MUMBAI: Australians have long insisted a key problem for English sports teams is not losing but the fall-out from winning.
Jos Buttler’s men are certainly doing their best to prove their arch-rivals’ point at the World Cup in India, an eight-wicket hammering by Sri Lanka in Bengaluru on Thursday leaving the reigning champions on the brink of elimination after a fourth defeat in five games.
It will be meagre consolation to Buttler and his team-mates to know they are not the first England men’s side to falter in the defence of a global title.
England won the 1966 football World Cup on home soil – still their lone major international soccer triumph – yet four years later were knocked out at the quarter-final stage in Mexico with what some pundits thought was a stronger squad.
And England were unable to back up their 2003 rugby union World Cup success, although they did reach the 2007 final.
In that context, England adding last year’s T20 World Cup title to the 50-over trophy won so thrillingly in a 2019 final against New Zealand at Lord’s could be viewed as bucking the trend.
Sri Lanka heap more World Cup misery on England with big win
Indeed, no sooner had their Test counterparts climbed to the top of the five-day game’s world rankings in 2011, after winning all four home games against India, then they lost their next four matches.
“I don’t know if lost focus is quite the right phrase to use, but, if there are degrees of hunger and desire, perhaps we dropped off a couple after getting to No 1,” said the then England coach Andy Flower.
Matthew Mott, England’s current white-ball chief, found himself under fire for saying data indicated they field first in energy-sapping conditions during a colossal 229-run thrashing by South Africa in Mumbai.
As if that were not enough, the Australian added: “I thought the heat was more than we bargained for.”
‘Can’t rest on your laurels’
Heat of a different kind is now coming England’s way, with none of their four defeats at his World Cup in any way narrow - they started with a nine-wicket loss to New Zealand and suffered a 69-run loss to Afghanistan that daily looks less shocking.
In Mott’s defence, England had only 10 pre-World Cup one-day internationals this year, excluding games against Ireland shortly before they left for India that did not feature members of their tournament squad.
It all suggests a rather casual approach to retaining their 50-over crown.
Buttler, who has managed a meagre 95 runs in five matches – with 43 coming in one innings against New Zealand – insisted England were not relying on past glories, even though every member of Thursday’s XI was aged 30 or above.
“I think in any sport or anything, you can’t protect anything or rely on the past,” said the skipper following a defeat by Sri Lanka that left England – who next play unbeaten hosts India on Sunday – needing to win all four of their remaining pool matches to have any chance of reaching the semi-finals.
“You have to go and create it again. You can’t rest on your laurels, take anything for granted or just think it would be alright on the night.”
Buttler, to his credit, refused to use the familiar excuse of blaming the schedule for England’s woes. “The schedules are the schedules and we’ve got a lot of things in our favour,” said the 33-year-old wicketkeeper batsman.
“We’ve got fantastic support from the coaches…We get fantastic support from our fans as a country, and we’ve let them all down. It’s been a really tough few weeks, incredibly disappointing.”
He added: “So, I don’t think there’s any blame elsewhere apart from ourselves. And as captain, you sort of feel that the most.”
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