During the 1987 Cricket World Cup in India during one of the group matches, England were set a target of 240 runs in their 50 overs by Pakistan. This was of course a formidable score during that time. At one stage England were cantering along, with Mike Gatting and Allan Lamb scoring relatively easily. The commentators marveled at the ‘professional’ approach of the Englishmen, who having being weaned on a generous dose of county cricket, were treating the chase as another day in the office. Disaster stuck in the form of the wicket of Gatting, and thereafter the innings imploded with England falling short by 18 runs.
England did however make their way to the final where all the too familiar story repeated itself with the English ‘stroking’ themselves out, after an uncharacteristic (unprofessional) reverse sweep by Mike Gatting. This as Gatting was to discover later, put into the shade the ignominy of the earlier experience, of having his bone lodged in the red cherry by Malcolm Marshall during the test series.
This ‘professionalism’ of the English concealed a staid approach that neither contributed to wholesome entertainment nor to any silverware for the team. The operative word here is of course ‘professional’. The British writer Alistair Cooke said “A professional is someone who can do his best work when he doesn’t feel like it”. His statement is quite revealing, pointing to the deficit of the emotional (passionate) component when dealing with a situation, by letting the reasonable instinct dominate. This, if the argument is to be extended, does not quite allow the ‘natural ability’ to come to the fore, which inhibits the free-flowing talents from expressing themselves. Successive attempts at cup glory, namely the one during 1991-1992, also met with similar failure, as the steadiness of the Englishmen was dismantled by the brilliance of their opponents.
However the performance of Old Blighty in the period leading upto World Cup 2019, had all critics and faithfuls alike expressing extreme confidence in the team’s fortunes. This cockiness arising out of the team’s bench strength, inspired the team to purge the hearty Hales from the squad apparently at the altar of discipline and team spirit.
Approaching the business end of the tournament this arrogance has been particularly embarrassing, as the Englishmen have stumbled from one mishap into another. The ‘favourites’ tag has been promptly relinquished, with skipper Morgan conceding “the confidence isn’t where it was”. While it is too early to predict if this is the ‘the cup that might have been’ for the Englishmen, it is safe to assume that the remaining matches (against in-form India and New Zealand) would demand something a little short of superhuman and a little more than special from the erstwhile favorites, if they want to ‘Make England great again’. What might be particularly galling to their supporters and players alike is how within a matter of 2 matches the ‘team to beat’ has transformed into a team beaten.
Having started out with a team abounding with talent and having all bases covered, including the x-factors in Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes the team looked to have made all the right moves in becoming serious contenders for Mission WC2019. Newly crowned twitter tiger Kevin Pietersen says “If Roy misses out, Bairstow will get you! If they both miss out, Root will get you. If they all miss out then Buttler will get you and, Jofra will always get you.” Now with defeat pursuing them they find themselves ill equipped to deal with their problems, it does appear that the hunters have become the hunted.
The greatest living Yorkshireman never short of a word to supplement his team’s troubles now calls them a “one-dimensional batting unit” without a “plan B”. As often happens with collective failures immediate corrective measures are very difficult to identify. Either the team starts performing as a unit or somebody just puts his hand up and does a bang-up job. Now with their semi-final hopes in jeopardy the familiar questions are being asked. Have England overprepared to such an extent that they have eliminated the possibility of failure!! Have the pros conned themselves once again in their pursuit of victory ?
Article By :Shantanu Sharma
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