BARBADOS — Now England are finally out of this T20 World Cup there needs to be an honest conversation about the future of coach Matthew Mott.
The pros and cons about keeping the Australian in position can be debated at length. But when it comes down to it, the numbers come down firmly on the side of removing him halfway through his four-year deal. Since winning the tournament in Australia two years ago, England have won 17 and lost 26 of their matches against full-member nations across T20 and ODI cricket.
In that period they have surrendered both World Cups in the process and suffered possibly the worst major tournament campaign by any England team in any sport when they bombed out in the first round of the 50-over World Cup in India last autumn.
This tournament was nowhere as bad as that. They made the semi-finals after all.
But having lost three of their four matches against Test-playing nations, England’s progress to the last four cannot disguise the fact this is a white-ball team going backwards.
The 36-run hammering by Australia in the first round that pushed Jos Buttler’s team to the brink of elimination and the 68-run semi-final evisceration by India in Guyana were as bad as anything served up during that shambolic 50-over campaign.
Unfortunately, the leadership of Mott and Buttler needs to be assessed across both tournaments. Did the good in the Caribbean, and they were nearly eliminated by Scotland in the first round, do enough to outweigh the bad in India?
The answer is no. It clearly seems that the chemistry between coach and captain is not right.
And if you are looking to change that, it is the coach who would make way because for all his faults over both recent World Cups, Buttler deserves a chance to take the T20 and ODI teams forward.
Not all of this is Mott’s fault. But there has been a lack of imagination and inflexibility from the top that has cost England over both of these last two World Cups.
In the Caribbean there was good as well as bad. The ability to overcome a poor start, something they were unable to do in India, was encouraging.
Yet there were also plenty of red flags when it came to key decisions. Why was Reece Topley overlooked for the first two games? Why was Mark Wood, a bowler whose lack of variation kills him in T20, persisted with for so long?
Why was Harry Brook batting so low down the order when he is clearly England’s best batter bar Buttler?
Why were the tactics so rigid? England won six out of eight tosses and chose to chase every time. Against India in the semi-finals it proved fatal on a low, slow pitch that was always going to get harder to bat on.
There was a lack of original thought in selection for that semi-final, too. Ben Duckett, whose variation of sweeps have seen him thrive in sub-continental conditions in Test cricket, would have been the brave pick, probably in place of Jonny Bairstow.
Will Jacks would also have been a smart pick. Jacks was dropped for the rain-shortened final group match against Namibia and never seen again. He is a player England must place faith in as they look to rebuild.
Is Mott capable of refreshing the T20 and 50-over teams? He certainly thinks so, saying after the semi-final defeat: “I think Jos and I as a partnership we’ve been galvanised in the last six months. I think if you asked around the dressing-room, we’ve got a lot of people in the support staff that have given credit to the leadership group for the way we’ve stuck together in tricky circumstances. So sometimes it’s not all about results.
“Obviously, we’re in a results-driven business and you guys will have your fun at our expense I’m sure. But when you do your best you can sleep at night knowing sometimes results are out of your control.”
There were echoes of that doomed 50-over campaign in those comments, particularly the stuff about this being about more than results and the barb about the criticism he knows is coming.
It is worth pointing out this interview was done by the one English-based journalist who made it out to Guyana, Matt Roller from ESPN Cricinfo. i, like every other UK newspaper here in the Caribbean, covered the semi-final remotely from Barbados following the travel chaos surrounding the fixture.
It is also worth noting Mott has made a conscious effort to ingratiate himself with the media since the 50-over World Cup, where he got progressively more belligerent the worse the results got.
The real Mott, seemingly coached to deal with a hostile media, has shown himself these last few weeks. He seems a decent man trying his best. Unfortunately he is out of his depth in a role he was never meant to find himself in.
When he was hired it was to have a light touch alongside the inspirational captaincy of Eoin Morgan.
When Morgan left two matches into his tenure, the job changed. Mott has won a T20 World Cup. But England’s white-ball teams have got progressively worse since that success in Australia.
It is time for change. Whether Rob Key, England’s director of cricket, pulls the trigger before England’s next series against Australia in September remains to be seen. But doing nothing only risks prolonging the decline into next February’s Champions Trophy in Pakistan.