England should learn from Arsenal: MacLaurin

LONDON, Dec 14 AFP - Ian MacLaurin, departing chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), says the England team should be more like premier league soccer champions Arsenal if it wants to succeed.

"We don't have the discipline in the England side that Arsenal Football Club have," MacLaurin told Saturday's edition of the Guardian newspaper.

England have failed to win any of the 12 matches played so far on its tour of Australia, a run which MacLaurin reckons has left team morale "shot to pieces".

Adding to their difficulties has been the three-cornered row between MacLaurin, Andrew Flintoff and Darren Gough which began when the chairman questioned the allrounder's dedication to getting fit.

Both Flintoff (groin) and fast bowler Gough (knee) were selected in the hope they would regain fitness while on tour.

But that did not happen and Gough has already been ruled out of February's World Cup in South Africa while Flintoff's participation is now doubtful.

MacLaurin's criticisms of Flintoff were branded "disgusting" by Gough, who trained alongside the Lancashire favourite at England's National Sports Centre in Lilleshall before the tour began.

Reflecting on the row, MacLaurin said: "I think it was sad. It was a knee-jerk reaction. I had plenty of evidence to say that maybe Freddie (Flintoff) didn't do as much as he should have done. Well he, didn't. We know that.

"It doesn't do the game any good when Darren Gough comes in and he doesn't know what he's talking about.

"Arsene Wenger (Arsenal manager) wouldn't allow anything like that to happen. They give very clear instructions to their players and we have to move along that way."

MacLaurin, who is also chairman of telecommunications company Vodafone, England's team sponsor, said of the current series: "Getting whopped as we are at the moment is not good. It will take us a while to recover."

MacLaurin, who insisted he played no part in Vodafone's England dealings, nevertheless said commercial backers would be intolerant of on-field failure.

"If you're a sponsor, do you want to sponsor a side that's just got beaten 3-0, 3-2 or whatever it is? Everybody has to get their minds round that because without it you ain't got no television and you ain't got no sponsors."

MacLaurin, ECB chairman for six years, leaves his post in January.

His departure has been sparked by his failure to convince the 18 first class counties and MCC, who have the ultimate voting power in English professional cricket, of the need for a slimmed-down management board.

"Look at New Zealand, an up-and-coming cricket nation with nowhere near the cricketers we've got.

"New Zealand is run by six guys who are accountable for everything. Australia's the same. It's straight-line management," MacLaurin said.

"I wrote 19 letters... and I got four replies. It was quite clear to me that they wouldn't embrace what I wanted to do, so I stepped down."