Atherton - ``Board gave me no time to get fit'' (4 April 1999)

4 April 1999

Atherton - "Board gave me no time to get fit"

Michael Atherton

Although my dream of playing in the World Cup in England has died, any sportsman playing under an injury cloud will tell you that when the final decision is made it is a weight off his mind. For the last two weeks every day has been a round of "will I make it or won't I" and hoping beyond hope that the last bits of pain and stiffness will go away in time. It was not to be.

In truth, everything came around a bit too soon. Although I got through the fitness tests a fortnight ago, to expect there to be no reaction only five days after a denervation of a facet joint was a bit too much. I think there could have been a more understanding approach from the England Cricket Board, delaying the fitness assessments until Lahore, giving me an extra two weeks of more gentle rehabilitation in Cape Town with Lancashire. After all, the day the fitness assessments took place was more than two months away from the first World Cup game.

I worked unbelievably hard in Cape Town to get 100 per cent fit, spending roughly four hours a day at the Sports Science Institute and an hour a day with a Pilates instructor (Pilates, for the uninitiated, works on core stability with the abdominals to help the back) as well as fitting in some cricket. By the time I left I was fairly confident, but the way I felt after near on 20 hours in the air to get to Lahore made me realise that that confidence was misplaced and I had no option but to tell David Graveney.

The selectors have decided to name Nasser Hussain as my replacement: it must have been a tricky choice for there are plenty of better one-day players around but none more electrifying in the field and he will give the squad a much-needed boost in that area. I wish him well.

No doubt the news following my withdrawal will have centred on whether this is the end of my career. All I can say is I hope not and that I am confident it will not be. Since the news there has been a steady flow of offers to get behind the microphone, which has been very flattering. But if people wonder why I want to carry on playing for a while yet then the answer is very simple: I'm only 31 and, despite appearances, I really love playing.

Equally, however, there is a realisation that after hardly missing a game for 10 years, within the last 12 months I have become a fitness risk. Part of the problem as a professional sportsman is that you are often under pressure to play. Within the last year I have played more often than not partially fit, always looking for the quick fix.

In the end your body starts to compensate and cries out for a period of rest and proper rehabilitation. So, now that the pressure of the World Cup has been removed, I will take as long as it takes to return to 100 per cent fitness before I play again. And while it is desperately disappointing to miss a World Cup, anybody who saw that pulsating match in Barbados this week will need no reminding that it is Test cricket which has no peer.

Ironically, England start this campaign at exactly the same destination as the last ill-fated World Cup squad. But, whereas in 1996 the Pearl Continental Hotel was run down and in need of repair and the squad was jaded and low on confidence, this time the hotel has had a face-lift and I expect this squad to perform much better.

The preparation before the last World Cup was a five-Test tour of South Africa. This time around the focus has been quite rightly on one-day cricket and as potential opponents continue to slug it out in Tests, England should be better prepared than most.

I remember last time embarking on our first practice session in Lahore without the team manager, Ray Illingworth, who felt a spot of sunbathing by the pool was the order of the day. No such luxuries this time for David Graveney or for David Lloyd, who in his last assignment as England's coach will ensure the team is superbly prepared.

There is, I think, a feeling within the squad that there will never be a better chance to lift one-day cricket's ultimate prize and a realisation in the first team meeting of the sacrifices that have to be made and the hard work to be put in.

The World Cup can be won. It's important that we don't over-complicate matters and that team meetings stick to the fundamentals rather than the irrelevancies that lovers of "attention to detail" bang on about. The cup will be won by the team which does the basics well and will invariably play good orthodox cricket alongside an ability to be flexible and improvise.

The area for England to major on in practice is fielding - intensity at all times should be the watchword - and that may improve their game by the five per cent that matters. I dearly hope the players give David Lloyd the send-off he deserves.

Within the team all is harmonious yet there is some disquiet at the paltry offer the board have made to play in the tournament. They expect the players to attend the training camp in Canterbury for more than two weeks for no remuneration whatsoever and, at the same time as banging the 'Team England' drum, expect those squad members who do not play in the matches to receive half the amount of those that do. After all, it is hardly the players' fault that there is a short-fall of sponsors.

In their organisation prior to this World Cup the ECB have not exactly covered themselves with glory - the players have not yet even seen a contract - and they would do well to remember that their players are prized assets and to treat them as such.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)