Dave Hawksworth
Yorkshire feels like Yorkshire again
Fans born after their era of dominance that ended in the late '60s had grown tired of tales of woe. Their Championship victory finally gives us a reason to brag
Dave Hawksworth
12-Sep-2014
Nineteen sixty-eight was a good year for Yorkshire cricket. Geoff Boycott and Ray Illingworth were fixtures in the England Test side. In his final season with the county, Fred Trueman captained them to an innings victory against the touring Australians. And five minutes from the end of their last championship game of the summer, Yorkshire clinched victory against Surrey to win their third title in as many years, their sixth in a decade, and a record 30th overall - twice as many as the next most successful county. For those looking to find it, there was plenty of evidence of how important cricket was to Yorkshire, and how important Yorkshire was to cricket.
That was also the year of my birth. For a Yorkshire supporter that's about the worst timing imaginable. It meant I was a babe in arms when the Championship was won that year, and all of 33 before Yorkshire next claimed the title. For three decades I could legitimately claim to have waited a lifetime for Yorkshire to become champions once again. But it wasn't just the length of that wait that proved so frustrating; it was also how far the club had fallen in the eyes of the cricketing world during the intervening years.
By the time I was old enough to spend much of my summer holidays at Headingley, Yorkshire was at an all-time low. Boycott had retired from Test cricket, and no one else at the club had the talent to replace him as a regular in the England side. Arguments over whether he should also be replaced in the Yorkshire team spilt the club apart, distracted and drove talent away, and ultimately made Yorkshire the laughing stock of the English game.
Full postHeadingley's challenge to get the crowds back
The ticket prices were reduced and there was the chance to watch home-grown players in the Test side. What more can Yorkshire do to woo spectators for five-day cricket?
Dave Hawksworth
27-Jun-2014
My home town isn't exactly a teeming urban metropolis, and the surrounding countryside could hardly be described as densely populated. But my local cricket club still manages to put out four sides on a Saturday, another midweek, with enough volunteers left to run a range of junior teams from Under-9s through to U-18s.
The main league that the club plays in has eight divisions, almost a hundred teams, and is only one of a number of leagues that operates in the area. Our local newspaper might be increasingly dominated by adverts, but it still finds space for match reports that cover 2nd XI games between villages you'd struggle to locate on a map. And when an international or domestic game is being televised, my local pub will normally be showing it on its large screen to an audience ready to tell you, from the comfort of their bar stool, exactly where everyone is going wrong.
Yet if I'm honest, where I live has always been more of a rugby league area. By Yorkshire standards, at least.
Full postBell and KP: a tale of two talents
It's inevitable that there will be those who want Ian Bell, newly installed in Pietersen's No. 4 spot, to be someone he's not
Dave Hawksworth
12-Jun-2014
Of all the uncapped players I've watched in English domestic cricket over the past 15 or so years, no one made batting look as deceptively easy as Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell when they were emerging talents. There were others who showed an ability that was likely to flourish at Test level, but it was Pietersen and Bell who batted like they were already experienced internationals returning to a form of the game they had previously mastered.
With Pietersen it wasn't just his ability; there was also a self-assured presence at the crease - the now familiar body language of a man who is more than content with the way his life is panning out. So while nothing in life is inevitable, it was no surprise that the emerging talent who bludgeoned county attacks up and down the length of England had the confidence to become the genius who could switch-hit the ball into Row Z of stadiums all round the world.
Bell is a different kind of batsman. He's not one whose name over the tannoy will immediately empty a festival beer tent of casual fans suddenly eager for a better view of the middle; rather, one capable of the elegant strokeplay that makes old men nod their head in appreciation as memories drift back to days of their youth when they watched May, Dexter and Graveney.
Full postTV innovations: enhancements or irritants?
While cricket coverage took a long time to become slick, today you see gimmicks designed to appeal to the casual viewer that only succeed in annoying the rest of us
Dave Hawksworth
23-May-2014
For anyone who developed their love of cricket while watching the current era of retina-assaulting, all-angles-covered T20 network coverage, it might be hard to believe that there was once a simpler time when televised cricket matches would show every delivery bowled using a single camera position, placed roughly in line with the pitch and at just one end of the ground. Of course there were other cameras scattered around the boundary edge to follow the ball when it was played into the outfield, but the pitch itself was shown from a single viewpoint, with the action alternating between an over when the bowler was running away from the camera, followed by an over where the batsman had his back to you while he faced bowling from the other end.
This had the slight advantage of making it easier to identify which end of the ground a bowler was operating from, and the considerable disadvantage that for half the day's play there was a pretty good chance that the batsman would obscure your view of where the ball had pitched. And given the standard of fitness among players at the time, there were one or two batsmen who were obscuring quite an acreage.
Looking back now, it seems like an obvious and fairly straightforward move to add an extra camera that would give a consistent and clear view of the pitch. Yet despite this innovation having first been tried during the late '70s, in Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket, it was years later that the BBC came round to incorporating the idea into their coverage of the game in England. Even then, the change was announced with the same tone of earnest solemnity that a parent would use to explain the concept of death to a small child. And for some time after its introduction a caption proclaiming which end of the ground was being used would be regularly displayed to prevent viewers from becoming dangerously disorientated. Clearly this was not an era when every television network was entirely comfortable with change.
Full postAn English sort of revolution
It's all change for England heading into the home Test season. Or is it?
Dave Hawksworth
01-May-2014
The English are sometimes said to be conservative with a small "c". So whilst London might have provided a safe haven for Karl Marx to write Das Kapital and publish The Communist Manifesto, his host nation's most famous revolution resulted in more people being killed by an automated loom than by firing squad.
English cricket often gives the impression of a similar attitude to change. The various county grounds scattered across the shires are hardly a seething maelstrom of radical anger. National selectors are more likely to provoke a raised eyebrow by staying faithful to a struggling player than by a sudden show of faith in exciting but unproven youth. And whilst the ECB might have invented T20, it has left it to others to develop the format and use it in shaping the finances of the modern game. It's all very evolution rather than revolution, I'll take an umbrella with me just in case - conservative with a small "c".
But failure is often the catalyst for change. And the last six months have seen enough failure for even English cricket to realise that change has to come. The result is a new head coach, a parting of the ways with their most talented batsman that is yet to be fully explained, and more question marks placed over the international future of the recent Ashes squad than you'd find on the Riddler's costume.
Full postThe weary middle age of cricket
On the field the action is youthful and thrilling, but off it, there's depressing self-interest, with each board trying to outdo the other in incompetence and venality
Dave Hawksworth
17-Apr-2014
For those cricket watchers who take a cynical view of the world game - one that regards the various national governing bodies as spanning a wide spectrum of (in)competence and being motivated more by self-interest than an overwhelming deference towards the greater good - 2014 is shaping up to be quite the year of affirmation. For all the success of the recent World T20, and despite the television riches that continue to flow into the game, the last few months have seen a series of headlines that are doing a stand-up job of validating every ounce of world-weary cynicism you could aim at cricket governance.
There have been officials from Zimbabwe Cricket accused of mismanaging funds from a multi-million dollar ICC loan, while they oversee a debt burden that has resulted in a player strike over unpaid wages, a cancelled tour by Sri Lanka, and the likelihood that one of the country's five domestic teams will have to be disbanded to cut costs.
Players have been urged to boycott the Bangladesh Premier League after wages there haven't been fully paid from the previous year's competition, despite them being underwritten by the national board.
Full postEngland's tour from hell?
One has to go back to 1985-86, when they suffered a 5-0 hammering by West Indies, to think of a worse tour
Dave Hawksworth
10-Jan-2014
Confused planning. Poor decision-making. Competent people making uncharacteristic errors. A situation that starts to spiral out of control. Efforts to dig a way out of the hole end up digging it deeper. The onset of desperation. Even more confused planning. Further poor decisions. And the cycle of failure starts to loop round again.
It's a situation most of us have seen at some point in our working lives. Some of us might have been unlucky enough to get caught up in the madness. Trapped in the middle of group failure. Trying hard to do your best but feeling powerless. Dreading having to come in to work in the morning. Clinging to gallows humour as a way of getting through the day.
Of course, it's unlikely any of us have had to do this under the pressure of the national media spotlight. And unless you've delivered the wrong pizza topping to the Yorkshire committee room you wouldn't have incurred the wrath of Geoff Boycott. But then we don't get paid good money to travel the world to play cricket. And after the litany of abject failure produced by England during the recent Ashes series, sympathy for their players will be in short supply.
Full postWhy we'll miss Swann
Not just a fine and match-winning bowler, he could also be relied on for a wry smile, a joke, and a willingness to go left-field when answering a question
Dave Hawksworth
27-Dec-2013
There must have been times over the last five years when English cricket writers felt Graeme Swann was heaven sent. After all, there's a damn sight more job satisfaction to be had from writing about a winning team than one that's being kicked from pillar to post by the opposition, and when England have been in the ascendant during recent years it was Swann who was often to be found at the heart of their success.
From Lord's to Colombo to Mumbai, he was a match-winner around the globe.
A hundred and fifty wickets at an average of 22 in the 30 Tests England won during his time with them, with five or more in an innings 11 times. That's an impressive record.
Add in an ability to tie down an end with long, accurate spells that allowed England to play a four-man attack, some useful lower-order batting, and one of the safest pairs of hands in the team, and you've got a player who was integral to England's fortunes. Someone who provided the media with plenty of back-page headlines.
Full postEngland need to embrace being dull
When they were successful, they were called conservative and boring. That's better than losing, isn't it?
Dave Hawksworth
12-Dec-2013
Remember when England arrived in Australia to suggestions they were boring? Worthy, relatively successful, but just a little bit dull. Sort of like a Mumford & Sons of Test cricket.
Fast forward a few weeks, past a couple of humiliating defeats in Brisbane and Adelaide, and the accusations have changed up a gear. England are now being branded as useless, brainless, over the hill and running scared. You'd take being called dull over any of that. At a pinch you'd even put up with the Mumford & Sons comparison.
In reality, England aren't quite as dull as they are being made out to be. They simply play to their strengths and a fairly straightforward game plan. A four-man attack, drilled to apply pressure by not giving away cheap runs, backed by good catchers and fields set to deny the opposition their favourite scoring areas. Seven front-line batsmen; a top three who can wear down bowlers and play long innings; Pietersen, Bell and Prior to come in later and play a more expansive game.
It's not rocket science. It's not particularly sexy. But in the past it has worked.
Full postOf sledging and suchlike
The Trott incident shows that there are plenty of matters of consequence worth discussing in cricket, but we insist on flying into a frenzy over the trivial
Dave Hawksworth
28-Nov-2013
Under normal circumstances the debate surrounding Australia's 381-run victory over England at the Gabba would concentrate on what that result means for the balance of power between the two sides.
Are Australia just benefiting from playing at Fortress Brisbane? After seven Test match defeats this year on tour, are they reaffirming themselves as yet another international team that is strong at home and weak away? Or has Darren Lehmann engineered a far more substantial change in fortune; one that could see them reclaim the Ashes and perhaps eventually go on to challenge South Africa for Test supremacy?
Have England merely succumbed to their habit of losing the first Test on a tour by a heavy margin? Can they bounce back to win the series, as they did a year ago in India? Or has their frail batting line-up exposed them as a side in steady decline?
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