England analyst sends coded information to skipper Eoin Morgan during 3rd T20I against South Africa

England whitewashed South Africa in the three-match T20I series on Tuesday. Dawid Malan slammed an unbeaten 99 while Jos Buttler scored 67 as the duo didn’t give the hosts any chance while chasing a mammoth total of 192 runs. Malan’s exceptional form for England in the shortest format has been a talking point for quite some time now but that wasn’t the case to some extent after this game.

An interesting incident during South Africa’s batting innings took place which caught the eyes of many. England’s analyst Nathan Leamon was seen sending a coded information to skipper Eoin Morgan from dressing room during the match. A series of letters and numbers were hung from the balcony of the visitors. The information was a combination of a letter and number (for example: 4E).

Speaking after the match about the same, Jos Buttler called it an experiment to let the captain know about the match-ups in the middle. Interestingly, England called it a ‘live informational resource’ even as Buttler revealed that Morgan and Nathan have been working on it for quite some time.

“It’s a little help, a suggestion and what match-ups are going on. Eoin and Nathan work closely on analysis. It’s just a little bit of an experiment. Eoin is one of the best captains in the world, a fantastic, instinctive captain, and there’s a nice balance going on,” he was quoted as saying by BBC.

Captain may chose to ignore the information

Moreover, it has also been reported that England cleared the use of communication with the match referee and anti-corruption officials. The team’s spokesperson cleared that the codes are by no means any kind of information and the final decision-making is done on the field in the end.

“The numbers and letters are intended as a live informational resource that the captain may choose to use or ignore as he wishes. They’re not commands or instructions, and all decision-making takes place on the field,” he said.

However, former England cricketer Michael Vaughan didn’t seem too impressed with it and took to Twitter to express himself as well. “Signals sent from an analyst on a balcony to the captain on the pitch !!!! The world has officially gone nuts !!!” his tweet read.

Signals sent from an analyst on a balcony to the captain on the pitch !!!! The world has officially gone nuts !!! #SAvENG #OnOn

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) December 1, 2020