for purpose and should never play Test cricket again is laughable. Similarly to suggest Pietersen should be banished is wrong. As in any walk of life people learn more in adversity and you pick the best XI. If Bairstow reaches his potential he will be in that side.
“I don’t get it, I don’t get all the criticism he’s copping at the moment”, Martyn Moxon, Yorkshire CCC’s director of professional cricket, told BBC Look North. “I think people need to look into the circumstances behind him not performing as well as we know he can. The fact is he needs to play regular cricket.”
And, that’s a great point. Central and Incremental Contracts have led to a settled England side and far more consistency in performance. Yet, Bairstow is not the first Yorkshire player in recent years who has carried drinks on England tours when he should have been playing and properly developing his game.
When Bairstow has been selected by England he has been in and out more than (insert joke as required). That cannot engender confidence and promote the ‘play your natural game’ vibe that would surely increased the chances of him prospering.
“We need to sit down with him and say we want you to work on your keeping, that’s why you are going to Sri Lanka on the Lions tour as keeper-batsman and if you are not going to play in One-Day Internationals you are going to go back to Yorkshire and play some cricket,” Moxon added. “To stay in form and regain form you’ve got to be playing, you can’t be sat watching and having loads of nets.”
As a regular attendee at Headingley I get extremely frustrated at times when listening to international pundits. They usually only set foot in county grounds to monitor the return to fitness of KP. They know their international onions inside out, but should also know that Bairstow keeps wicket for Yorkshire whenever he plays - he’s the first choice and therefore not a part-time keeper as many of them described him.
Moxon also moved to suggest that the ECB should make their minds up about Joe Root’s role.
“Find the right place for him to bat”, he urged. “For me, hopefully that will be as opener as that’s what he does, but he needs to be given time to adapt to that position, not just shifted up and down the order”.
In Bairstow and Root England have two gems. They need encouragement and care. Don’t we all?
It will be Moxon and Aussie legend and current Yorkshire first team coach, Jason Gillespie, that will be rebuilding their games when they return to England.
You can’t mention the 5-0 Dizzy, can you?
James Buttler
As the editor of World Cricket Badger he is intent on building the website to give quality coverage of the domestic game around the world.
He is also the presenter of the Cricket Badger Radio Show on Radio Yorkshire every Tuesday evening between 7-9pm UK time.
James was the full-time Media Manager at Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 2007 and 2010.
James is a published author, a writer/video contributor to many cricket publications and a complete cricket badger!
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