Morgan is getting the message
ENGLAND captain Eoin Morgan has confirmed he will continue to receive coded messages on the field during the one-day series against South Africa, stressing there is “nothing untoward” with using data as fuel for innovation.
Team analyst Nathan Leamon was spotted by television cameras showing letter and number combinations such as ‘2C’ and ‘4E’ during the recent Twenty20 series between the sides in a bid to provide Morgan with real-time information to feed into his decisions.
The innovation had been cleared with match referee Andy Pycroft but some have been critical of the backroom intervention.
Most notably TV commentator and former England captain Michael Vaughan, one of Morgan’s predecessors, who labelled the move “nonsense” and “a step too far”.
Morgan, though, is more than happy to further trial the idea in the first of three ODIs against the Proteas on Friday.
He said: “There’s nothing untoward about it, 100% per cent it is in the spirit of the game.
“It’s about maximising information we’re taking in and measuring it against things - coaches’ recommendations, the data, things going on.
“We’ll continue with it and give it enough of a sample size to see if it improves our decision-making on the field or improves our performance.”
Any scepticism around the idea can be split into two camps - that it stands contrary to the spirit of the game or that it undermines Morgan’s role in leading the side in the heat of battle.
The first complaint has been partially answered by the match officials’ apparent indifference, while Morgan’s status as a World Cup winning skipper with huge kudos means he is secure enough in his job not to worry about the latter.
Bristling slightly as he positioned himself against the dissenting voices, of which Vaughan is seemingly the most prominent, he added: “I think captains are different. You get captains who enjoy the title and the power and the accolades which go with it.
“Then you have other captains who continue to be pushed and want to learn for the benefit of the team.
“For me this is a system we want to use to try and help myself and the other leaders within the side almost take a little bit of the emotion and the feel of the decisionmaking on the field and compare it to the hard data continuing to feed information to us on the field.”
After going with the same XI for all three Twenty20 wins, Morgan will lead a different-looking side at Newlands.
Durham’s Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Sam Curran, Dawid Malan and Chris Jordan have all departed, meaning opportunities for others to raise their hands.
Test captain Joe Root will resume his role as the anchor of the batting order while Moeen Ali, Durham’s Mark Wood and Sam Billings are equally hopeful of making the cut after extended spells carrying the drinks.
Morgan went on: “There will be limited opportunity in T20 games so to get a bit of a run it’d be nice to see guys stick their hands up with the opportunities they get in 50-overs between now and the World Cup.
“We’ll do our best to give guys a run.”