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Subscribe to RSS Feed hussain - it's not just fletcher
Hussain places some blame on Graveney.
By Andy Hampson, PA Sport
Former captain Nasser Hussain believes coach Duncan Fletcher has paid the price for the inadequacies of other members of the England set-up.
The England and Wales Cricket Board announced today that Fletcher would stand down at the end of the World Cup after eight years in charge of the national side.
Fletcher's resignation is the culmination of a disastrous six-month period which has seen England flop in the World Cup and ICC Champions Trophy and been whitewashed in an Ashes series in Australia.
The Zimbabwean has been one of England's most successful coaches having overseen, amongst other things, the 2005 Ashes win - but Hussain feels he has been let down by others recently.
Hussain is particularly unimpressed with the part played by chairman of selectors David Graveney and feels Andrew Flintoff's captaincy in Australia - when he stood in for the injured Michael Vaughan - was also a factor.
Hussain told Sky Sports: "His problem was he ended up the sole man in charge.
"Because of the inadequacies of someone like David Graveney, who didn't have the bottle or the nous to make the right calls or the right selections; because in Australia he had a captain in Andrew Flintoff who was found wanting, Duncan Fletcher made all the decisions. You can't have that.
"The number one person in any cricket team is the captain and what happened, because of Graveney and Flintoff, was he made all the decisions and then it became his fault.
"There was no-one taking responsibility above him or below him."
Hussain was Fletcher's captain for the first four years of his reign and the pair formed a successful partnership.
Hussain accepts now is the right time to make a change but he hopes the players will take their share of the blame for recent failures.
He added: "The winter has been so bad that someone had to go and whoever - whether it be Fletcher, the board, or the media - has decided, Fletcher is the man. He must go.
"He has not been able to turn around one-day cricket, which is 50% of his remit and because he hasn't been able to do that, that has cost him his job.
"But England have lost a man that talks a lot of sense and could have helped English cricket.
"The England players could have kept hold of Fletcher by putting in some decent performances.
"If England had had a decent World Cup and a decent Ashes series Duncan Fletcher would still be involved.
"The players are the ones who put in performances and they haven't this winter."
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