England in work mode as carnival hits town (6 May 1999)

6 May 1999

England in work mode as carnival hits town

Charles Randall

The morning procession through Canterbury's town centre of carnival floats with a World Cup cricket theme, loaded with schoolchildren, provided some noisy evidence that the tournament begins next week.

Kenya and Zimbabwe had their lion and elephant masks, Sri Lanka colourful flowing costumes, West Indies the calypso and so on, but it was noticeable that New Zealand was not a country that fired the imagination, presumably because a rugby display would be out of the question.

Anyway, England continued their preparation at the St Lawrence Ground, their headquarters, before their first serious warm-up game against Kent tomorrow. They finished their day attending the the Kwik Cricket prize-giving for children on the outfield, as part of the England Cricket Board roadshow.

Yesterday's events were getting close to eye-catching razzmatazz, and the question of how easily adults could get sucked into the World Cup 'carnival' remained to be seen, with the opening England versus Sri Lanka match at Lord's looming tomorrow week.

The real contest is fast approaching for Alec Stewart's England team. Nick Knight said: "When you get here, practise and start seeing things happen and supporters milling around, you begin to realise it's only a week or so away."

Knight, England's best one-day batsmen in 1998, has hit a lean spell with Warwickshire and will soon face his own moment of truth at the crease. "I wouldn't say I've been in bad nick because I haven't really been out in the middle long enough to find out," he said wryly.

"I've never been a good starter to a season. The wickets have been a bit slow and they've seamed around a bit. Opening the batting in those conditions, you need a little bit of luck to get through the early overs and I haven't managed that yet."

Knight's unconvincing early form might cause some tactical head-scratching among the England management if it continues, especially as nobody is really sure of the best tactics to adopt. Do a team use early aggression or should an inning be built steadily?

Knight felt it was dangerous to enter matches with a pre-set plan. He said: "It's an interesting situation. There's a lot of talk about seaming wickets, and whether to have pinch-hitters, and how many runs to look for off the first 15 overs, and so on. I'm going to approach it by looking at the conditions as they can vary from ground to ground.

"On the subcontinent you know what you're going to get, but our grounds are different. It'll be intriguing to see how the other teams play it."

David Graveney, England's manager, confirmed that there was a possibility of bringing Ian Botham into an expanded panel of selectors later this summer, a move to be discussed by the England management committee next month.

Botham's duties with the television and print media were thought to be an obstacle to further involvement, but Graveney cited Allan Border as an example. He said: "AB has already proved he can do both roles for Australia. I talk to a lot of people like Botham, Jack Birkenshaw and the umpires. I'm often asking them if they've seen anyone who's impressed them."

The England and Wales Cricket Board are continuing to sound out coaches from a list of 12 possible candidates for the England job to be vacated by David Lloyd at the end of the World Cup.

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