There’s tetchy, and then there’s Ben Stokes ‘tetchy’ – pulling out his mic and stomping off cursing, or so I’m told, after Jonathan Agnew asked a disobliging question.
Admittedly it’s hard not to feel some sympathy for Stokes, an inspirational leader on the pitch who had just seen his team skewered in two days in Perth in one of the most brutal (and thrilling) Ashes Tests in history, and then had to do a live BBC interview.
But this was the ever-courteous Aggers, for heaven’s sake, the nearest thing to a secular saint for TMS. There’s no need for a four-letter outburst. He was asking what were standard if faintly troublesome questions about why England were not going to Canberra for a day-night beer match to get a sense of the conditions in the current Test in Brisbane. Answer: the conditions were wildly different and England preferred to stick together and practise here in Brisbane.
What the ruckus was symptomatic of was a growing disconnect between the England players and supporters which we have never seen before. The fans, tens of thousands of whom are in Australia, have always been ultra-loyal but have started to feel that there is an underlying arrogance and stuff-you attitude, possibly caused by bad PR. The England team were said to be marginalising their excellent and highly rated press spokesman Danny Reuben, who had always been a great influence in this area.
What happened in Perth wasn’t exactly fun for an England supporter but it was, after all, just a game
Clearly now, Stokes, a man of great sensitivity, is beginning to recognise this, if the interviews he has done in Brisbane are anything to go by. He is rowing right back on his sneering at the ‘has-beens’, former Test captains who have dared to criticise his tactics. ‘Call us rubbish,’ he has said. ‘But don’t call us arrogant.’ He has started to understand how bad the presentation is. There were just too many days when nobody knew what the players felt about what happened in Perth. Now they realise this – and that is one of the reasons they are deploying the always-engaging and PR-savvy Joe Root to chat to the travelling press.
There has certainly long been something cultish about Bazball. If you think we are changing our master-plan, well we are not, said head coach Brendon McCullum after Perth. The notion of banning negative thoughts in the dressing room is all very well, but it means the most you are likely to hear is stuff like ‘This coffee is delicious’. Is anyone willing to challenge the leadership? It seems unlikely.
The team have had to endure a continual barrage from the Aussie press. ‘They should stop patting themselves on the back and get serious or risk Ashes embarrassment,’ said the West Australian, with pictures of English players golfing while being watched by bored kangaroos.
Let’s face it: what happened in Perth wasn’t exactly fun for an English supporter, but it was not a disgrace. It was just a game (tell that to the thousands). Some you win, some you lose – and when you lose you should try to behave with good grace.
And here, as in many things, we can all take guidance from another great leader, the Springboks’ mighty rugby captain Siya Kolisi. After his team had dismantled Wales 73-0, Kolisi made a passionate plea on behalf of Welsh rugby. The players should not be disappointed to lose; world rugby needed Wales.
Easy to say, perhaps, when he had just thumped somebody out of sight, but nonetheless important words and after all, he said, the Boks had been through the bad times themselves. They were beaten by England 53-3 in the early 2000s at Twickenham. Kolisi added: ‘Our purpose is to play as hard as we can so there is something to smile about, to give the people going through hopeless situations hope. Our purpose is always for our people back home.’ Something for Stokes and McCullum to think about, surely.
Comments