Dylan Cleaver: Exit brutal punchline to joke of a campaign

England captain Eoin Morgan may need to turn green for a week and support the still-viable Irish team. Photo / Getty Images

England’s ignominy demonstrates the importance of planning and purpose.

Eoin Morgan yesterday made a five-hour dash by plane to join his former teammates and compatriots Ireland for their World Cup match against India at Hamilton - he wasn't selected.

Okay, so it's a cheap joke at England's expense, but once Morgan has got Friday's pesky encounter with Afghanistan out of the way, the Dubliner may want to think about reinvesting in the Irish property market because his stocks in England are low.

If you read the grim reports in England's dailies, coach Peter Moores - "the coach of his generation", according to his boss Paul Downton - will be sent not to Dublin, but Siberia.

England's early exit from a tournament that was designed to ensure cricket's ruling aristocracy did not suffer early exits has provided a brutal punchline to a joke of a campaign.

A team not lacking in talent, England proved that planning and purpose are paramount.

A prominent international spoken to last week opined that England had turned up with a game plan that could be explained thus: "The batsmen should score runs and let's hope the bowlers take wickets." This person was amazed not at how badly England were playing, but how they were playing.

A batting line-up containing Ian Bell, Moeen Ali, Gary Ballance, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan and James Taylor was only rarely going to be capable of posting the sort of totals that are competitive in modern one-day cricket.

All the other big teams - India, Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and, yes, New Zealand - are thinking 320-340; England were still thinking 260-280.

England's most damaging hitters were Alex Hales and Jos Buttler, but Hales got his first game on Monday night and Buttler remained in relative hiding at No7.

It was a horror tournament for bowlers Stuart Broad and James Anderson, but they could have been at their peak and struggled to defend England's conservative batting approach.

In scenes reminiscent of planeloads of Kiwis turning up to Paris for the semifinal of the 2007 Rugby World Cup only to learn upon landing of the Cardiff Calamity, hundreds of English will today be landing in Sydney all dressed up but with nowhere to go.

Perhaps they can turn green for a week? At least Ireland still have a chance of qualifying.