Alistair Cook's Resignation Just A Matter Of Time

 

 

Cricket 2014

 

Alistair Cook on the Brink

 

June 24^th 2014

 

The Test and the series, barring a miracle of epic proportions, are lost. A lost opportunity at Lords and defeatist tactics at Headingley will give the fighting Sri Lankans a deserved first series win in England.

Alistair Cook faces a stark choice tonight. He can either try to struggle on, knowing that a 5-Test series against India is only likely to ratchet up the pressure on him unless England somehow win *and* he gets runs, or he can throw in the towel now and let someone else have a go.

Since the Chester-le-Street Test last summer, which was slipping away until Stuart Broad’s amazing burst, England have lost (assuming today’s game follows logic) six Tests and drawn two. They will have lost two series, both of which the majority of pundits expected them to win. They have lost the two ODI series v Australia and the series v Sri Lanka. They have lost the T20s in Australia, been knocked out of the World T20 and lost to Sri Lanka. The only salvation was drawing the T20 series against Australia last summer 1-1, winning 2-1 in the ODIs against the West Indies and beating Scotland in a one-off match.

In all formats it is 9 wins and 26 defeats with 2 draws and eight series defeats to two wins and a shared series. Even if Alistair Cook was not captain in the T20s and most of the ODIs he knows that if the Test team at least is winning, the public will put up with defeats in other formats but, when the Test team throws away a series the way that it just has, there is no hiding.

Even the more pessimistic pundits expected England to defeat Sri Lanka and India in the Tests this summer, before coming up against reality again next year in the World Cup and the return Ashes. Before the Sri Lanka series, the critics expected England to dominate the series, making people believe that the recovery was on the way and were warning that we should not forget the issues in the light of comfortable wins against opponents not ready for the conditions.

When David Gower got the captaincy back in the 1980s despite repeated drubbings it was suggested that it was for “Bedser-ish ‘there is no alternative’ reasons”. The denouement there was the summer of four captains in 1989, including the spectacular sacking of Chris Cowdrey by simple expedient of dropping him from the side after injury. The team even had a fifth captain in Derek Pringle, as a stand-in due to injury. Soon afterwards England picked a captain for the Caribbean tour before discovering that he was ineligible to represent the side. Whilst not suggesting that we have reached this level of chaos, the only reason given for Alistair Cook to stay on has been that there is no obvious alternative.

If Alistair Cook does go, unless England decide to do something left field and bring back T20 and sometime ODI captain Eoin Morgan (Stuart Broad has been quietly relieved of the T20 captaincy in the meantime), the only real option within the current team is Matt Prior who was, himself, dropped from the side in Australia after a terrible run of form. Eoin Morgan has been in good form with the bat this summer – 462 runs at an average of 57.8, including two centuries – belying the suggestions that he has no appetite for red ball cricket now. However, to make room for him, probably Moeen Ali would have to be dropped, reducing England’s limited spin resources even more.

The retirement of Graeme Swann not only robbed England of balance to the side, but also of a senior player and a plausible alternative captaincy candidate however, the state of his elbow had got so bad last winter that he realised that he could not go on. What was shocking was his revelation during the Test series that, once he had informed the management that he could no play on, he was told that he had to leave the tour and received no assistance with repatriating his family. It was poor reward for his dedication and sacrifice.

The pundits are uncertain which way Cook will jump. He does not tend to give up but, there is no question that mentally he is shot, he is finding the criticism tough to face and, combined with his poor batting form, is unhappy and confused and needs some relief from the pressure. It seems more likely than not that, even if management ask him to stay on, he will decide to resign today after the defeat is consummated.

England captains are rarely sacked and Alistair Cook will not be either: they almost always resign first.