Thursday 29 November 2007

Into the fire

Sri Lanka, often cited as the most difficult place after to Australia to tour, has been a significant stopping point for England in the recent past. The two previous tours have both in a way been beginnings for a team which eventually became a unit good enough to overcome the best in the world. The success of Nasser Hussain's team in 2001 was hugely important in giving confidence to a team which had little previous cause for it, coming off the back of success against the West Indies and in Pakistan. After misjudging his first tour to South Africa, that was the winter which set the standard for Duncan Fletcher's reign. Almost three years later, Michael Vaughan's side found themselves on the wrong end of the result; that was his first tour away as captain, and under his leadership not another series was lost in the 18 months leading up to the Ashes series. Therefore at a time when the Test team is in flux and their results have begun to flag, it seems prescient that they should return to Sri Lanka as Michael Vaughan and Peter Moores, on his first winter placement as coach, endeavour to straighten out a slightly messy situation with the spectre of Australia looming two summers hence.

England have not had much luck since their zenith in 2005. Injury has denied them the influence of many senior pros and decimated a potent bowling arsenal, the tattered flag of which can now be raised only by Matthew Hoggard on a consistent basis. However, they have not played too much good cricket either, and have done nothing particularly worthy of shouting about for the past two years. Having had a summer, which by dint of containing their first home series defeat for six years must be regarded as a disappointment, to take stock, coach Peter Moores can now truly begin to mould a team, something England have patently not been since 2005. He has not stood on ceremony, and correctly wielded the axe on Andrew Strauss, reeling from the relentless schedule and the demons brought about by a long run of poor form. Steve Harmison has also been served effective notice that his selection is now very much conditional, while the absence of the team's only genuine all-rounder Flintoff is a reality which coach and captain will probably have to learn to live with.

Nevertheless, the batting unit is fairly settled, with just one area of debate. Alistair Cook will have the chance to form a new opening partnership after his alliance with Strauss never yielded the sort of returns England had become accustomed to over recent years. It is perhaps not ideal that Michael Vaughan should vacate the No.3 position, an important slot for which a player of stature is required, but on the other hand he should relish a return to opening, where he has achieved his best for England and can set the tone. Ian Bell will aim to fill the void at first drop; now a player of relative experience, Bell has to prove he can prosper in the position which has been long ordained for him, as he has started to do for the one-day team. The middle-order will be crucial: Kevin Pietersen is England's best player of spin, Paul Collingwood the man with the best sub-continental pedigree. Both must score heavily if England are to have a chance. Leaving out Mark Ramprakash was a debatable decision, but does give England the chance to make two forward-looking calls rather than fudging the issue with a short-term selection. One of the those is allowing Bell the chance to bat up the order, the other is to open up a place for another batsman in his old position at 6. Owais Shah and Ravi Bopara are the contenders, and it is a close decision which two warm-up games has not made any easier. Shah offers experience in county cricket, a good game against spin bowling and the knowledge that another chance is probably what he deserves after an enterprising debut. Bopara impressed more in the practice matches, batting more aggressively, while his bowling also made a mark and he brings top-drawer fielding and boundless energy to the cause. Shah was ahead before the tour and probably did enough in the two games to make his name the head-on-block option. However, there is a real chance that Bopara's exuberance in all aspects of the game will win him the vote. What the selectors must consider is the relative worth of the two as batsmen, their primary role, and also the need to have a second medium-pace back-up bowler with Collingwood already filling that role.

Three of four bowling places have been already allocated, with Sidebottom and Panesar already inked in, and Hoggard bowling himself back into form, and the team to victory, in the second warm-up fixture. However the identity of the third seamer - the bouncy nature of the Kandy pitch means it is almost certain Graeme Swann will not squeeze in - will have been one argued long in the selectorial debates. Despite a good haul of wickets in his domestic stint in South Africa, is is obvious that Harmison is still in the mire which has been his resting place for a few years now. In what promises to be a real battle, England cannot afford to have Harmison and his luggage, including a back-injury which has incapacitated him again recently and means his selection would be an unwelcome risk. Nevertheless, the feeling persists that England need someone who offers his pace and bounce to have an impact on the series, and Kandy of all the grounds should suit him. With Anderson, there seems the real danger that England will field a seam attack which is short on variety; one could go on at length about the differences between the three, but the reality is that three fast-mediums often boil down to the same thing, even with one being a left-armer. Still, this seems a good time to draw a line under the Harmison saga for now and wield the axe for what would be the first time since the last tour here, when he was not selected and told to sort himself out. That barb spurred him on to real success; it appears in the wake of that the management have been too inclined to offer him the carrot and a new tack is needed. What is surprising is that Stuart Broad seems to have slipped out of contention. He offers the best middle-ground, with his batting ability to boot, and if the selectors thought he was not ready to make his debut, they should not have brought him in the first place.

Sri Lanka, like England before them, have just been sent packing from Australia, but that does not mean they are to be taken lightly. On their own pitches they are an entirely different proposition. The Asgiriya International Stadium and offers England some hope in being the venue for more Sri Lankan defeats than victories as well as housing the most seam-friendly surface on the island. It is also the home ground of a certain Muttiah Muralitharan, where he has taken over 100 of his 700 Test wickets in just 15 matches. The great man may have managed just 4 wickets in the two recent games down under, but it is very likely that he will take the 5 he needs to take the record mark from Shane Warne in just the first game. For a change, they now have some seamers other than Chaminda Vaas - fading but still a force at home - to back him up. Lasith Malinga and Dilhara Fernando will play after a serious injury to budding prospect Farveez Maharoof, who had the better of England in the one-day series, and although both were insipid in Australia, they are form and confidence bowlers. In a short series, just one spell can make a difference, and each is well capable of wreaking havoc on batting orders. England are also bound to find themselves toiling long and hard in the field, with two batsmen in particular, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, set to frustrate them. Those two will be the key, although England must be wary of the sucker punch - it is the contribution of lesser lights such as Dilshan and Samaraweera which has floored them on past tours. Despite their mauling in Australia, Sri Lanka start favourites, as was the case in the one-day series, a prediction which proved erroneous. It is now the turn of the Test team to confound expectations, something they must start doing now if glory is going to be anything other than a fast-fading memory.

Saturday 24 November 2007

The man time should not forget

Australia, and particularly their batsmen, have dominated cricket, international and domestic, for the best part of two decades. The list of Australian batsmen who have been the envy of all other nations from Allan Border on seems endless: since his mid-eighties pomp, they have been able to boast the likes of David Boon, Mark Taylor, Steve and Mark Waugh, Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn, Langer and Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, and latterly a man who is upstaging even those eminent peers, Michael Hussey. What is more incredible is the number of batsmen who have been unable to force their way into the side due to the weight of talent. English county cricket has been the main beneficiary, accommodating the likes of Stuart Law, Matt Elliott, Michael Bevan, Michael DiVenuto, Brad Hodge and Greg Blewett when Australia could not find room for them, which was often. But good and successful as those batsmen have been for their states and counties, there is one primus inter pares, a man who has scored more runs than any other in Sheffield Shield cricket and possesses a better batting average for Yorkshire than Hutton, Boycott or Sutcliffe - Darren Lehmann.

But while high-class Australian batsmen have been commonplace recently, happy endings have not, a constant throughout cricket history. And that seemed the way Lehmann's career was going to conclude, after he suffered deep-vein thrombosis followed by an Achilles injury which led to him tearfully announcing his retirement last week. But the great champion of modern domestic cricket had one last flourish left, striking joyous centuries in both his final List A and first class games, within days of each other. His state South Australia are in crisis, something which his retirement can only deepen, but he has given them a fitting farewell, just as he did for Yorkshire with 339 in his last game to ensure their survival in Division 1 of the Championship. It is an irony that Lehmann, denied the chance to spend his career lording it with the Australian Test team, has instead devoted himself to salvaging lost causes, not without success, as his key role in Yorkshire's 2001 title-winning side showed.

His statistics speak for themselves yet leave so much unsaid: a first class average of over 57, 82 centuries and trailing only Hick and Ramprakash, over 1500 innings between them, in terms of runs scored. Nevertheless, that was not enough to earn him a long-lease on a spot in the Test side, winning just 27 caps despite an average touching 45, a figure which extended over 50 in his comeback phase in 2002-4, after he had squandered his initial chance in 1998. It was in ODIs where he had more opportunities, notching up over 100 caps and playing in two World-Cup winning sides. His power and adaptability made him perfect for the middle-order and overs in one-day cricket, not to mention the handy left-arm spin, with which he gathered well over 50 wickets, averaging 27 in both Test and ODI cricket. Having stepped aside to allow Michael Clarke the chance, poor form eventually saw the end of his Test career, although the Australian selectors might have been regretting their folly months later, as the Australian batsmen struggled in the conditions which Lehmann had become accustomed to during his time at Yorkshire. Lehmann reinforced the message the next Australian summer, with his best ever season for South Australia.

But it was his personality and character which endeared him to fans on both side of the world as much as his titanic run-scoring feats. One of the dwindling number from the generation for whom fitness was a tertiary concern, Lehmann was definitely a member of the "balanced diet is a pie in each hand" brigade, and could frequently be seen on balconies indulging his nicotine habit. Now we have fitness coaches and a smoking ban - for Lehmann the booze and fags just added to his allure. And that is not to mention the sheer brilliance of his batting; hitting the ball joyously hard, treating the best spinners as he would have his own bowling, the sweetest of slashing square cuts. He managed to twin those oft unhappy bedfellows- scoring runs and entertaining the crowd. Lehmann never bored; he seldom failed.

Yorkshire had, of course, only acquiesced to the idea of overseas players (with overseas concerning the South of England as much as South Australia) in 1992, and had had mixed experiences with Sachin Tendulkar, Richie Richardson and Michael Bevan. Yet after a career short by the standards of Yorkshire legends, not even the most grudging of broad acre curmudgeons could have criticism for him, and he was duly included in a Yorkshire Post greatest ever XI, the native of Gawler standing tall alongside the likes of Geoffrey, Wilfred and Sir Leonard. Having fallen short of George Hirst's 100 year old record for the highest score by a Yorkshireman, his reaction was typical: "George was a better batsman than me anyway." For any other born outside Yorkshire to have made an attempt on the record would have been seen as heresy; yet for Lehmann, an exception would have been made. He had won over the hardest-to-please fans in the world, and for that alone he deserves his place in history.

Sunday 11 November 2007

All quiet on the Kallis front

It is not difficult to name the almost universally agreed greatest ever all-rounder, a title which sits as easily upon the shoulders of Garry Sobers as the sobriquet of best batsman fits Bradman. Identifying the modern player whose statistics can match, and even shade Sobers, is a tad more troublesome. After all, you knew Jacques Kallis was good, but really that good? In numbers, at least, Kallis' Test career bears a remarkable resemblance to that of the great West Indian. Their Test averages differ by just 0.04, while Sobers has more wickets (from fewer games) and a better economy rate, while Kallis possesses the superior average and strike rate. There, as they say, the comparisons end, but not without serving to show just how underrated and high-achieving Kallis is in the pantheon of the modern game.

As South Africa's best batsman since re-admission, he is their top run-scorer, having just gone past 9000 Test runs with 186 against New Zealand. Only the three best seamers since 1992 - Donald, Pollock and Ntini - can better his haul of 219 wickets. Yet as neither batsman nor all-rounder has he achieved pre-eminence. Ponting, Lara, Tendulkar, Inzamam and Dravid are at least five who would be considered above him in an evaluation of the best batsmen since 2000, yet only the first can improve on his Test average of 57.74. He has a better bowling average and economy rate than Andrew Flintoff, his only contemporary in the genuine all-rounder capacity. Style plays some part - his strokeplay, while withering, is neither elegant nor dashing - there also lingers the suspicion that he only shows real willingness to bowl when there is something in it for him. Nevertheless, he is capable of producing good pace and movement, and four 5 wicket hauls in Tests mark him out as more than just a steady customer in the role of 5th bowler. Being from South Africa - a cricketing nation which has achieved excellence yet remained perennial bridesmaid in the modern age - is a contributing factor. Of the many high-achieving and talented South African players since 1992, stardom has only really visited itself on one, in Allan Donald, while often the focus on great South Africans is biased towards the generation to which circumstance denied the chance to make a mark on Test history.

It seems indicative of the Kallis paradox that one has to resort to endless statistics to prove his worth. With a player of his stature, this should not be necessary, but it is only in the numbers that the extent of his achievements are truly apparent. It is not necessary to know, or even refer to the Test average, or number of centuries of a Lara or Tendulkar. Their greatness is obvious on the field, the statistics fall neatly in line behind them; with Kallis it seems rather to be the other way around. To suffer at the hands of Kallis is not unexpected, yet the extent of his abilities seems only to be clear after he has made the fielding team sick of the sight of him; a knowledge which is stored at the back of the mind, rather than seared indelibly into the consciousness. Yet for all this semi-anonymity, Kallis is a singular, in ways unique player. Most of the great all-rounders have been primarily bowlers - Miller, Imran, Hadlee, Botham, Dev - who would take the new ball and bat in the lower-middle order. Even Sobers, like Kallis a batsman first, tended towards the middle rather than top of the order. Yet Kallis, who cannot offer anything approaching their bowling record, is a top 4 batsman, while his haul of over 200 Test wickets means he cannot be relegated into the batsman who bowls category.

That he is someone who profits by pillaging against the lesser teams is an accusation frequently leveled against him and not without foundation. Still, he is by no means alone in this, and all of his three centuries against Zimbabwe came when they were far from the token presence they have since become. An average of 48.53 in Australia and a mark of 64.6 in the three main subcontinental countries shows he is adaptable to all conditions. That his average is greater and he has more of his centuries away from home is indicative of his importance to South African cricket.

What is more, he has seemed to improve with age. In the second part of his career, his average has been 65; batting at 4, a position he assumed permanently in early 2002 and where he has batted for half of his Tests, that rises to over 70. Ominously, he is not yet a month past his 32nd birthday, while four centuries in three Tests this season show an intent uncommonly strong even in a man like Kallis. Next year, South Africa make their 5-yearly tour of England, Kallis' third and likely final visit. His record there is patchy, an average of just 37 with a solitary century, although he did bowl his team to victory at Headingley in 2003. Should he continue his current run of form, his contribution to the series could be vital in attempting to win the series in England, something South Africa have not done in their three trips since re-admission. Achieve that and maybe he will start to receive the sort of recognition which his talent and record deserve.

Sunday 4 November 2007

Rivals prepare for rebirth of old enemy

As the fortunes of England during and since the period of 2004-5 have shown, it is not the ascension to the peak that takes the most effort - although that itself is substantial - but the ability to stay king for more than just a day. And that is why Australia, for whom the 2005 insurgence was a rare pinprick in a 12 year regime, will be remembered as a team for the ages, just like the all-conquering West Indians before them. Furthermore, despite the loss of their two best bowlers and 172 Tests worth of batting experience in the form of Justin Langer and Damien Martyn; the players selected for their first Test series since their zenith of the Ashes whitewash last year look perfectly capable of ensuring it is some time yet before the Antipodean empire crumbles.

Regeneration is the cornerstone of any dynasty, and it is what Australia have shown themselves annoyingly good at over the course of the last 15 years. Surely there could be none like Allan Border, long Test cricket's most capped player, highest run-scorer and most experienced leader as well as the man almost uniquely credited as the facilitator of Australia's rise to greatness. But then came Steven Waugh: more Test appearances, centuries and victories as captain than his illustrious predecessor bar the one that was Mark Taylor, who oversaw the transition from a team who could scrap with the best to one which was utterly dominant. Waugh is now long gone, but his ghost still lingers, in the hard-nosed leadership of Ponting and the steel-willed batsmanship of Michael Hussey. The elegance of his brother Mark and Damien Martyn is also now missing, but in it's place they can boast the dashing strokeplay of Michael Clarke, whose excellent Ashes series last winter confirmed the promise previously hinted at by his century on debut in India and impressive showing in 2005, when he was Australia's least experienced batsman, and often their best.

And it is personal, as well as personnel renaissance which has been a mark of this Australian outfit. Ricky Ponting picked himself up off the floor of a Sydney nightclub in 1999 and came out the other side of drink counselling to become the foremost batsman of his generation and a leader who, after an aberration in 2005, now looks every bit as formidable as the three who came before him. Matthew Hayden returned after his first stab at Test cricket yielded an average of less than 30 to become one of the best attacking openers the game has seen; in one-day cricket, he was out of the team for over a year, but came back just before the World Cup to record the fastest ever century by an Australian in ODIs, and is currently, without doubt, the best opener in the world.

The retirement of Warne and McGrath, a unique pair of bowling predators, was always foreseen as a watershed moment by those wondering quite when the Australian dynasty would tail off. And although Australia's bowling attack will lack that same incisive edge, lent as much by reputation as reality, the talent is still there to keep them top of the tree. Stuart Clark and Brett Lee will take the new ball, something both have earned, although Lee, at least, still has to convince in the role of leading strike-bowler without the crutch of the ever-reliable McGrath. With Shaun Tait's injury, something which is increasingly becoming habitual, the role of third-seamer goes to Mitchell Johnson, a rapid left-armer who has produced the goods in ODIs and is there on merit as much as promise, although his first-class returns indicate he still has something to prove. He will be given the chance, although the presence of Ben Hilfenhaus as Tait's replacement is a threatening one to all the pace attack, especially if Hilfenhaus, that rare commodity of a swing bowler in Australia, can go some way towards matching his mammoth 60 wicket haul in last year's domestic competition. Stuart Macgill has long been Warne's No.2, and has managed 40 Tests along the way, sweeping up almost 200 victims with his outrageous side-spin, although verging on 37 and with a suspect knee, it remains to be seen whether he has withered too long on the vine. Brad Hogg, whose ODI record and strong showing in the Pura Cup game which served as an audition, has earned him a squad place alongside Macgill, although the selector's preference for the leggie will probably override Hogg's superior recent record and the all-round option he offers with useful batting and fielding.

For Langer's replacement, Australia have the remarkable reassurance of being able to select, for only the third time, the left-hand dynamo Phil Jaques. He has been down the Hussey road of success in county and Australian domestic cricket, and already has 10,000 FC runs and 32 centuries to his name. It is the privilege of the current Australian selectors to replace talent and experience at Test level with equivalent long-standing in domestic competition. Still on the sidelines are David Hussey, brother of Mike and with a FC average almost identical to Jaques' and with just one less century, and Brad Hodge, seemingly destined never to secure a permanent Test position, despite his average of 58.42 from his 5 games so far. Hodge's desperate attempt to reinvent himself as an opener shows the difficulty of forcing a way into the Australian batting line-up, while a player of his talent would be long into a Test career with any other country. In view of that, Andrew Symonds can maybe count himself somewhat lucky, with rather less flattering statistics. In one-day cricket, he is the kingpin, with an astonishing record since the 2003 World Cup. Yet only twice has he broken free in Tests, smashing a 70 against South Africa before finally reaching three figures at Melbourne in the Ashes. As much as that innings is being regarded as an epiphany, it must be said that England's bowling plan to him, the theory of which was left on the floor of the pavilion bar, was horrendous, allowing him to play the innings as he would in an ODI. The idea of Symonds, as a destructive batsman, livewire fielder and auxiliary fifth bowler, is a good one, so crucial in the shorter form of the game, which is why the selectors have shown faith over equally deserving specialist batsmen. But Symonds must make his mark in the near future; Australian selectors give only so much leeway, while Shane Watson, long since earmarked as the man to fill the No.6 slot, cannot stay injured forever.

It is 9 months since Australia last played a Test, delivering the crushing denouement to England at Sydney. In the next 7 months they play 13, taking on four different Test nations. That should be a sufficient period for any gremlins which have sneaked into the system to be ironed out and the results will show to what extent the loss of Warne and McGrath will hurt them. Do not hold out too much hope for a change; this team looks set to retain the hydra like qualities which have led to such sustained success over the last 12 years and they are far from finished.

Saturday 3 November 2007

Taking aim

It rarely does much good for a public figure to rile the media, as many a sportsman, coach and manager will lament. Exhaust your small supply of favour with them and the only protection left to you can be the shield of success. And it is as good a testament to Duncan Fletcher as any, that only now he has been six months out of the job and had his autobiography serialised, the hacks have truly bared their fangs. True, the reaction to England's Ashes and World Cup debacle last winter was vitriolic, as well it might have been, but only with the publication of his memoirs have the press truly let loose.


The main rumpus has arisen from his account of Andrew Flintoff's drinking exploits as captain. Yet while this has been largely heralded as a betrayal, in fact the "revelations" are nothing new. Immediately following the events during the World Cup, which showed he had rather lost sight of where the undrawn line of acceptable behaviour resides, rumours began to circulate about his drinking exploits in Australia. All that is new are the details which have furnished the multiple tabloid headlines on the subject. Indicting Flintoff in such a way, an act akin to pouring a bucket of cold water into boiling oil, was always going to bring criticism onto Fletcher, for he is not the national hero, yet it is his right. Unlike Mike Catt and Lawrence Dallaglio, Fletcher has left a reasonable cooling-off period, while an expurgated account of events would have been of use to no-one. Geoffrey Boycott has suggested that two years should be the arbitary waiting time, although this shows a surprising lack of awareness to the time/money ratio to one normally assosciated with commerical astuteness.


The more disturbing aspect to this issue is the reason expressed for awarding Flintoff the captaincy, essentialy that he hoped it would curb his more reckless habits; that is weak and muddled reasoning, and a fair criticism. Also interesting is his comment, "The problem was, in the absence of Vaughan, there were so many unknowns." Here he shows how important the relationship between him and his captain was. Twice he forged successful alliances, first with Nasser Hussain and then Vaughan, and it is surely no coincidence that England's slide in Test cricket coincided with Vaughan's continued absence from the scene. Some of his statements show a curious lack of certainty and leadership in one who had appeared often so confident and autonomous. He failed to deal with a divsive issue at a crucial time, and for that he must shoulder blame. However, it is still hard to escape the conclusion that the extent of the media reaction is as much down to their having been cut out of the loop first time around as the gripe itself.


His comments on certain characters have also led to a considerable response, not least from those personally singled out, some of whom have taken the opportunity to respond in kind, only serving to make themselves look as petty and grudging as they accuse Fletcher of being. He is not the first to call Ian Botham useless as a selector and damaging as an influence; Geoffrey Boycott a pest and hypocrite; and David Graveney a weak Chairman of Selectors, with his excessive desire to keep all concerned happy often ending up with the opposite outcome. Wihtout doubt, there is something of the grudge-merchant in Fletcher, reflected in the way he has gone about writing the book. Yet he is by no means the first to have gone down this road, and it seems that some of the criticism arises from personal issues people had with him during his tenure, which they did not have much scope for expressing, given the general success of the England team.


What of course gets forgotten amongst the lurid details and loud personalities, is the great work Fletcher did over the course of his first six years with England and how he helped turn England from the worst Test team to one which beat the undisputed best. His account of that is what the genuine cricket fans want to read, and, with such publicity, Fletcher and his friends at the relevant tabloid newpaper have ensured that there will be a fair number of buyers; meaning that, once again, it is Fletcher who can walk away with the wry smile.