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Director of cricket Rob Key is ready to take his share of the blame for England\u2019s World Cup downfall, insisting head coach Matthew Mott will be given \u201cfirst opportunity\u201d to put things right.<\/p>\n
Having arrived in India among the favourites, the 2019 champions are set to depart on Sunday among the also-rans, having scrambled to a seventh-placed finish.<\/p>\n
With six defeats from nine games, this goes down as the country\u2019s worst ever performance at the event, leaving Mott under pressure after 18 months in the job.<\/p>\n
Some read Key\u2019s decision to jet out to Kolkata for the end of the tournament as a bad sign for the Australian, but he and captain Jos Buttler instead received the backing of their boss.<\/p>\n
Rather than line either up as a blood sacrifice, Key focused on his own prioritisation of England\u2019s Test fortunes, which have sparked to life under Brendon McCullum\u2019s guidance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look at what I\u2019ve not done rather than blaming everyone else. I hold myself accountable for a lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince I\u2019ve started this job, it\u2019s very hard for me to be critical of Jos Buttler and Matthew Mott when I\u2019m the one who, every single time a decision has been made around whether or not we focus on 50-over cricket, Test cricket or T20, I\u2019ve always chosen Test cricket.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen there was a choice in Pakistan over who got the best players, I\u2019ve always said, \u2018sorry, Test cricket gets that focus at the moment\u2019. The same thing in South Africa. I\u2019ve always chosen Test cricket. It\u2019s not easy for coaches and captains when you haven\u2019t got the ability to plan and have your best team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not their fault. So I feel like it\u2019s harsh if I turn around and blame the captain and coach. Really, I hold myself at the top of that list for what\u2019s gone wrong on this trip.\u201d<\/p>\n
He gets my full backing. He\u2019s the person to get the first opportunity to put that right, but it\u2019s certainly not a case of saying \u2018carry on, let\u2019s keep doing everything the same’.<\/p>\n
Key\u2019s backing for Mott did come with a gentle reminder that the mandate was not open-ended, with next summer\u2019s T20 World Cup an obvious barometer for improvement.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as I\u2019m concerned he gets my full backing. He\u2019s the person to get the first opportunity to put that right,\u201d said Key.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s certainly not a case of saying \u2018carry on, let\u2019s keep doing everything the same and get the same result\u2019. You\u2019re now the person charged with sorting this out \u2013 along with myself, along with Jos, along with everyone else who has any kind of decision-making authority in English cricket. It\u2019s for everyone to be accountable for that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty simple as a coach, your job is to make sure that every single player is improving and getting better and that\u2019s what we haven\u2019t done. He will accept that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel this actually should be the making of those two (Mott and Buttler) as a partnership. If it isn\u2019t, it isn\u2019t and you move on but we have to make sure some good comes out of what has been a very poor World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Key suggested another decision he had got wrong was in not hiring somebody with greater knowledge of Indian conditions to their backroom team. When England won the T20 World Cup in Australia last year they not only had Mott\u2019s expertise, but two other locals in David Saker and Michael Hussey as coaching consultants.<\/p>\n
England have been guilty of picking the wrong teams, failing to judge a par score on particular pitches and made some poor calls at the toss. Most obviously, they opted to field first against South Africa in energy-sapping heat and humidity in Mumbai and were promptly run ragged.<\/p>\n
\u201cI set up a coaching team that had no local experience really,\u201d he reflected.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you get to somewhere like Mumbai \u2013 and it all seems so simple now \u2013 you\u2019re worried about dew and all of this other stuff. But someone who knows these conditions really well would say \u2018it\u2019s hotter than the sun out there; make sure you have a bat\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was only in the last couple of games, have we actually understood the way that we went about things. We should have known this but we didn\u2019t going into the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n
There will be more analysis in the coming days and weeks as England try to come to terms with going from all-conquering champions and 50-over trailblazers to a seventh-placed side feeding on the crumbs of Champions Trophy qualification.<\/p>\n
But Ben Stokes may have said it best on the eve of England\u2019s penultimate game against the Netherlands when he summed things by saying \u2018the problem is we\u2019ve been crap\u2019.<\/p>\n
Key, ultimately, could not put it better himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would agree,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n