It's this that worries me

Buttler and Bairstow and Foakes all have world class talent.

It's not the players. It's the preparation.

When we draft in someone else for Buttler, they'll look scratchy and fail too, but it'll be down to poor management and poor preparation.

Look at he long term investment/reward the Aussies got from Lyon.

Ali/Rashid/leech/bess/parkinson/Livingston all have talent but need(ed) support to develop to the next level. They all deteriorate under the England setup (and improve again when they're away from it).

This is double true for the batters.

There's been some discussion about this side being as poor as the early 90s. I started watching cricket then. The difference then was that the opposition players were massively better than ours.

I really don't feel that here. We should at least be competitive. We diminish our players in how we train, manage and prepare them and that has to change.

The long form argument is bulls**t too - every other side faces the same issue. They just manage it better.

Posted By: Cardiff Canary, Dec 18, 10:57:54