In the case of Alastair Cook, newly appointed One Day International captain of England I am going to argue precisely the opposite. Why on earth is he receiving glowing praise in today's papers? Why, for that matter, are the press so rambunctiously undulating with glee at yesterday's rain-affected victory over Sri Lanka.
I'm all for taking the positives from negative situations. For completeness though, it is only proper to address what went wrong when things, result-wise, have gone well.
There were some overly defensive field placings as England should have been maneuvering for the kill. There were one or two strange bowling changes and two bowlers in particular - Jade Dernbach and Stuart Broad - looked worryongly short of invention from a position which any fast bowler should have relished. Blowing away tails should be routine for a pace attack. Sri Lanka's 9th wicket partnership was worth 52 from just 34 balls, before the guile of Graeme Swann was required to dismiss both partners in this improbable stand, Lasith Malinga and Suraj Randiv.
This is what bothers me most: we should have rolled them over more easily, more quickly, more brutally. We should not have trundled over the line as we did. In the grand scheme of things it may seem pedantic to quibble over so moot a point. The game was dead. Why shouldn't we just trundle through? Why bare our teeth and savage the already mortally wounded foe?
Why? Because that is what winners do. That is what winning mentality is. That is why the Australian greats Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne were so deadly. They were merciless. The same could be said of the West Indian fast-bowling duo of Curtley Ambrose and Courtney Walsh which wreacked havoc through the 1990s. They were savages, lusty for blood and a little thing like match circumstances was not enough to quell that. Their purest joy was in simply taking wickets.
It is a trait of British sportsmen, I fear, that they feel they can turn their killer instincts on and off at will. Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney and co might saunter through a friendly match knowing they will be subbed at half-time anyway. It's only a friendly, who cares? And then the World Cup arrives and all of a sudden England have forgotten how to shift through the gears and pick teams apart (assuming they ever knew). Why? Because they have learnt bad habits. They've purposefully practiced how to coast rather than how to motor on.
In cricket, England's bowlers know what to do when the going is good. Last night James Anderson disposed of Sri Lanka's top order in stormy, swing-friendly conditions, perfect for his style of bowling. In this year's World Cup he was bereft of such helpful conditions and was exposed as having no plan B. Dernbach and Broad bowled predominantly slower balls and bouncers respectively and Sri Lanka's tail wagged. It didn't matter in the game, but if England's bowlers can't better adapt to differing conditions they will never be a serious force in the limited-overs games. If they can't fully integrate a killer-instinct in to their mindsets they will, on occasion, struggle in all forms of the game.
The same principle applies to our football team and English tennis players gone by. If only Tim Henman had wanted to win every tournament as much as Wimbledon, he might have actually won Wimbledon. Of our boxers, Ricky Hatton might have been able to compete with the well-oiled machine of Floyd Mayweather Jr if only his winning habits had been fully integrated in to his psyche, rather than picked up for every fight, then put down in favour of pies and peas and pints.
Winning is not a part-time sojourn in sport. It is a lifetime of practice and labour. Should Great British sportsmen and women ever yearn to reach the greatest of sporting heights, they must learn that greatness is hard-earned with sacrifice, persistence and, above all, practice.
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