In his latest blog on PakPassion.net, famous fast bowling coach Ian Pont discusses England's poor performance in the 2015 World Cup and the reason why they are struggling.

By Ian Pont (9th March, 2015)

It's hard to put into words what it's like to be an Englishman right now. Getting dumped out of the World Cup does that to you. 

But it's made all the harder if you are an English coach who has had a hand in developing the Bangladeshi bowlers. Better still when two of those bowlers are quicker than England's bowlers.

At Bangladesh's first World Cup win over England in Chittagong on March 11th, 2011, in the still of a humid, dewy evening under lights, when the winning runs sliced through cover - a nation went wild. 100,000 plus fans blocked the car park and surrounding roads. The team bus didn't get back to the hotel until almost 3am, such was the mayhem.

Fast forward almost four years to the day and a Rubel Hossain yorker - one of the rarest of English bowler's deliveries - took out Anderson's leg stump as well as the last remaining hope England had of staying in the 2015 World Cup. The fact that it was four years was made all the more perplexing as we could see Bangladesh's improvement in major competitions, yet we can see nothing like that from England.

For England, now one of the 'Big 3' taking a greater revenue share of the ICC funding, it was a desperate crash landing without the safety net of a final win against Afghanistan to limp into the last eight. All that was swept aside by a professional performance from The Tigers, who gave the assured display many critics had accused them of not possessing.

So what has gone wrong for England?

The fall out after the Ashes ignominy has not been fully rectified. Changes in personnel, staff and mindsets have led to a hesitance to be creative or innovative. Many might argue England has lost the ability to even do many of the basics right - not least bowl the ball in the right place and swing it. But players do not become poor overnight. That takes time. What can be lost overnight though is belief and this is where I think England has started its own demise. Not having simple faith in yourself - or others - can destroy achievement like a cancer. None of the toying of management plans have helped this either. Too many changes, too many uncertainties and not enough knowing who your best team even is, do not help instil confidence in your squad.

The coaches rightly claim for all they can do, they cannot bat and bowl for the team. The analysts state that for all the data they give, it is simply information based on what happened before. Use the data wisely to look for trends and you can in theory (and practice) get a jump on your opposition. Going into the nets and practicing your skills is an area that coaches and players will both be keen to get a mastery over. But NONE of this makes any difference if your players cannot execute plans - or the plans they ARE executing, simply are not right. And it cannot be right for England to have tested out the centre of the pitch so much at the death of an innings. It cannot be right for the Yorker to be so wilfully untried. And it cannot be right for a power hitter player like Alex Hales to sit out whilst he watches Bell and Ballance scratch about whilst other teams have McCullum, De Villiers, Sangarakkara and Gayle. 

So the question is, has England lost touch with fifty overs cricket, or has the rest of the world simply got better at it?

Records have been smashed at this World Cup. Twelve an over is the new eight an over. No longer is it acceptable to have Test players 'having a knock' whilst balls get left outside off stump.

And that starts at the top by the men who set the agenda. It comes from role clarity and players understanding what they are meant to do. But more than all of this, it comes from planning for the big competitions. Sadly, England has only managed to secure an early exit by overlooking this most basic of requirements.

Whether the coaching staff stays in place is for the high ups at the ECB. Many countries boards would sweep the lot out and start again, but England is far more conservative than that. They are more likely to give people as many chances as they can before finally admitting they might have made a mistake.

New Zealand arrives in England in May for a series ahead of Australia and The Ashes. It remains to be seen whether Australia or indeed New Zealand, arrives as World Cup winners. I think Peter Moores will most likely be in charge for those games. Perhaps even the hapless department specialists will be given one last shot.

Perhaps England can take a leaf out of Bangladesh's book here and build something for the future and not many people would have thought they would be thinking like that.

Discuss