England captain Eoin Morgan. Photo / Getty Images
England's disastrous World Cup campaign came to an end last night with a win over Afghanistan in Sydney.
The victory did little to restore England's badly damaged pride - if anything, it underscored the fact that Eoin Morgan's side was only able to get results against associate nations, with their only other win in the tournament coming against Scotland.
In between those two games, England were hammered by Australia at the MCG, annihilated by the Black Caps at the Cake Tin in Wellington, and embarrassed by Sri Lanka at the same venue.
To make matters worse, their playoff fate was finally sealed when they lost to Bangladesh on Monday.
While the England team members were packing their bags overnight, the furore and recriminations among the country's press and cricketing public were just getting underway. Here's a sample of the reactions in the English media and on Twitter.
England's ODI team are boring, bad, badly boring and boringly bad
"It is almost a week now since England were euthanised out of the Cricket World Cup, and still the most remarkable part of their early exit is not that it was farcically, shockingly inept - although it was still farcically, shockingly inept - but that it was above all surprisingly boring. This is a significant achievement in its own right. It seems that in England's hands even squawking, slavering, snot-stained failure at every level from batting and bowling, to all?pervasive corporate claptrap, to an operetta of feuding personalities, can become brain-manglingly dull."
Barney Ronay, Guardian
Eoin Morgan has 'no regrets' over exit
"England were beaten by Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to suffer a first-round elimination for the third time in the past five World Cups. Their record of only two wins matches their joint-worst performance of 1996, a tournament at which they reached the quarter-finals."
Stephan Shemilt, BBC
England limp to Cricket World Cup 2015 consolation
"England will leave a World Cup they can hardly be said to have graced having at least avoided another catastrophe in their final pretty meaningless match. When you have been as desperate as England in this tournament any win is a good one so they will be relieved to have avoided what would have been the most embarrassing defeat of them all ... Now England will slink off home on Saturday with much to contemplate if they are ever to have a chance of catching up with the big-hitters of this tournament who have simply left them behind in 50-over cricket."
Paul Newman, Daily Mail
We play WI, NZ, Aus & SA this year. 17 Test matches. My guess is we'll win about 3. #BringBackKP
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) March 13, 2015
Still can't believe what Eoin Morgan said after England's World Cup exit today. Either he is protecting his players or he is in total denial
— Paul Newman (@Paul_NewmanDM) March 13, 2015
Eoin Morgan says he has 'no regrets' about our WC performance? Unbelievable. ECB's turned him into a deluded robot. http://t.co/pquWsFSXq7
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) March 13, 2015
Have Downton & Moores been sacked yet? #ECBFutureFailed #BringBackKP
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) March 13, 2015
The great @GeoffreyBoycott @BBCSport "Can you sum up England's World Cup in 3 words?" "I can do it in one- rubbish." http://t.co/f2E9UqYsbp
— Phil McNulty (@philmcnulty) March 13, 2015
A punch bag. Is this what the England cricket team has become?
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) March 13, 2015
Michael Vaughan thinks so: http://t.co/V9AVSjvT7h pic.twitter.com/DFfEY79cGp
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