Hangovers and headaches

As the sun set on 2013, a small group of journalists gathered at an Australian cricket ground to hear the thoughts of Hugh Morris, the out-going MD of England cricket.

The talk was of legacy and continuity of success. Of systems and processes. Of good people in the right positions. Of investment in academies and sports science. No more boom and bust.

We should have known. By then, the façade that had held England together for a while had been loosened by Mitchell Johnson. Jonathan Trott and Graeme Swann had already departed, broken in mind and body respectively, the relationship between Andy Flower and Kevin Pietersen, two architects of England's golden age, had dissolved. The sun had already set.

It took the England team management a while to realise. To see Matt Prior - a shadow of the fine cricketer who had served England with distinction - sprawl behind the stumps during the Lord's Test against India, or Alastair Cook cling to the ODI captaincy like a drowning man to driftwood was to see a team, a regime even, desperately trying to hold on to the last flicker of light. It was time to move on.

There was talk of a new era. Pietersen was sacked; Flower and the ECB chief executive, David Collier, resigned; and Ashley Giles was paid off. But Flower remained as an influential figure behind the scenes, and his replacement, Peter Moores, was not such a new face.

The insistence to stick with Cook despite a run of modest form that lasted the year was an anchor to the past that, in ODI cricket, held England back. But with the ECB having thrown its support behind him over the Pietersen affair, there was a reluctance to cut him loose. Sometimes it seemed losing face was more of a concern that losing games.

The year 2014 was the night after the party. It was the year after the gold rush. It was a time of hangovers and headaches, of rows and retribution. And, most of all, it was the year the ECB lost touch with the people whose sport it is meant to govern.

That divide was epitomised by a statement - released not just by the ECB but the Professional Cricketers Association as well - at the height of the Pietersen debacle in February, that rebuked comments made by those "outside cricket".

It was a phrase that spoke of an elitism, an arrogance and a disregard for those who pay the wages of every player, administrator and journalist: the spectators. And it showed how "disengaged" - to use Paul Downton's memorable word - the ECB had become from them. It was an impression underlined when Giles Clarke suggested that Cook's family were "very much the sort of people we want the England captain and family to be".

The sad reality of England cricket in 2014 was that there was sometimes more fight off the field than on it. It was not just the ongoing squabble between KP and the ECB - a saga from which nobody emerged with an enhanced reputation - or the childish posturing that led to an incident outside the dressing rooms at Trent Bridge.

While the focus should have been on recapturing the interest of the public, it was instead concentrated on a carve-up of world cricket.

Instead of developing the game around the world, the ECB was in the thick of a deal to take a larger slice of a smaller cake. Short-term it may boost finances. Long-term it may well damage the global development of the game. In time, it will hurt the ECB.

Meanwhile Pietersen, burning the bridges he might have crossed, released a book that slaughtered some of his colleagues from England's golden age, a document that detailed the ECB's gripes with Pietersen was leaked - most of which just made the board look petty - and lawyers squabbled over who had started the incident between James Anderson and Ravi Jadeja at Trent Bridge. It was all a bit sad. And a bit ugly.

The nadir? Losing to Netherlands in the World T20 is hard to beat. But the surrender in Sydney, the defeat to India at Lord's (bounced out by a far-from-express bowler on a far-from-quick pitch), a Test series defeat against Sri Lanka in England in early summer, all run that result close. Another ODI series loss in Sri Lanka did not promise an immediate improvement in 2015.

It was no surprise when one report detailed a decrease in the average number of spectators at the relaunched T20 competition and another detailed a decrease in the numbers of those playing the game at recreational level. The game was not as attractive as it once had been.

And yet, amid the rubble and recriminations, there were signs of hope. Joe Root made six international centuries - three in Tests, three in ODIs; Gary Ballance took to Test cricket with reassuring ease; Jos Buttler played one of the great ODI innings and made an impressive start to his Test career; and Moeen Ali showed class with bat and ball in all formats. Chris Woakes started to suggest he could live at the top level; and once he stopped the gratuitous chuntering, Anderson reverted to the world-class seamer he used to be and bowled England to a series victory over India.

All will face tougher tests. But all have the talent, the temperament and the time to overcome them. It is on such young men England must build their future and that, at least, is encouraging. By the time Cook's hands were prised off the ODI captaincy, England could look to the future with something approaching optimism.

So what a shame that the England international season should finish with Moeen being booed by a far-from-insignificant number in the crowd at Edgbaston. To hear the poster boy for inclusion jeered by many of those he sought to represent and inspire was a depressing snapshot of modern multicultural Britain.

Equally depressing was the ECB's supine attitude to the incident. It did not so much as let out a tut. Buy a ticket from a tout, post a TV clip to YouTube or set up an online commentary service and the ECB will crack down on you with all the legal might it can muster. But boo a man for his race, his religion, his heritage or his views and the ECB looks the other way.

Somewhere along the line, the ECB lost sight of what really matters.