Back-up crucial for youth to prosper (29 August 1999)
A constant feature of English cricket has been the lack of a Test-winning slow bowler who has turned the ball a long way and been able to flush out stubborn tails like New Zealand's
29-Aug-1999
29 August 1999
Back-up crucial for youth to prosper
Scyld Berry
A constant feature of English cricket has been the lack of a
Test-winning slow bowler who has turned the ball a long way and
been able to flush out stubborn tails like New Zealand's. The
England Cricket Board are fully aware of this historic
deficiency. The trouble is that the only big spin which they are
producing is what they put on their pronouncements on England's
latest failure.
Thus the ECB's chief executive Tim Lamb, in the wake of the
series defeat by New Zealand, kept giving us the job-saving party
line that 'English cricket is very healthy apart from the shop
window'. County cricket - a system dedicated to four one-day
competitions from next season and saved by subsidy from
extinction - 'very healthy'? Ho, ho, ho.
The next piece of evidence we were given, so that we will believe
everything in the garden is rosy, (apart from the shop window),
is that the England A team have not been beaten for 29 matches.
Well, that is not a damned lie but it is a statistic. On two of
their last three winter tours England A have not played a Test at
all, and have instead pitted themselves against the likes of the
Zimbabwean Up-Country Farmers XI. Were the ECB ever to arrange A
Tests in England, other countries would be a lot more willing to
host them in return.
England under-19s, like the A side, are a good outfit without
being the megastars. They did indeed win the last Youth World Cup
of one-day cricket, but it was not quite one long trail of glory.
They began slowly when they defeated Namibia by three wickets,
lost to Bangladesh and India, but they beat Pakistan and
Australia, then squeezed into the final on run-rate where they
beat New Zealand for a second time.
In 'Test' cricket England under-19s have improved enormously
since 1995, up to which point they had won 10 and lost 19
'Tests', an appalling record considering they have for the most
part been professional county cricketers playing against
amateurs. In the last four years, however, they have beaten
Pakistan under-19s home and away. If they win their final 'Test'
of this summer against Australia under-19s they will level their
'Test' score at 22-22.
The old ethos of enjoying all the delights of expenses-paid
touring and never mind the cricket has been banished. Before
their tour of New Zealand last winter the team made a collective
vow not to drink alcohol during matches and imposed their own
curfew, a mature approach to self-discipline which the senior
team has yet to adopt. For the first time in four series against
New Zealand they at least managed not to lose.
In the course of last winter England unearthed a gem. One fifth
of under-19 players go on to play for England but most will
naturally become no more than county stalwarts, while of the
youth World Cup-winning side, Jonathan Powell of Essex has
already fallen by the wayside and Giles Haywood was released by
Sussex last week for not fulfilling his batting talent. But an
England batsman in the making, given all the provisos, is Ian
Bell of Warwickshire, who turned 17 in April.
Short, slight and freckly, Bell occupies the same place of
affectionate awe in the under-19 team as the young Sachin
Tendulkar did in India's. Even at his age though, and size, it is
the eyes which count, and Bell's have the unwavering gaze of the
champion-batsman. "My goal this year is to play a couple of games
for Warwickshire first team," Bell said while rain washed out the
second 'Test' against Australia at Bristol. "They have told me
that if I make runs in this series they will give me a chance - I
guess in the county championship."
Bell, from Rugby (town, not school), had been an opening batsman
since first representing Warwickshire at the age of nine, but had
to learn how to await his turn when he became a No 3 in New
Zealand ("I just relax and have an occasional look"). Patience
all round is what the under-19 coach, Neil Foster, would advocate
for his charges in batting and bowling, along with greater
strength in legs and torso.
The pitfalls ahead of Bell are as numerous as the Sirens, and no
doubt some will be as alluring. There will be sweet-talking
agents, too, promising the sort of six-figure contract which Andy
Flintoff is seeking on the strength of his potential.
The demands on young pace bowlers are still so intense, in spite
of the ECB directive of a maximum of seven overs in three spells
per day, that several have been unavailable to England under-19s
this summer, just as with the Test side. The ephemeral glory of
one-day cricket is another hazard. Said Morris: "Whether a youth
World Cup every two years will disrupt our cycle of under-19
'Test' tours is something to look at.'
The Morris men have organised a sound age-group system to help
young players up the ladder to under-19 level, but more has to be
done in two ways. One is that the next rung on the ladder will
not exist if the ECB lets A 'Tests' die out, as David Graveney
reiterated this week. If county cricket cannot help players
bridge the gap to Test level, the counties must release them for
A 'Tests' each summer, not play dog in the manger.
The second gap is that England's under-age teams are drawn from
the 38 county boards, whose development officers concentrate on
clubs and cricket-playing schools. England's under-19 side
contains one player of Afro-Caribbean origin, none of Asian. To
identify and coach talent outside the mainstream, the ECB has to
create a team of former internationals - England and other - to
tour our inner cities and find the one fast bowler or mystery
slow bowler which would make the whole project worthwhile. In
this way the ECB might finally produce the desirable sort of
spin.
Sachin Tendulkar, the Indian captain, is struggling with a
career-threatening back problem. Tendulkar, 26, was sidelined as
his team lost to Australia by 41 runs in the three-nation event
in Colombo - the world champions making 252 for eight and
dismissing India for 211. India must now beat Sri Lanka today to
reach the final.
"The pain is coming back and is making it difficult for Sachin to
take a decision," said a source close to the Indian team.
Tendulkar, 26, who has suffered from back spasms since early this
year, said he would not return home before the tournament ends,
and hoped that his doctors would be able to resolve the problem.
Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)