England’s cricketing intelligentsia are divided this week because the English look to stage the collection after a heartbreaking defeat within the first Test at Edgbaston.
With coach Brendon McCullum’s seemingly invincible ‘Bazball’ method to the sport damaged by the Australians on their first try, England’s legends are cut up on how one can method the second Test at Lord’s.
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Sir Geoffrey Boycott, who scored 8,114 Test runs for England at 47.72 with 22 Test centuries, stated latest remarks from the England camp that sought solace within the leisure worth of the loss was indicative of a aspect that bought forward of themselves.
“I enjoyed the cricket, it kept you on the edge of your seat,” Boycott stated on the Vaughany and Tuffers Cricket Club podcast.
“England were winning every session, but they didn’t win the match, and that should tell them something for the next Test. They lost sight of the fact that the object is to win and then if you want to entertain then yes, by all means.
“But why can’t you win and entertain?
“When you get ahead of yourself – and that’s what England did – they stopped thinking.
“If you’re going to just entertain, they might as well be a circus. That’s it, go be a professional circus around the world.
“If you ask people in England ‘Do you want to win the Ashes, or do you want to entertain and lose?’, I know what the answer will be.”
Meanwhile, Nasser Hussain, former England captain who led the aspect from 1999 to 2003, disagreed.
In his column for the Daily Mail, Hussain stated that regardless of the plain danger, it was evident that Stokes and co prioritised profitable.
“All we have seen since that (first) Test are comments on the merits of Bazball and whether it can win the Ashes,” Hussain wrote.
“We must also remember that, whatever England say about not being a results-based side, the reason they have introduced this style is to maximise their chances of winning.
“I have wanted England to win the whole of my life. But, as a 55-year-old, I do now see the bigger picture.
“When I left Edgbaston I looked at the crowd and the record viewing figures on Sky and thought, ‘Yes, we want a bit more of that’.”
It comes amid remarks from Stokes after the defeat at Edgbaston, telling media he had “no regrets” over his method.
“I am very proud. To take it to the end of day five like that and have all the emotions,” Stokes stated.
“It was a rollercoaster, so up and down. It is another one of the games we will never forget being a part of.
“We just want to be a part of some great moments. Hopefully we have managed to attract the attention.
“A loss is a loss. We stuck to our guns in terms of how we were going to operate. We are going to keep coming at Australia in the way that we did.
“I saw (the declaration) as an opportunity to pounce on Australia. No one likes to go out for 20 minutes at the back end of a day.
“Scoring 390 and then being able to declare sends a message to Australia about how we want to take them on.
“If we didn’t declare, would we have got that excitement like we did at the end? I’m not 100 per cent sure but I’m not going to be looking back at this game as what ifs. We just didn’t manage to get over the line.”
Originally revealed as Geoffrey Boycott, Nasser Hussain cut up over England’s Bazball ‘circus’
Source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au
