CMJ: Release of Cork`s potential central to English hopes (5 May 1997)

Christopher Martin-Jenkins

05-May-1997

Monday 5 May 1997

Release of Cork`s potential central to English hopes

Christopher Martin-Jenkins.

A WEEK before the arrival of the 1997 Australians, a cloud still hovers above one of the few English cricketers who might upset their confident expectation of another facile victory this summer

Dominic Cork has missed four matches in a row for Derbyshire because of a strain in his right groin and not since the Edgbaston Test almost a year ago has he bowled with anything like the verve of the match-winner of 1995.

It has always been difficult for Cork`s team-mates to know whether the niggles which have afflicted his spare frame, in particular his knees, throughout his career have been serious physical complaints or the kind which he feels to a greater or lesser extent according to his state of mind and perhaps the state of the pitch. Equally, no-one can be sure if he is a champion bowler going through a bad patch or an ordinary one who got lucky for a season. Seventy four wickets at 30 apiece after 19 Tests argues neither one nor the other.

I incline to the optimistic view that he could yet be a proper Test all-rounder, but his captain and coach were disappointed with all aspects of his performance in New Zealand except the extra maturity evident in his batting. It is hard to separate his current difficulties from the breakdown of his marriage last year and it would certainly be unnatural if that upheaval had not unsettled his cricket.

For that reason the private talks he is believed to be having with Mike Brearley - psychoanalyst, psychotherapist, Test cricketer and a captain at once tough, sensitive and shrewd - may be rather more beneficial to him than his regular meetings over the last year with his hero and more regular guru, Ian Botham. For obvious reasons the discussions between Brearley and Cork are confidential. Everyone, except the Australians, will hope that they help him to re-discover, as it were, the Botham locked within him. After all, Botham was usually at his most effective under Brearley`s influence.

Cork`s captain at Derby, Dean Jones, finds him a difficult cricketer to understand and says that he is still searching for the key but there is no doubting the support he is receiving from everyone connected with the county. Devon Malcolm, who has experienced the same vicissitudes, says supportively: "We all hope he`ll get through this period and play like he can. There`s no doubt he`s a fantastic talent and England need him at his best."

Cork himself feels that he needs more than anything to get some overs under his belt. Analysing his inconsistent performances over the last year, he says: "I`ve actually found it easier to swing the ball away when I`ve slowed down and bowled within myself. It`s a case of not trying too hard and relaxing. Both, Daffy DeFreitas and Les Stillman can all see when I`m over-striving and trying too many different things. I`m trying just to aim at middle stump to swing it away. I want to play every match for England if I can but I`ve got to get back to full fitness and if I`m not chosen for the one-dayers I won`t be too upset."

An important week lies ahead for all county cricketers. They must be feeling a little like the Anglo-Saxons when they knew that another Viking expedition was on its way. Who stands ready to tackle the Australians: Alfred the Great or Ethelred the Unready?

There is no doubt what the opposition are expecting, although you will not get from the invading captain, Mark Taylor, the kind of super-abundant confidence expressed by Mark Waugh to Jim Maxwell of ABC: "Since I`ve been playing England, we`ve won easily in every series . . . they aren`t tough enough or hungry enough on the field . . . England is the place to make really big scores . . . I think it might be similar to 1993 and that was 4-1. If England lift, and if we play below our best, perhaps 3-2 to Australia."

Nor, certainly, will you hear from any Australian player, arrogance to match that of one of their relatively senior cricket journalists, Malcolm Conn of The Australian: "Playing the beleaguered Poms is cheap and unfulfilling . . forfeited all right to play in the same division."

Well, cricket balls may break our bones, but words like that cannot hurt them. It is runs and wickets that count and it would be easier for our players to greet their oldest rivals eye-toeye if some of those who shared the rare experience of gaining two England Test victories in succession a few weeks ago were to start scoring and striking this week rather more impressively than they have so far.

Mike Atherton, the only man certain of his place for the internationals and the Tests, is not untypical. To date his scores in the mixture of championship and one-day cricket are 15, 15, 16, 12, 24 and 7. John Crawley has fared almost as badly; Nick Knight was unable to bat until yesterday; Graham Thorpe has not hit form either. Only Alec Stewart has really played with the command expected of an England batsman and Cork is not the only bowler who has failed to ignite.

It did not help much that there was no county cricket on Saturday, the first in May and a warm and sunny day too, for most of its course in most areas. Tim Lamb, chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, tells me that blank Saturdays would be avoided if possible when the programme of county cricket is revised next year or in 1999.

"There`s no such thing as a perfect fixture list but it is important to provide cricket when the majority of people are available to come and watch," Lamb said. "This was an exception because of the desirability of having a reserve day for Benson and Hedges matches and because of the May Bank Holiday. There is a full programme of 10 games on Monday [today]."

They are followed from Wednesday to Saturday by the second batch of matches in the Britannic Assurance Championship and none will be more instructive to the selectors than the meeting between Derbyshire and Surrey, at Derby. If Cork is fit the comparison with Chris Lewis will be especially interesting but there are other contenders for the England team, including Adam Hollioake, Chris Adams and Phil DeFreitas. More to the point this is an early meeting between two of the most likely contenders for the title.

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