Giles: Approach to one-day format is not fit for purpose
FORMER one-day international coach Ashley Giles insists England will continue to flounder in the 50-over game until cricket bosses develop a more strategic approach to the shorter format.
Giles was overlooked for the top job when the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) decided to combine Test and limited-overs coaching roles last April and Peter Moores was appointed for a second stint in charge.
England crashed out of the World Cup on Monday after defeat to Bangladesh, a fourth loss in five at the tournament, results which Giles believes are symptomatic of a undefined one-day stance.
“I don’t think we have got our long-term strategy right at all. In this country Test cricket continues to take priority and if we continue to prepare for tournaments, even six months out, it is too late,” said Giles.
“If you compare New Zealand. Two years ago we went over there and beat them 2-1 in a really tight series. The following year they beat us 2-1 in a really competitive series. They’re now miles ahead of us with a similar team.
“We changed our side, not even at the 11th hour, but at the 12th hour. The first game of the World Cup [against Australia] we changed the formula we had been playing with while preparing. That doesn’t work.”
ECB managing director Paul Downton, meanwhile, has confirmed that a major review of England’s dismal World Cup will be conducted, although any fall-out is likely to be delayed until after next month’s Test series in the Caribbean against West Indies.
“All I have said is that we’re still within the first year of his [Moores] appointment,” said Downton. “We clearly will have a major review of what’s happened in the last six months but particularly during the World Cup. No decisions are going to be made in the short term.”
England have one final World Cup clash remaining, a dead rubber against Afghanistan in Sydney on Friday, for which all-rounders Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali are both injury doubts.