Hey, I didn't see this coming!

I thought we'd covered all of England's excuses. Apparently not.

Graham Gooch, in his syndicated column in 'The Hindu' mentions the one thing I've not heard about so far - the pitches. He writes

If there is no action, the fans also end up worrying about the waste of a ticket. Indian cricket authorities need to regulate their policy on refund and security. They also can't ignore the sub-standard pitches.

He is spot on when it comes to security and refunds, given the violent reaction by spectators at Guwahati.

He's totally off the mark as far as pitches are concerned, assuming that he's referring to the ones used for the one-day series. Gooch has obviously put on his batting hat while writing, for I can't quite see why good one-day pitches are those which produce nothing short of 300 runs per team. I don't think any of the pitches so far have been sub-standard, especially given the relative definition of that term. It has been England's fault that they let India make 290-odd on a Goa pitch where India would have easily defended 230.

It has been England's fault for making a mess of their chase at Delhi, not making a big score while batting first at Faridabad or at Kochi, bowling 52 wides in four one-dayers thus far and the pathetic bowling at Goa.

Blaming the pitches, to me, smacks of a self-pity policy. Unless England's team, administration, supporters etc. recognize that there is a serious problem and feel that it needs to be rectified, England will continue to slip into a morass. I'm quite glad to see them make all these excuses. It is impossible to tackle a problem if there's no acceptance of the reality of it's existence.

Then again, he was the skipper of the England team which toured India in 1993 and blamed the defeat on prawns, pollution etc. etc.. So it must be hard for him to face the facts square on!