Things are not going well for England Cricket. They got humiliated in the Ashes just a few days ago and several fans as well as former players have now started pointing fingers. Many of them are suggesting that captain Joe Root and head coach Chris Silverwood should be removed from their respective positions. A number of netizens are also criticizing the poor management of domestic cricket as the reason for England’s downfall in the longest format of the game.
Amid such circumstances, ECB’s managing director Ashley Giles has issued a public apology for England’s current state. He has blamed it all upon himself and said that England cricket needs a total change in its current administrative system. However he has also said that chopping down players from the squad will be of no help at all.
In an interview with BBC Sport, Ashley Gill said, “I absolutely feel the responsibility of losing this Ashes series. We all do and we can only apologise. I know there will be a lot of emotion, a lot of anger about how we’ve lost it. But we know it’s not an easy place to come. In the last 34 years we’ve come here and won once (in 2010-11),” he added.
“Unless we look at more systemic change, a collective responsibility, and collective solutions, we can’t make whatever changes we want. You can change me, we can change the head coach and change the captain, but we’re only setting up future leaders for failure. That’s all we do. It’s only pushing it down the road,” Giles said.
Ashley Giles added that the performances of every player in the Ashes will be analysed and strict actions will be taken soon.
“We will review the tour, obviously. Everything will be on the table. We’ve got two Test matches left, the series might be lost, but we’ve got two matches we can make an impact on and we’ve got to try to,” Giles further said.
He also went on to criticize England’s domestic cricket for not producing talents that are ready for International level.
“Are we creating (domestic) conditions that will allow us to better prepare our cricketers for playing in the conditions out here? I’m not sure we are at the moment. What we play, when we play, on what (pitches) we play – that’s a collective responsibility. It’s up to us as ECB but also a conversation to have with the counties,” he said.