File photo of England cricket team.© AFP
Former England player Geoffrey Boycott has lashed out at the England cricket team for its poor show, of late. Jos Buttler-led England had a forgettable ODI World Cup in India. In the quadrennial tournament, the side finished at the seventh spot in the ten-team table with only three wins to its credit. It got poorer for England as the side’s much-talked ‘Bazball’ approach in the Test format saw it losing 1-4 to India. Boycott stated that “Test cricket is not an exhibition” and the players should “join a circus” if the results don’t matter to them.
“All we have had over the last few months is the Twenty20 World Cup in the Caribbean, where England performed poorly, the Indian Premier League, which helped a few of our moderate to average Test players get rich, and before that a miserable 4-1 Test series loss in India where England started well, but in the end were hammered,” Boycott wrote in his column in Telegraph.
“In India last winter, ego and hubris got the better of some of our players. They came out with comments about being entertainers and how it was important to score quickly and thrill the crowds. All that is laudable but they should never lose sight that there is a winner and a loser and losing isn’t much fun.
“Test match cricket is not an exhibition. If our players start to think that results don’t matter then they might as well join a circus or go around the world like the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team doing tricks, laughing and joking and not bothering who wins so long as everyone has a fun time.
The England cricket team made a return to the longest format of the sport with the first Test against West Indies being played at Lord’s. The match kicked off on Wednesday also happens to be the last international appearance for England great James Anderson.
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