England’s Peter Moores offers unequivocal support to Alastair Cook

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/dec/14/alastair-cook-england-peter-moores-sri-lanka

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In the wake of a wretched defeat in Pallekele on Saturday, which meant the series in Sri Lanka was lost, Peter Moores offered unequivocal support for his beleaguered captain, Alastair Cook. Even so England’s World Cup plans were no clearer than the nearby Mahaweli river which is in spate and muddy brown.

Moores wants Cook as his captain for the World Cup in Australasia. That much is clear but the England coach was unable to give an absolute guarantee this would be the case. It remains a delicate and confusing situation. “For me, I think Alastair Cook is the right man to move us to the World Cup,” Moores said.

Moores is one of four selectors and the other three, James Whitaker, Angus Fraser and Mick Newell, are in England. “We always go and review what’s happened because that’s fair to the captain, fair to the team and fair to the public,” Moores said. “I’ll go into a room with the other selectors and we’ll talk about it. We would be wrong not to look at the series and review.

“Alastair is our captain and nothing has changed on that front. He has said very clearly that he is very keen to carry on and he wants to remain as captain of England. He knows nobody has a guarantee of that. If someone says no one is unsackable, that would be a ridiculous comment. We’ve got four different selectors and we always pick what we think is the best team and that will be no different moving forward.”

The latest rash of speculation about Cook and the captaincy was provoked by a nightmarish day for the England captain in Pallekele. Cook dropped a straightforward catch at mid-off when Kumar Sangakkara, playing his last ODI in his hometown, was on 41. Inevitably Sangakkara forged on to hit a match-winning century to the rapture of the home fans. Then Cook was lbw to his second delivery. Yet again he was mesmerised by a gentle off-break – Sri Lanka’s captain, Angelo Mathews, no longer gives Cook the luxury of any pace bowling at the start of the innings. And England went on to lose emphatically by 90 runs, leaving them 4-2 down in the seven-match series.

The one match left on the schedule is in Colombo and Moores suggested Cook would play. The team fly home straight afterwards. On Saturday England’s squad for the tri-series in Australia with the hosts and India will be announced and in essence this will be the World Cup squad of 15 with the possible addition of an extra player. By 8 January – before that tri-series is under way – the World Cup squad must be announced.

So this instalment of an interminable debate about Cook has only six days to run. That is plenty of time for a bit more obfuscation and bewilderment. And there is always the possibility Cook’s place in the side will remain a source of much agonising during the World Cup even if he is confirmed as captain. (There is the recent precedent of Sri Lanka dropping their T20 captain, Dinesh Chandimal, in mid-tournament and winning the trophy in Bangladesh earlier this year).

Moores appears to be walking a tightrope, displaying loyalty to Cook while giving his selectors leeway to take an alternative view. However, the expectation is that Cook will continue; the hope is that he finally scores some runs.

Yet it has been an odd 24 hours. Usually among selectors there is a strong sense of “cabinet responsibility”. But here was Moores saying unequivocally Cook is his man as if “cabinet responsibility” was as outmoded as the hula hoop.

If his fellow selectors hold a different view and it is decided to appoint a different captain it will be clear that Moores is setting off to Australia without the captain he wants. Thus his position would be diminished. All of which strengthens the notion that after their “routine” review later this week Cook will be confirmed as captain for the World Cup and off-spinners will be flexing their spinning fingers.

Moores was right to point out the concentration on the captain and his batting woes has deflected attention from some of the encouraging aspects of the tour. “Yesterday was very disappointing because we lost the series,” Moores said, “but we have seen the emergence at different times of Moeen Ali at the top of the order, Joe Root in the middle cementing his place, James Taylor coming in. Some of the bowlers, like Chris Woakes and Chris Jordan, are really starting to take a bit of responsibility.”

These are valid observations but it is wishful thinking to expect the focus to be on those advances when the series is lost and the England captain and vice-captain, Eoin Morgan, are not batting well enough to justify their places in the team.