England: One ambition approaches completion for Fleming (3 Dec 1997)

3 December 1997

One ambition approaches completion for Fleming

Christopher Martin-Jenkins

ATTHEW FLEMING could hardly believe he was setting off with an England team for Pakistan yesterday afternoon. For most of the last two months, he has had to resort to language associated more with Manchester United than Eton and the Royal Green Jackets, writes Christopher Martin-Jenkins.

For example (and I quote): "I'm over the moon. It hasn't really sunk in yet."

It finally did when his 'coffin' (the receptacle for cricket gear used by most players) arrived the other day, marked 'Matthew Fleming England Cricket Team'. Albeit as a replacement for Darren Gough, he is a genuine and perfectly justifiable choice as one of seven all-rounders in a squad of 14.

His surprise, however, is genuine, too, and until quite recently, it would have been shared by most people on the county circuit. He was recognised widely enough as an occasionally inspirational and inspired player, always wholehearted and brilliant at cover point; but a first-class career average of 31 with the bat and 41 with the ball did not suggest an England cricketer at the start of last season, especially when his age, 32, was added to the equation.

Fleming would have protested then, and does now, that it is one-day performances which count for the special requirements of the limited-overs game. "I've always said that my two ambitions are to play one-day cricket for England and to captain Kent," he reflected on the eve of departure. "With a bit of luck, I'm about to achieve one of them."

He played in all Kent's one-day games last season and every first-class game, too. This is one cricketer who will never complain of too heavy a workload. On the contrary, he says that he wakes up every day in the summer and thinks "great, cricket". He cannot remember the last time he was unfit, but takes a calculated guess. "I think it was when I had food poisoning in 1992."

Kent have taken their time, perhaps, to realise quite what a trooper he is. He was easily their highest wicket-taker in the AXA Life League, with 26 wickets at 20 compared with Paul Strang's 16 at 33; he won two Gold Awards in the early Benson and Hedges matches, and in the final, he held a sensational one-handed catch at cover to get rid of Alistair Brown, one of his team-mates in Sharjah, as he was recently in Hong Kong, where Fleming played a leading part in getting England into the final of the international six-a-side tournament.

All this, he believes, is evidence of genuine improvement and he is beginning to wonder if he might not have underestimated his natural ability. Kent's new coach, John Wright, certainly does not do so. The brief experiment of opening the batting in 1996 was not repeated but Wright guided him towards a prosperous second half of the season with the bat and encouraged him to develop an outswinger to go with the variations he had already worked out for himself. Practice under Graham Dilley's increasingly respected guidance in the nets at Old Trafford in the last few weeks has enhanced his confidence further.

HE left yesterday with an injury he did not know he had until a recent X-ray. It transpires that he has had a cracked knee-cap since birth. "The specialist tells me that a good period of rest will cure the soreness. There'll be time for that after Sharjah," he said. Time, too, for attending to his concerns as chairman of the Professional Cricketers' Association, who have called a special meeting early next season to try to sort out a number of issues, including their true feelings about a switch to two divisions and a plan to deregister all players after the age of 25, giving them freedom of movement when they are out of contract.

Working hard, especially physically, has come naturally since his three years on a short-service commission. "I got quite close to the end of my tether in the army, so I know that when you think you're at the end of it as a cricketer, in fact you're not. When you've had 10 hours sleep in a week and spent the weekend going up and down hills in Wales, weeks like the one the England teams had in Lanzarote aren't all that demanding. But that isn't to say that it was not extremely well geared towards getting everyone fit for cricket."

He wonders, despite all his fierce commitment to every game he plays, if his nickname, 'Jazzer', and his reputation for playing like an old-fashioned amateur, has not counted against him until now. "I'm proud of my background," he reflected last weekend, "but I know that some people have thought 'oh, he's only playing for fun'. But just because I smile doesn't mean I'm not trying as hard as anyone.

"There are still parts of me that wonder if I'm good enough, but I have to believe that they wouldn't have picked me if they didn't think so. In quiet moments, I try to remember the things I've done right, like getting Viv Richards out or scoring a hundred against the Australians. I think I am getting better in little ways. Finishing off a run chase at Taunton against Mushtaq Ahmed bowling round the wicket last season, for example. Some time ago, I would have got halfway there then got out."

Beyond Sharjah, he even dares to wonder if Test cricket is now out of the question. "I don't honestly believe I'm good enough. But you dream. I don't think I'd disgrace myself."

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