You could always ask why Ian Ronald Bell has so far failed to live up to his potential.
It's a pertinent question considering all of the promise he showed as a young player coming up through the cricketing ranks and considering the amount of praise that was heaped on him not so many years ago. Actually a more relevant question to ask regarding this would be something like "why is it that some players, who show such promise as youngsters, fail to live up to their potential as adults?".
It's not just Ian Bell we're talking about here either, there have been plenty of players (such as Vinod Kambli for example) over the years who have not achieved the same (or even any) success as they did during their time in junior cricket. They haven't pushed on and made the step up, they never reached the heights of the game or made a success out of playing it. It would be interesting to know why and I'm sure there must be plenty of reasons for it.
As for my opinion on Ian Ronald Bell? Well I think that's pretty obvious what I think of him lol. But I'll state it again (just because I like to haha) and say what I said (with a few things added) a few weeks ago;
Ian Bell is a talented player and has a decent game about him. He has some very fine shots in his repertoire and can time the ball beautifully. He also has the ability to dominate bowling attacks (when he's in form and applying himself of course). We know all of that and none of this has ever been in doubt.
Unfortunately though, Ian Ronald Bell is one of the most frustrating cricketer's I've ever seen play. His talent and aptitude for the game is very rarely shown and his potential for it has been lost beneath his lack of commitment. And it's that lack of commitment that has annoyed so many of the fans and professional commentators, not to mention his inability to step up to the mark and make something of himself beyond the basics and his failure to further his career by taking a more responsible role within the dynamics of the team.
There’s just no character there. He gets in and either doesn’t stick around for very long or when it looks like he’s about to make a big score he gets out playing a lose and stupid swishy shot. Much more is needed from him, he needs to play more responsibly. Unfortunately though he's just content to play his game as a junior batsman despite the fact he's 27 years of age and has played 49 Test matches and 79 ODI games (probably because of the fact that due to the state of our domestic structure and the fact that there aren't many names in the running that could replace him he knows he will keep getting chosen and doesn't feel the need to do more. Which is actually quite a lazy way to play cricket but I digress).
This problem isn't even in International cricket either, it pervades even in his county game. Look at his stats from the last domestic season. He scored 1185 runs in 30 innings at an average of 43.88 which when you look at it isn't all that bad, especially as he scored 4 hundreds (top score 172) and 6 fifties (ok a lot of it was done on batsmen friendly pitches and against some weak bowling attacks but that's besides the point). The problem is though that most of the work was done at the beginning of the season before he got his re-call to the Test side. Once he was back in the Test side his county form went a little by the wayside and he didn't keep up the momentum. He went from averaging somewhere in the high 70s (and it might have been higher, I can't remember) to ending up with an average around 43. Something is a little off with his game there and shows that he plays with little integrity.
Speaking of which, not too long ago Michael Atherton actually asked Bell when he was going to start playing as a more senior player and Bell's response was ridiculous! It was something along the lines of "hopefully soon". That response sums up exactly why the fans get so infuriated with Bell, instead of saying something like 'from now on' he says something stupid like "hopefully soon"! There's just a total lack of anything going on behind his sunglasses.
It's actually frustrating watching a player of his talent failing to progress and it's exasperating knowing that his talent is going to waste. If he had actually applied himself when he should have done then he would be the vice captain by now (a role he would probably do a good job of and thrive in) instead of Cook whose appointment was a little strange anyway. But Ian Ronald isn’t vice captain and hasn’t made the progression and that’s why he’s so unpopular and even hated.