Monday 28 May 2007

West Indies plunged into bleak midwinter

People find it hard to pinpoint quite how this West Indies cricket team has sunk from such great heights to once unthinkable depths in recent times. They wonder how the confederation of islands, nurse of so many of the game's greatest and most enduring talents can now muster eleven men who at one point would have disgraced a team representing the smallest island. But surely no place can be more symptomatic of West Indies' decline and fall than Headingley cricket ground. If the defeat inside two days of a team which could still call upon two fast bowlers, Walsh and Ambrose, who could rightly call themselves torch-bearers of a rich heritage of quick bowling, back in 2000 was a sign that West Indies were on the downward spiral, then today's defeat, the worst ever suffered by a West Indian team, surely signifies their lowest ebb.

Any schadenfreude felt by opposing teams so often crushed, oppressed and utterly defeated by the all-conquering West Indian sides of the late 1970s through to the early 1990s, has long since melted into sympathy. Perhaps the only way one can put into perspective their fall from grace is to imagine the Australian team of today, fresh from going through the double-header of an Ashes series and a World Cup without being so careless as to lose once, twenty years down the line being under the heel of Bangladesh.

Even with Chanderpaul, Sarwan and the now departed Lara, this was a poor West Indies team. But, scratch away the surface, as fate did over these last few days, with the injuries to the first two, and there is nothing. Three years ago when West Indies suffered an equally dispiriting tour of England, Dwayne Bravo emerged as the only highlight, the sole player to rise above the gloom. The fact that nothing has changed in the intermittent years must surely be as loud an alarm bell as any; today, Bravo was the only one to show anything approaching resistance, showing that he, alone amongst the young players, has the necessary technique and heart to stand up to proper examination at Test level. When it became apparent that Sarwan's injury threatened his participation in the entire series, about the only name which surfaced was that of Brian Lara; living proog of the total and utter famine of talent from the islands which once produced enough fast bowlers not only to spoil the national team for choice but stock the English county game to boot.

It is in the fast bowling that the dearth of talent bears most acute comparison with that which came before. While the likes of Michael Holding and Colin Croft pontificate from the commentary box, the English batsmen play the Taylor, Powell and Collymore with the sort of ease which is enough to make the likes of Gooch and Boycott who suffered the real thing simultaneously want to weep and reach into the attic for their cricket bags. Rarely can a batsman have brought up a double-century as easily as Pietersen did and not often will even a man who is as capable of dominating bowling as he is have such a trouble-free stay. None of the trio who have played in these first two Tests have genuine pace; no great bounce is extracted and barring the odd spell from Collymore and Powell there has not been much evidence of swing and seam. Even Dwayne Bravo, who caught the eye in 2004 with his lively medium pace, bagging some big hauls, seems to have lost the fizz from his bowling. In three attempts, they have failed to bowl out England and they show no sign of improving on this: only two bowlers, one the spinner Gayle, are averaging under 50 with the ball from the two games. Opening bowlers Powell and Taylor average 77.5 and 125.5 respectively. At the current rate, when Wisden is published next year, the entire attack will rank under the "also bowled" sideline supposedly the preserve of the part-timer. Just one West Indian batsman (barring Chanderpaul who has batted only once) averages over 40 with the bat; barring Strauss and Shah, each of England's top seven are selling their wicket at over 50 runs a throw, three at more than 100.

While West Indies took one look at a wintry Headingley, on one of the coldest days Test cricket has been played, and literally froze, England did their job. They may have won by their third highest margin when an innings is concerned, greater even than that they inflicted upon Bangladesh in 2005, but it was far from a perfect performance. Ryan Sidebottom continued to do precisely the job he was brought in for; swinging the ball late, moving it both ways off the seam and presenting no end of problems to a procession of batsmen ill-equipped to deal with him. He ended with 8 wickets and has probably booked himself a slot for at least two more Test matches, while England would be foolish not to take heed of Nathan Bracken's illustration of the value of a medium-fast left armer at the World Cup and include him in the struggling one-day side as well.

Without Sidebottom, West Indies would still be in this match, and the weather would probably have allowed them to get away with it a second time. For once again, Plunkett and Harmison were models of inconsistency, something which the steady bowling from the other end only exaggerated. The dismissal of Chris Gayle today crystallised Plunkett as a bowler. With two balls of one over, he appeared to be providing Matt Prior with a goalkeeping trial for struggling local side Leeds Utd. The next was the perfect ball for this Headingley wicket: pitched full, on the off stump, it forced Chris Gayle to play, while the slight but sufficient seam movement off the pitch induced a good old outside edge to the slips. That is one weapon he possesses; the other is the surprise in-swinging yorker, which nailed Adam Gilchrist a few times in the winter one-dayers and almost cleaned up Devon Smith today. Plunkett has a potent armoury, but one delivered from a firearm with the wonkiest of sights. The obvious and simple remedy is county cricket; a year or two to develop and hone an action which is so mechanical that it renders itself unrepeatable and unreliable. You would not have given a young Michelangelo a set of poster paints and told him to go paint the Sistine Chapel; so send Plunkett back to the county game and allow him to add the sort of accuracy and experience that served Sidebottom so well in this game to his raw talent. If he is lucky in avoiding injuries, he could return to international cricket a much mote complete bowler by the age of 25 and one capable of taking over the mantle which by that time, the likes of Hoggard and Flintoff will be considering relinquishing.

Alas the way forward for Harmison is less clear. While he showed some signs of improvement, he was still operating well below his best, although he at least gave the speedometer its first real exercise of the series with some 90mph+ missiles. It seems no amount of wickets in county cricket will cure Harmison's Test match ills. The frustration remains that, for the last few years, he seems to start every series, cricket behind him or not, from the same dismal low, before dragging himself somewhere back to parity in the duration. There seems to be no power to retain lessons learned, and each series appears to be a rebuilding process, for a permanently self-collapsing structure. That is why, barring his one match-winning performance against a petrified Pakistan team on an Old Trafford trampoline, his returns over the last 18 months have been so meagre. For a bowler in his 29th year, with over 50 Tests experience and nearly 200 wickets, the Plunkett excuse doesn't really hold water. Harmison now has two Tests against a West Indies team who may have already had their spirit broken, one on his home ground, his panacea, to prove his worth to a team which lacks direction as long as he continues to err in his line of attack.

The rather pitiful silver lining for the West Indies is at least they have an extra day to prepare for the Old Trafford Test, which mercifully does not begin in the same week as this one has ended. They have only their second non-Test fixture of the tour, against MCC, when they will, no-doubt, test drive some of their reserve bowlers. Meanwhile, the likes of Flintoff and Hoggard have the chance to prove their fitness with their counties and give the selectors a few headaches. The sort of problems that, sadly, the current West Indies management can but dream of.

Saturday 26 May 2007

England let their hair down

It was 21 months ago that crowds swarmed, and in the case of Flintoff and some others literally swam, to greet the Ashes-winning England team. In the period since, it appears, metaphorically, they have struggled to emerge from their stupor. They have won only one series, at home against a weak Pakistan side, since, winning just 4 and losing 7 out of fifteen completed Tests in the absence of captain Michael Vaughan.

The Lord's Test against West Indies will not live long in the memory, unless your name happens to be Matt Prior. While England batted well, they produced what must rank as one of their worst seam bowling performances in recent times. But a week, or less, in this age of back-to-back games, is a long time in most vocations, not least cricket. After almost two years in which so little has gone right, they have enjoyed two days at Headingley which have approached perfection.

Two returning Yorkshiremen have grabbed the headlines; Michael Vaughan, the real one that is, that which cannot be reproduced in coloured clothing, re-established himself as the darling of Headingley and England with a dashing century; Ryan Sidebottom, in from the cold after an even longer absence had a day in which he could do no wrong. Brought in to knock together the headless chickens of Lord's, Harmison and Plunkett, he was both accurate and incisive, swinging the ball both ways and constantly maintaining a length full enough to extract the maximun benefit from a pitch which, in true Headingley style, looked flatter than the proverbial pancake while Pietersen and Prior rollocked along and started spawning gremlins as soon as someone started bowling properly. Andrew Strauss, who along with the rest of the slip cordon caught well, barring one breakdown in communciation, must have reflected that he would have liked someone bowling like Sidebottom when he was tearing out his hair and probably shifting his gaze at slip from the edge of the bat to the ball out of the bowler's hand. But that is the knack of Vaughan; he has had his great misfortune with injuries, but when he gets on the field, he both possesses the 10% of skill Richie Benaud dictates a good captain must have as well as a goodly portion of the 90% Benaud ascribed to luck.

West Indies, their batting woes compounded by injury to their rock Shivnarine Chanderpaul and the evidently Yorkshire-born advertising hoarding which refused to budge in the wake of a tumbling Sarwan and injured him to such an extent that he did not bat today, and, barring a great recovery, won't have to again, were exposed by the swinging ball, unsure when to leave and when to play. Inevitably, with everything going against them, they left the ones that Sidebottom tailed back and tried to go calypso on those which Harmison and Plunkett got to move away. Still, it was skilful bowling from Sidebottom, who repeated the dose when West Indies followed on, and has given the England selectos a big problem for the Old Trafford Test, should Hoggard and Flintoff return.

With the tide in England's favour, Harmison, his relief palpable, and Plunkett joined in the fun, sharing half the wickets between them. Both bowled better than at Lord's, perhaps galvanised by the thought that the Yorkshire crowd at fine-leg might not be as forgiving as the North London one, but were still patchy and lacking in consistency. Harmison's troubles are well documented, and Plunkett, who has the innate ability to swing the ball late and trouble good batsmen, still does not have a good enough idea of where the ball is going. The likelihood is that, in the short term, at least one will have to go, and Plunkett, who will benefit more than Harmison from the experience at county level, is favourite, although his returns have been better and his batting at 8, as evidenced by a useful 44 today, would be missed. Monty Panesar, limited to a single over today, will not miss the irony that he was so crucial at Lord's where many called for him to be overlooked and the match after, acclaimed as the key component of the four man attack, his services were not required.

Heavy rain is forecast for tomorrow and Monday, but the West Indies are already two down, three if you count Sarwan, and, amazingly, over 400 behind. When teams follow on having been fired out first time around they often do significantly better when they start again. However, there was not much evidence of this, with Ganga, brow beaten by a punishing spell as captain in lieu of Sarwan, fell lbw to Sidebottom for a second time and now nothing short of three solid days of rain can save the West Indies.

Friday 25 May 2007

Strauss the light which fails to shine

It was three years ago when, in the nets preceding the opening Test match against New Zealand at Lord's, that Michael Vaughan suffered one of his myriad knee problems, having it buckle under him as he faced a left-arm spinner. In came the Middlesex captain, the still relatively little-known Andrew Strauss. Successful Test debuts seem to be the in thing at the moment, just ask Matt Prior or Alistair Cook, but it was Strauss who began the trend, only Nasser Hussain's running preventing him from opening up with twin centuries. In one fell swoop, he both ended the career of one of England's most long-serving batsmen and most resourceful captains - Hussain, who retired after completing England's victory with an unbeaten century, and broke the opening partnership between Vaughan and Trescothick which had served England more than well after Mike Atherton's retirement in 2001.

The boot was on the other foot today as Strauss, captain at Lord's, made way in that respect for Vaughan, who dismissed the suggestions of a whole swathe of pundits, those whose opinion is generally sought and those whose is not, that he and England would be better served by him finding form with his county Yorkshire, with a century on his return after over 18 months out of Test cricket. England fans will be pleased to see that the passage of time has not dulled his batting lustre, although clearly his propensity for failing to capitalise on three-figure scores, something almost universally shared with his England colleagues (out of whom only Collingwood has gone past 200 in Tests) has also survived. Although it took some time for him to get going, once he had started to get his feet moving, he reminded the Yorkshire faithful of why he was once ranked the world's best batsman, reeling off some of his trademark off-drives and being typically savage with the short ball. It is easy to forget that Vaughan, universally recognised as an extremely astute captain, is also a batsman of rare talent and poise, and England are a stronger team when he plays and makes runs.

It is not often that Kevin Pietersen can fire off an unbeaten century and not expect to see his face in the back-pages the next day. Still, overshadowed as it was, his innings, fortunately prolonged by Chris Gayle's inability to keep his foot behind the bowling crease when he encroached on the delivery which had Pietersen stranded down the pitch and stumped, was equally gripping. He never really hit top gear, but such is his power and eye that it hardly mattered, as he continued to punish balls both which deserved it and those which didn't. More significantly, he appears to have added a drop of discretion and humility to his already potent mixture of talents. The extravagant haircuts are gone, and both centuries this series have been celebrated discreetly, with overexcited bat-waving at a minimum. One would never want to suppress or rein in a free spirit like Pietersen, and indeed there is no danger of this happening, but his maturity has been noticeable of late, evidenced by his shutting up of shop late on in the day's play, making sure that he preserved his wicket for the next day and giving himself the chance to regain his rightful place as the star turn by nailing the really big score which has thus far eluded him.

But while Pietersen prospered and Vaughan did enough to force the critics to find another matter to pick over, Andrew Strauss again failed to register. His is now the only position in England's top seven from which a century has failed to materialise in the three innings so far, and he still only has one Test half-century since last summer. When Strauss does well, it seems, the team prospers too; they won each of his first seven Tests, and sealed a momentous series triumph in South Africa where he was the best batsman with three centuries and a tally in excess of 650 runs in the 5 match series. Although he had his troubles against the Australians in 2005, he nevertheless finished as the only batsman on either side to register a second century. The Oval Test will forever be remembered for Pietersen's king of rearguard efforts, but it was Strauss' first day ton which held together a creaking England effort and ensured that Pietersen had a game to save.

Since then, however, England's form, and Strauss', has declined. On the troubled post-Ashes tour of the sub-continent, his only century, in Mumbai, co-incided with England's amazing victory, while he was back in form for the Pakistan series last summer as he led England to victory and prospered to the tune of 2 centuries and over 400 runs. When England fretted over whom to give the captaincy to for the Ashes tour, the main focus was on Flintoff; how would he react if stripped of the captaincy he felt entitled to? No thought was given to Strauss and how it might affect him. In the end England lost both ways: Flintoff was weighed down by being made to do everything (including wicket-keeping if you count Harmison's first ball), while Strauss had by far his most miserable experience in international cricket, something from which he appears to have not yet emerged. The problems were part technical; the Australians were disciplined enough to almost totally deprive him of hit pet area behind square on the off-side, while they constantly kept him waiting for the short ball which nabbed him twice at the Gabba and never materialised thereafter. But maybe the loss of the captaincy affected Strauss more than we realised and exacerbated his problems on a universally troubled tour.

What is clear is that Strauss needs to get back on track, and fast. With Cook continuing from where he left off before his unhappy Ashes tour and Vaughan back in form and fitness, there is only one place up for grabs in the top four, with Pietersen surely untouchable. Paul Collingwood is likely to continue to provide England with the runs they need when they need them most, while Ian Bell had a significantly better Ashes than Strauss and put runs on the board at Lord's. With Matt Prior proving himself as a batting 'keeper, Flintoff, when he returns, is likely to resume at 6, meaning that someone has to miss out. That is almost certainly between Strauss, Bell and Collingwood and, if the talismanic all-rounder is passed fit to play on his home patch, Strauss, barring a second innings century, will be most at risk, based on performance. That situation excludes Marcus Trescothick, currently out of the frame, but likely to return to the one-day side some time this summer, and a proven performer at Test level should he feel ready to return.

Overall, England enjoyed a productive first day, while their final total will depend heavily on the current partnership sticking around tomorrow morning. Barring more interruptions by the weather, likely on Sunday, England can have no excuses for not knocking over a West Indies batting line-up which has lost Chanderpaul and may be a man down, with Sarwan having injured his shoulder against one of the advertising boards. England cannot afford another bowling shambles like they produced last week and, sensibly, Ryan Sidebottom has been picked to add some control and a line of attack which many batsmen find uncomfortable. West Indies, aided by the weather and Hoggard's injury, did well at Lord's, but England are significantly the better team and need to stamp their authority here and achieve some success without the help of Strauss, something in time they may well have to learn to do.

Tuesday 22 May 2007

Whither England?

England haven't won a Test Match at Lord's for two years. That they haven't lost one either would go some way to explaining why bowlers are not exactly queueing up to have a bowl, despite the fact that the opening Test match of the season, in early May, is habitually held there. The last three Lord's Test matches have followed a familiar pattern; England bat first, make 550 odd, to which the opposition reply with a total in excess of 400. England make a relatively good fist of setting a target, before wasting that good work with a tardy declaration.

In the end it was rain which had the final say, perhaps fitting in a match which neither team really deserved to win. The bowling on both sides was fairly dismal; the West Indies seamers at least seemed to know which pitch they were bowling on, while the England pace duo of Plunkett and Harmison were experimenting with the rather novel idea that, if the pitch offered isn't doing anything, why not try out the adjacent one to see if that seams around. On both sides.

All of a sudden, England, who had in recent years become accustomed to a surfeit of high quality fast bowlers, have been left in a real mess. Hoggard and Flintoff, ever steadfast and reliable are both laid low with injury, while the other key cog Harmison appears to have simultaneously lost confidence and ability. It's a chicken and egg thing; we know he has the ability, but as a mood influenced bowler, he somehow needs to regain confidence. 150 overs of bowling in county cricket and 24 wickets in three games for Durham clearly haven't done the trick, and without the cushion of an experienced attack to carry him, England can't go on for ever just waiting for him to "click". Harmison's attitude that he has nothing to prove also seems curious; if you break down his Test career into ten match tranches , there is only one period where he averages under 30. Everybody who cares about English cricket desperately wants Harmsion to succeed, not least himself. Yet there has to come a point where the management decide that enough is enough and they cannot accommodate a man who seems to have about as much idea of where the ball will land as does the batsman facing.

Worryingly this is not a problem limited to Harmison. Almost all of the up and coming English seamers are afflicted with a curious inability to land six balls of an over on one half of the pitch, let alone a layed out newspaper, and a Sunday at that. To that end, the selectors took the drastic but necessary step of recalling accurate left-armer Ryan Sidebottom, six years after his Test debut. He would not be first choice in the eyes of many, but, with Hoggard out and Flintoff doubtful, even the England selectors recognised that the thought of going into a Test match at Headingley with three from Harmison, Plunkett, Anderson and Onions was too awful a thought to bear. Not that they cannot bowl; they all are, or have the potential to be, fine bowlers. But to have all your pace bowlers in a four man attack playing pic'n'mix on a pitch which will require accurate bowling was just not a viable option. The chances of Sidebottom playing very much depend on the fitness of Flintoff; if he plays, then the shaggy-haired one can expect to do what Jon Lewis spent almost all of last summer doing and drive back to his county the day before the Test begins. If Flintoff is unfit, then he is very much in the frame; as a Yorkshireman, albeit one repatriated to Nottinghamshire, he knows Headingley well and what is required of him. As a left-armer he also offers variety (and not the sort Harmison and Plunkett produced at Lord's) and an angle of attack which the West Indies batsmen have struggled with of late.

The fitness of Flintoff has consequences which extend beyond the composition of the bowling attack. Michael Vaughan will return to captain, and at least fitting him in will not prove too difficult, with the luckless Owais Shah jettisoned. However the role of Flintoff is very much in doubt. He has bowled just nine overs for Lancashire in whites this season, and this, along with the fact that his ankle probably precludes him from being part of just a four man attack, mean that he is unlikely to be fitted in as a replacement for Plunkett on Friday, if he can prove his fitness. Even if the England medics, who have got far too much wrong in the last two years, pronounce him fit, and Moores wants to deploy him in his customary No.6 position, there is the problem of who should make way. Cook and Pietersen are realistically the only two who are absolutely safe; still, how could one countenance dropping Collingwood, who has done so much over the last year or Bell, who continued where he left off last summer with another century? In the cold light of day, the man to go would have to be Strauss, the only established man out of form. It would be easier for all concerned if Flintoff, fit or not, was sent back to Lancashire, to prove his fitness under less strenuous circumstances and get some much needed time in the middle, with both bat and ball. Ideally the same would be in order for Vaughan, which would also give Shah another crack of the whip. However, ever since the 2005 Ashes, he seems to have taken on a deified status, and he must surely be the cricket captain who has reigned for longest in his own absence. With the comments coming out this week about how he felt underused during the Ashes whitewash and the increasing sense that he seriously undermined Andrew Flintoff's captaincy, it seems that Vaughan has dined out so often on the Ashes success that he has started to believe in his own hype. Good captain that he is, he always had a potent seam attack at his command, and it will be interesting, assuming knee, hamstring and finger permit him to lead on Friday, to see how he fares with the motley crew of bowlers he will have at his disposal on his home ground.

After England missed their chance to put one over on a West Indies side who were effectively playing their first match of the tour at Lord's, imposing their will on them will be a much tougher ask now they have some cricket behind them. If the batting holds (and unless England's bowlers pull their socks up, one has to assume it will), then they could spring a surprise at Leeds, a pitch which will be suited to their seam attack, which will be given a cutting edge by the conditions, assuming that they can maintain the tidy line they pursued at Lord's. Tidy is not the word which could be ascribed to any English seamer, once Matthew Hoggard limped off on Saturday morning. At times they would have disgraced a club side, let alone county, and it will ultimately come down to them to decide whether English cricket can emerge into a new era under Moores, or whether fans will be forced to don their 1990s tin helmets and retreat back under the duvet again.

Sunday 20 May 2007

Pietersen locates his inner ginger

In an age which lends itself to stereotype, Paul Collingwood is without doubt the easiest England cricketer to pigeon-hole. Regardless of the fact that he remains the only Englishman in living memory to have reeled off a double-century in an away Ashes Test, no innings of his goes without being ascribed as grafting, workmanlike or gritty. As if to emphasise his nuts and bolts nature as a cricketer, his trademark leg-side shot is known as "the shovel", in comparison to Pietersen's "flamingo". He's been described in a whole range of ways from tough nut to a blue-collar worker. He's not the only cricketer on the international scene to sport a reddish growth under his helmet, but while Shaun Pollock is "flame headed", our Colly is just a good old ginger. In fact, he's not even the only carrot-top in this England side. Despite the rather yukky blond wash he now sports, no-doubt as part of his campaign to appear more assertive at the crease, the photographic evidence from his early Wawrickshire days is against Ian Bell.

Kevin Pietersen, in his early England days as famous for his "skunk" hairstyle as his big-hitting, came to the crease today with England in a slightly uncertain position. After they had West Indies 5 down and over 300 behind, they had ended up with a lead of just over 100, while Andrew Strauss and Owais Shah, his second neurotic innings unfortunately curtailed, had departed cheaply. It was not quite alarm bells ringing, but another wicket or two and West Indies would have fancied themselves to do an Adelaide. It was an important innings for Pietersen, around whom England's hopes rest rather too much these days, and whose hot-headed failure in the second innings at Adelaide precipitated the slide to defeat.

His first innings was typical Pietersen; having set off apace, blazing into the 20s, he got bogged down by the West Indies' negative line and played his get out of jail free card at the wrong time, failing to pass go with a lazy drive to cover. As he crawled to 20 with Cook similarly becalmed at the other end, England fans must have feared a repeat. However, to his credit, he pulled through, laying the platform to expand in his usual fashion once Cook had gone, his second fifty coming off just 39 balls as he savaged the bowling. It was an innings of unusual maturity, and one which made the difference between England being in a safe position, as they are now, and a perilous one, as they could well have been.

With England a bowler down and fielding only two seamers yet to hit their straps to accompany the excellent Panesar, who today finished up with the best first innings figures by a spinner at Lord's for over 30 years, the forecast for an England victory looks as bleak as the weather one for tomorrow, another factor which could spurn England's hopes. Still, the erratic nature of Harmison, who threw in two horrible wides as well as two unplayable jaffas, one of which Gayle will still be feeling the effects of, means that there is a chance that he, and England, will strike lucky. Equally, there is the possibility that the West Indies batting line-up, which did so well in the first dig, will do as many expected they would and fold miserably.

One thing that does not seem a possibility is that West Indies will chase down 400. Yet they are the last team to have done just that, fairly recently against Australia of all teams. Doomsayers will cite their successful chase led by Gordon Greenidge's double century after David Gower had declared on the final morning in 1988; English optimists will point to last summer at Headingley, where Monty Panesar rolled Pakistan on the last day with only 300 to defend; realists will recall that the last two Lord's Tests have ended with England failing to bowl out the opposition on the final day and find a better way of spending £20.

Saturday 19 May 2007

England awoken by unpleasant reminder

Thirteen summers ago, a young Yorkshireman by the name of Darren Gough strode onto the English cricket landscape to begin an international career which would prove to be the best from a Yorkshire bowler since arguably England's greatest ever quick, Fred Trueman. Gough was an all-action figure - slower balls, yorkers, reverse swing and a big heart worn proudly alongside the three lions on his chest whose hopes rested too long on his broad shoulders.

Fortunately for all concerned, England did not have to wait long for their next Yorkshire-born seamer, with the career of Matthew Hoggard emerging as Gough's faded into a procrastinated sunset. Hoggard, on the surface, appears to posses few of Gough's extrovert tendencies, and indeed spent the dying moments of his Test debut, the thrilling 100th Test at Lord's against West Indies in 2000, nervously chewing his bat handle as Gough and the like-minded Cork squeezed England home by two wickets - West Indies are still waiting for an away Test victory.

Hoggard's promise was always apparent, crystallised in the early years by performances in helpful conditions, such as his 7 wickets on a seaming wicket in New Zealand. Still, the realisation that good outswing at medium fast takes you only so far was brought home to bear painfully on the last but one Ashes tour, as his deliveries swung gently into the much less forgiving hitting zones of the Australian left-handers. Such as chastening experience might have been terminal for one of lesser moral fibre, and indeed Hoggard lost his place as the English fast bowling unit stumbled uncertainly into a world without Caddick, Gough and Cork.

But Hoggard endured, and by 2004, he had seen of the challenges of Kirtley, Johnson, Ali et al. to secure his position as England's primary new-ball propeller. With the more glamorous trio of Flintoff, Harmison and Simon Jones, it was easy to forget Hoggard, a constant threat with the new ball, and and an accurate purveyor of line and length , capable of long spells, when nothing was in his favour. It was only when the seam attack was cut to the bone that his value was truly measurable; with the confidence of Harmison and the totally un-prepared Anderson shot to pieces at Johannesaburg, Hoggard rallied to single-handedly win the match which clinched England's series victory in South Africa, a feat previously managed by only Australia since South Africa's readmission in 1991. 6 first innings wickets at Nagpur on his second visit to India proved his ability as a bowler for all conditions, while in more familiar climes the following summer, the procession of left-handers dismissed early by his arching in-swing was not far short of comical. His return to Australia was another unhappy experience, though Hoggard achieved some personal redemption, with his third seven wicket haul in Test cricket coming at Adelaide. Hoggard's response, "I just closed my eyes and wanged it down." With Flintoff's ankle permanently on the edge of ruling him out, Harmison's confidence at an all-time low and England's 2005 Ashes hero Simon Jones in the first stages of a tentative county come-back, Hoggard has now established himself as England's heartbeat, the exact same words once used by former England coach David Lloyd to describe Gough.

Perhaps it was no surprise then that England suffered a much more difficult than anticipated day at Lord's today after Hoggard limped off in his eleventh over. With Harmison struggling horribly, despite his red-hot county form and the glowing accolades of both colleagues and opponents; Plunkett proving that he has the potential to be a good Test player, if not yet being able to realise it and Monty Panesar forced to shoulder the burden on a pitch not suited, England's bowling was ragged. True, Panesar gained significant reward for his consistency with four wickets, but England were made to pay for being reduced to two front-line seamers, one of whom did not bowl anything like well enough to merit being called one.

Just as West Indies scraped past the follow-on target before the close, England did about enough to ensure that only an equivalently poor showing or worse will allow the away side to mount a serious challenge to their first innings total. Adelaide has become a dirty word in the language of English cricket, but should the West Indies do as Australia did, and somehow achieve parity, then England will have to do what they so comprehensively failed to on that fateful morning. Only time will tell whether Andrew Strauss will become the second England captain in six months to wonder how 550 became a losing first-innings score.

This remains an outside bet, although the likelihood of an English victory is increasingly headed that way, with the follow-on averted and the pitch flattening. Assuming they can bat well second time around to set West Indies an insurmountable target, while leaving enough time to win the game, England will be hard pressed to do just that, with the services of one and a half seamers, a spinner sure to be over-bowled and a fourth bowler whose lone success today doubled his tally of Test wickets.

It was desperately unfortunate for England to lose Hoggard when they did, and it looks set to be the factor that denies them victory. Still, it serves as a prescient reminder to his value, and to the fact that it cannot always be him to save the day when others flag. Now shorn of their sturdiest trooper, England may well find that they are in it for the long-haul.

Sunday 13 May 2007

Harmison must seek new direction home

There has been much hype about the succession of Peter Moores as England coach, and how the naming of his first sqaud might give an impression of which way he wanted to take the team. That said, it was still dear old David Graveney who popped up on the radio at 9.30 this morning to announce the 12 names, as if to remind us that he really does have a job after all.

Unusually for a new man, Moores did not have much room for manoeuvre. Still, there were signs of his influence, Matt Prior (rightly) selected as wicket-keeper and Owais Shah's early-season form recognised. Still, it was one of the more familiar names which should be of most interest this summer.

When England last lined up against the West Indies, Steve "grievous bodily" Harmison was coming off the back of the tour which made his name. At Sabina Park, with its hard shiny surface and low sightscreens, Jamaicans are used to seeing tall pacemen run riot. Not ones from England though. And so it was with some surprise that both sides watched him do what no English fast bowler had done for years, and win a Test match in one spell.

He followed it up too, demonising Brian Lara and co. throughout the four matches, and was possibly unlucky not to remove the great man before he had scored the first of his 400 runs on an Antigua pitch seemingly laid by the Department of Transport. That summer, the West Indies were back for more, and so was Harmison, with 17 wickets in another four-match series.

Since then, however, it has been a downward spiral. A nightmare tour of South Africa (9 wickets in 5 Tests) preceded an Ashes series in which he was sporadic, his bombardment of the Australians on the first morning at Lord's and his snaffling of the last wicket at Edgbaston masked generally mediocre performances. Another lacklustre year followed, only his demolishing of Pakistan on a pitch tailor-made punctuated the malaise.

By the time he stood at the end of his mark at the Gabba in November, he was only a fearsome fast bowler "on his day", had retired from one-day internationals, and was a shadow of the Sabina Park version. It showed, as his series began with Andrew Flintoff auditioning for the part of Justin Langer at second slip, and improved only slightly, from that lowest of base-camps.

The build up to his storming of the Caribbean three winters ago included him being sent home from the tour of Bangladesh and Angus Fraser suggested in his column that a similar cooling off period would be appropriate now, to remind Harmison that representing England is a conditional privilege.

Still, after such a good start to the season, he was never going to be ignored, even though England could probably beat the West Indies without him. At 28, and in his sixth year as an international cricketer, it is time for Harmison to shed his "enigma" image and front up. He cannot be criticised for commitment to his family, or even the aversion to leaving Durham. However, at this point, a decision has to be reached; either he commits fully to England and gives them his all for the four or so good years he has left as an international bowler. Failing that, both parties will have to accept that there is no point in selecting him any longer.

From his reaction both on and off the pitch after the Ashes, it is clear that the criticism and his own poor performances are hurting Harmison. And the circumstances for his return could not be more favourable; the opposition against whom he has performed best, 3 out of 4 Tests in the North and no one-day games to worry about. They are conditions tailor-made for a man who does best when swimming with the tide and from here on in, the buck must stop with him.

Friday 11 May 2007

Moores set to deal familiar hand

When, just a few days into his official tenure, a ball reared off a previously lifeless Rose Bowl wicket and broke the finger of England's captain, Peter Moores might have begun to understand why his predecessor's face was so infrequently a smiling one. That weekend, when star batsman Kevin Pietersen damaged his calf while orchestrating a successful run-chase, his honeymoon period as coach may have started to feel less like a fortnight in the Caribbean and more like a long weekend in Pudsey.

And, while Marcus Trescothick captured headlines with a mammoth double-century against Monty Panesar's Northamptonshire, the services of England's senior pro remain tantalisingly out of his reach.

Since the injuries to two of England's key cogs, little has been given away, although Vaughan, at one point seemingly certain to miss the opening Test starting on Thursday, has at least "improved", according to Martyn Moxon, his coach at Yorkshire. Still, there is a good chance that both will miss the game, which leaves Moores to cast around for another batsman. Owais Shah is a good bet, with strong early season performances augmenting the claim he staked over a year ago with a commanding Test debut in India. Andrew Flintoff's second half-century for Lancashire today may just be enough to persuade the selectors to retain him at no.6, in which case another second-string batsman would not have to be dusted down. Should that be necessary, Ed Joyce would be favourite, although Ravi Bopara and even Robert Key, scorer of a double century in the corresponding match three summers ago, could be considered, providing a timely reminder of his talent with a big century against a Durham attack with three England bowlers.

When the batsmen, and how many of them there will be, have been decided on, Moores and his colleagues will have to decide which way to jump in the wicket-keeping roundabout which is an issue starting to assume the sort of graveyard connotations that the left-wing of England's football team has. Matt Prior was clear favourite before the season, as the best batsmen of the contenders. However, he has not made significant runs this season, in direct contrast to the man whose competition for the Sussex gloves he beat off, Tim Ambrose, who has rattled up a double century and several 50s. Paul Nixon would probably be the best option to win a Test Match tomorrow, but England badly need to out their faith in someone who can hold down the job for a long period, and Nixon, for all his ability to talk like an overexcited 8 year old, does not have youth on his side. Still, Prior's glovework is seen as suspect by some, and it remains a mystery that James Foster, who, but for a broken arm, may well have cut off Alec Stewart's test career a year early, seems out of the reckoning. It's anyone's guess, but the best chance is that Moores will go with what he knows and select Prior.

Mercifully the bowling situation is more settled. The habitual opening pair of recent years, Harmison and Hoggard, have both been in fine fettle: Harmison tops the bowling averages, while Hoggard today ran through a batting line up and took 5 for the second time this season. If four bowlers is the plan, then you can throw in Panesar and forget about it. However, opt for 5, and there is a problem. Stuart Broad's knee injury has ended his chances of a debut, while the remaining options are sparse. Possibly the best of them is Liam Plunkett, who has taken wickets and scored a few runs on return from the World Cup, where he was unfairly discarded early on. James Anderson may be a better bowler, but to play him would mean batting one of Hoggard, Harmison or Panesar at 8, which they might just get away with against West Indies, but against the better teams is fail dangerous.

When all is said and done, and despite the Ashes whitewash, England still have a pretty good idea of their first choice Test team, which is not drastically different from the side that toured Australia. The challenge for Moores is to try and achieve what Duncan Fletcher had become unable to, and motivate the players, especially the more mercurial ones. Fail to deliver a convincing result against one of the weakest Test sides, the honeymoon will never have materialised, and he could well be checking the terms of his pre-nup.

Wednesday 2 May 2007

England must keep their heads screwed on.

It is rumoured that when Sir Clive Woodward (just plain old Clive back then) took over as England rugby coach 10 years ago he had to lobby hard to get an office which he then had to equip himself. There should be no such problems for Peter Moores, who officially took over as coach yesterday; for the meantime he can occupy himself with considering the eleven men to face West Indies on May 17th - a privilege which may not his for much longer if the rumblings which surround the pending Schofield Report are accurate.

As a new man who has nevertheless been involved with the England setup for a few years, it will be interesting to see how he makes his mark. There is no need for a procession of rolling heads, and Moores is too sensible a man to do as Bob Willis suggested and "get out the birth certificates." Still, there are decisions to be made: a wicket keeper needs to be finalised, with the choice for now seemingly between the incumbent, fast talking, reverse sweeping Paul Nixon and Sussex's Matt Prior, another of England's covert South Africans.

Michael Vaughan, who confirmed his upturn in form with a 72 against a Hampshire side with two of Australia's Ashes attack, will captain, but it remains to be seen where he will bat. Much of this hangs on the role of Flintoff, which is another issue for Moores to assess. Should he continue to bat at 6 as part of a five man attack, then one batsman has to miss out. It won't be Cook, who has youth and excellent form behind him, so they would have to lose one of Strauss, Bell or Collingwood. Strauss has the best record, but also suffered the worst winter of the three, and should really be dropped if it comes down to it. There is also the chance that Owais Shah, who has started the season in the same purposeful manner he approached his sole Test, may be squeezed in.

Alternatively, they could decide that Flintoff no longer warrants his place as a genuine all-rounder and play all the batsmen, while hoping that Freddie's ankle will cope in a four man bowling unit. This is a fairly appealing option, solving as it does, several of the major problems. With six batsmen preceding Flintoff, the batting ability of the 'keeper would matter far less, while the hole that Ashley Giles has left as No.8 batsman would be filled. Also, as England now have Panesar as an attacking spinner, as opposed to Giles who was always the fifth bowler and supporting act to the pace quartet, a four man attack is more viable, especially one containing Hoggard, a workhorse of the finest breeding. Whatever the tactical make-up of the team, Moores will be relieved by the strong early season form of the two habitual Test Match opening bowlers who both missed the World Cup. Harmison, in particular, has been sharp, relishing the familiar surroundings and leading the PCA's new "most valuable player" rankings.

Hoggard, Harmison, Flintoff and Panesar would be an efficient bowling unit, backed up by Collingwood's medium pace and the occasional off-spin of Vaughan and Pietersen. Even so, there is a strong possibility that Moores will stay faithful to the five man attack so beloved of his predecessor. Finding a fifth bowler, and one who can bat at 8, could prove problematic; Plunkett and Mahmood both have promise, but potential that would be better realised in domestic cricket for the time being. Likewise, it may be too early to throw Stuart Broad to the lions, albeit ones with very blunt claws. Considering that four men were enough to take 20 wickets against Pakistan last summer in an attack without Flintoff, a quartet boosted by him should be enough to see off a West Indies side little improved from the team England crushed back in 2004. There is an argument that the relative weakness of the opposition means that a young man, such as Broad, should be blooded; on the other hand, a repeat of the scoreline three summers ago would be the perfect way for Moores to stamp his authority on the job, and just now, England need to win, which means sacrificing forward thinking at the altar of necessary short-termism.

On the 17th, with all being well, Michael Vaughan will contest the toss with new West Indies captain Ramnaresh Sarwan. Much like the coin, the future of England, and of Moores, will be up in air. Just over a month later, when the series concludes, England should still be flying. Then there's the one-dayers to worry about...