Ashes Buzz

25-Feb-2013

Michael Vaughan gave a long interview the other day to the Yorkshire Post. A couple of quotes were picked up as a news story, but the piece is worth reading in full. For a start, you discover where the interview took place: “at the England captain’s luxury £1m villa on Barbados”. Possibly the most glamorous location ever for a Yorkshire cricketer to talk to the local paper.

It’s also worth having a close look at Vaughan’s line on England’s walking wounded. Have England gambled, he is asked, by selecting a number of players for the Ashes who are suffering from injuries, and also by choosing Marcus Trescothick following his personal problems? “Absolutely not,” Vaughan replies. “I spoke to the selectors quite regularly about the squad and it was one of the easiest Ashes touring parties you could possibly pick. There weren't really any tough decisions and the selectors would not have taken any risks on fitness. They must be very, very confident because they would not take risks for such a big series, and although people will always have their views as to whether certain players should be included, the squad is right in my opinion.”

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How not to treat a keeper

Tim de Lisle

25-Feb-2013

When the curtain rises again on the Ashes, there will be only a couple of characters more central than the England wicketkeeper. Yet we don’t know who it will be, and today, when they could have shed some light on this, the England hierarchy spread further doubt. They handed out annual contracts to 13 players without including either of their touring keepers. Geraint Jones has lost his contract, but Chris Read hasn’t been given one.

So when England take the field at Brisbane, one man will be getting paid less, and offered less security, than nearly all his team-mates, and it will be the man whose role is to be the hub of everything they do. You get the nasty feeling that Duncan Fletcher, a Jones fan, is having second thoughts about switching to Read, even though he has done a great job since his surprise recall seven weeks ago. Read, whose last two Test series have both ended in 3-0 victories – against West Indies in 2004, and now Pakistan – is being treated as a poor relation.

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What will England’s theme tune be this time?

When Andrew Flintoff was appointed England captain again last week, it was largely on the strength of the win he led them to at Mumbai in March

Tim de Lisle

25-Feb-2013

When Andrew Flintoff was appointed England captain again last week, it was largely on the strength of the win he led them to at Mumbai in March. Flintoff did it with charisma, inspiration – and music. At lunchtime on the last day, the England dressing-room reverberated to a raucous singalong of Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash. More than just a rousing tune, it was also a sly reference to the tummy trouble that many of the players had suffered at one time or another.

In Australia, they will need a different theme tune. But what should it be? Judging by the selection – sticking with the devils they know, picking all available Ashes winners, plus everyone who played in the Tests against Pakistan – the song should be Steady As She Goes by the Raconteurs. It’s stirring, it’s from this year, and it’s the kind of sentiment you can only sing when you’re winning. On second thoughts, perhaps that’s a bit risky.

Another contender, for a side carrying so many injuries, would be another Johnny Cash song: Hurt. Great song, apt lyrics, well quite apt – the references to drugs might be a bit tricky. Similar objections apply to David Bowie’s Ashes To Ashes, the greatest song ever written about space travel, narcotics and the 18-to-30-month gap between England-Australia Test series.

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Reasons to be cheerful (part 3)

The third and final instalment in this little series, with acknowledgments to the late, great Ian Dury.

Tim de Lisle

25-Feb-2013

The third and final instalment in this little series, with acknowledgments to the late, great Ian Dury.

There are no new boys Normally England take an apprentice to Australia – Bob Willis in 1970-71, Phil DeFreitas in 1986-87. But they have had so many injuries this year that boys who might have been new have already got through their first couple of terms. Alastair Cook, Liam Plunkett and Saj Mahmood were all left out of the original Test squad for Pakistan a year ago, and they now have 20 caps between them. It’s still an inexperienced squad, but at least every member knows how it feels to have Test cricket running through his veins.

England have improved since the Ashes… … in three areas, at least: middle-order batting (nobody is as green now as Ian Bell was then), wicketkeeping (Read is an artist, Jones a journeyman) and slow bowling (same with Panesar and Giles). On the other hand, they have gone backwards in four areas: captaincy (no Vaughan), fast bowling (no Simon Jones), tail-end batting (no journeymen), and fitness (six crocks, rising to seven today if Hoggard’s MRI scan goes badly). Time will tell whether the three areas are more significant than the four, or whether they can turn a couple of them round; their record on that is pretty good.

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Reasons to be cheerful (part 2)

Tim de Lisle

25-Feb-2013

It’s clear what the first team is Of the 16 names, four look very much like reserves – Geraint Jones, Ashley Giles, Liam Plunkett and, since England seem to be going back to five bowlers, the unfortunate Paul Collingwood. This leaves only one real decision, for the first Test at least: which Lancashire swing bowler to have as fourth seamer – James Anderson or Saj Mahmood. There should be plenty of chunter on the medical front in the early weeks of the tour, but hardly any on selection issues.

Several players are fresh This is the upside of all the injuries. Of the eight bowlers, two have had the past few weeks off, and three have had months off. Only one, Saj Mahmood, played in the one-day series against Pakistan. Only two others, Matthew Hoggard and Monty Panesar, played in the Tests. Of course, being fresh isn’t much use if you’re not fit…

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Reasons to be cheerful (part 1)

One England fan was berating me yesterday for being an “old grumpus”

Tim de Lisle

25-Feb-2013

One England fan was berating me yesterday for being an “old grumpus”. He may have a point: there’s certainly a 12-year-old in north London who knows exactly what he means. So today I’m leaning the other way. Here are some reasons for England supporters – and any neutrals hoping for another classic Ashes – to be cheerful.

Fred’s up for it Not content with being a top bowler, fine batsman, ace fielder and decent captain, Andrew Flintoff is also rather good at public relations. He gave great press conference yesterday, exuding bonhomie without veering off into bluster. He looked relaxed, eager, and raring to go. Dammit, he even looked fit.

There’s a proper vice-captain For some reason, England don’t like naming a vice-captain, but we all know who it is this time: Andrew Strauss. Duncan Fletcher’s captains have a habit of getting injured and England have often got their boxers in a twist deciding who takes over. In 2001, Mike Atherton even returned for two Tests in place of Nasser Hussain, losing them both. Last winter Marcus Trescothick first inherited the captaincy, then abandoned it. For the first time since Nasser was vice-captain to Alec Stewart, eight years ago, England are going on tour with a ready-made deputy for the captain. Strauss has won a Test series as captain himself (unlike Flintoff), and if he is not too sore, he has all the attributes of an excellent no.2 – a cool head, a sharp mind, and a modest ego.

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More votes for Ramps

I’ve covered the whole squad now, and judging by the mailbag, the biggest issue is … Ramps

Tim de Lisle

25-Feb-2013

I’ve covered the whole squad now, and judging by the mailbag, the biggest issue is … Ramps. Half the comments express astonishment that he is even being mooted. The other half just want to see him on the plane. One correspondent accuses me of being on a “one-man crusade” here. It’s true that I’m a fan and that it has occasionally been a lonely business, but this time round, there’s plenty of company.

In today’s Guardian, Mike Selvey says that if there are “any qualms” about including Marcus Trescothick, and the selectors want a player of similar experience, “then Mark Ramprakash, the best technician of his generation with a good record in trying circumstances in Australia, should be included”. And Frank Keating, in his magnificently adjectival back-page column, points out that “stalwart ancients” like Graham Gooch and Geoff Boycott made stacks of Test runs in their late thirties.

Christopher Martin-Jenkins of The Times said on Monday that “one could make a good case” for Ramps. And in the new edition of The Wisden Cricketer, out later this week, David Fulton, the former Kent captain, joins the campaign. Asked if Ramps would be more philosophical and less intense now, Fulton says: “I think so, and I think he’d have a fabulous Ashes tour.” As one of the comments here says, it ain’t gonna happen. But it should.

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A question for the BBC

BBC television has just announced that it will be showing highlights of the Ashes

Tim de Lisle

25-Feb-2013

BBC television has just announced that it will be showing highlights of the Ashes. It’s great news which partly makes up for the fact that all live action, both Test and one-day, is on Sky, thus bypassing more than half the households in Britain. But there’s a crunch question the Beeb haven’t answered yet. When will the highlights go out?

A day’s Test cricket in Australia ends at breakfast time in Britain, which ought to leave plenty of scope for the schedulers. But it’s reported that Sky, who sold the rights on to the BBC, want to keep the highlights to themselves for most of the day.

This summer, the highlights actually got better: Channel Five showed highlights at 7.15-8pm every day of the seven Tests, sometimes even starting when play was still going on. And they did them well, with Mark Nicholas, Simon Hughes, Geoff Boycott, plenty of action and no gimmicks. Boycott, especially, lends himself to highlights, being incisive but repetitive (“my mother could do better than that”).

The BBC need to put their scheduling where their money is. They must give the highlights a fixed slot, at least 40 minutes long, when the kids are still awake. And they must have commentators who can hit the right note for the fringe viewers that only the Ashes can reach.

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Safe yet risky

The Ashes squad is out now and my gut reaction is: they've played safe on everything – except fitness

Tim de Lisle

25-Feb-2013

The Ashes squad is out now and my gut reaction is: they've played safe on everything – except fitness. The selectors are gambling on the health of Marcus Trescothick, Ashley Giles and James Anderson. They have picked a captain who isn't fit yet in Andrew Flintoff. My feeling is that they're right about Flintoff, narrowly, as I said here earlier. But overall, they have risked a whole bunch of half-fit players – just as they did for the last Ashes trip, in 2002, And what did everybody say then? Never again.

After this post went up, the nice people at Cricinfo asked me to expand it into a comment piece on the squad, so I did. It's here

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England dilemma no.6 – pace or precision?

Tim de Lisle

25-Feb-2013

In 2005 England’s third and fourth seamers did more than anyone else, except perhaps Michael Vaughan, to win the Ashes. In the three key Tests, at Edgbaston, Old Trafford and Trent Bridge, Andrew Flintoff and Simon Jones took 30 wickets between them, while Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard, armed with the new ball, took 17. They never allowed the Aussies off the hook. Now, Jones is a non-starter and Flintoff is not yet back from injury. And this is one area where England’s replacements have struggled.