CODE CRACKING ISN’T CRICKET

SOMETHING does not smell right about England’s management sending tactical messages to Eoin Morgan, below, through the medium of balcony battleships.

Codes such as 4E, 2C, 4C – hung from the dressing- room balcony during the final T20 in South Africa – passed on information from analyst Nathan Leamon. There is nothing in the regulations against it and 12th men have been bringing out instructions forever.

But the episode carried with it a whiff of the South Africans at the 1999 World Cup when captain Hansie Cronje wore an earpiece to link up with coach Bob Woolmer.

England insist the codes are not directives from Chris Silverwood but the experiment, as it was described, should be shelved. The captain is the on- field coach and it should stay that way.