Cricket World Cup 2019: Eoin Morgan reveals how the players thanked the ECB for saving the 50-over game

Four years ago England were at rock bottom. A stark contrast to the swashbuckling, entertaining and successful cricket that has propelled England to their first men's World Cup final in a generation.

England’s match on Sunday against New Zealand, their first final appearance since 1992, is as much down to Jason Roy, Jofra Archer and Chris Woakes as it to some pretty difficult conversations that were held by the ECB four years ago following their group stage defeat.

Captained by Eoin Morgan, England limped away from the 2015 World Cup, that was designed to ease the top sides through to the knockout stage, with just two wins from the five games they played, one less than Ireland achieved.

The white-ball captain immediately called for an inquest into why England had been allowed to fall so short on the world stage, and now he is basking in the changes made to the way one-day cricket is viewed in this country.

Test cricket was the focus, always has been and always is, and there will almost certainly be calls for even more focus on the traditional format to receive extra attention should anything go even the slightest bit wrong in The Ashes, but the ECB was convinced to show 50-over cricket the love Morgan believed it deserved.

England replaced head coach Peter Moores with Trevor Bayliss, but it was the captain that was banging down the doors at the ECB. Morgan knew how far England had to go to turn around this dismal showing and was backed by England director of cricket Andrew Strauss to rip things up and start again.

On the pitch England began to establish themselves as a high-scoring, aggressive team, quickly delivering average scores off 330 and beyond, but there was also a culture shift in the governing body that Morgan was keen to ensure did not go unnoticed by his teammates during the recent stunning win against Australia in the semi-final.

In the thrilling eight-wicket victory at Edgbaston, a large board was on display in the England dressing room featuring messages from the playing squad to everyone that works at the ECB thanking them for the effort that has been put into 50-over cricket, a reminder to the players how far things have come.

“50-over cricket has always taken a back-seat to t20 cricket and Test match cricket, so involving everybody, making sure they appreciate the work that they do behind-the-scenes is extremely important for us,” said Morgan, who spoke to everyone that worked at the ECB ahead of the World Cup.

“Myself and the head coach (Bayliss) went into the ECB offices and did a live stream Q&A with an internal one with all the ECB staff, either watching online or in the room in one of the Lord's stands. It was an opportunity for us answer questions but also, you know, unite us a little bit.”

Morgan knows it would have been an easy decision to change of captain and for the governing body to show a reluctance to throw resources at 50-over cricket following a shambolic return in 2015, but now , through a culture shift across the entire country, England are poised to delivery the trophy itself for the first ever time, the ultimate reward.