Cricket: Swann defends retirement decision after Gooch criticism

Batting coach dubbed the timing of the announcement ‘criminal’

LONDON: Graeme Swann has defended his decision to quit midway through England's 5-0 Ashes whitewash in the wake of Graham Gooch calling the decision ‘criminal’.

Gooch, the England batting coach on their woeful 2013/14 tour of Australia, told Britain's Daily Telegraph on Wednesday that the former off-spinner's decision was highly damaging to the morale of the team. "It made us a laughing stock," said Gooch, one of England's most successful opening batsmen. "I cannot understand why he couldn't stick it out until the end of the trip. It left a bad taste."

Swann quit, with England 3-0 down in the series, in December 2013 after deciding that a longstanding elbow injury meant it was no longer possible for him to spin the ball properly.

"I understand [what he is saying]," said Swann in reply. "Goochy is very old school. Perhaps if he had gained my perspective on it, he might have seen the reasons why I did it. It was because I just couldn't turn the cricket ball, which, as a spin bowler, means you are useless to your team. It wasn't a form thing; it was succumbing to the inevitable."

However, Swann went on to admit he had made a mistake in not retiring after England's 3-0 home Ashes win in 2013. “In retrospect, I shouldn't have gone on the tour at all," he said. “That is my regret. I wish after the Oval I had read the signs more, rather than just think, 'I will be fine. Jim [Anderson] will get 30 wickets. I will only have to hold one end up. I will be fine and we will win the Ashes'. That is my only regret."

Swann was also criticised for his decision to quit by Kevin Pietersen in his controversial autobiography, which has stirred up a lot of reaction and criticism. However, Swann has dismissed Pietersen's recently published book as the ‘the biggest work of fiction since Jules Verne’.

Swann suggested yesterday that a lot of bitterness would have been avoided had the England and Wales Cricket Board simply sacked Pietersen simply for form reasons, rather than give the vague explanation they relied on to eventually ditch the South Africa-born batsman.

"Maybe," he said. "There might have been a cleaner way of doing things and there would certainly have been a lot less blood-letting.

 

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