So despite all the ICC's attempts to guarantee the aristocracy's progress to the quarter-finals, England prove to be so bad that one of the nouveau riche has crashed the party. After sacking Cook and shaking up the management and coaching staff, England may not have realistically expected lifting the World Cup but to garner fewer points than Ireland is definitely nothing to crow about. In fact it's a sporting disaster.
George Dobell's article on ESPNCricinfo perfectly picks over the bones of the defeat to Bangladesh and the implications for England's ODI future but I'll have my own say, too. All the talk pre-tournament was of the wrong batsmen and wrong run-making strategy. Maybe there are still lessons to be learnt there. Yet again I feel Ian Bell has been unfairly singled out for criticism. He did at least score more than 200 runs, double the aggregate made by skipper Eoin Morgan, who seems to collect more ducks than Tory politicians.
The fastest scorers Jos Buttler and James Taylor have languished at seven and six and they, rather than Alex Hales or - God help us! - Kevin Pietersen who need to be promoted up the order. I haven't changed my mind about Joe Root; the next ODI captain without doubt. Probably in Tests, too. Moeen Ali has the talent to hold his international place for years to come, too. Forget the batsmen for a moment; England's real problem lies with its bowling.
You have to go a long way down the wickets table for the competition so far to find one of our bowlers. Steve Finn is at twenty with eight wickets but his economy rate of almost 7 is worse than anyone else in the top 50 other than Kevin O'Brien! Chris Woakes has performed adequately but the 'star' seamers Anderson and Broad have been extremely disappointing. I agree with most commentators that the persistent refusal to countenance James Tredwell as a frontline spinner does seem peculiar and not only in retrospect.
As the Cricinfo feature elucidates, the truth is staring us in the face: we simply don't have bowlers to win World Cups. Those who catch the eye in county cricket are whisked away to have their pace and personality removed so that the very reasons for their recognition in the first place has been destroyed. Then people perversely blame the county system, and that's a fallacy.
Anyway, enough of England. Congratulations to Bangladesh! They deserved to win and have a small chance of reaching the semis for the first time. India and New Zealand remain unbeaten and Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara is accumulating centuries like schoolboys collect stamps. Associate nation players like Scotland's Josh Davey and Kyle Coetzee, Shapoor Zadran (Afghanistan), Shaiman Anwar (UAE) and Zimbabwe's Sean Williams have enjoyed their time in the spotlight. Time which the ICC are determined to deprive them of in future years.
If only Ireland could join the leading eight. However, they will almost certainly have to defeat Pakistan to do so and I reckon Misbah's men, particularly the bowlers, will be too strong when it really matters.
