Saturday 16 December 2017

HOPELESS ENGLAND ON THE BRINK OF ASHES LOSS.

As England head towards almost certain defeat and loss of the Ashes series against Australia, one is left wondering why our players have proved so unable to deal with both the opposition's batsmen and bowlers.

Apart from one session under floodlights in Adelaide and the fine stand between Dawid Malan and Jonny Bairstow in Perth, England have little to show from the series so far, and surely little expectation that things will be any better when they get to Melbourne and Sydney. Another 5-0 drubbing seems highly likely. Of course, England travelled without the services of Ben Stokes whose behaviour the Crown Prosecution Service is still considering but surely the absence of one man cannot make the difference between competing strongly and rolling over with barely a sound. In essence, this England team never had any real chance, with or without Stokes. The question is 'Why ?'

Listening to some of the BBC's 'Test Match Special' team, Geoff Boycott especially, the belief is that the issue lies with the overall nature of English cricket. We do not produce genuinely fast bowlers, only fast-medium, we have very few good spinners and our batsmen come up short when confronted with either. Given that we are forever being told what great batsmen and bowlers we have, another 'Why ?' arises.

Years ago, England produced fast bowlers galore and there were too many good spinners for many of them ever to get into the Test team; every county could boast at least one and some could boast 2 or more, think Laker and Lock, or Edmonds and Embury though there were many others too. Today, few counties can rustle up one half-decent spinner. As for fast bowlers, the days of Trueman and Statham, Tyson, Willis, Snow, Larwood, Voce and the like are long gone. The reasons for this are self-evident. English domestic cricket is now all about limited overs matches in which there is little call for either fast bowlers or spinners of any standard. With bowlers limited to only a handful of overs each there is little opportunity for them to get to grips with a different pitch or to find a rhythm; what is wanted is a never ending stream of medium pacers who act as little more than cannon-fodder for the batsmen. Consequently, some batsmen gain reputations for fast scoring and big hitting that is hardly deserved, while the bowlers simply toil away to little effect.

The County Championship, which used to be the premier cricket competition and remains the only real domestic cricket played in England, has mostly been relegated to the cold, wet and windy wilderness of April and September when pitches are soft and neither fast bowlers nor spinners have much chance of success; is it any wonder that the counties hardly bother with them ? Again, it is medium pace, perhaps some fast-medium, that dominates. There is no need for the counties to develop quality fast bowlers, nor international class spinners, if they serve no purpose.

In English conditions, with the current timetabling of domestic matches and when the weather often dictates that the ball will seam or swing, this is all perfectly fine, but as soon as players are confronted with less friendly conditions they struggle mightily. The bowlers prove ineffective against batsmen used to genuine fast bowling or a spinning ball; the batsmen find themselves all at sea against the same. Our fast bowlers and spinners never get to ply their trade on the hard, dry pitches of August, neither do our batsmen get to understand how to play on them. Indeed, matters are made even worse by the modern practice of covering pitches as soon as a  few drops of rain are felt; no longer can we watch such bewilderment as was experienced by Australian batsmen facing Derek Underwood in 1968 and 1972.

The huge disappointment of England's performance in Australia has its roots in the mess that our domestic cricket has become. By covering pitches and placing so much emphasis on one day, even 3 hour, matches, to the huge detriment of the County Championship, cricket's administrators have taken away much of the incentive to develop fast bowlers, good spinners and even batsmen who can cope with conditions in foreign parts. Yes, they may get away with it in international limited overs competitions, but this is very different to Test Match cricket; yes, they may have occasional success when conditions suit them but that is rare.  

Is there an England batsmen today who could resist an attack including Michael Holding, Andy Roberts and Wayne Daniel, long enough to amass 203, as Dennis Amiss did in 1976 or who could match his epic 570 minute rear guard action at Kingston in 1974 ? I doubt it. In the last 20 years, England have produced one top class spin bowler in Graeme Swann; they haven't produced one top class fast bowler; seamers, yes, fast bowlers, no.

The 'experts' drone on while saying nothing but what we already know; none talks of the solution. If England wants to win Test Matches abroad, then our domestic cricket must give far greater prominence to the County Championship; a return to the system in which one-day matches were played on Sundays and throughout the season, rather than in long spells in mid-summer. Test Match cricketers are forged on the hard and dry pitches of late July and August, not in one day knockabouts.

What we have is a circle that is hard to square. We need cricket to make money and that comes from the excitement of the limited overs game, but we also need to develop international players. The answer has to be in keeping the limited overs product, but with different scheduling, and in 'spicing up' the Championship; there are ways. Uncovered pitches, bonuses for faster over rates, rewards for faster scoring and a return to at least 16, and preferably 24, 3-day games played in the summer rather than in spring or autumn when problematic weather makes matches a lottery.

Will anyone listen ?

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