Captain Morgan’s the greatest of all our big hitters
It is hard to think of any English captain across any sport who has had such a profound impact on their landscape as Eoin Morgan. As World Cup winners, Bobby Moore and Martin Johnson will always stand as twin colossuses.
However, there is an argument that Morgan outdid even those legends during his seven-year tenure as the guiding light of England’s limited-overs cricket side.
Like Moore and Johnson, he lifted a World Cup, but he also took a wrecking ball to the national team’s grey exterior and a pneumatic drill to its foundations, and in their place rebuilt a palace of delights.
Morgan’s vision literally changed the way England played – that is some legacy.
The white-ball revolution he plotted after the harrowing experience of the 50-over World Cup in 2015 was breathtaking in its scope and stunning in its audacity.
The side that triumphed in the next edition on that breathless day at Lord’s in 2019 against New Zealand, after the heartstopping drama of the Super Over, was almost playing a different sport to the one he inherited.
A formidable array of batters were freed up to play, whatever the situation, with the aggressive mindset Morgan brought to the crease himself.
The results have been stunning. The run tap has been turned to a setting previously thought of as fantasy.
The 498-4 in 50 overs at Amstelveen a fortnight ago was the Howzat roller made real.
It might only have come against the Dutch but under Morgan’s captaincy, England have taken it to all and sundry – they have passed 300 on 53 occasions.
His methods have put in place a fundamental shift in English cricket that is here to stay.
It is even seeping through to the Test team under captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum.
Stokes is a huge admirer of the way the one-day team were transformed under Morgan.
Maybe it took an outsider to bring about such a sea change. As a Leinsterman, who played hurling in his youthful days, Morgan came at English cricket from a different viewing point.
He had already played 23 one-day internationals for Ireland by the time he switched allegiances and made his England debut.
The business of nationality is always a contentious one but, from a pragmatic anglo-centric angle, it does not pay to be too sniffy about these things.
Douglas Jardine – another captain of influence of the national team with his bodyline approach – was actually born in India to Scottish parents.
In the case of Morgan, Ireland’s loss has undoubtedly been England’s gain.
The emphasis placed on his captaincy, which has given his side what in effect has been an on-field coach for the past few years, has tended to gloss over his own batting exploits.
Anyone who was at Old Trafford to see the 17 sixes he hit against Afghanistan in a 2019 World Cup group game will not only have gone home with neck ache, but also a sense of awe at the purity of his striking.
He hit a total of 202 sixes – and 13 centuries – for England.
It is a pity Morgan will not get to defend the World Cup in India next year but the clock stops for no man.
He turns 36 in September and his batting and body have been in decline for some time – a player cannot run on empty indefinitely.
But Morgan can step aside safe in the knowledge no captain has done more for his country, adopted or otherwise.
●The appointment of Stephen Maguire as the new boss of the Great Britain athletics team necessitated a fact check. It’s not the portly Scottish snooker player apparently.