This was a salutary defeat. This, surely, is the end for psychobabble and over-professionalism, a full stop to mark the end of overcoaching and joylessly prescriptive planning. It is time for Englands cricketers to put bat to ball, to react to the situation and not genuflect to the tactics manual. It is time to play once again. If this is what you get after six months of dedicated planning, then less planning sounds good to me.

Here is one possible summary of this disastrous World Cup: They found ever more stones to upturn, each less relevant than thelast. Lauded for their professionalism, they snuffed out the last glimpses of play (from a game, lets remember) . . . The resulting atmosphere: anxious, dutiful, earnest, fearful and highly professional. Too little in evidence: fun, naturalness, mischief, adventure, lightness, wit and maverick independence.

Only it was written in prospect, not retrospect by me, in this very space, 13 months ago. Since then, the same script has played out in full. Now, please, for the change.

New errors have been added, it is true. When England sacked Alastair Cook as one-day captain at the eleventh hour, it was almost universally praised as the right decision. I disagreed. There is a time when youve thrown your lot in with someone, and for this World Cup England had done that with Cook.

In seeking to avoid one problem Cooks batting form they ended up creating twoproblems. The discarded Cook, back at home, is deeply hurt. Eoin Morgan, adrift in totally uncharted waters as captain, may end up feeling he has been used. The adjectives streetwise and positive were hopeful to the point of neglectful naivety. Ifopting for Morgan was a sop to media pressure, it was disgraceful.

Selection was a shambles. On the eve of the opening game, they abandoned one of the few things that was working the form of James Taylor at number three. Instead, Gary Ballance was plucked from the subs bench. He is now needlessly scarred by having played in an ill-fated World Cup for which he had little preparation.

It is impossible not to feel sorry for Morgan, especially as his native Ireland have played much better than England at the World Cup. Morgan, like Ed Joyce before him, pursued a career as an England player because Ireland are held back by a lack of fixtures and opportunities. Watching a revitalised Joyce now back in Irish green chalkup elegant runs for his home team, its obvious how deeply he cares about the cricketing culture that produced him. You now wonder how Morgan, who may be tempted by the life of a roving Twenty20 specialist, will react to this bruising World Cup experience.

Having invented T20, England have engineered a situation where they squandered the advantages of being the pioneer. The best T20 leagues are the Indian Premier League and Australias Big Bash League. It is simply impossible to produce cricket at that level in a league of 18 counties the talent is diluted too weakly. Everyone knows this is a fact. When we shared a dressing room at Middlesex in 2008, I saw Morgan shake his head in disbelief at the ECBs refusal to set a franchise-based T20 league. He was right.

There is a brain drain in English cricket. The better thinkers rarely return to the game, whether as coaches or as administrators. After the defeat, viewers watched Andrew Strauss, Mike Atherton and Nasser Hussain, three thoughtful former England captains, dissect the performance. Forgive my hypocrisy, but it seems a shame that the media are almost universally considered far more attractive than the coalface.

The pull of television is compounded by the push of the county grind. Top Australian ex-players such as Justin Langer, Stuart Law and Darren Lehmann have all recently coached at state level in Australia. It is much rarer for people of such distinction to enter coaching in county cricket. The prospect of a never-ending road trip around 18 counties works against recruiting top talent. When Peter Moores was reappointed as England coach a year ago, the striking feature was the unspectacular quality of the shortlist. Moores is a decent, hard-working enthusiast, probably the best of his type. It remains very unclear that his type is good enough.

Originally posted here:

If this kind of performance is what you get after six months of dedicated planning, then less planning sounds good to ...