England’s Robust Response: Sack the Teaboy!

 

 

Cricket 2014

 

England’s Robust Response: Sack the Teaboy!

 

July 23^rd 2014

 

In the grand tradition of such declarations and after frenzied debate when the England squad announcement for Sunday’s Test was delayed, England responded by adding Jos Buttler and by dropping Simon Kerrigan: the cricketing equivalent of firing the Tea boy when the Chairman of a company has mismanaged it into near bankruptcy.

The Buttler promotion was so widely expected that it does not even count as news. More unexpected was to hear that the response to senior players in horrible form has been to drop Simon Kerrigan, presumably on the grounds that he had failed to prepare the batsmen adequately for a bouncer assault and was thus to blame for the defeat at Lords or, perhaps, as it was the attack lost the match on the first day, someone needed to pay the price and Simon Kerrigan was the one elected.

What seems odd is that the selectors are willing to rule out days in advance of the match the possibility of playing a front-line spinner. Odder still is that, even if they do not expect to play one, they drop Kerrigan to tell him that he is not wanted, rather than giving him the positive message that, even if he does not make the final XI, he is still firmly in the thoughts of the selectors. It seems bad man-management, but then James Taylor, Nick Compton, Michael Carberry, Adil Rashid and a few others could have a consoling word with him about their own experiences with England’s man-management.

What the squad announcement does mean is that there will be minor changes rather than a major change of direction. England’s top six will remain the same. The core and balance of the bowling attack will remain the same. There may though be a variation in the change bowlers. What becomes less obvious by the day is how willing the selectors will be to rest Anderson and Broad, however tired they be and however desperately they need a rest. To a large degree James Anderson’s problems in 2004/2005 came about because, after entering the Test side, he was bowled into the ground against Zimbabwe and South Africa in 2003 and started to lose his zip and action as a result. Even when it was obvious to (almost) everyone, that he needed a rest, he played all seven Tests that summer, plus a host of ODIs.

Meanwhile, outside in the real world, interesting things were happening up in Scarborough. People who never attend and do not follow the county game do not seem to understand, but the game that finished yesterday between Yorkshire and Middlesex not only featured a host of players on the fringes of the Test and ODI sides, playing a high standard of cricket, but was played out in front of a large crowd – around 4000 each day.

With Middlesex seemingly safe at Tea, a collapse of 6 wickets for 38 in 14.2 overs ended the match with astonishing rapidity. The fact that it was a young leg-spinner who did the damage will, as always, lead to people ridiculing county cricket by suggesting that Adil Rashid will become the new Messiah and saviour of English cricket overnight. He is not and he will not be fast-tracked into the Test side. What one hopes though is that he will come back onto the radar. Picked early by England for limited-overs cricket, he spent a couple of frustrating winters being hauled around the world as a permanent net bowler (on one occasion he was even added to a Test squad to the announcement that, despite being in the squad, he would NOT be considered for the team). Yorkshire finally objected to this and requested that, if he was not going to play he should not be picked and, since then, he has not been… at any level.

Adil Rashid started nervously and sent down a few rank poor balls but, an early wicket – he seems to pick up wickets early in spells, much the way that Graeme Swann did – helped settle him and made his confidence grow. Through the spell, as he was given the task of finishing the match, despite the new ball being due, he bowled better and better.

Certainly, with a Lions squad to be picked soon, it is high time that he got a chance with the Lions again. He is bowling well in the Championship and he is bowling well in T20.

What is beyond doubt is that the County Championship is heading for a potentially thrilling finish. At least four sides could still win (if Durham were to win their game in hand they would still, just about be in it too) and the battle to avoid the second relegation spot is tightening-up. With Middlesex in 5^th, with four wins, far from safe, particularly as they travel to Old Trafford in the last round of matches for what could turn out to be a relegation decider against Lancashire and both Sussex and Durham beneath them having a game to come against Northants, it is likely that a record points total will be needed to avoid the drop.

Poor Northants, who have been scuppered by injuries, cannot quite be relegated mathematically in the next round of matches, but one more defeat would leaving them requiring a mathematical miracle to survive: realistically they probably need to win their last five matches to have a real chance of avoiding the drop.