Harris N: Lord Ted takes far-sighted view of Illy's England (22 Jan 95)

LORD TED TAKES FAR-SIGHTED VIEW OF ILLY'S ENGLAND - Norman Harris

Norman Harris finds that Ted Dexter is still star-gazing two years after he fell to earth

The message from down under was that a World Series final between Australia and Australia "A" deserved nothing less than our contempt, but no one told Ted Dexter. With pleasure, he describes what he saw when he switched on the other morning at 3.30.

"Damien Martyn had been smashing it around the park. Then came the drinks break, and an extraordinary little bit of cricket. Before Warne bowls the next ball he faces down the wicket and makes a face. Hunches his shoulders and pulls a face. Whether to the wicket-keeper or the batsman I don't know. But first ball Martyn is plumb lbw. Then, before the next two balls, two more faces and two more hunches, but no more wickets."

Those who have heard nothing of Dexter since the summer of 1993 - and these are his first utterances in print since then - might wonder at the spirits of one who might presumably still be hiding his face. He was then portrayed, as he now recalls, as "a wacky bloke out on a limb". He avoided reading much of the press at that time. ("I told the TCCB press officer not to show it to me, because I couldn't do my job if I had this sort of soup swilling around inside me.") But he certainly knew the impact of one memorable throwaway line.

England had just been beaten - humiliated - for a second successive Test, and a voracious press scented blood. Did Dexter feel responsible? How responsible? Finally, when the questions and answers were going nowhere, the chairman shrugged and said that perhaps Venus was in the wrong juxtaposition. It was a headline writer's dream.

"By that time the lampooning process was well in swing, and it didn't matter particularly what I said or didn't say. The fact was that England were being beaten out of sight, and I was the chap in the chair who was going to be kicked around the place. But that wasn't anything like the start of it. The accusation in India that we had blamed the smog was far wilder." If ever he got upset, which seems rare, it was in India. "I was quite angry, to the extent that it was such a bloody nuisance, because it became political." The new post that had been created for Dexter was that of chairman of the England Committee, with responsibility for all international sides. With the forced exit of the "Wacky One", England turned back to a conventional chairman of selectors - but their team has hardly surged to the top of the international tree. Surely, Dexter must have got just a touch of satisfaction from that?

"A wry smile, perhaps, but no satisfaction. Obviously, I only want England to do well, and I only want England to have top players. Gough has appeared, which is wonderful - he really is wonderful - but the systems still militate absolutely against players reaching any standard of excellence. Unless they're playing the right kind of competitive cricket at the right age, and coming up the steps to the summit at the right speed, they're just not going to be good enough."

Dexter got annual "A" tours going, and the first coaching programmes for under -19, 17 and 15 squads, but for more profound advances he needed to win over committees heavily influenced by the counties. "I felt I'd made an impact one day when a chairman thumped the table and said: "It seems to me that all we talk about these days is England!" As it happens, he was the same guy who kicked me in the wotsits later on."

Ironically, for one who helped develop the rules of one-day cricket (with the International Cavaliers in the Sixties) Dexter now regards the limited-over game, along with the old three-day championship, as a virus that has damaged batsmen and killed off all the bowlers. "In four-and-a-half years I must have had my shoulder tapped 500 times by important county people, wanting me to look at a player who was thought to be Test material. Every one of those players were batsmen. Bowling became a non-event. At all levels of cricket people say: "So-and-so's our best bowler, he's terrific, he always bowls his 10 overs for less than 20."

"Nobody spins the ball. You know, I couldn't find a single spinner with a sore spinning finger. Everyone said, "Funny, I'm very lucky, I don't get that problem." So, nobody spins it and nobody swings it. Chris Lewis started off as an outswing bowler, one of the best bowlers at under-19 level. Phil DeFreitas started with outswing. By the time they got into international cricket they just came over the top of the ball and tucked it into the body to restrict scoring, not to get anyone out."

Of course, Dexter is not the first to blame the one-day game, but he has a distinctive solution - and he is very keen to reveal it. "Young players should be kept out of one-day cricket until they've established themselves in championship cricket. This would only mirror what happens overseas. Someone like Michael Slater may have played only two or three major one-day matches before he played for Australia. Our blokes have probably played about 200. They've gone before they start!"

If he had his way, the Sunday league would be scrapped. Generally, he would like to see a more professional approach. The need is to coach out faults among leading players, and for players to be more ambitious, more committed. He sees few players who make time to work at their game like a Faldo in golf, though Gooch and Boycott have been exceptions.

The ex-chairman has evidently judged the dust to have settled. Is he ready for another contribution? "Well, I'm very interested in trying to improve England's cricket standards." He points out that he is still on the MCC Cricket Committee. He is in close touch with Sir Colin Cowdrey, and Micky Stewart wants him to have some input with youth cricket.

When we are finished, the interviewee picks up some papers to read his own scribbled notes, checking that he has not missed anything. "Yes," he says with some satisfaction. "Imagine if your slow left-arm bowler has to have 30 championship wickets before he can play a one-day game. By then, with a bit of luck, he'd at least have some of his basic skills intact ... "

The odds against selling this idea to anyone, the odds against a Dexter Plan enabling England to become a cricket superpower again, would seem rather long. But this is a man, remember, whose explosive strokeplay once humbled the feared Hall and Griffiths in front of an entranced Lord's; who once flew his family out to Australia in his own light plane; and who stood as a parliamentary candidate against James Callaghan in Cardiff.

The record suggests anything is possible. And right now, golf is offering another irresistible challenge. Twice winner and five times runner-up of the President's Putter at Rye (and in the last eight this month), Dexter is now 59 and his handicap is 2.7. "I'm determined to be a scratch 60-year-old," he says. "And I'm moving in that direction."

(Thanks : The Observer, 22 Jan 95)