Cox steers a steely course (29 August 1999)

29 August 1999

Cox steers a steely course

Dudley Doust

Jamie Cox, the Somerset captain, sat in the Taunton pavilion and gazed out at the dark sky and the rain peppering the covers. He was reminded of the first time he had seen the ground, back in March, only hours after flying in from a fine Australian summer. "It was overcast that day, just like now, and cold," he recalled, "and I thought, 'how the hell am I going to put up with this for six months'."

He has put up with it very well, both as batsman and captain, twin skills that have inspired Somerset's march to the NatWest Trophy final today against Gloucestershire at Lord's. Lord's? Cricket's hallowed ground? Cox shrugged, underwhelmed. "I've never even seen the place," he said. "For me, it's got no mystique. It's a final, whether we play at Lord's, Bristol or Taunton."

You glance at his face, looking for a flicker of sacrilege or perhaps a bit of Down Under truculence. None is there. Instead, you get a four-square face with clear eyes, white teeth and a snub nose which makes him look younger than his 29 years. He holds your glance a second too long: there is resolution there, too. It calls to mind a story his father told over the phone from Tasmania. Jamie, aged about 15, was playing for his A-grade side against a club spearheaded by the West Indian fast bowler Winston Davis, then Tasmania's overseas player. Jamie, batting, was on seven when poleaxed by a Davis ball to the ribs. He was carted off to hospital, X-rayed, cleared for battle and returned to complete his century.

"Dad remembers such things," he said. Dad also remembers Jamie, then about 11, writing down his dreams in a questionnaire. "Maybe one day I'll captain Tasmania," he wrote. "Maybe one day I'll play for Australia." Indeed, next season he will succeed David Boon as Tasmania's captain.

As for a Test cap, Cox will soon be 30 but, maybe, the younger Australian batsmen, Greg Blewett and Matthew Hayden, will stumble this winter. He was offered Victoria's vice-captaincy, to stand in for the travelling Shane Warne. "What," he said, "and captain against Tasmania?" He turned it down. Meanwhile, Somerset's coach Dermot Reeve, who frequently winters in Australia, had long admired the steely Cox and, when Peter Bowler gave up the Somerset post last autumn, Reeve nominated the Tasmanian to take over. Reeve's word - and glowing ones from Steve Waugh, the former Somerset player - convinced Vic Marks, the county's cricket committee chairman. Cox duly made peace with his off-season employer, a Tasmanian bank. A contract was signed and, at Cox's request, a Taunton house found "two minutes from the ground" for the skip and his girlfriend. On April 29, against Yorkshire, Jamie Cox captained his first full championship match for Somerset.

Picture it: Cox walking on to the pitch. Like all quick runners, he moves lightly on his toes. His arms swing, not in arrogance but as though to claim an Australian's rightful place in the world. "Some people call it a strut," Cox said, frowning. "It's not. It's just that I've got a lot on my mind."

That day his mind was full. What if he won the toss? And who will be 12th man, a seamer, or the spinner Adrian Pierson? "I'm uneasy going in without a spinner," Cox explained. "Spinners play a bigger role back home than here. Because the grounds are bigger, a batsman can't clear the boundaries so easily." He paused. "And obviously I was keen to show Somerset they hadn't recruited a dummy."In the event, he lost the toss, got put in, reckoned the wicket wouldn't take spin, duly gave Pierson the drinks job and emphatically showed Somerset people they had not recruited a dummy. Batting unlike a banker, Cox deposited 173 swift runs on the board. "The batting here is, in general, a lot easier because of your smaller grounds," he said. "Sure, it may be the easier place to get out but once you get in you tend to score quickly. You get a bigger percentage of fours and sixes." He'd had 25 fours and a six in that innings against Yorkshire.

That day Cox had declared Somerset's assets at 468 for nine and, after Yorkshire batted and followed on, he had peered into the star-strewn evening sky. Needing a mere 26 runs in 20 minutes, he went for 'em. Coach Reeve, once a slam-bang skipper himself, grins at the result. "Jamie lasted about two overs, slammed the ball all over the place and was out for 12." Reeve chuckles in admiration. "The lads had to finish it off the next morning, but Jamie was their hero."

I asked Cox about another innings: his man-of-the-match 114 in the recent NatWest semi-final against Surrey, namely those high-pressure opening shots fired at the hapless Surrey bowler Saqlain Mushtaq. "At the start, I think it's important to put pressure on the fielding side by running aggressively," Cox said. "Make them throw the ball in fast, try to create misfields which is easier here than at home. English outfields are bumpier."

Such tactics, applied by Cox and his fellow opener Bowler, had worked against Surrey. Within the first three overs, Saqlain bobbled one ball, turning a single into a two and letting another ball skip through his legs for four. Within minutes, it seemed, Somerset were in command, eventually coasting to a 120-run victory.

What were the plans for Gloucestershire? Cox smiled. "We've got some things on our mind," he said. Fine, I thought, but don't expect the outfield at Lord's to be bumpy.

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