SLIDING DOOR SHUT JUST AS GLORY LOOMED FOR GILES AND ENGLAND
Peter Hayter recounts how a late collapse changed the historical narrative for England and their coach
Ashley Giles knows what it is like to win big, to lose bigger and to enjoy or to endure everything else in between.
From the outrageous celebrations of the 2005 Ashes win and his full part in arguably the greatest Test series ever played here, to the moment he had to fly back from their 5-0 drubbing Down Under in 2006-07 in response to the news that his wife Stine needed surgery to remove a brain tumour the size of a cricket ball, the Warwickshire director of sport has experienced more than his fair share and come out smiling.
But, according to him, only one incident in his long career qualifies for the title of his “sliding door” moment.
And, as the clock ticks down towards the opening match of the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy and you begin to go glassy-eyed with the number of reminders that England have never yet won a global one-day international trophy, Giles will find it hard not to relive it once or twice and to recall all the times since then he has wondered: “What if?”
On June 23, 2013, the England ODI side he coached (with Andy Flower in charge of the Test set-up) was one win away from ending the 38-year wait that had begun in cricket’s first world tournament, the 1975 Prudential World Cup.
What is more, so much rain fell during the day of their final of the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy at Edgbaston against India, that it looked like England might achieve their aim without a ball being bowled. With no provision for a reserve day, a washout would have led to the teams sharing the silverware. Better than nothing, some thought.
But the match did go ahead, reduced to a 20-over match (though not a T20) starting at 4.20pm, with the playing time extended to 8.30. And, as it progressed, the feeing grew within Giles, captain Alastair Cook and their team that this was their time.
First they restricted India to 129-7 with Ravi Bopara taking 3-20. Then, when the 18th over of their reply, bowled by Ishant Sharma to Eoin Morgan, started dot ball, flat six over fine leg, wide and wide, the last just touching the outside of the cut strip, England were 110-4 and seemingly cruising to victory.
Giles admits he thought so, too. “Usually, for me, it’s not over until it’s over,” he says.
“But this was one of the only times in my career when I allowed myself to think, ‘we’ve done this’.
“I’m not out there so I’ve not got complacent, but we needed 20 from 16
Had he presided over lifting the prize, the King of Spain’s coronation might have been little more than a formality
balls to win, Ravi and Morgs had just hit two sixes in six balls and I thought, ‘we’re actually going to win the match’.
“Then we lose two wickets in two balls and the rest is history.”
Not that Giles needs reminding but this is how it played out: Morgan was caught off the bottom of the bat inside the circle, Bopara went next ball after drilling one to square leg, then receiving an earful from the bowler.
Next over Jos Buttler heaved at Ravindra Jadeja and was bowled middle stump, two balls later Tim Bresnan was run out and England had lost four wickets for three runs in eight balls.
Needing to hit the final ball, from Ravichandran Ashwin for six, James Tredwell failed to connect and India had won by five runs a match they had little right to, leaving Cook to comment afterwards: “At the moment we’re a bit devastated.”
Giles reflects: “It doesn’t haunt me anymore, it doesn’t really keep me awake at night, but it was a missed opportunity for us, there is no doubt about that.
“We should have won our first 50-over competition and we didn’t.
“We were that close and we fell apart. It was so disappointing for the players and for the supporters, after all the good work we had done in getting ourselves into the final, then into a position from where we should have won the tournament.
“And for me, it was sliding doors. How a career can change in a moment.”
Giles doesn’t spell it out. He doesn’t need to. Had he presided over lifting the prize that had eluded England for four decades – and still does to this day – when Flower quit the Test job at the end of the 2013-14 Ashes nightmare, the King Of Spain’s coronation might have been little more than a formality.
Who knows? He might still be reigning now.
In the event, the public perception of failure in the 2014 World T20, on top of what had just gone before Down Under put the lid on a ghastly winter all round and Giles was one of those who carried the can. “I’ve no regrets,” Giles insists. “Andy will probably say splitting the roles didn’t work out because while we weren’t sending out different messages to the players perhaps we delivered them differently.
“We ran different ships and are very different people and I think it confused the environment quite a lot.
“In that World T20 it didn’t help that we lost to Netherlands, but people do forget we were the only team to beat the winners, Sri Lanka, we might have beaten New Zealand had it not been for a combination of lightning and Duckworth/Lewis, and we had a good go at chasing down South Africa before losing by two runs.
“Though we weren’t quite good enough in the end we were close. But that winter, with the Test side losing in Australia, the weight of opinion, the whole Kevin Pietersen thing, it only seemed to be going one way: a clear out.
“I was one of the victims, Peter Moores got the job and I had to move on. It felt like I’d had my chance.” What if it came again? “I’m very happy where I am at Warwickshire.
“In time, would I want to jump back into that? I’m not sure.You never say, never’.” Maybe not. But many of those who believe Giles deserved better from England will continue to say: “What if?”