ENGLAND’S cricket team have just lost by substantial margins in four Test matches in Australia: 10 wickets in Brisbane, 120 runs in Adelaide, an innings and 41 runs in Perth (having at one stage been 310-4 in the first innings) and an innings and 123 runs in Sydney.

These are margins of defeat which would embarrass any club within the York Senior League or York Vale League, with members rightly calling for changes.

Reflecting back, our players’ achievements under English conditions are described as “world class” yet decline to mediocrity when playing abroad - recent results in India and Australia vindicate this point.

England field 11 players but leave in the dressing nearly double that number of backroom staff - to what aim and achievement one asks?

Yet according to the England captain the team has neither been trounced or outplayed. We all appreciate he does not publicly wish to undermine morale but surely a modicum of reality is required when acknowledging defeats of this scale.

Peter Rickaby, West Park, Selby