Same old England!

Perhaps one day England will grasp the concept of ODI, and Twenty20 cricket. Over the last ten years, English one-day cricket has had more ups and downs than a trampolining competition. It seems no matter who we put in charge, which players we pick and what tactics we have, we just can't play the shorter format.

In the 2003 World Cup, we were knocked out by the old enemy, in a game we really should have won. After putting 204 on the board, England reduced Australia to a precarious 135-8 with just over 12 overs remaining. But a staggering 9th wicket partnership (73) between Michael Bevan (74*) and Andrew Bichel (34*) saw Australia home. This result kind of sums up England's performances in one-day cricket over the years - the potential is there, but we just can't get over the line. In major one-day tournaments, we always fall short. In the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy played in England, we were beaten in the final by West Indies, in a very similar way to 'that' match against Australia. Courtney Browne and Ian Bradshaw were the 'party-poopers' on this occasion, and England's search for a winning formula continued.

If we take England, in comparison to the best side in the world, South Africa, there are obvious differences. South Africa have the ability to clear the rope with will, with the likes of AB de Villiers, Albie Morkel, and Mark Boucher in the middle order. Whereas England rely solely on Kevin Pietersen, and to an extent Luke Wright, but we've seen far too often in the past, if these two fail to perform, England's middle order is not strong enough to hit the big runs required in the latter overs of a Twenty20 or One-day international. Our approach seems to be, try to make use of the powerplays, if that doesn't work, nudge and nurdle for ten/twenty overs and then try and clear the ropes. Take South Africa's approach, and that is pure and simply to smash the ball to the boundary whenever they can. And it's been successful. Twenty20 has been around long enough for England to take examples from the successful teams, and see what tactics they employ, and not only that, but we invented twenty20! Picking a team made up of test match cricketers (Paul Collingwood for example) is simply not good enough when you have to hit sixes to win the game.

England's inconsistent form in one-day cricket was highlighted best during the 2006/07 CB Series in Australia, whereby England were bowled out for just 110 against New Zealand in one of the earlier group games, but went on to beat Australia 2-0 in the best of three finals. Confidence should have been taken from this performance and such a spirited recovery, but come the next major one-day competition, just months later in the Caribbean, England were outplayed when they needed to perform most. The selection of fairly average players could be the reason for this. The likes of Paul Nixon, Liam Plunkett and Jamie Dalrymple are clearly not international cricketers. It seems that we are not able to produce the kind of players we need for the one-day game, in the way that Australia, South Africa and all the other successful teams do.

The inclusion of Graham Napier in England's World Twenty20 squad is the most puzzling. This is a man brought into the side for his huge hitting and pacey bowling, yet he didn't play a single game. Not even a warm up game to see how he goes. If England are to be successful in one-day cricket, they have to be ruthless in their selection. Be brave and get rid of Owais Shah, against popular demand. Drop so called 'big name players' and give someone who has genuine Twenty20 pedigree have a go. The one occasion England did do that, was in the wrong match, at the wrong time. Adil Rashid was brought into the side in place of Graeme Swann for the game against The Netherlands which seemed a risk at most, but the inclusion of Robert Key, clearly not noted for his six-hitting, in place of Dimitri Mascarenhas, who memorable clobbered Yuvraj Singh for 5 consecutive sixes at the Oval in 2007, was the most bizarre selection of them all. Key came to the crease with 5 overs remaining and ended unbeaten on 11. If Mascarenhas had been there, who knows - he may have scored triple that score and lifted England near to 200. In the end The Netherlands went on to win, and win well.

England's reluctance to drop players for poor performances is their downfall, and if they are to be successful in any form of cricket, this has to be done. We can't afford to keep taking chances on players that have shown they are not made for the shorter game, and we need to look at the county circuit, see who is performing and who can score quick runs, and get them in the team. To this day it still staggers me that James Benning has never got a shout in the England side. He's scored numerous runs for Surrey in one-day cricket, and at a strike rate of over 100. One innings that springs to mind was his unbeaten 189 against Gloucestershire last year. Surely performances like these need to be rewarded with a chance or two on the big stage?