Wisden Editor Delivers Scathing Verdict on England Ashes Collapse

When the 163rd edition of the Wisden Cricketers Almanack hits bookshelves this week, it will contain a verdict on Englands Ashes campaign that spares no one. The games most respected chronicler has turned its editor spotlight on the tourists and found them wanting in almost every measurable way.

England arrived in Australia billed as a side capable of ending decades of overseas heartbreak. They return having been beaten 4-1, a margin that flatters them considerably given the quality of their cricket for large stretches of the series.

Lawrence Booth, the Almanacks editor, did not dress his criticism in diplomatic language. In the editors notes published alongside the 163rd edition, Booth wrote that England were feckless, reckless and legless across the five-Test campaign. It is the kind of language Wisden reserves for occasions when the games standards have been unmistakably compromised.

England arrived for the Ashes hell-bent on making history, and ended up being laughed out of town, Booth wrote. A trip supposed to define an era, described by Brendon McCullum as the biggest series of all our lives, descended into dilettantism. What a waste. What a shame.

The assessment follows a tour plagued by on-field capitulations, questions over preparation standards, and revelations about player behaviour off the field. The white-ball captain Harry Brooks punching incident in New Zealand, which only became public knowledge after the series had ended, drew particular criticism from Booth, who noted that three weeks before the Perth Test would have been ample time to address the matter publicly.

Four years after Englands previous Ashes misadventure had sparked headlines about a drinking culture, it was all depressingly familiar, he added.

Despite the humiliating outcome, Ben Stokes remains Test captain, as do head coach Brendon McCullum and director of cricket Rob Key. The ECB commissioned a review into the series, and all three stayed in their positions following its conclusion. That decision has already drawn scrutiny, and Wisden has now added its own withering chapter to the debate.

The Almanack, published Thursday, will stand as the definitive record of where Englands Australian ambitions went wrong. On this evidence, they went wrong almost everywhere at once.