Arrogance has held England back- Graeme Swann

Arrogance has held England back- Graeme Swann: Graeme Swann has lambasted previous England managements for their “arrogance” in sticking to outdated game plans in limited-overs cricket and suggested that they “massively cocked up” by not selecting Adil Rashid in the Test team for the series in the Caribbean. In a wide-ranging interview at a Chance to Shine school in Nottingham where he helped launch a new card game called “Switch Hits” for the charity, Swann lauded the revival of England’s ODI side but revealed that the team that he played in had been flattered by their rating as No. 1 in the world and claimed they had been “awful” since 1992.

But despite his opprobrium , Swann insisted that England are not the outsiders some suggest for the Ashes series and claimed Australia are not as good a Test side as New Zealand. While delighted by England’s improved performance in the Royal London ODI series against New Zealand, Swann remains unsatisfied and annoyed that England persisted with what he believes was an “outdated” method for so long. “England were justifiably vilified in the World Cup,” he said. “They were so stuck in their ways. It was the most obvious thing in the world that we were playing an outmoded, outdated form of the game. But arrogance saw us stick to our guns and say ‘everyone is wrong’. “It is so refreshing that now they have said ‘yeah, tear up the old stats book, now we see what you mean we’re going to go for it’. The whole outlook has changed.

“We were No. 1 in the world but if anyone says ‘that’s because you were the best team’ then that’s absolute bollocks. We were nowhere near the best one-day team in the world. We got extremely lucky. We had 18 home games, we had a series against India where, if we struggled, it rained. And it made people think what we were doing was right, hence the stifled approach up until three weeks ago. “It’s not Peter Moores’ or Paul Downton’s fault. It’s English one-day cricket from the year 1992 onwards when we were world leaders. Ian Botham opened the batting and we experimented and had exciting players. You can’t say they have been exciting ever since. They have been awful.

“When Michael Vaughan was Test captain, he was nowhere near good enough to be in the one-day team. But he was captain of the Test team and that has always held that much sway in England. The Test captain is the be-all-and-end-all of English cricket.” Swann said.