England: Australian pair bring new look to Lord's (13 April 1998)

13 April 1998

Australian pair bring new look to Lord's

By Simon Hughes

IN a brave conversion to modernity, Middlesex have gone Australian for the 1998 season. Don Bennett's 47 years of distinguished service as player and coach have ended and, with Mark Ramprakash at the helm and Mike Gatting now back in the ranks, the club have hired John Buchanan, the inspirational Queensland coach and Justin Langer, the Western Australia left-hander.

These are shrewd signings. The quietly spoken Buchanan has a reputation in the field of motivation and man management, and can give a squad accustomed to relying on their basic instincts their first real taste of strategic planning. Langer, confined to the sidelines for most of last year's Ashes tour, has an insatiable commitment, a thirst for playing long innings and an agile cricket brain. Neither will let the county down.

Around these two formidable fixtures there is a good blend of youth and experience. Gatting embarks on his 24th and probably final season, still lured by the carrot of a hundred hundreds. His determination was evident on the England A tour as he laboured through arduous physical routines under the command of his personal trainer, Graham Gooch. Scoring eight more centuries to climb on to his deserved pedestal is a tall order, however. He is destined to take over as Middlesex coach in due course.

Angus Fraser's reliability is as perennial as building work at Lord's and double-parking in St John's Wood High Street, and Phil Tufnell has passed 50 wickets in a season seven times. The yeoman wicketkeeper-batsman Keith Brown enjoys a long-overdue benefit season.

At the other end of the age scale, both the precocious Owais Shah, captain of the World Cup-winning England under-19 side, and England A tourist David Nash, are under 21, and Jamie Hewitt, 22, the major bowling success of last season, returns bigger and stronger after a profitable winter in Perth. Exciting things are predicted of Ben Hutton - a more dashing cricketer than his father, Richard - not least by the player himself.

There is a glut of left-handers amongst the batsmen, several of whom will be competing for one spot. Langer is likely to go in first with either Jason Pooley or Paul Weekes, neither of whom can afford a repeat of last year. Another southpaw, Richard Kettleborough - a prolific Yorkshire second XI player - offers a steady alternative unless Hutton, a fluent left-handed batsman and brilliant outfielder, can stake a claim. Ramprakash, Gatting and Brown provide trusty right-handed ballast in the middle order. Nash is an apprentice Clive Radley.

The queue to partner Fraser with the new ball features Hewitt, his Sunbury club pal Richard Johnson or the explosive Tim Bloomfield, a brisk outswing bowler. Ramprakash must not neglect his own off-spin, for both his county and country's sake, which is not particularly good news for Weekes or Keith Dutch. On the other hand, Ramprakash should, barring strange mishaps, be away half the season on Test duty.

Middlesex had a season of wild extremes last year. They humbled Glamorgan, the eventual county champions, by an innings, whipping them out for 31 when they batted a second time, and were top of the table in June. Yet they also became the first county to lose to Ireland, their attack wilting under assault from a local abattoir worker in the round robin section of the Benson and Hedges Cup, and won only five of their 25 limited overs matches.

It was probably the Irish humiliation that sounded Middlesex's wake-up call. For too long they had approached one-day competitions and even occasionally championship matches with no decisive plan of action, trusting largely to talent and cool heads. Their consistently poor limited overs performances proved how outdated that approach was.

Now they have wiped the slate clean. Ramprakash begins his first full season in charge, Buchanan's fresh ideas have been enthusiastically received by the players, Langer will bat for his life and still have some energy left over to encourage others.

The squad are fitter than ever, so expect them to at least ease the persistent years of one-day hurt. A 13th championship title? Worth a flutter.

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