Paul Collingwood: England Ashes were sitting ducks in Australia – they deserve medals, not criticism

The English Ashes players “deserve medals, not criticism” because they played five test matches in Australia during the pandemic and were among the “sitting ducks” series after 18 months of living with bubbles, said England coach Paul Collingwood.

Collingwood, who is the acting head coach of the T20 team in the West Indies, he also said that the series of five Test Ashes should be divided into two winters to ensure that English players are fresher for the competition. The idea of ​​playing two tests in the 2021/22 season and three in the 2022/23 season was discussed among the players, but the England and Wales Cricket Committee never formally proposed Cricket Australia.

“People need to understand how it was, and it’s almost impossible to measure how much the bubbles affected the preparation,” Collingwood said.

“These guys deserve medals, not criticism. They have to be told ‘well done’ that they even went. It’s like inviting the English national football team to the World Cup and then from this balloon to the euro. We would expect a show under this scenario? That’s funny.

“Yes, we made mistakes, we made 100 percent mistakes in the selection, we made mistakes in the draw, but the fact that we actually showed up and arranged a series of ashes with five games, the boys should get medals for that.

“It would be much better if we played two games and then three next year. That would be a great compromise. But, no, Australia didn’t mind accepting an English team that was mentally tired, they just wanted to put the product there. They just wanted ashes. We sat ducks. “

Collingwood said that in a tense English schedule, it seemed as if finances were given priority over the mental well-being of the players.

“We continued cricket for those two years; we had to do it for financial reasons. The players had to sacrifice things, just like their families, ”Collingwood said.

“Resilience is a major trait you need to have when you go to Australia, and if your resilience is removed because of the situation you’ve been in, it has an impact.

“If people expect top performances from your best players and your best players play all the time, that’s unrealistic. You just can’t do that.

“I hope that the bubbles will start to recede from cricket and I just hope that administrators and administrations will not continue to press to try to protect matches because we also need to protect the mental health of players and management. What I’ve seen over the last two years is that we’ve kept the show on the road, and it was important that the show stay on the road to keep people’s jobs – be it the media, the actors, or the administrators. This has saved a lot of jobs. The ashes were a step too far. “

Collingwood said he fears the bubbles could shorten the players ’careers, citing the case of South African couple Quinton de Kock and Chris Morris. De Kock retired from test cricket at age 29, and Morris retired from all formats at age 34.

“This is another thing that worries me. You’ve seen this all over the world of cricket. People like De Kock, Chris Morris, have retired early, ”Collingwood said.

“Take someone like Chris Woakes. The cutest and down to earth guy. I saw him in a serious state of mind. We’ve seen this affect Ben Stokes, someone we consider to be the most mentally hard cricketer in the world. I just hope there won’t be any consequences because when they come, they won’t be obvious next week or a week later. These are the things that can come next. That’s what scares me. “