Samit Patel expresses displeasure on how board tackled his fitness issues

Former England all-rounder Samit Patel has looked back at his short international career and has criticized The England Cricket Board (ECB) management for continuously overlooking him from the squad due to his fitness issues. The 36-year-old was first axed from the squad during England’s tour to West Indies in the year 2009.

The off-spinner all-rounder started playing county cricket for Nottinghamshire and immediately made a mark by showing his all-round skills. He had a breakthrough County Championship season in the 2007 scoring 887 runs-which included four centuries and he took 10 wickets which made the selectors take notice of the then youngster’s talent.

Patel on his consistent performance in the County was handed his cap but Hugh Morris, ECB director was clearly not impressed with his fitness and his ability to move in the field.

“Samit Patel is a talented cricketer but he, like every other player who joins the senior England team, must be aware of the strict fitness criteria that will be set,” added Morris.

Patel while speaking to Cricket Life Stories has expressed his disappointment towards the ECB management of how things panned out.

I was a little bit of a scapegoat reckons Samit Patel

“No, it just got chucked out there which I was pretty disappointed about,” he said. “In my opinion, [it was] handled poorly by the ECB. [It was] not entirely their fault but if you put it now, things would be handled way differently by the ECB and captains and coaches. Maybe [I was] a little bit of a scapegoat, first up, but you live and you learn with this kind of stuff,” Patel added.

During the 2009 tour to West Indies, Andrew Strauss took over the captaincy from Kevin Pietersen as England wanted to re-build the squad ahead of the ICC 2011 World Cup, The all-rounder played few matches before he was dropped due to fitness issues.

“We went through a period where we were losing and Straussy came in and wanted different standards with Flower,” he said. “It was that crossover period where people need to make some kind of statement and stamp their authority in different roles and I copped it for that.”

Patel was also not included in the 2011 World Squad and he last played for England against Pakistan in 2015.