Bracewell tells England to stop living in excuse environment

John Bracewell, the Gloucestershire coach, has told the England management to stop blaming county cricket for the national side's shortcomings. Bracewell, who leaves at the end of the season to coach New Zealand, accused England of having an excuse environment.

After England's 191-run defeat against South Africa at Headingley, Michael Vaughan claimed that county cricket was not tough enough to prepare players for Test cricket. But Bracewell said it's time Vaughan and the management stepped out of their blame culture and stopped making excuses, and that they can start by looking at their rugby counterparts.

He said, "They should sit down and talk to Clive Woodward and work out a similar environment to the England rugby side. There they have a no-excuse environment." He continued, "If the England rugby team lose the World Cup it will be because of their players and not because of what's been put around them. If we trip up at Gloucestershire we know it's down to us. It's our problem. Because we've been given the budget, the environment and the licence to do what we like.

"But England haven't bought into that. They've got the contracts they want, they take blokes out of games and they still blame the nursery of the game. It does annoy me. The England cricket team has an environment that offers them a lot. Not every cricket team in the world is gifted with the resources the England cricket team has."

Bracewell has led Gloucestershire to six one-day trophies in five years, including this year's Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy, in which they thumped Worcestershire by seven wickets in the final.