England knocked for six - but unfairly treated?

In the week since my last update, much has happened in the world of English sport. The English national football team produced a strong performance to beat Wales 2-0 in Cardiff, Lewis Hamilton equally strong in the first F1 race of the season to finish second behind the superb Sebastian Vettel, and England's Cricket team were knocked out of the 2011 Cricket World Cup at the hands of Sri Lanka. A disappointing result, no England fan would disagree, for a team which at the start of the tournament must have been brimming with confidence. Yes, it is always disappointing to see any English national team doing poorly, but some of the recent criticism of our cricketers has been, in my opinion, very harsh indeed.

The Daily Telegraph reported how England had been humiliated during the course of their ten-wicket defeat to Sri Lanka, a loss which saw their burgeoning hopes of World Cup success shattered. Yes, England were not at their best. Jonathan Trott managed to score a resilient 86 to propel England to a not-entirely-humiliating score of 229-6, but the England side lacked the quickness of movement, sharpness of thought and, perhaps tellingly, the overwhelming support the Sri Lanka team possessed in equally high measure. In fact, one could argue that England's entire tournament has not reflected the confidence with which the team began the campaign, but personally I think it is important to remember that these men are human beings, not sport-playing robots.

Some of the England World Cup squad have been away from their homes since November and before, preparing for the Ashes series. Perennial fan-favourite Graeme Swann is one of this number, given a short break after the Ashes to return home and experience the birth of his first child, before jetting off to Asia to play in the World Cup. I am not questioning the commitment of any England player, least of all Swann, but one must question whether optimum performance is even possible given the massive upheaval and changes of emotion players like him have experienced over the last months.

The Ashes series was an incredibly fruitful one for English cricket, the team returning home not only with the Urn, but with a fair few Aussie scalps in their suitcases. The sheer joy and euphoria after securing such a historic win, such a humiliating win for the Australian team, must be immense. So, too, must be the come down after running on adrenaline towards the end of the tournament. I can't imagine the feeling of returning home to one's loved ones after perhaps the most impressive achievement of one's career (will James Anderson, for example, ever be more lethal than he was during the Ashes tour of 2010?), having been away over the entire Christmas holidays, some away for the a fifth of the year. Footballers, golfers, Olympians and many others often speak of the fortnight after a fantastic season's climax, a Champion's League trophy added to the trophy cabinet perhaps, or a gold medal won, and the need for a professional athlete to relax and recuperate after this period. Absorbing and reflecting upon your successes is sometimes as pleasurable as the moment of achieving them, and for the England cricket team this period was incredibly short. Now, that period may have disappeared along with the layer of gloss taken with only England's fifth ten-wicket loss in their ODI history. I personally feel sorry for the players for this fact.

Sure, they're only playing a game, and of course they must love it if they do it for a career. My argument is simply that it is very harsh to criticise the England team for their under-performance after such a period of physical and emotional excersion. I personally congratulate the England team for even managing to compete at this level, and hope that the British press will soon realise the stress that our sportsmen and women are put under on a regular basis.