Eoin Morgan defends England’s controversial signal system after criticism from Michael Vaughan

There was nothing coded about Eoin Morgan’s defence of England’s controversial experiment of passing on information to the captain on the field by displaying messages.

‘It’s a hundred per cent within the spirit of the game,’ said Morgan as he prepared to conduct another experiment by leading a below-strength England in the first of three 50-over matches that complete this South African tour.

‘There’s nothing untoward about it. It’s about maximising information and measuring it against things like coaches’ recommendations and data. It was actually nice to know it backed up the majority of the decisions we were making on the field.’

England captain Eoin Morgan has defended the side’s controversial new signalling system

Morgan trialled a communications method from a team analyst during the recent T20 series

It did not appear to need a code to identify the former England captain who Morgan was referring to when he was asked what he thought of criticism of analyst Nathan Leamon holding up numbers and letters during the 3-0 Twenty20 series win. It has only really been Michael Vaughan who has spoken out against the move.

‘All captains are different,’ said Morgan. ‘You get those who enjoy the title, the power and the accolades that go with it. Then you have other captains who continue to be pushed and want to learn for the benefit of the team. This is a system we want to use to take out a little bit of the emotion of decision-making in the field.’

So Leamon will carry on posting his messages on Friday at Newlands, even though Morgan has rarely been the emotional type on the field anyway and has never been more in complete, calm command of this white-ball set-up. The captain added yesterday that this is, in effect, the start of the build-up to England’s defence of the 50-over World Cup in India in 2023 — even though priority will be given to T20 cricket for the next two years. That means Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer and Sam Curran have been allowed to go home and opportunity knocks for those who missed out on the short-form matches, such as Mark Wood, Sam Billings and, probably, Moeen Ali.

Former England skipper Michael Vaughan (R) criticised the new on-field messaging system

However, Morgan stressed it is crucial to make important decisions without emotion 

Perhaps there will be chances, too, for the pace bowling promise of Olly Stone, who has impressed in practice, and Reece Topley — even though Morgan wants to back players and will be loath to change the side here once it has been chosen on Friday.

‘One-day series are shortened to three games now, so to make the most of them we’ll try to give guys a run in the side,’ said Morgan. ‘It’s not easy if you come in for just one or two games and then there’s no series for a couple of months. It would be nice to see guys stick their hands up when they get opportunities ahead of the next World Cup.’

Whether Morgan himself will be at the next 50-over World Cup, when he will be 36, remains to be seen as he raised a question mark over whether he will go beyond the two T20 World Cups in the next two years.

When asked whether Dawid Malan, star of the T20 triumph here, is now in contention for the 50-over squad, Morgan said: ‘Dawid has been outstanding in T20 and is in consideration for 50-over cricket but he’s a similar age to me and we don’t know what our bodies will be like in two or three years, or where the 50-over game will be,’ said Morgan of the 33-year-old.

‘If it continues to replicate T20 that will place more physical demands on players. So will a 36 or 37-year-old be able to fulfil the high intensity standard of a World Cup? That is the question for myself and Dawid.’

lWest Indies were last night awarded the Christopher Martin-Jenkins Spirit of Cricket award — run by MCC and the BBC — for sending their men’s and women’s teams on tour to England during the coronavirus pandemic last summer. 

The England captain said his side would continue to use the system in the upcoming ODI series