The Mail on Sunday

Captain Morgan must quit if he does not tour

Moeen is right... the next terror attack could happen anywhere

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I AM not a great believer in the honours system but, given that it exists, surely a knighthood for Andy Murray is overdue. To the consternat­ion of those who have sought to belittle him over the years, Murray has come to embody the best of British sport with his determinat­ion to overcome the odds. He is a two-time Olympic champion now and a winner of three Grand Slam titles, including the first Wimbledon men’s championsh­ip for a Briton since 1936. If he is not elevated to the status of men such as Sir Chris Hoy, Sir Bradley Wiggins, Sir Nick Faldo and Sir Steve Redgrave soon, it is going to start to look a bit odd.

EOIN MORGAN has the right to turn his back on England’s cricket tour of Bangladesh next month if that is what he decides to do.

He has the right to do what he thinks is best for himself and for his family. This is not a game about who can laugh loudest in the face of terror and the free choice of every man selected should be respected.

There is a caveat, though. Morgan is not a rank-and-file player. He is the skipper of England’s one-day teams and, as such, he bears an extra responsibi­lity. He is supposed to be a leader. Let’s hope it does not come to this, but if it is announced today that he is refusing to tour Bangladesh, he should resign as England captain at the same time.

There should be no question about that, surely. Any other outcome and everyone looks stupid. Sure, when Eidur Gudjohnsen, William Gallas, Graeme Le Saux and others refused to travel to Israel to play a UEFA Cup tie for Chelsea against Hapoel Tel Aviv in October 2001, I respected their right not to go. I did think, however, that Marcel Desailly, the club captain, should have been on the plane.

I respect Morgan’s right not to go to Bangladesh, too. I don’t know his family circumstan­ces or the domestic pressures he is under. I am sure he has very good reasons for telling colleagues last week that he was not going to travel to Dhaka. But when most of the other players selected are willing to travel, I don’t see how Morgan can retain any authority or credibilit­y as captain if he sits at home on his sofa.

Kevin Pietersen did not particular­ly want to return to India after the rest of England’s 2008 tour there was thrown into doubt by the Mumbai terror attacks. But he went back all the same. I remember sitting with him on the team coach outside the MA Chidambara­m Stadium in Chennai before the first Test as he talked to journalist­s with great candour about why he felt the tour had had to resume.

Sure, he was nervous. I was nervous. Everyone was nervous about being in India at that time. But the advice from England’s trusted security advisor, Reg Dickason, was that it was safe for the tour to resume and Pietersen took it. Dickason’s advice now is that it is safe for England to play in Bangladesh. The rumours are, however, that Morgan thinks he knows better.

He is supposed to be a leader, for goodness sake. Other players are supposed to be looking at him as an example. The idea, surely, is that a captain represents strength and a touch of indomitabi­lity. That is not what is happening here. Young players have put their hands up to travel. Whether he decides to go or not, Morgan has prevaricat­ed, muttering excuses.

This is a guy, let’s not forget, who has already built up a record as England’s first non-playing cricket skipper. In May last year, he swerved an England ODI against Ireland in Dublin so he could play for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League. Why the ECB regime of the time allowed him to do that is another question altogether. So Morgan has hardly got a reputation for being a committed England player.

He has got form when it comes to waving the rest of the lads off at the airport while he disappears and does his own thing. Once should have been enough. If it happens again, it should mark the end of his internatio­nal career.

Morgan is not just an ordinary player. He’s the captain. Call me oldfashion­ed but doesn’t that suggest he’s supposed to show a little leadership? The Test skipper, Alastair Cook, will be on the plane to Dhaka. If he wants to remain as an England captain, Morgan must be on it, too.

‘Captains do have wider responsibi­lities,’ said Andrew Strauss, the director of England cricket, last week. ‘A duty to the team rather than just themselves. But they are also human beings and have the same questions and concerns as everyone else. Everyone has their own attitude to risk and we have to respect that.’

The thing is, Morgan has been cut plenty of slack by fans and selectors already when it comes to his captaincy. It jars, for instance, to see the England captain refusing to sing the national anthem before matches but Morgan is Irish and that is his right. No one makes an issue of it and he plays on merit.

I don’t understand his thinking on the Bangladesh tour anyway. He talked this week about how he had been scarred by a previous playing trauma on the sub-continent in Bangalore. Fair enough. But the scarring wasn’t bad enough to prevent him heading back into the volatility of India to play for Sunrisers last year.

Morgan talked, too, about how he didn’t want to play in a place ‘where things have become a distractio­n’. In the modern day, surely that it is a little unrealisti­c. No one is an island and our world is full of noise and potential danger for high-profile sportsmen.

It is sad but true. Andy Murray, his brother, Jamie, and others travelled to Ghent to play the Davis Cup Final against Belgium last December when there were tanks on the streets of Brussels, less than 40 miles to the south-east. A huge terrorist manhunt was under away after the Paris attacks on the Bataclan theatre and the Stade de France.

England’s footballer­s travelled to France this summer despite the fact that the country was still in a state of emergency and that many of its cities were in lockdown, its train stations, airports and metro stations crawling with heavily armed soldiers. An atrocity of some sort was widely expected. Thankfully, it did not materialis­e.

Britain’s athletes travelled to Rio de Janeiro to take part in the Olympic Games despite the threat of terrorist attacks. This country is itself frequently on high alert regarding terror threats. France is still reeling from the act of mass murder in Nice and yet sport goes on.

Safety was always a relative concept and it has become less welldefine­d than ever. Moeen Ali, who will be making the trip to Bangladesh, said he would feel as safe there as he would in London and he is absolutely right. No one knows where the next terrorist attack will happen. It could be Bangladesh. It could be Sydney, during an Ashes Test. It could be Edgbaston. It could be anywhere.

Maybe the last word should go to former England skipper, Michael Atherton, an altogether different kind of skipper to Morgan.

‘If security is the main issue,’ Atherton wrote last week, ‘the rational thing to do is to try to cut out the noise and the nonsense and show some faith in the experts — the derided experts. Dickason has done his job; it is time for England’s cricketers to do theirs.’

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 ??  ?? ISSUES: Moeen Ali (above) is touring but Eoin Morgan (left) is not so sure
ISSUES: Moeen Ali (above) is touring but Eoin Morgan (left) is not so sure

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