Nasser Hussain has slammed the criticism of England’s domestic structure after their disastrous World Cup 2023 campaign in India.
England suffered their fourth loss of the tournament on October 26 as Sri Lanka beat them by eight wickets pushing them to the brink of elimination from the World Cup. Jos Buttler and his side have failed to live up to the tag of defending champions during the tournament with big losses to New Zealand, South Africa and a shock upset at the hands of Afghanistan.
A lot of the criticism has been directed towards the lack of attention given to domestic one-day cricket in England for the team’s debacle at the World Cup. However, Hussain feels it is unjustified and claimed to Sky Sports that it is like giving the players an excuse to escape from the performance in India.
The former England captain pointed out the examples of the likes of Virat Kohli and Heinrich Klaasen and said they have mostly played franchise T20 cricket instead around the globe to work on their white-ball cricket.
ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2023: Full Coverage
Hussain went on to say it was the same structure that made England the World Champions in the first place.
“What I don’t like is giving players a cop out,” said Hussain. “And I feel like sometimes we do that in English cricket. When we win the 50-over World Cup and the 20-over World Cup, aren’t they great? We’re brilliant. And when the wheels come off it’s the structure. It’s the structure of English cricket, we’re a disgrace. We play 20-over cricket, we play 100-ball cricket, we don’t play enough 50-over cricket.
“How much 50-over cricket domestically has Virat Kohli played? Or Heinrich Klaasen or anyone out here? They don’t play domestic 50-over cricket, they learn from T20 franchises around the world. That’s what’s made this great side over the last six years, travelling round the world playing T20 franchises. It’s such a lame excuse.”
“You’re giving the players a cop out when you blame the structure. The structure that made them world champions, it is exactly the same structure. Yeah, you may have taken the eye off the ball a little bit and not given them enough practice and games going into the tournament. But it was the structure that produced them, so when they mess up, they mess up, not the structure. It’s always county cricket, it’s the Hundred, it’s the Blast – Root had to answer a question on maybe we get rid of the Blast – that’s what’s made our cricketers. County cricket makes the cricketers that we are. Whether it be the Hundred, the Blast, 50-over cricket, whatever. That’s what makes them and when they fail, they take the responsibility.”