In praise of the England cricket team

This is in praise of the England cricket team. I have always wondered why is that the England cricket team is ridiculed by a lot of persons? What is that about them that makes the wider cricketing fraternity to make fun of them? Sometimes, even their own media and fans are very much harsh on their cricket team. The Australians call the British as Poms though I do not know the meaning of such a word. All of these despite some very good performances by the England cricket team. It does not really make any sense whatsoever. I have thought long and hard on this subject. I tried to analyse the reasons and come up with a satisfying reason as to why should they not be ridiculed.

England’s test performances

When England became the No.1 Test team in the world, there were lot of murmurs that they do not deserve to be No. 1 and that they are at best a middle rung team. It is another issue that they didn’t stay as No. 1 for as long as say Australia or South Africa but that does not mean that they weren’t deserving No. 1 team. To prove my point, I went through some statistics in www.espncricinfo.com. England and Australia are the oldest cricket playing nations. The first test was played between these teams more than a hundred years ago. Later on, India, West Indies, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa joined the cricketing fraternity by 1960 though not necessarily in that order. A few years later, the rest of the countries were given test status.

To be ranked No. 1, a team must have performed consistently and must have definitely won atleast one series in every test playing nation where they have played. Agreed that England having played the game for more than a century and that too when other teams weren’t that strong may have won some series during the early part of the 1900s.

Performance over the last 30 years

So let us take a much smaller sample. Let us take their performance over the last 30 years. Even in this short period, England are one of the three teams to have won atleast one series in every country they have played. The others being Australia & South Africa. England have won in Asia, Africa and also in Australia. Against all odds England won a series in India in 2012. They won the test and series against Pakistan in 1999 in utter dark conditions. They clean swept Sri Lanka in the  last series played in Sri Lanka.

Against Australia, England emerged victorious in 2011. Apart from Australia, England are the only team to have won multiple series in South Africa. India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, New Zealand and West Indies are yet to win a series in atleast one of the cricket playing nation. These performances must be more than sufficient for England to be considered as No. 1 as and when they become No. 1.

England’s short format performances

Yes, England’s performances in ODIs and T20s were not that great to write about. It is another matter that they never took the short format seriously enough and hence their performance wasn’t always that great. Having said that, they still managed to reach the finals of 1975, 1987 & 1991. Creditable achievement for a team that never took white ball cricket seriously. They have also had some horrible World Cup campaigns with the 2015 World Cup the absolute nadir when they lost to Bangladesh and crashed out of the World Cup. It was then the ECB decided enough was enough and they started to change their fortunes in the short format. The ECB packed the team with hitters right through the team with bowlers who can bat following them.

They played a brand of cricket after 2015 that was unseen in all these years. They were able to pile up more than 350 quite consistently. None of the opponent team felt secured against England even after scoring 375 because they knew that England had the firepower to chase any total effortlessly. Suddenly, England became the benchmark for playing the short formats. So much so that Eoin Morgan even talked of the team achieving the One Day Mount Everest of 500. This is definitely not a mean feat. England are the current holder of the highest individual team score. 481. The second highest team total is also held by England. They are worthy of every adulation that they get. Their entire efforts paid off in the magnificent 2019 World Cup win. After 2015 the team set out to win the 2019 World Cup and they ended doing just that.

England’s horrible whitewashes

Probably the first reason why England is ridiculed as a team quite often is because of the number of whitewashes they have suffered in their cricketing career. They were whitewashed 4-0 or 5-0 multiple times first by West Indies and later by Australia. They were also blanked in some of the series by India & Pakistan. This is something some of the bigger teams have not endured.

England’s shocking collapses

The second reason will be the number of times England’s batting imploded completely. There were instances when they lost all the 10 wickets in one session as happened against India and Bangladesh.

Not too many stars

Finally, England is a cricket team that does not have too many stars or for that matter not even a single star. There were Gavaskar, Kapil, Sachin, Dhoni & Kohli for India. Warne, Ponting and the rest for Australia. Kallis & Steyn for South Africa. Imran, Wasim, Waqar, Miandad, Inzamam for Pakistan. England’s biggest stars are Botham all those years ago and now Root and Stokes. When compared to the above, even they are not that big a star.

Conclusion

Despite all of the above, I do not think that England deserves ridicule. England were and are definitely not an all-conquering team but they were and are definitely not a pushover. Their test and ODIs team’s performances over the last 30 years must be good enough for them to be considered an excellent side and eyebrows not raised if and when they again become the No. 1 ranked test team in the world.

What is your opinion of the English cricket team? Do you think they are ridiculed rather unfairly?