JOIN USIan Bell said he wanted to “lead from the front” after being named England’s Cricketer of the Year on Monday.
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.
“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.
“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.
“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.”
“It is easy to look at the winter and get down, but we have done some good stuff too recently,” insisted Bell.