The Ashes, fickle fans and the future of Derbyshire

Alastair Cook still has room to improve as a captain

Forgive the alliterative nature of the header, which came to me this afternoon while following online the action in the sensational final day’s play in the fourth Test at The Riverside.

I’ve been critical at times of some of the Derbyshire support and the comments made in the aftermath of defeats, yet some of the stuff being spouted by people as Australia’s score inched towards the target set by England today was extraordinary.

I always said Cook wasn’t a captain. Broad doesn’t look a Test bowler. Swann isn’t the player he was. They’re not as good a side as they’ve been made out to be. These and more hit the internet from people who, one assumes, have a modicum of knowledge about the game. How silly to make such statements about outstanding cricketers in the best England team in many years. How silly did these people look later in the day when the expected happened – Australia collapsed like a pack of cards.

Don’t get me wrong. I think Cook is a decent, rather than fine captain and as I’ve said before, the captaincy ‘gig’ is a lot easier when you have the bowlers that he has at his disposal. A top captain makes things happen and will try something different – he’s proactive rather than reactive. Someone like Eddie Barlow would have tried Joe Root or Kevin Pietersen today to change it around. Mind you, Eddie would have bowled himself and the job would have been sorted in jig time.

The Aussies were never going to make those runs and there were enough lucky moments, even when Rogers and Warner were going well, to reassure me that all would turn out well. I said so to work mates and so it transpired. The major problem they have is that they have little collective experience of English tracks that move around and it was no surprise that Chris Rogers has looked as good as they have, as his long experience of our conditions has served him well.

Usman Khawaja is a good player but looks short at this level, while Steve Smith is an improving player who really needs to complete his cricket education with a season here, foregoing the IPL where he earns good money but picks up bad habits. When the Aussies ruled cricket, people like Langer, Hayden, the Waugh brothers, Martyn, Hussey et al  had solid county experience behind them. They don’t have that now and, realistically, won’t get it again in a hurry. Why would Smith forsake £100K for six weeks in the IPL for much lesser in the county game and over a longer period?