Former England all-rounder Samit Patel has revisited his international career in conversation with Cricket Life Stories, criticising the ECB for how they negotiated issues related to his fitness, which were cited as a recurrent reason for his exclusion from selection.
He was first axed from an England squad due to fitness ahead of England’s 2009 tour to the West Indies, having made his debut in 2008. “Samit Patel is a talented cricketer but he, like every other player who joins the senior England team, must be aware of the strict fitness criteria that will be set,” said Hugh Morris, ECB director of cricket at the time. “It is extremely frustrating that Samit has not heeded the warnings of his county, Nottinghamshire, and Geoff Miller [national selector] as well as the England management and strength and conditioning team. In the circumstances we had no option but to deselect him from the tour.”
However, Patel said that he wasn’t told anything behind the scenes before it was discussed in the media.
“No, it just got chucked out there which I was pretty disappointed about,” he said. “In my opinion, [it was] handled poorly by the ECB. [It was] not entirely their fault but if you put it now, things would be handled way differently by the ECB and captains and coaches. Maybe [I was] a little bit of a scapegoat, first up, but you live and you learn with this kind of stuff.”
That series was Andrew Strauss’ first as England ODI captain, and Patel felt he was a casualty of an attempt by Strauss to make his mark.
“We went through a period where we were losing and Straussy came in and wanted different standards with Flower,” he said. “It was that crossover period where people need to make some kind of statement and stamp their authority in different roles and I copped it for that.”
Patel was later left out for England’s 2011 World Cup campaign in India, where England exited at the quarter-final stage.
“To not make it, knowing that you should be there and you’re not there, it didn’t sit well with me,” Patel said. “But as I said before, you live and you learn and it’s both parties’ fault, but as I say now, these days things would be handled way differently.”
At the time, Flower said Samit, a left-arm spinner and capable with the bat against slow bowling, was the “type of player [who] would be very useful in the subcontinent”. “It is very frustrating but only the individual is responsible for that,” Flower said. “Samit was chosen in the [provisional] squad because his type of player would be very useful in the subcontinent. He was chosen on the condition that he would improve his physical state to be in consideration for this squad of 15. All we were saying was ‘get into reasonable shape’. It didn’t have to be perfect. In fact, all we wanted to see was an improvement, but a significant improvement. He hasn’t done that.
“We don’t expect any of our guys to be perfect, physically, but we do expect them to work hard and it is an indication of your mindset and how much you want to play for England, how you are able to discipline yourself. You have to make good decisions to get yourself into good physical shape. We want tough, determined cricketers playing for England and he is not indicating that he is capable of that.”
Patel says that he was close with Flower at the time, and is even closer to him now. “It’s very stereotypical but it was the same. They didn’t think I was fit enough and that’s why they weren’t going to select me,” he said. “I was pretty close with Andy Flower to be honest, and me and Andy get on really really well. I get on better with him now than then. I think he knows me a lot better now than he did, and I think if you ask him the same question, he probably would have handled it a lot differently. But there are things you don’t learn until after you’ve made the mistakes.”
Patel’s last game in limited-overs cricket for England came just after the end of Flower’s tenure as white-ball head coach, in Sri Lanka in January 2013. Flower was succeeded by Ashley Giles in November 2012. Patel says he received little contact from the ECB about the reasons for his omission.
“I’ve had no conversations after 2013, 14 really, in terms of one-day cricket, at all,” he said. “I don’t know what’s happened. Face doesn’t fit, fizzled out, you call it what you want. But yeah, I’ve not really heard from anyone post my last one-dayer, I can’t remember when it was, but I’ve heard nothing.”
Patel’s England career came to an end in November 2015, when he won the last of his six Test caps, against Pakistan at Sharjah. In ODI cricket, he ended with an average of 32.13 and a strike-rate of 93.23.
Patel has spoken out on the issue before, explaining how, despite looking physically unfit, by other metrics he passed with flying colours.
“I’ve not missed a game ever, so define fitness,” he said back in 2017. “I’ve never missed one game for England or Notts. It all comes down to sports science. They forgot about the skills base. It’s funny how no one mentions fitness issues with me now. It’s funny how that’s all gone even though the game is getting quicker and better. I look better, I feel better, I’m playing better. You have to be quicker, you have to be faster. It’s something you have to do.”
