Alastair Cook said their batting let them down against West Indies © Getty Images
After suffering a loss in the third and final Test against West Indies at Barbados, the England captain Alastair Cook said the jibe by the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, Colin Graves, calling the West Indies as “a mediocre team” before the start of the Test series. Plenty of West Indies players referred to that jibe, saying that it helped them play better. Including the new coach, Phil Simmons, a former Test player, said the team had not taken on the criticism and noted the victory now sent a strong signal to the critics. Cook though said that those comments were “not ideal”, he acknowledged that the players need to take the blame for the defeat, especially their poor batting. Phil Simmons thrilled by West Indies’ display of character against England in 3rd Test
Graves, had said in an interview in March, “I’d certainly be disappointed if we don’t win the series, because I am pretty sure the West Indies are going to have a mediocre team.” “That’s his right as chairman to say what he wants,” Cook said last night. “A comment’s a comment. People can say what they want. It’s never ideal, against an opposition you’re about to play. It gives everyone else a team talk, we know that. But we can’t control anything about that. So as the players, we get on with it. If we’d played to our potential and taken our opportunities it would have been irrelevant. We were probably 50 runs short on the first innings, but we still got a 70-run lead which on that wicket was a lot of runs going into the third innings. It shows you can never win a Test match in a session, but you can lose it, and that’s pretty much what we did,” he said. Mediocre England have plenty to worry about ahead of New Zealand, Australia series
On being asked about England’s chances in the Ashes, Cook compared the loss to the series in Carribean in 2009 which had led to a victorious Ashes summer for them. “Absolutely,” he said. “The best England side I played with started out losing out here 1-0. We had an amazing run after that, and got better and better. I’ve got no doubt that these players will get better and better. Hopefully we can replicate the journey the other side went on.I believe Joe Root and Gary Ballance will break all kinds of records for England. Jos Buttler is looking more and more like an international player,” he said. England slump to 4th spot in ICC Test Rankings following defeat to West Indies
Peter Moores, the England coach, said they did not need any inquiry for the results in the series. “I don’t because I think if anybody’s come to watch and they’ve watched on television, they’ve seen a mix of some senior players and also some young players play some excellent cricket, they’ve made some mistakes and in this game it’s cost us a Test match and we’ve ended up drawing the series. We very nearly won the first Test and credit to the West Indies – I thought they fought hard all the way through and from that point of view you give them their credit by getting a win at the end to draw the series,” he told Sky Sports. Jonathan Trott retires from international cricket
Moores said that this experience would be a good learning curve for the players.”We’re frustrated because we felt we dominated the first two games, it’s a great opportunity to come here and win a Test match. We’ve got to learn some tough lessons. We’ve had chances to really put the opposition under extreme pressure. We haven’t always taken those options all the way through so there’s a ruthlessness we need to develop a a team,” he added.