"I hold myself accountable for that" - Robert Key takes responsibility for England's poor performance in 2023 World Cup
England men's cricket team's managing director Robert Key has accepted blame for the national team's failure to defend their crown in the 2023 World Cup in India. Key admitted that he has always prioritized Tests above the other two formats.
While England finished their campaign with two consecutive wins, the general expectation was to make it to the semi-finals. The defending champions won only three matches out of nine to finish seventh.
During an interaction with BBC Sport, Key stated that he holds himself accountable for giving too much importance to Test cricket.
He said:
"That's not their fault. I feel like it's harsh if I turn around and blame the captain and coach when I hold myself accountable for that. It's hard for me to be critical of Jos Buttler and Matthew Mott when I'm the one who, every single time the decision has been made for whether or not we focus on 50-over cricket, Test cricket or T20, I've always chosen Test cricket."
The 43-year-old also acknowledged thinking that the team will adapt once they are in India despite the lack of 50-over cricket.
He said:
"I made the mistake of thinking that actually it will be alright when we get there and that's not been the case. You sort of made the assumption that, without playing lots of 50-over cricket, actually this is such a good team that will just slip into old habits and away we go."
Captain Jos Buttler's performance with the bat was arguably the biggest letdown as he failed to pass 50 in nine completed innings. The keeper-batter finished with 138 runs in nine innings at 15.33.
"We have to get back to defining every single role" - Robert Key
Key also highlighted that they will have some honest conversations on how to move forward from a poor World Cup campaign. At the same time, he assured full support to Jos Buttler and Matthew Mott.
On this, he said:
"We have to get back to defining every single role. Who do we want, who is the best player to fulfil that role. We'll have some pretty honest conversations and say, right, what are you going to do to improve this. But he gets my full backing and an opportunity to try and turn it around.
"This actually should be the making of those two [Buttler and Mott] as a partnership. If isn't, it isn't and you move on but we have to make sure some good comes out of what has been a very poor World Cup."
England's next limited-overs is against the West Indies, set to begin at the Caribbean in December.