Moeen Ali - Wrist Band Politics & Why His Wrists Should be Slapped!

Moeen Ali's actions yesterday, wearing   "free Gaza" and "Free Palestine" wristbands was completely wrong on several levels - its really that simple, & it shouldn't need explaining. he shouldn't have done it, and after the wrist bands are removed, his wrists need to be slapped and here's why:

1. Keep it out of cricket - whether its pro-life or pro-abortion, Labour or Tory, Pakistan v India (conflicts not cricket!) - unless the ECB have approved a statement - for example wearing a poppy or Children in Need badge, no players should wear political statements whilst representing their country - not the place! I'm an England supporter - I'm English, Jewish and an Israeli citizen. I hold different views to Moeen and I will argue those differences everywhere, but please, please, don't make me do it on a cricket pitch. It is the one place where we put all differences aside except those that concern the game and team selection! Moeen made me feel very uncomfortable and divided yesterday, and thats not what cricket should bring to it's fans - and let me be clear if he plays for England, I am Moeen's fan and I want him to respect that. If these divisions are allowed to enter the game, it will ruin the game. That simple. And what if someone in the dressing room had felt the opposite? What then to team cohesion? A poor decision by a very junior player in the England squad.

2. Moeen Ali's statement is disturbing on other more important levels than cricket  (yes they do exist!): Whether he likes it or not, Ali represents moderate inclusive Britain - a  religious British Muslim, born to Pakistani immigrants,  a sportsman who wears his faith with pride alongside the Three Lions of England, and for that I feel huge respect for him and the country. However his divisive "Free Gaza" support shows that he has failed to understand that fact. Essentially it means "leave Hamas alone" - the two cannot be separated as long as Hamas is the government of Gaza. So we have a supposedly moderate, very English Muslim, representing his country in front of millions, totally comfortable with essentially advocating and supporting a Jihadist terror organization - because the campaign is about making Israel withdraw, leaving Hamas in chare of Gaza once more. Hamas are  part of the Muslim Brotherhood, who have ruled Gaza with a Taliban style rod of iron for 10 years, stealing billions of dollars of aid money from Palestinians & diverting it into buying sophisticated rockets, and building a massive network of terror tunnels using the concrete and metal they begged Israel to allow in to Gaza 2 years ago for building projects. Supporting Hamas is not supporting Gaza, any more than the British Jihadists fighting in Syria are supporting that country or it's people. "Free Gaza" is therefore an expression of extremism that will condemn Gazan Palestinians & Southern israeli residents to years more suffering under Hamas & cycles of violence such as we are witnessing now. A young man of Ali's obvious education, intelligence and supposed moderacy should be able to recognize this - He should also recognize that extremism is the cancer of Islam and British Islam in particular and that as a role model, he needs to think, learn, question and deeply understand any issue before he slaps on a wristband in public.

I invite Moeen to visit Israel - I can help organize hsi trip. He can sit down with people from all sides of this conflict, visit the places most affected, perhaps inspire some Palestinian and Jewish kids through some cricket outreach, and then be able to make intelligent meaningful statements about a complex situation. Oh and for the record - wristbands are not intelligent, meaningful statements, but foolish propaganda that have absolutely no place on the wrist of an English cricketer as he takes strike for his country.

Cook's Captaincy: England's Tough Decision is No Decision At All.

The knives are out for Alistair Cook  - whether due to bias like Shane Warne's never ending nastiness toward Cook or the general muttering from the Boycotts and others. However if you Google the blogs and pundits on Cook you'll see something interesting and telling: although many agree he should go, not one even touches on who should come next - and there's a reason for that - there isn't anyone! As far as Cook goes, the experts do have some validity - England  was whitewashed by the Australians this past winter and now loses to Sri Lanka and some of the blame should be placed on Cook's captaincy. However, lets also be fair to Cook - in Australia the team was undone by one man: Mitchel Johnson - his bowling speed, accuracy & aggression is something that we haven't seen for decades and the batsman had no answer to him. had it not been for him, few believe there would have been such a destruction of England, or subsequent rebuilding.  The psychological damage to the team was obvious and it was followed by a culling of coaching staff and players on the scale of a South American coup d'état! So against the gritty battlers that are Sri Lanka, England fielded a number of debutantes and much  good came from the series despite the loss - maiden centuries, good bowling and determined batting from unexpected quarters - great test cricket in fact, and rubbish teams don't produce that. Anderson's emotion after the 2nd Test loss, and his heroics with the bat, show the passion and dedication the team has.

There is legitimate criticism of Cook's ability to adapt plans - Boycott summed it up (without mentioning either his mum or a stick of rhubarb) by saying Cook had a "plan A and when that failed he had Plan A and if that didn't work he still had plan A". Again, not sure there was any possible plan for Johnson, but this criticism pre-dates the Ashes series. Perhaps more importantly, Cook's batting has fallen apart - 12 tests without a significant contribution, or century - if he weren't skipper, I doubt he'd be selected. Back to the county he would go to get his head together and remind himself how good he is, and how much he loves to bat. Cook opens for England and was someone that could be relied on to put runs on the board more often than not. If your openers can add 150-200 runs collectively, it allows the middle order to bat more freely and places huge pressure on the opposition bowlers. Cook's 20s combined with rotating partners over the past 18 months just don't cut it - this has placed huge pressure on the middle order and lowered England's scores - how long did they go without a significant innings total, even in wins? 

So we have a captain  who even during happier days was criticized for one dimensional fielding and bowling

calls, and who now presides over a team that can't win at bingo never mind cricket, and who's own loss of form is reaching biblical proportions. Ok -  so fire him - take the pressure off him and let him recover his batting form!!! Ah but this is the problem that no cricket great is addressing - if you do, then what? Who will captain England? Ian Bell seems disinterested and those who know and respect him say he isn't captain material. Prior? Well he is a leader but is at the twilight of his England career; Broad at one time seemed the obvious choice, but bowlers rarely captain for good reasons - they are often injured and out the team, and they face the difficult choice of when to bowl themselves. He also hasn't been especially successful as one day skipper! Were Trott well and in the team then maybe, but he's out and even if he returns, the last thing he's going to need is the pressure of captaincy. So there's no one.

What are we left with? Alistair Cook - captain of England because there is nobody else. Can't be dropped and allowed to return to form because...there's nobody else. ECB could replace the coach, even KP, despite being one of the great batsman playing today, but not the captain. Its not ideal to have a captain by default but it is reality - its why these former cricket greats criticize Cook, piling on the pressure, without ever offering an alternative...there isn't one.