Both are talented cricketers who have played Test cricket. Yet, by the high standards of technique and discipline that particular format demands, both have been found wanting. As a result, the pair have been dropped and overlooked ever since, though the England Test team is not a closed shop, especially after such a comprehensive defeat in the Ashes.
Hales (29) and Rashid (30 last week) could, with hard work and application, improve their game and get picked for Test matches once more. Yet neither seems to want to embrace that particular challenge, opting instead for the easy money and easy cricket of white-ball slug-outs.
Many will say they cannot be blamed for what looks to be a rational decision based on effort and economics. When Dale Steyn said the Indian Premier League was the easiest money he’d ever earned on a cricket field, he did not intend it as a slight, more a marvelling at the lack of sweat, skill and stamina required to do the job.
If Hales and Rashid severed all links with their counties and then agreed to be rehired by them on a match-by match basis, I would be less critical, but only a bit. Their decision to ‘Redxit,’ especially if many others decide to follow suit, threatens to dilute the talent pool for red-ball cricket in this country. Like the EU with Brexit, counties should fear its success for the reaction it will stir in others.
Esta historia es de la edición February 23,2018 de The Cricket Paper.
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Esta historia es de la edición February 23,2018 de The Cricket Paper.
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