Graveney's Fellow Selectors Will All Be Current Players (14 Mar 1997)

14 March 1997

Graveney`s fellow selectors will all be current players

Christopher Martin-Jenkins

DAVID GRAVENEY was duly appointed chairman of England selectors yesterday, initially for a term of two years. For the first time, all his co-selectors will be current players, writes Christopher Martin-Jenkins.

Graham Gooch, 42, Mike Gatting, 38, and, when his position as England captain is confirmed, Mike Atherton, who will be 29 next week, will comprise the youngest England committee yet. Their first challenge is to choose teams capable of wresting the Ashes from Australia after four one-sided series over the last decade.

Like every selection committee before them, they will be wholly dependent on how their chosen XIs perform and the results they produce. What is certain is that the body of British professionals, whom Graveney already represents as general secretary of the Professional Cricketers` Association, will thoroughly approve of being judged by a young committee, thoroughly abreast of all events in the modern game.

At 44, Graveney is the youngest chairman since Doug Insole, who led the committee for four years from 1965. He is only the fourth who has not played Test cricket. Not only were the other three, Percy Perrin, A. J. Holmes and H. S. Altham, highly regarded but the recent Australian example of Laurie Sawle has proved that not having played at the highest level does not prevent a man of good judgment and wide cricket knowledge from doing a very effective job.

It would be wrong to suggest that Graveney will not have firm views of his own, but his great strength is his willingness to seek views from anyone who might have a valuable opinion and he has earned wide respect both during and since his long career as a player - 19 years for Gloucestershire, one for Somerset and three for Durham before his retirement after the 1994 season.

One of his fellow pioneers at Durham, the former England batsman Graeme Fowler, said of him yesterday: "He`s the only bloke who hasn`t played Test cricket that I would have considered for the chairman`s job. He`s always been good at talking to players and at man management. He is diplomatic and caring and I think he will be conscientious and willing to listen before he makes decisions."

Graveney will be salaried, but less generously than the previous incumbents, Ted Dexter and Ray Illingworth, who both had much wider responsibilities. The new chairman said that he saw "clear lines between the roles of selection and management" and that he would not want to get in the way of those managing and coaching the England sides, although, of course, he will consult and cooperate with them. His will be more the job of a convenor.

His other role as a representative of the players should tie in comfortably. He is a capable man and will put himself about. Nephew of that master craftsman Tom, and son of the Gloucestershire captain, Ken, Graveney`s own lack of experience of Test cricket will be unimportant, both because he is used to talking to those whose opinions he respects and because Gooch, Gatting and Atherton already have 260 Test caps between them. Curiously, Gooch and Gatting retired from Test cricket after the same game, England`s last Test against Australia in Perth two years ago.

It is not entirely a coincidence, either, that both, like Graveney, went on `rebel` tours to South Africa in the years before apartheid was ended, but that is old ground which ought now to have been turfed over and forgiven, if not completely forgotten. It might have been a neater committee still if a fourth G, David Gower, had been chosen but those with media connections were outlawed by the England management committee, who followed the guidelines recommended by last year`s Acfield Working Party.

They were in favour of having the captain on the committee, but future captains will not necessarily be voting members. Having three current players will present obvious logistical problems and there will be a supporting group of observers. I hope they will make use of one or two men of longer experience and that the recent connections with Illingworth of such men as Brian Bolus and John Edrich will not debar them from helping, as both are keen to do.

The Management committee, meeting at the building site otherwise known as Lord`s (a month before the start of the season, there is scaffolding at cover, long-off and long-stop) chose Graveney ahead of four or five other unnamed candidates, none of whom challenged him. In the words of the England Cricket Board`s chief executive, Tim Lamb, "he wanted the job, he is a good communicator and he was the best person available".

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