George Dobell: We're losing in Australia because of the way cricket is organised in England

George Dobell argues that England have not been competitive in Australia because the domestic cricket season here is now geared to making a quick buck rather than producing test players.

He mentions Ashley Giles's comments after our Ashes defeat four years ago – you can read them in a Guardian report from the time:

"Unless we look at more systemic change, a collective responsibility and collective solutions, we can make whatever changes we want – you can change me, the head coach, the captain – but we’re only setting up future leaders for failure. That’s all we’re doing. We’re only pushing it down the road. ...

"Are we creating [domestic] conditions that will allow us to better prepare our cricketers for playing in the conditions out here? I’m not sure we are at the moment.

"What we play, when we play, on what [pitches] we play – that’s a collective responsibility. It’s up to us as ECB but also a conversation to have with the counties."

At present the England and Wales Cricket Board puts me in mind of Robert Conquest's Third Law of Politics:

The behaviour of any bureaucratic organisation can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies.