Blame ECB failures and not Joe Root for England’s Ashes humiliation in Australia – The Yorkshire Post says

As England captain and head coach respectively, both now appear to accept their own tactical and selection errors that have proved costly to the Test side in Australia. Root, one of the game’s most prolific run scorers, may decide that three successive Ashes defeats as captain is enough and decide to focus on his world-class batting.

Yet, even before Covid and injuries disrupted preparations, their chances were totally compromised before they left for Australia by the short-sighted stewardship of the domestic game by the England and Wales Cricket Board.

As well as being impotent in its original handling of the Azeem Rafiq and Yorkshire racism scandal, the ECB has prioritisied the ‘crash, bang, wallop’ of the shortened Twenty20 version, including the launch of a new format, while marginalising the County Championship where Test players hone their skills and learn the deftness of patience.

No wonder Root’s side were so ill-prepared to take on a resurgent Australia and the inquest now underway into the Ashes debacle should actually start with the governing body.

If the ECB still values Test cricket, as well as the prestige and riches that come with Ashes success, it needs to reappraise the domestic fixture list and coaching set-up rather than allowing Root and Silverwood to be fall guys for chief executive Tom Harrison’s failures of leadership.

If not, any future success against Australia will become even more elusive.

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