Phil Walker, Wisden Cricket Monthly editor-in-chief, reflects on a bruising three months which have seen three members of England’s senior leadership team leave their roles.
The fallout from a scarring few months lies everywhere. Events always upend order, and at the last count the England men’s team was looking for a white-ball captain (or two), and the women’s team a new captain and coach. Changes are afoot, succession plans have been binned, and no one can quite agree where to go next.
Anyone who’s watched of late and cares for such things will have lodged in their brains their own vignette, their own misery-meme, around which the rest of it can hang. I’ve got a couple that do the job, though they come from different perspectives.
I can still see it hanging in the Pakistani sky, gormlessly lofted by Jamie Overton, the ball about to land in the hands of the Afghanistan fielder at long-on, who hasn’t had to move to bag the catch that confirms England’s Champions Trophy exit. They hadn’t needed much more than a run-a-ball at the death, but such is the gravitational sway of sport that no one really thought they’d get it done.
A few days later Jos Buttler officially resigned, though we could all see he’d checked out long ago. Thus ended an underwhelming tenure, one drained of any vibrancy long before the inevitable implosion, and which Brendon McCullum, who himself has had better months, was unable to resuscitate. McCullum is experiencing the first obvious hitches in his own swing. Perhaps it’s a tougher job than he likes to make it look.
The one that really stings though, that goes right to the heart of things, was a more tender image, that of a woman stood alone in the rain, unprotected against the elements, just her and her bat, getting pelters.
Heather Knight had been raging alone against the dying of the fight, the last woman still standing in the run-chase at Manuka Oval for the second T20I of the Ashes. Clinch it, and they would still be alive in an otherwise horribly mismatched series. Lose, and she would know the rest. There are five balls to go in the match, and it’s tipping down. Knight, on 43 from 19, had just slashed the previous ball for four. England need 18 more. Unlikely, but not impossible. Yet despite the crowd sitting cheerfully through 39.1 overs of a 40-over game, the umpires come together again. Knight drops her bat in despair.
And that’s it. That’s the moment. An unshakeable visual, one that speaks to me of the glottal finalities of sporting careers.
So Knight will no longer lead this team, and though it’s concerningly hard to envisage anyone else doing it, her pronounced sense of duty and, let’s be honest, the dearth of middle-order options coming up behind her, will keep her closely aligned to the new brains trust.
Perhaps inevitably, Knight’s personal journey has echoed through the wider women’s game. Together, over the years, they have become stronger, less passive, more forthright. The legacy numbers are impressive enough: she captained England 199 times since 2016, leading the team to a home World Cup victory in 2017 and to two other ICC tournament finals, and oversaw 134 victories, second on the list of England Women’s most successful captains.
But just as importantly during that time Knight has found her voice, measured but strident, with a pin-sharp grasp of the issues and a knack for weighing her words to the tenor of the moment. Whether on issues of pay or professionalism or the ongoing fight for equal opportunities, she has navigated the choppiest of waters with great agility. Whoever does take over will need her close by.
The coach, Jon Lewis, will not be missed. Such is the hardheartedness at the top level. He falls not just because of bad results – this was Australia away, after all – but of degenerating standards. The fielding in the Melbourne Test match, where they dropped 10 catches – England were brutishly dubbed the worst team in history to be awarded an MCG Test – was beyond risible, and goes straight to the coach. While the perception both inside as well as outside that unhappy dressing room was of a misshapen culture hanging on blokey ideas co-opted from the men’s team but without the credit in the bank or the characters to make it work. All the breezy talk of entertainment, fun and finding their own path burned up in the kiln of Australia. Young players looked haunted. Older ones went backwards. Some were accused of not being fit enough.
I had some sympathy for Lewis when he offered up the fateful comment that a walk past Bondi Beach in Sydney one morning – to see “a million kids” swimming, surfing and playing touch rugby – showed him why there was such a gap in athleticism between Australia and England. Guileless it may have been, but he was far from off-beam. The fact is that Australia’s advantages of light and space, allied to a more meritocratic sporting system, gives them a physical edge over an English culture which still looks weedy and smallish by comparison.
As many coaches have discovered before him, however, when your time is up, any comment can be soldered into the shape of a dagger.
This article appears in the forthcoming issue of Wisden Cricket Monthly, available to pre-order now.
