The England one-day captain continues to praise the IPL’s learning experience, but his more immediate concern is ensuring the team pick themselves up from their opening-match thrashing.
One way or another, it seems certain that England will have a different captain – and coach – for their first ODI after the World Cup.
With confirmation that Eoin Morgan will be involved in the IPL – it was not certain he would be bought – comes confirmation that he will be unavailable for the ODI against Ireland in Malahide on May 8.
Nobody, either coaches or players, involved in the England tour to the Caribbean, which is scheduled to finish on May 5, will be considered for the trip. So candidates such as Jos Buttler, the team’s official vice-captain, Joe Root, Stuart Broad and Ian Bell are all unavailable. Morgan has been assured by the ECB he can miss the Ireland ODI.
It seems that Mark Robinson, the Sussex director of cricket, is favourite to coach the team – manage might be a more appropriate term – while James Taylor must have a great chance of becoming an England captain. Don’t be surprised if Andy Flower also returns to the coaching team in some role.
It might, at first glance, appear odd to allow Morgan to play in a foreign domestic league rather than an international fixture. Particularly at a time when England’s resources are so stretched and they are playing a fast-improving foe.
But there is a growing sense within English cricket that one of the problems with the national side’s limited-overs form is their lack of experience of the biggest domestic tournaments around the world. There is an understanding that more experience of big crowds, high-pressure situations and the chance to share ideas with other leading international players might outweigh the short-term disadvantages.
Those disadvantages are real, though. By diluting county cricket further – and with young player incentives and tougher work permit criteria, the ECB have diluted it a great deal in the last decade – the gap between the domestic and international games grows further. There is, ironically, more need to encourage players to participate in competitions such as the IPL and the Big Bash. It is, in short, creating another problem by solving a self-created problem.
