England’s one-day woes: You do not get better at something by not doing it - Chris Waters

Or, to put it in simple terms, you do not get better at something by not doing it. What is it they say about the 10,000-hour rule, that practising something for 10,000 hours is enough to make you good at it?

Although there would seem an obvious flaw in there somewhere (on that basis, we’d all be good at everything if only we put in the time), it does contain a kernel of truth – one that the powers-that-be would prefer you to ignore.

Of course, they would say that England’s opponents do not play much domestic one-day cricket either, a narrow argument that overlooks all other factors that go to make up performance.

As a generalisation it is true, however: Josh Inglis, for example, who scored an unbeaten hundred against England last Saturday, has played only 19 List A games for Western Australia, while Ibrahim Zadran, who took them for three figures on Wednesday, has appeared only 21 times in Afghan domestic cricket.

Virat Kohli, whose name one has heard used to validate this argument more than once, has made 299 of his 333 List A appearances for India (considerable experience in its own right, of course), but Kohli is one of the greats of the game and well-versed in the art of building an innings in Test cricket; others, too, have shown the skill to adapt.

England, though, are stymied on two fronts: first, by the decline of one-day cricket at home and, second, by a seeming inability to adapt like their rivals.

Indeed, they give the impression of treating one-day cricket not so much as an entity in its own right, with its own particular rhythms and nuances, but rather as an extension of the cruder, less subtle T20.

It’s as if their “go hard or go home” philosophy can simply be translated from one format to the other. Alas, when it comes to the Champions Trophy, “go home” has proved to be the operative term.

It is not difficult to pinpoint an obvious problem.

As the game has moved towards a global franchise model of predominantly T20 cricket, the 50-over format has been left behind with neither enough room for it in the schedule nor enough opportunity for the best players to take part in it when the games do take place.

The Hundred has killed the 50-over One-Day Cup as a serious competition in England and no plausible argument can be made to the contrary; it clashes directly with it and takes away the best players. Not exactly a recipe for a strong international side.

Even if the One-Day Cup was moved to the start of the season, as has been mooted, it would still clash with the Indian Premier League and the Pakistan Super League and perhaps have an adverse impact as well on the County Championship, thereby merely rearranging the problem.

Indeed, if there was no One-Day Cup in August to clash with The Hundred, surely it would be the Championship that would be shoved into that slot - or no doubt some would advocate a fifth competition to do the job instead (there is, alas, no end to the madness).

Nor, alas, is there an effective solution.

The game has changed irrevocably since the advent of T20 and market forces dictate the priorities, with The Hundred a direct result of the global trend.

Anyone who thinks it possible to have the IPL, the PSL and all the other T20 tournaments, and to drive a coach and horses through the county season by introducing The Hundred, and for England to still compete strongly on all fronts, is deluded.

And so the Kurt Cobain type of thinking prevails – if practice makes perfect (at 50-overs cricket) and nobody’s perfect (at 50-overs cricket), then why practise (50-overs cricket)?

But ask yourself a question if you think differently on this subject.

Would England have been more or less likely to have won the Champions Trophy if there was a high-quality, domestic 50-over competition in this country, in which the best players took part, and in which young players learnt by playing against the best?

Or, to extend the argument, would England be more or less likely to win Ashes series if there was no County Championship?

Yorkshire’s Harry Brook has taken some stick of late, with his scores having dropped from their previous highs.

But consider the statistics: Brook has played just 12 one-day innings for Yorkshire, the last of them in May 2019. When it comes to 50-over cricket, he is – as he himself has admitted – learning on the job.

The Champions Trophy may be a tinpot tournament, of interest mostly to the players involved, their close friends and relatives and, of course, the accountants, but England’s two matches have been enjoyable to watch, highlighting the appeal of the 50-over format.

In the first game we saw outstanding hundreds from Ben Duckett and Inglis as 350 played 350 in a match with Australia that could have gone either way.

Ditto the game on Wednesday, when Afghanistan prevailed despite having been 37-3 early in the piece, recovering to reach 325-7 on the back of Zadran’s innings.

That they were able to do so was precisely because 50 overs gave them the time, for fascinating twists and turns to develop, for a greater test of talent, temperament and ticker to be set.

Each to their own, but whereas we all remember the Ben Stokes Ashes Test at Headingley in 2019, and the 50-over World Cup triumph of the same year, can anyone honestly say, hand on heart, that they recall with any such fondness any game they have ever seen in The Hundred, or in any T20 tournament, international or otherwise?

What does that tell us?

Well, you can make all the money in the world – and The Hundred has made plenty – but the core product counts for something.

If they don’t play 50-over cricket, what right have we to expect our players to be any good at it?