Craven in the field of battle

Normally when things are going wrong it's time to draw your head in, disappear behind what ever you can find to keep stum. 
The English cricket teams performance is one of those occasions but how can one keep quiet when the performance has been so bad, so lifeless, so guilty of wearing the shirt that others before them, who wore the shirt and represented England must feel cheated by the craven cowardice shown on the pitch. If these men had been in the front line in the First World War they would have been shot !! Is it because we pay them too much and they assume that the income stream will remain that pulling on an England shirt means so little. We see it in the English Football team of overpaid Prima Donners not willing to put everything on the line other than when playing for their (bread and butter) clubs.
How the likes of Brian Close must turn in his grave to watch such craven performances in the face of fast balling.
Close, without helmet or substantial protection of any kind faced, not one Mitchell Johnson but four of him in the form of four 6'6"plus West Indians who were the four most ferocious bowlers to grace a cricket pitch. As they thundered down, ball after ball, over after over he stood swaying out of line of the bouncers, only his cap to protect him or absorbing ball after ball into his body which bruised and battered he continued to defy all they could throw at him. Where was the grit he showed or has the persona of the current crop of cricketers become so saturated with celebrity status, conscious of their heath and safety - that they wanted out ??