The game is up for England–and it’s painful to watch

 

England hasn't suddenly become a team comprised of players without the skills for Test cricket. More than half the side is world class by any standards and have outstanding records - and the rest are more than competent. So you have to look at what is going on in their heads to find out what is going wrong. Mitchell Johnson hasn't been in a laboratory where a Dr Frankenstein has equipped him with magic arms. Physically he is the same bloke who couldn't even get in the Aussie squad only a few months ago. You have to look at what is going on in his head to find out what is going right.

Why would Andy Flower decide to pack it in with England? Not because he's not up for the fight - he is a man with huge personal courage and principles. We'll have to wait for his inevitable book to find out! But we can guess. I suspect that he thinks that too many of the England team have become prima donnas whose ambitions are mostly concerned with boosting their bank balances and shining their egos. They are good cricketers and they know it - and they assume that their talent will carry them through. Sometimes it does - and when luck goes their way as well they'll do alright. They were very lucky in the summer of 2013 and the 3-0 Ashes series win (nearly 4-0) was a travesty. The signs of decline were there for all to see. Indeed they’d been there for a while.

Winning and losing are both habit-forming. Self-belief will always beat self-doubt. In early 2012 England played three Test matches against Pakistan all of which they lost. In the three matches they averaged 191 runs per innings. It was woeful. Spineless. But then they got home and easily beat a poor West Indies side. Masters of the cricket universe again! Except that they weren’t - as a good South African side showed them immediately (2-0 series win for SA). 

England has at best been inconsistent over the past two years and at worst seriously in decline. Only when they are winning are they up for the fight. And they get it in their heads that a bowler is unplayable (Ajmal versus Pakistan, Johnson at the moment) so that bowler then becomes unplayable. A self-fulfilling prophecy. Is there a way back? Well there is no evidence except perhaps the straw that a year ago they came back from losing the first test in India to win the series 2-1. Can they do the same in Australia? I’d like to think so, but I don’t.

The game is up.