<p>Ian Bell said he wanted to “lead from the front” after being named England’s Cricketer of the Year on Monday.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The 32-year-old Warwickshire batsman won the award, voted for by the English cricket media, on the back of making three centuries and two fifties during England’s 3-0 home Ashes series win against Australia last year. But that series was quickly overshadowed by England’s 5-0 thrashing in Australia in 2013/14.<br /><br />“I don’t think we reacted well to the problems we had and there has been plenty of fall out since,” said Bell in what appeared to be a reference to the post-Australia tour ditching of star batsman Kevin Pietersen and Andy Flower’s replacement as coach by Peter Moores.<br /><br />“When you step back from it all and have a look, I think we got blindsided by Australia. It is horrible to come away from that with a 5-0 scoreline, but it will be a good experience in the long run for the younger players who were on that trip.<br /><br />“Back in 2006/07, myself, Cooky (current captain Alastair Cook), Straussy (retired skipper Andrew Strauss), Jimmy (Anderson and KP (Pietersen) were all on that tour when we lost 5-0 and we all came back in 2010/11 and won that series. There is no reason why on the next tour of Australia the (Joe) Roots, the (Gary) Ballances, the (Ben) Stokes can’t go back and win.”<br /><br />“It is easy to look at the winter and get down, but we have done some good stuff too recently,” insisted Bell. <br /></p>
<p>Ian Bell said he wanted to “lead from the front” after being named England’s Cricketer of the Year on Monday.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The 32-year-old Warwickshire batsman won the award, voted for by the English cricket media, on the back of making three centuries and two fifties during England’s 3-0 home Ashes series win against Australia last year. But that series was quickly overshadowed by England’s 5-0 thrashing in Australia in 2013/14.<br /><br />“I don’t think we reacted well to the problems we had and there has been plenty of fall out since,” said Bell in what appeared to be a reference to the post-Australia tour ditching of star batsman Kevin Pietersen and Andy Flower’s replacement as coach by Peter Moores.<br /><br />“When you step back from it all and have a look, I think we got blindsided by Australia. It is horrible to come away from that with a 5-0 scoreline, but it will be a good experience in the long run for the younger players who were on that trip.<br /><br />“Back in 2006/07, myself, Cooky (current captain Alastair Cook), Straussy (retired skipper Andrew Strauss), Jimmy (Anderson and KP (Pietersen) were all on that tour when we lost 5-0 and we all came back in 2010/11 and won that series. There is no reason why on the next tour of Australia the (Joe) Roots, the (Gary) Ballances, the (Ben) Stokes can’t go back and win.”<br /><br />“It is easy to look at the winter and get down, but we have done some good stuff too recently,” insisted Bell. <br /></p>