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.