Dubai: Alastair Cook says England’s poor showing at the Cricket World Cup proves that the decision to sack him as captain just two months before the tournament was the wrong one.
The Test skipper also insisted Peter Moores is under pressure as coach — but he remains a huge fan of the former Lancashire boss — while saying English cricket needs reforms, but not wholesale changes.
Cook was replaced as one-day skipper by Eoin Morgan in December after a poor run of personal form with the bat and a disappointing series of results in Sri Lanka. The move was seen as a gamble by the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and it failed to pay off as England were knocked out in the group stage in Australia and New Zealand, beating only associate countries Scotland and Afghanistan.
The 30-year-old could only watch from afar as Morgan’s side were thrashed by co-hosts Australia and New Zealand in their first two matches, before also suffering at the hands of Sri Lanka and, crucially, Bangladesh.
And Cook believes England’s cause wasn’t helped by the change in captaincy.
“I think you saw the dangers of making such a big decision so close to the tournament,” the Essex opener said on the sidelines of the Emirates Airline Twenty20 tournament press conference in Dubai on Wednesday.
“It looked like the lads were shell-shocked from those [first] two games and that’s when you need real leadership to try and help steer you through. Whether I would have made a difference, I don’t know, but I was fully confident we’d have got out of our group.
“You’ve got to win three games, that’s how this World Cup format has worked. You back yourself and I would have loved to have been given the opportunity that was taken away from me. The selectors made that decision because they thought it was best for English cricket — hindsight has probably proved them wrong, but it’s very easy to say that now.”
Cook, who will play for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in Friday’s event at The Sevens stadium, remains proud of his achievements as one-day captain.
“I’m always going to have a biased view,” he said. “But I was there for three, three-and-a-half years trying to do a job. We got to No. 1 in the world and we got to the final of the Champions Trophy. There are things I can be very proud of.
“As any person will tell you, leading your country in a World Cup is a huge honour, one which should never be taken lightly. I was very much looking forward to it. I understand the pressure I was under, I wasn’t scoring the runs I should have been scoring. I understand my position was in jeopardy.”
Moores, who is in his second spell as head coach, has come under fire for England’s World Cup performances, with the team accused of being behind the times with their approach to 50-over matches.
The 52-year-old has enjoyed great success in county cricket with Lancashire and Sussex, but is once again under fire with the national team.
And Cook said: “In this day and age, it’s all about results. There’s no doubt about it, there’s pressure on him, there’s pressure on all of us.
“All I can say is I’ve really enjoyed working with Peter — in my eyes he’s a fantastic coach. He just needs a bit of luck for that to come out.
“I really enjoy working with him, I think the lads do too, so I hope he stays and I hope he has the opportunity to turn it around. I’ve only got good things to say having worked with him as a captain.”
Cook, who has scored more than 8,000 runs and 25 hundreds in Tests, says changes are needed if England are to compete at the top level in all formats of the game. But he warned against going too far as the sport is still in a healthy state in the country.
“You’ve got to be very careful saying we’re lagging totally behind. We’ve had some amazing success over five or six years — although the last 15 to 18 months have been tough,” he said.
“Let’s not say we need to strip everything down and totally change it, but I think we’d be very naive to think that our domestic system and even the international side is working up to its full potential.
“I genuinely believe there has to be some changes. They need to be very carefully thought about and they need to be very clear because it’s obviously very important. There’s a chance now with a new chairman [Colin Graves] and new CEO [Tom Harrison] at the ECB, they are going to come in with fresh ideas — but let’s not totally slag off English cricket because of one bad six weeks. We still produce cricketers of fantastic skill and performance.”
