England’s ICC Champions Trophy campaign saw them lose all three matches, eliminated from the tournament in unceremonious fashion. While the performances themselves have been put under a microscope to understand the issues, another big complaint from English media has been the attitude of the team, which has been pointed out as a cultural question-mark within this unit.
England managing director Rob Key, who has the unenviable task of overseeing England’s recovery from this tournament, spoke to Sky Sports about his thoughts regarding this team. While he defended the players, he did comment on some remarks made by the team in the lead-up to this tournament.
"I have no issue with the way our guys go about things,” said Key. “But there's no doubt that we've got to get better when we're doing interviews, when players are doing their post-match press conferences, we speak a lot of rubbish a lot of the time.”
A standout moment was Ben Duckett claiming that England didn’t care about the series against India in the buildup to the tournament. While the England player rolled back his words and was one of the few players who could leave with his head held high, it signalled a lack of concern for this format for many within the English cricket ecosystem.
"They're trying so hard to not sort of upset players in the dressing room, not try and give away something that they don't think they should, and then they end up creating headlines through that,” explained Key. However, he also mentioned that he did not want to make a mountain out of a molehill: “But I don't kill people for the things they say."
{{/usCountry}}"They're trying so hard to not sort of upset players in the dressing room, not try and give away something that they don't think they should, and then they end up creating headlines through that,” explained Key. However, he also mentioned that he did not want to make a mountain out of a molehill: “But I don't kill people for the things they say."
{{/usCountry}}"There's not a world in where we think the players don't care, that they don't want to go and get big scores, that they don't care about winning, that they're arrogant,” explained Key. "That's absolutely not true. Half the time when they're getting themselves into trouble it's because they're actually trying to concentrate so hard that they end up making mistakes.”
Key also responded to reports of the England players being distracted during overseas tours and tournaments, with a common refrain being that the players enjoy being on the golf course more than they enjoy training.
"A lot gets made of the way they go about things and the way they spend their time when they're not playing, which I have no issue with," said Key. "When I saw the team in Pakistan, they practised hard. They got stuck in; it wasn't that they weren't practising which was why we didn't perform.”
England’s next international assignment is a one-off Test match against Zimbabwe in May, after which their attentions will turn to the home series against the West Indies, after which the crucial home Test series against India will kick off the next World Test Championship cycle.