Former England captain Ian Botham has labelled the current one-day side a “national embarrassment” following its calamitous World Cup campaign.
SEE ALSO:
England captain Eoin Morgan and coach Peter Moores must be sacked immediately
Twitter erupts to blast embarrassing England after Cricket World Cup exit
(Video) DISGRACE! Highlights as England crash out of World Cup to Bangladesh
England’s 15-run loss to Bangladesh was its fourth defeat in five matches in Australia and New Zealand and sent the Three Lions packing in the group stage.
In a column for The Mirror, Botham wrote that those in charge must take responsibility for England’s diabolical performance at the World Cup.
“England’s pathetic performance at this World Cup has been a national embarrassment,” Botham wrote.
“A total shambles of a campaign right from the word go and the people in charge must take responsibility and pay the price for this failure.
“There must be changes from top to bottom because I, for one, have had enough of the same old excuses and the same old failings. I’m bored senseless by this team and the way it is run.”
Botham, who played in 102 Tests for England, said took particular aim at coach Peter Moores and his reliance on “data” following comments made after the shocking defeat to Bangladesh.
“And all the talk about data and analysis is just laughable,” Botham said.
“I don’t need a laptop to tell you that England have been a shambles, and I don’t need a software programme to tell me whether Ben Stokes has got what it takes to compete at this level.”
The outspoken Botham suggested it was time for England to begin an overhaul of its one-day side and bring in youngsters such as Stokes and Alex Hales.
“It is time to bring in the young fearless power players like Hales, like Stokes, like Jason Roy, and like Chris Jordan, who can win you matches and who will have a go trying to do it,” said Botham.
“I’m not interested in an England one day team playing the percentages and sticking to the same team because ‘They got us into this mess so they can get us out of it’.
“Nonsense. If they keep getting you into a mess, maybe you should be looking elsewhere.
“These players get paid an awful lot of money to do what they do and the public are perfectly entitled to expect better performances than this.”
England face Afghanistan in a dead rubber on Friday 13th March at 3.30am (GMT).
COMMENTS