Interim coach says finding more opportunities for 50-over cricket is isn’t easy within current structure
Marcus Trescothick and Liam Livingstone oversee training in Antigua • Getty Images
Marcus Trescothick has described the current List A domestic structure as “not helping” England’s new era of white-ball players.
In Barbados, a severely inexperienced England team fell to their third consecutive ODI series defeat since the 2023 World Cup, and a 13th loss in 20 one-dayers.
With the series overlapping with England’s Test commitments, several first-choice players are missing with only Jordan Cox and Rehan Ahmed from the group that toured Pakistan also being in the Caribbean. Cox batted at No. 3 across the ODIs, despite only playing four List A matches before his selection, while the likes of Dan Mousley, 23, hadn’t played a 50-over game in over three years before his debut.
When asked if the lack of domestic 50-over cricket was hindering England’s young players, Trescothick said: “Well, it’s not helping because you’re not getting the volume of games that players would like to get and really build an understanding of the game.
“But you kind of know why that is and that is the structure we’re given to play, and we’ll make a fist of it and make it work as much as we can.”
“I’m not going to speak against any other competition,” Trescothick said, referencing the One-Day Cup’s clash with the Hundred. “But of course we’d want more 50-over cricket somehow. How do we do that? That’s not up to me to try and work out.”
Earlier this week, Phil Salt, who made 74 in the final ODI, pushed the case for England’s domestic structure to allow for more one-day opportunities.
“I don’t think there’s many players in this team that you could go through and go ‘oh they’re doing a great job right now’,” Salt said. “That’s the reality of it because we’ve not played a lot of 50-over cricket. I’d love something like a domestic 50-over competition. I’d love the opportunity to play in that so you can get the rhythm and it’s not always stop-start.
“I don’t think there’s many people that can just walk in and do it after not playing for a while. I know that I’ve not had the most successful time in 50-over cricket and not really been doing myself justice, but the more opportunities I get to play it, the better I will be at it. That’s the bottom line.”
It is unclear what shape added List A opportunities could look like for England players, with the only realistic option being a dramatic restructuring of the English domestic calendar.
“It’s really challenging,” Trescothick said. “We know how important Test cricket is in England and obviously having the domestic T20 competition and the Hundred, that’s vitally important to our game.
“How do we get that balance right? That’s for the powers above to look at, but it’s not going to be easy.
“There’s not a massive amount of experience in this current team right now. Of course there’s not. But part of the reason for bringing that youth across was to get the experience into them. It’s not always going to be easy to get games into them.
“There’s not a massive amount to play back at home, and most of the white-ball cricket played now around the world is T20. So that is a challenge, and we’re aware of that.”
Trescothick also provided an update on Jofra Archer, with the fast bowler successfully completing the series without any injury issues, meaning he has played in seven of England’s last eight ODI matches.
The Bajan-born bowler only took one wicket across the series, but Trescothick was pleased with his efforts as England look to build Archer back to potentially playing Test cricket with the visit of India in the summer, before an away Ashes series next year.
“He’s gone really well,” Trescothick said. “We’re really pleased with the progression he’s making. He can probably move it on to the next step, whatever that is. I think getting through these three games is important.”
Cameron Ponsonby is a freelance cricket writer in London. @cameronponsonby
