English cricket starts new future

England’s final match in the 2007 World Cup neatly signals the start of new things for the side. The match, against the West Indies, was not without its highlights – foremost it was to be Duncan Fletcher’s last game in charge, a fact shadowed by the fact that it was also Brian Lara’s last one day International appearance. Brian Lara got a standing ovation from the crowd. Duncan Fletcher got no such thing. The irony, of course, is that in the last match of the tournament, England played by far the best cricket of the campaign. It was sloppy in parts, particularly in the bowling, but in a side that had substantial changes in the bowling lineup – Stuart Broad and Liam Plunkett brought in for Sajid Mahmood and Monty Panesar – it was disappointing, although not altogether surprising. Broad was brought in at the last moment for Jon Lewis and Liam Plunkett has moreorless been sat on his arse since before the Ashes started. The out-of-form display enabled West Indies to post an ominous total of 300, which would require some gutsy batting from the Englishmen. Something that, based on recent performances, didn’t look likely. The match was, of course, meaningless, the teams playing only for a minute amount of pride, and the position of 5th or 6th in the overall standings, which meant it was time for Micheal Vaughan to actually score some runs – he managed a very fluent 79. Blah. Kevin Pietersen outdid him, and showed us once again why statistically he’s the best batsman in the world.

In fact, KP has been about the only success story of England’s World Cup. He has shown a great increase in maturity and consistency. That he keeps getting out by chipping to mid on is worrying, but it’s nothing the new coach can’t sort out. He doesn’t deserve the best batsman title just yet, but he’s really starting to show that he’s worthy of it. His fifth one day hundred was the first in a winning cause, and it also saw him go past 2000 runs, achieving the feat in the joint-fastest time (shared with Zaheer Abbas), 444 of those runs in this World Cup alone.

The game eventually went to the wire, and despite England’s recognised batsmen getting to within the finishing straits, it required Paul Nixon, and then Stuart Broad to see them home. Paul Nixon might arguably be the other English success story, with the exception that his days are numbered in the team by virtue only of his age. It was a tense ending – moreso than the match against Sri Lanka – which makes it even more ridiculous that it was all in a lost and meaningless cause.

The irony continued even further – West Indies final loss of the tournament highlighted a position that moreorless mirrors England’s. Neither side have looked any good in this tournament and each camp requires some change, starting with the coach.

Ah yes, the new coach. Peter Moores. He’s in as Duncan Fletcher finally did the right thing and stepped down, no doubt feeling he had to do it before he was pushed. Many commentators and players, current and former, have come out in his defence, but only in as much as would be expected – ultimately, though, it was Fletcher’s time. Quite why he has felt the need to come out in support of Micheal Vaughan is beyond me – Fletcher had 8 years to look after his “mates” – now that he’s out, it’s time for him to let someone else get on with the job of rebuilding English cricket.

That’s not to sound ungrateful to Fletch, as he has had some success as coach. The Ashes in 2005 will no doubt be the highlight, but the string of consecutive test series victories which placed England as second test side in the World will be his legacy. But its impossible to escape the feeling that England never fully matured as a side, certainly never as a one day side, under his control. Although England could turn in good performances, they could never do it with any consistency. Ashes success in 2005 felt like a bit of fluke, a fact that was proven the following year when we were drubbed 5-0.

Thanks Fletch, but time for you to step down. So long and thanks for all the fish. I don’t know much about new-guy Peter Moores, except that he’s young (44), he’s got ‘an innovative style’ and he’s English. I think that’s important and one reason why I support his selection in spite of knowing so little – I want an Englishman leading our side. One thing is for sure – all eyes will be on him. I don’t envy his position, but there’s a huge opportunity for him to be a hero. He certainly has a talented pool of players to call on, but he will need to make some tough decisions. There are too many players in the side who are totally out of form and he needs to build an environment where the players know that they are representing their country and what that means.