Strauss disgusted by ECB treatment of Cook

2015 World Cup

Cricket365
December 29, 2014

Former England captain Andrew Strauss has launched a stinging attack on the England Cricket Board for the way they sacked Alistair Cook from the ODI captaincy.

Cook paid the price for some poor batting form and was replaced as skipper by Eoin Morgan, just two months before the World Cup gets underway in Australia and New Zealand.

While Strauss does feel it was the correct decision to omit Cook from the World Cup squad, he feels the manner in which it was done left a bitter taste.

Reports of Cook's sacking came out in the media before it was officially announced by the ECB, and Strauss felt the Test skipper should have gone in a more dignified way.

The former Opening batsman said in his column in the Sunday Times.: "What does leave an unsavoury taste in the mouth, though, is the way that the axe has been wielded.

"The ECB's image has taken a battering every bit as significant as the reputation of some of its players over the past 12 months.

"Refusing to talk about Kevin Pietersen's banishment from the team, allowing Cook to carry the can for the move, leaking the 'dossier' on Pietersen's misdemeanours at the precise moment when they should have been taking the moral high ground, and now filtering the news of Cook's demotion through to the Twitterspehere and other unofficial channels smacks of clumsy subterfuge or incompetence or both.

"It is hugely disrespectful to a captain who has given everything to the role."

Strauss does, however, believe that Cook could benefit from not playing ODI cricket and focus fully on leading the Test side.