Newspaper reactions to Eng's 51 all out loss

[fineleg]

Where on earth does this humiliation leave England? asks Lawrence Booth in the Guardian. It's been fashionable of late to play down the problems in the England dressing room, mainly because it's a far easier thing to do than accept the serious issues that have already split the team. Fine. Bury your heads in the sand if you like. But many of us are still waiting for evidence that this England side is in any way a united one. When everything that can go wrong does go wrong, as it did today in Jamaica, you have to ask serious questions about the collective state of mind. Andrew Strauss described his dressing room as being a “pretty disconsolate placeâ€. You can bet it was a lot worse than that. It will have been a place of devastation and embarrassment, writes Steve James in the Sunday Telegraph.

For comedy, albeit black comedy, we had to look in the unlikely direction of Paul Collingwood. Another venomous Taylor delivery took the inside edge of Collingwood's bat before speeding off towards the fine-leg boundary. Collingwood sped off eagerly but when he turned for a second he was greeted by the spectacle of the West Indies side indulging in another mass celebration. Unbeknown to Collingwood the ball had brushed the leg-stump on its way to the boundary, writes Vic Marks in the Observer.

More at: http://blogs.cricinfo.com/surfer/archives/2009/02/where_on_earth.php

[rahuliverpool]

Make KP the captain again- only solution.

[SachDan]

^^ wow ! another SRT fan :two_thumbs_up: welcome to ICF, rahulliverpool :icflove:

[Desi Cartman]

Let Monty lead the side .... :bhangra:

[Sachinism]

This tour was supposed to be a warm up for The Ashes LMAO

[Fontaine]

It's not the size of the dog, but the size of the fight in the dog. And in that consideration England are still a bunch of chihuahuas. Bell/Cook/Prior/Flintoff don't have the appettite for a high pressure match when it's required to play hard and long. These clowns know they can go back to England and rest assured on their book deals, PR money, and easy life.

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England face meltdown: Strauss and Flower must find a way of uniting this distracted, divided team Something is wrong, badly wrong, and if it is not identified and dealt with very quickly then England will not only have to wave goodbye to this series but also their golden opportunity of regaining the Ashes.More... England face meltdown: Strauss and Flower must find a way of uniting this distracted, divided team By Paul Newman Last updated at 1:09 AM on 09th February 2009 Something is wrong, badly wrong, and if it is not identified and dealt with very quickly then England will not only have to wave goodbye to this series but also their golden opportunity of regaining the Ashes. The ignominy of being dismissed for their third lowest Test score by bowlers who, with respect, are not fit to lace the boots of the West Indian greats of the past is bad enough. But the real worry for England is that their collapse to 51 all out here at Sabina Park from the depths of 26 for seven is merely a symptom of a much deeper malaise. For all their talk of unity. For all their talk of moving on after the Pietersen-Moores debacle. And for all their talk of learning from this massive first Test defeat there appears to be something rotten at the core of this England team. If that is the legacy of the damage self-inflicted by the handling of the departures of captain and coach then the consequences will be truly catastrophic. This was worse, much worse, than the 46 all out in Trinidad 15 years ago because on that occasion England had to face two greats of the game in Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh steaming in on a far worse pitch than this with just an hour to go before the close to give their all. Kevin Pietersen is bowled by Jerome Taylor on an embarrassing day for England in Jamaica And this is worse, much worse, than the last day capitulation in Adelaide during the last Ashes because then England were faced with the greatest of them all, Shane Warne, playing tricks with their techniques and their minds with the biggest cricketing prize at stake. Here we are talking about Jerome Taylor and Sulieman Benn, both of whom bowled exceptionally well but both of whom would not have got anywhere near the West Indies side of the 80s and early 90s. England should have been able to cope with what was thrown at them comfortably on a pitch that just got slower and lower rather than misbehaved as the match progressed. As the dust settled yesterday on the nightmare of the day before it was left to one of cricket's most impressive men to face the music. Andy Flower has stood up to Robert Mugabe in the past, even returning home to Zimababwe alone after his black armband protest at the death of democracy in his country during the 2003 World Cup despite serious concerns over his safety. So the prospect of picking up the broken pieces of the last England regime along with another strong man in Andrew Strauss is hardly going to faze Flower now. Even if his reluctance to be called anything more authoritative here than assistant coach even though he is in charge is not helping dispel the impression that the chain of command on this tour is confused. 'I've heard all the talk about disunity,' said Flower after deciding that England's inquest will be left until today to give the players time for individual reflection. 'And I can honestly say this group works well together. If you had 25 people in an office you will get the odd ruction and it's the same with a sports team but as far as disunity is concerned it's simply not true.' There was, though, an acceptance that all the distractions, not just the fall-out of the Pietersen-Moores affair but the Indian Premier League auction and the drawn out saga of signing central contracts had taken a toll. Has there just been too much disruption to be conducive to optimum performances? 'There may be an element of truth in that,' said Flower, who was insistent that the buck must stop with him despite the presence here of Hugh Morris, managing director of the England team, and Geoff Miller, the national selector. 'What happened (with Pietersen and Moores) wasn't ideal preparation for any tour but we have to deal with that and I don't think it had anything to do with the collapse here. 'In the end sportsmen have to deal with what they're given. We failed the first test here but we have three Tests left to do something about it. The players are hurting and they are not proud of what happened. The important thing is that we become stronger for it.' Is the bottom line here the fractious relationship between England's two best players? Andrew Flintoff baulks at the suggestion that he was partly responsible for Kevin Pietersen losing the England captaincy but he has admitted that he could not back Pietersen's quest to have Peter Moores replaced as coach and the pair's very different personalities seem to be casting a shadow over the collective effectiveness of the team. Flower chose his words carefully. 'They get on like two adults get on,' he said. 'They get on in the changing room. They are fine. Both of those guys have been through quite a lot in their lives and in a lot of ways they are very mature in putting things behind them and getting on with the job. I can only commend them for that.' Even so the time has now come to break up a batting unit which simply has not lived up to its collective potential for far too long. The dropping of Jimmy Anderson here showed that bowlers in this England team have been far more likely to lose their places than batsmen but the extended support of Ian Bell must come to an end now. This talented, meek man can come again but he needs to be taken out of the firing line for now and Owais Shah given his belated chance. England cannot afford to let the malaise last any longer. AXE MONTY AND BELL .... and replace them with Graeme Swann and Owais Shah, says ex-England spinner Robert Croft 'It’s not all doom and gloom, now it’s time for cool heads' - captain Andrew Strauss 'One of Strauss’ biggest tasks, along with stand-in coach Andy Flowers, is to unify the dressing room' - ex-captain Graham Gooch 'This win is up there in my top three. We must wait until the end of the series to see whether it can be No 1' — West Indies skipper Chris Gayle 14 series since England won the opening Test — the last time being against Bangladesh in 2005

[veer]

i would imagine IPL price tag must have played little bit of careless ness.... they are getting millions.. man, I wouldnt blame them...

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IPL blamed for England demise Former captain Graham Gooch fears England lacks direction - and believes the Indian Premier League auction was a distraction during its humiliating first-Test defeat by West Indies. More... IPL blamed for England demise 09/02/2009 4:50 AM Former captain Graham Gooch fears England lacks direction - and believes the Indian Premier League auction was a distraction during its humiliating first-Test defeat by West Indies. Gooch told Radio 5 Live's Sportsweek that captain Andrew Strauss' priority before the start of the second Test on Friday is to unify the England dressing room. "You've got to give massive credit to the West Indies for turning in a fantastic performance on the back of losing 19 of their previous 30 matches," he said. "Having said that, there are a lot of things to concern about English cricket - not least the fact that England haven't got a steady hand on the tiller." "I don't know how permanent the captaincy appointment is, and they haven't got a permanent coach. It does worry you about the direction they're going in and whether the team are just standing still and not going forward." "One of Andrew Strauss' biggest tasks, along with stand-in coach Andy Flower, is to unify the dressing room." Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff both landed contracts worth $US1.55 million with the IPL last week, and Gooch thinks the auction may have affected their team-mates. "The England team say there has been no distraction with the IPL. But when all these background influences are going on, it's not the best environment to give your best performances," he said. "For Andrew Strauss to say it's hardly been mentioned doesn't seem believable to me. I'm sure the IPL has come into the background in discussions." Gooch also believes England suffered from a lack of adequate preparation for the Test series in the Caribbean. "It's an issue that comes up every tour," he said. "I always think England teams are 'undercooked' when they go into Test series." "They play a couple of matches, but I don't think that's adequate practice for a full-blown Test series." "Batsmen need to get runs under their belt, and bowlers need to get their run-ups sorted out and get that rhythm as well." Former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd believes Strauss needs to perform with the bat in order to become an effective leader. "His problem will come if he doesn't make runs, because he will be worrying about that and then worrying about the team," he told Sportsweek. "When I was captain we used to target the captain. If you can get the captain to fail often you put pressure on him. He's all over the field with his field placing." "How can you marshall your men when you yourself are not doing well? He must go out there and do well with the bat."

[EnterTheVoid]

This was to be expected The Aussies blamed the IPL after on the test losses to S.A. Now, England are following suite. If the IPL is such a problem, why not just stop playing in this year's tournament and just concentrate on the test? How do you explain English losses before IPL Gooch? Remember the Adelaide Ashes test where England spectacularly choked on the final day to hand over the win on a silver platter?

[bunny]

It's not the IPL, it's the stupidity in the selections. With such a weak batting lineup, Eng can't afford to play 5 bowlers, but still they insist on this. They need to drop Panesar or Harmison.

[Fontaine]

The IPL huh? What a bunch of weak knee'd crap. West Indies also had players in the IPL but I didn't see them being affected. What about NZ who are giving Australia hell for leather and fighting hard?

[Don Sharma]

They ought to get the selection right. Robert Key is a better bat than Owais Shah and Ian Bell, thankz to the selectors he is not even in the squad. Also they keep on persisting with Harmy, they should have played Swann instead of him, maybe they thought the Jamaican pitch wud not suit spin. BTW they should have also checked the 'tale of the track' the average 3rd innings total on that wicket was around 180 odd runs, but they won the toss and batted first. Hopefully they should continue to make these mistakes and the WI go on and clinch the series.

[CSK Fan]

The ones who got high money in the IPL are the ones who performed the best in this test

[Dark Warrior]

they need Michael Vaughan in d middle order

[Fontaine]

You know what the biggest problem with England Cricket is? They're are utterly obsessed with the ashes. It's appalling that since the last ashes they've treated virtually every single test series as a "warm up" for the ashes. What a joke when you consider that Australia don't even regard England as any kind of threat and view the series against teams like India more important. Even now, these idiots are reluctant to make changes and bring in NEW young players to replace guys like Cook/Bell that are in a rut because they don't want to blood young players leading up the ashes? Forget about long term thinking, forget about winning every single match and making it all important. These idiots think two years of futility in test match cricket can by wiped away if they somehow win the ashes.