No batter in the England Test squad apart from Joe Root care about putting value to their wicket as they know that they will never be left out of the squad, India batting great Sunil Gavaskar has said. Gavaskar acknowledged the fact that Brendon McCullum was a great player and brought a freshness to England cricket as a coach before stating that once it wore off, they were found to be batsmen who couldn’t do much once pitches gave bowlers some assistance.
Gavaskar’s criticism comes in the wake of England’s abject performance in their 4-1 defeat to Australia in the Ashes. While a number of English former cricketers had predicted the side to win the series, Gavaskar said that their defeat comes as no surprise only to non-English fans. “Valuing playing for your country and putting a minimum price of a century on your wicket is something only the great Joe Root does. The others could not be bothered, as they knew they were unlikely to be left out of the squad,” wrote Gavaskar in his column for SportStar.
“What the media calls fearless cricket today often looks more like couldn’t-care-less cricket. With the guarantee of a central contract and the various T20 leagues around the cricketing world, there is no worry about how to put food on the table, which was the case when these facilities were not there and losing a Test place meant going back to mundane first-class cricket, where one hardly earned enough, let alone saved for a rainy day.”
England’s tendency to rarely ever drop batsmen under the leadership of McCullum and captain Ben Stokes has been criticised in the past. It has led to players getting to have careers lasting well over 50 Test matches despite averaging in the early to mid-30s. Examples of this being opener Zak Crawley (64 Tests at an average of 31.18) and Ollie Pope (64 Test at an average of 34.55), although the latter had been sacked as vice-captain before the start of the series and eventually seems to have lost his place now to Jacob Bethell.
Gavaskar said that he doesn’t begrudge current cricketers earning more from the sport. “As Sir Don Bradman said, it should be the endeavour of every cricketer to try and leave the game in a better place than when he found it. So, when the modern cricketer makes good money, it is a great thing, as it encourages and draws more youngsters to the game,” said Gavaskar.
“That is why it is disappointing when some forget their responsibility to the game and play reckless cricket, letting their team and country down. Winning and losing are part of sport, but the effort has to be wholehearted. How many in the England team that lost the Ashes series can put their hands on their hearts and say that they gave it everything, not just physically but, more crucially, temperamentally, in the series?”
