Cricket: England ponder ditching old guard

Andy Flower. Photo / AP

The England cricket team are pondering whether to ditch the old and go with the new in time for Christmas. It may not be quite so simplistic or sweeping a strategic change but Andy Flower, their coach, revealed yesterday he and his fellow selectors will entertain such revolutionary thoughts after the tame surrender of the Ashes to Australia.

With two tests still left in the series, in Melbourne starting on Boxing Day and in Sydney early in the new year, the tourists are undoubtedly feeling the opprobrium of the public even from thousands of kilometres away. In losing the first three tests by thumping margins they have gone from favourites to stumblebums in a month. Such dramatic falls inevitably provoke outpourings of outrage.

Having had a couple of days to dwell on the defeat and its margin, Flower said: "We still have two tests left in the series and [they] are very important matches.

"One of the challenges we have got is focusing on those and trying to win them but also trying to judge or judging when we start to look to the future and keeping an eye on the future. So I will be chatting with selectors and [captain] Alastair Cook, and we will be clarifying that type of strategy over the next few days."

Knowing Flower, he will probably err on the side of caution. Being the studious and diligent man he is, wholesale changes would be against his natural instincts and so they should be. But he will be keenly aware that, after this series is finished, England have only 12 test matches before the next Ashes at home in 2015.

He would not be drawn on his own future yesterday but nothing much should be read into his refusal to commit himself to the job beyond this tour. True, he may eventually give serious thought to stepping down, but since being appointed he has always insisted that he never thinks in the long term for himself, only for the direction the team might take.

When Flower says his attention is only on the next two tests in this series, he ought to be believed.

England have played watchful cricket under Flower, which has relied on patience and precision, two of the coach's own attributes. It has failed to work now because Australia came out slugging every day, a controlled whirlwind destroying a carefully assembled structure.

Flower's next challenge may be to accept that some of his old warhorses should be put out to grass. Either that or he must find a way to regenerate the likes of Graeme Swann, Jimmy Anderson, Kevin Pietersen and Matt Prior. All of them are over 30 and regeneration, a la Dr Who, may be neither as straightforward as reconfiguring the Tardis, nor advisable.

There comes a time in the affairs of cricketers as of common men. Even if they are still the best players now, Flower and his advisers have to deduce if they will still be that in 2015. Australia, incidentally, face a similar conundrum.

This Ashes winning team, containing eight men above 30, will probably represent them in South Africa in two months time but after that will need serious refashioning.

- Independent