Battered and bruised: England’s abject defence of the Cricket World Cup
England have lost five out of their six games played so far at the Cricket World Cup. Despite having won the tournament in 2019, this time round they have been bullied by other teams. Aaron Viles, a cricket podcaster, tells Daniel Wales why.
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00:00 Well, bitterly disappointing, to be honest, Dan, and I think that's probably a little
00:06 bit of an under-exaggeration, to be honest, because as you mentioned, world champions,
00:12 the first time in this country's history, 2019, it was a summer that none of us will
00:17 ever forget in a cricketing capacity. And the way in which it's all unraveled, this
00:22 was a team, the nucleus of which, had won the T20 World Cup just last year in 2022.
00:28 It's been staggering. It really has been. I don't think we've seen a downfall like this
00:33 in modern cricket history, to be honest. It's not just because of the schedule. It's not
00:37 just because they played fewer ODIs, which is definitely a factor. So if you look at
00:42 the period between 2015 and 2019, England played 88 one-day internationals. Now in the
00:48 same period from 2019 to 2023, they've only played 42. In that, we've had the likes of
00:55 Ben Stokes, he retired and suddenly he's back. And then Joe Root has had two 12-month periods
01:00 in that time where he's not played a single game in this format. So that probably does
01:06 come into it. Potentially, there is something behind the scenes, but again, we'll never
01:11 know. Maybe someone might write a book about it one day and we'll find out.
01:15 Given the disappointing performances and results, I wanted to find out whether the ECB are simply
01:20 overlooking ODI cricket and why this is.
01:23 At the moment, as we speak, the ICC, so the governing body of world cricket, are questioning
01:29 the formats as a whole. We might not even have an ODI World Cup heading into the 2030s.
01:35 So on an international level, absolutely. And of course, at the domestic level, we all
01:40 know the conversation. I'm not going to get into the debates about the 100, but as a result
01:45 of that new format, the 50-over competition, which is the Metro Bank Monday Cup, has been
01:50 pushed to the peripheries of county cricket.
01:53 Perhaps this tournament may be a write-off. Is there hope for the future in this format
01:58 with young talent coming through?
01:59 100%. And the reason I say that is because of 2015. 2015, at the time, was, for a lot
02:06 of people, the absolute pits of English ODI cricket. I remember watching that tournament
02:11 in its entirety, staying up watching those games in Australia and New Zealand, watching
02:16 Tim Southey take 7 for 33 against us in Wellington and thinking, "This can't get any worse."
02:21 And what did they do afterwards? They put plans in place. They decided to strip away
02:26 what had been previously utilized in ODI cricket, and they completely revolutionized the format
02:31 in this country. We've got a great young leg spinner in Riyan Ahmed. We've got a guy like
02:35 Sam Hain, who averages 53 in ODI cricket. And yes, he was against Ireland, but the bloke's
02:40 incredible in the format. You can build a side around him. He's only in his 20s.
02:45 So you look at English cricketing talent at the moment, it's undeniable. We've got the
02:51 pieces in place to challenge.
02:53 England will not defend their Cricket World Cup crown. And with this cycle of players
02:57 coming to an end, a new set of emerging talent will have to carry the hopes in four years'
03:03 time.
03:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]