The Analyst's 2019 in review: World Cup success cannot mask England's flaws

SIMON HUGHES reflects on a historic year in English cricket, where a year of red-ball mediocrity undermined the astonishing achievements of the white-ball side

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Alastair Cook was knighted at the beginning of 2019. Geoffrey Boycott and Andrew Strauss became Sirs in mid-summer. Three retired batsmen honoured. It is a stark reminder of what the England Test team are generally missing now. Runs. Bucket loads of them. Men who sell their wickets dearly. Three times this year England have been bowled out for under 100, once by Ireland. Only one man, Ben Stokes, averaged over 40. It is the main reason England have not won a Test series this year.

It may be churlish to start a review of a year in which England won a first-ever World Cup with that analysis, but these last 12 months have been bookended by dismal Test defeats against teams (West Indies and South Africa) with significantly inferior resources only recently beginning to emerge from organisational chaos. The good thing, of course, about these losses and two series defeats is that they were overseas so less people are aware of them. Fortunately, at home the story was a much happier one.

It was always said that 2019 was a vital year for English cricket. This was the summer when the World Cup and the Ashes were the main events – cricket had the sporting stage more or less to itself. It was a golden opportunity to showcase the game and right the wrongs of putting the entire shindig behind a satellite paywall in 2005.

Last week's awards of a CBE to Eoin Morgan, OBEs to Ben Stokes and Trevor Bayliss and MBEs to Jos Buttler and Joe Root – as well as Stokes winning the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year prize – demonstrate that the game delivered. England, faltering half way through the World Cup, recovered their stride and reached the final, precipitating its showing on free-to-air TV which ECB chiefs had campaigned hard for and Sky finally wisely conceded to. It was the pivotal moment not only of the summer but of the decade, cricket-wise.

With perfect timing the Wimbledon men's final ended just as Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler's partnership against New Zealand gathered momentum. Over eight million tuned in for the climax. Anyone under the impression that cricket was boring was instantly converted. England's win was a triumph for the vision and consistency of Strauss and Morgan and the focus and commitment of the players.

^{England's World Cup win was their first live match on free-to-air TV since 2005}

Stokes might have trumped that indestructible performance with his heroic effort at Headingley, an innings of tremendous pluck and stamina and remarkable range which, using various metrics, I previously evaluated as better even than Graham Gooch's great 151 against West indies in 1991 or Ian Botham's swashbuckling 149 in 1981 – both ironically at the same venue. But it did not have the same national impact because it was only seen in its entirety by subscribers to Sky Sports.

It did have a major influence on Jack Leach's life though. His match-winning contribution earned him free Specsavers spectacles for life and his glasses cleaning cloth got its own Twitter handle. Stokes' and Leach's last wicket stand did at least keep England's Ashes hopes intact for one more Test. But Steve Smith, returning to the fray after his compelling duel with Jofra Archer at Lord's had ended so painfully, extinguished any lingering hopes with his epic 211 at Old Trafford.

On the subject of strange Twitter accounts, one emerged around that time dedicated to the question of whether Smith was still batting. Most of the entries were a variation on one word: yes. By the time he was out for an eccentric 82 in the second innings, playing some shots falling backwards outside leg stump and others virtually outside the return crease, he had occupied the crease for 26 hours in the summer's tests – in just three matches.

It was often said that the original master Jack Hobbs seemed to know instinctively where the bowler was going to bowl. Smith is the same. He is in position long before the ball has arrived. We journalists have run out of superlatives for him. Many of his shots defy description. The stumps had become almost irrelevant.

England had gone from plan A to Z and back again and were no nearer a solution to his relentless accumulation. The Australian pace bowlers were excellent but Smith was the sole reason Australia retained the Ashes for the first time in England since 2001.

Steve Smith carried Australia to Ashes glory with 774 runs in four matches

The domestic scene was inevitably marginalised by England's exploits. An experiment with a lower seamed ball was a success, as despite the earliest ever start to the County Championship (April 5) several teams posted scores of over 500 in the first fortnight. Doughty Somerset made the early running, but Essex – piloted by Simon Harmer's perennial reliability and the strongest fingers in the game – were ultimately not going to be denied a second Division One title in three years, and added a first ever triumph in the T20 Blast.

It is a monumental effort – of planning and talent management and sheer willpower – to win both the Championship and the Blast in the same year. Essex are a remarkably resourceful county. But success in cricket generally comes at a cost and Essex have made a financial loss in five of the last nine years.

They are not alone, of course. Aggregating the annual balance sheets of every county since 2010, only four are not in the red – Surrey, Nottinghamshire, Somerset and Worcestershire. The rest are hanging on by their accountants' fingertips, and there is also a collective £186m of debt.  

So, while the unveiling of The Hundred's kits and snackfood sponsors and the live player draft on Sky was not to many people's taste, the tournament is vital for the domestic game's salvation. It has brought at least £300m extra broadcast revenue into the game and proper free-to-air exposure with it.

It will give England's World Cup stars an exciting new platform on which to display their talent (or at least those that are not involved in a Test match against Pakistan, anyway) and should capitalise on a new wave of interest in cricket generated by England's exploits this summer. But it won't, of course, fix the team's inability to make substantial Test match totals.

We can only hope for better in the longer format in 2020. But don't hold your breath.

Happy New Year to all of you.

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