England need to pull themselves up for 2nd Test
A lot was expected from England’s tour of the West Indies and a lot has already happened. There have been many arguments and counter arguments as to the effects and counter effects of off-the-ground affecting things on it. The talk of the town has been whether Twenty20 form of cricket and Indian Premier League (IPL) affect players’ techniques as well as their minds.
Beyond this debate, the fact of the matter is England have been humiliated in the very 1st test of the ongoing series at Sabina Park. And we’ll have to live with that, period. Now the most important issue concerning each and every fan of England cricket should be the 2nd test match against West Indies. This match will be played at Sir Viv Richards stadium, Antigua from this Friday onwards.
It is not going to be an easy match especially when you are 1-0 down and have been beaten thoroughly in last encounter. But the England players should pull themselves up and only look at the positives. They are an exciting bunch of young and promising players. They must help each other get back in winning mode and listen to Andrew Flintoff who very rightly said, “We have all the ingredients of a successful side, but we need to mix them together.”
On the IPL front, unfortunately there have been some very harsh reactions from some of the former players and captains of the England team. First it was Graham Gooch, and now Nasser Hussain has also come out with his own analysis and conclusions. Hussain feels that IPL affected the players from being a “happy bunch.” He went on to add the possibility of uncomfortable equations between KP and some of the players post KP-Moores fiasco.
But in the middle of an important away series I think let’s refrain from making comments that might adversely affect the psyche of our already jaded cricketers. Instead we should just let them lace up their Adidas Twenty 2 Yds Lo Cricket shoes and get back into the game; rather than continue to distract them and make unnecessary comments regarding their obviously poor prior performance.
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