THE iconic phrase that ‘Nero played the fiddle while Rome burnt’ was given a cricketing connotation on Monday at the Sydney Cricket Ground when an England captain slept in the dressing room while his team’s lower order batsmen crumbled to lose a Test to the perennial nemesis — the Australian bowlers in an Ashes series.

Sir Winston Churchill must have turned in his grave. The iconic Bulldog spirit was nowhere on display as an England captain slept. Yes he had arrived at the ground late on the fifth day after being hospitalized overnight due to severe dehydration, vomiting and diarrhea.

Yes, he did walk out to bat after Moeen Ali, who resumed in his place, had fallen and stuck it out to his fifth half-century of the series to be 58 at the interval.

Yes, the series — and Ashes — was lost two weeks ago. It was the final two sessions to play out to save face and to carry the momentum into the oncoming ODI series. Had it been a physical injury, it may have been a distant plausibility. Or maybe not even then.

Recall a non-captain, the late Wasim Hasan Raja, walking out against West Indies at the National Stadium in 1975 with his right ankle in plaster, using his bat as a crutch. The game was saved by then but Sadiq Mohammad was on 98. Raja played out three balls but was bowled off the fourth due to no possibility of footwork.

Sadiq himself, who opened for Pakistan, had reappeared in the middle-order after being in hospital for two days with a sprained (and collared) neck after being hit while fielding at square leg. He had batted long enough to put the match beyond West Indies who would have won had he not come out to bat and kill time as well as score runs.

When the Australian commentators — all legendary former international cricketers — kept mentioning that the England captain was asleep in the dressing room, it was difficult to decipher whether they were stating a fact or making fun with a straight face.

Honestly, I cannot recall any incident when a captain was sleeping in the dressing room while his team was trying to bat out two sessions to save a Test.

Even a presence at the balcony urging his players on in the middle could have led to an inspiring fightback. It was clear it hadn’t gone down well with the players. The body language of the players who went out to bat after lunch spoke of disinterest. It was like they just threw in the towel.

In the closing ceremony, their vice-captain James Anderson was equally blunt when asked how his captain was doing, “He’s asleep at the minute, it’s taken the toll on him; he’s trying to recover.”

The English media has made all effort to downplay the episode. But in all honesty, it is sickening (apologies for the pun) that a captain does not even make the effort to sit in the balcony padded up to show his mates he just might come in. That’s what drives the followers.

Would someone like Ian Botham or Allan Border gone to sleep while the tail end batted to save a Test match?! How much energy does it take to sit on a chair, maybe inside, and be seen through the window pane? If dehydration, vomiting and diarrhea are symptoms that cannot allow you to get up, then Root should be given a history lesson.

Some thirty years back - 1985 to be precise, Dean Jones was batting in the searing heat of Madras. It was hot and humid (40*C with 80% humidity) throughout the five days as Jones edged forward to a double hundred as Australia battled to build a big score much less save a Test (it would eventually be tied in the last over of the match).

I remember listening to the commentary from All India Radio. Time and again the commentators spoke of how Jones would squat down after every over, and later every ball. He felt dizzy, had involuntary urination and vomiting 15 times. He said later that he didn’t remember anything after his score reached 120.

On the record the England players, especially Anderson in the post-match conference were sympathetic. He informed that when Root returned after batting at lunch he was in a bit of gastro pain and resting and fell asleep and they decided to just let him stay that way till the game ended.

Now compare that with what Dean Jones’ captain at Madras, Allan Border (who hailed from Queensland), had to say when Jones (from Victoria) wanted to go off. As he himself recalls. “On about 170, I wanted to go off because I was stopping the game every over to be sick. And Border said ‘You weak Victorian. I want a tough Australian out there. I want a Queenslander.’ So I stayed.”

That’s what was missing from the England camp. Coach Trevor Bayliss should have put his foot down. Root should have at least made it to the balcony. Leadership is what is seen not read through intents.

Great leaders sweat it out, not sleep it out.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2018