Irani poised to join 'new England' (15 August 1999)

15 August 1999

Irani poised to join 'new England'

Scyld Berry

Too much of the talk about youth v experience in the England side has been abstract, too far removed from context. England's objective in the short-term is to win the Oval Test against New Zealand; in the medium-term to beat West Indies next summer; and in the longer term to win back the Ashes in 2001. Win those three objectives, even two, and English cricket will be revived.

The first is likely to be achieved because England bottomed out at Old Trafford. In their second innings, before the rain, the corpse was brought back to life by the three senior paramedics. Mike Atherton's return supplied the essential glue to England's batting, too sticky in the first innings, just the right amount of adhesion in the second. And if you want to achieve objectives two and three as well, he is a must, so long as he can get out of bed in the morning.

Stewart is probably not going to be around for the next Ashes series (he would be 38), but he could well be for next summer, given the back-to-his best way he batted at Old Trafford; and, along with Graham Gooch, he has been England's most productive batsman against West Indies. Reforming zeal would be going too far if it now threw out Atherton and Stewart, England's two main run-scorers of the 1990s, when their replacements have yet to appear on the horizon.

As Graham Thorpe is also on the way back, and Nasser Hussain will return at the Oval, the engine of England's batting should be restored this week. Of the last 13 Tests, in which England have failed to take a first-innings lead every time, Atherton has missed four and Thorpe seven (Darren Gough four as well), while Stewart has usually been burdened with three jobs. From now on, starting at the Oval, it will be two. He is, after all, a better wicketkeeper at present than Chris Read.

Graeme Hick, however, will not be at the Oval, so England's new selectors decided at their meeting at Northampton on Thursday. During New Zealand's long innings at Old Trafford, Hick set a terrible example as he stood at slip to the spinners, head bowed and completely absorbed in the state of his finger-nails between deliveries. Even if England had started this series with the right wicketkeeper - Paul Nixon, as a specialist in stemming middle-order collapses and pumping his team up - they could not afford Hick's mute body-language.

Whereas the bugle and drum still stir Stewart and Atherton, Hick is evidently happy with the quiet life at Worcester, the county captaincy enough of a challenge. When the shadows lengthen, he might just feel sufficiently dissatisfied at his lack of fulfilment to want one last go, as Tom Graveney did at 40. But it is worth remembering that in Hick's formative years, in the net specially made for him at home, African boys bowled to him, or even for him, not at him. He has always loved batting rather than conflict.

Hick's departure and Stewart's wicketkeeping will allow the return of Hussain and the admission of one new batsman. Successful cricket teams have a similar age-profile: the majority of players in the prime-production years around 28 to 30, a couple of veterans for when things go wrong, and some youthful energy which has no fear of their ever going wrong.

The Oval has been a two-spinner pitch this season as the surface grips instead of having its old sheen. At Old Trafford Peter Such out-bowled Phil Tufnell, but turning the ball away from the bat has more of a future, even if it is only finger-spin with limited penetration. While Such reverts to being a second specialist spinner for emergencies at home, Graeme Swann steps up as the all-rounder who can pay his way as a batsman in the first half of a match and do some off-spin when the ball turns. But if there is cloud and damp around on Thursday, the No 7 all-rounder could be Ronnie Irani, who played his two Tests in 1996.

Let us remember too that it is that time of year again, when blackberries turn from red to ripe, when fields grow golden, and when motorways are clogged with caravans. It is worm-turning time, in other words, when the England team, just as we are about to despair of them for ever, pull their socks up and finally perform. The Oval has something to do with it, as the ground which most gets behind England after Edgbaston, but it is also the point in the cycle: this time last year at Headingley England were winning the series against South Africa.

An England victory at the Oval though would be a mixed blessing. They will then go to South Africa with some credibility, not bottom of the unofficial Test rankings. But the movement to reform the England and Wales Cricket Board will lose momentum, whereas if New Zealand were to take this series 2-1, nobody would have the gall to preserve the present organisation and their obsession with the quantity of county cricket ahead of the quality of the England team.

The demise of Graham Gooch and Mike Gatting last week should not be interpreted as anything radical: their obituaries as selectors were written weeks ago. What is significant is that the command structure is now slightly more distinct: Hussain and Duncan Fletcher will have their way in the dressing room and on the field. There will be no more confusing interferences like Mark Butcher's appointment to the captaincy, after Hussain had nominated Thorpe at Lord's to bring him out of his shell.

But the command structure in the corridors of power has to be sorted out as well to support the new leadership. Those corridors now resound with the mantra 'central contracts' as the salvation of English cricket. The Follow-up Report on Central Contracts, however, proposes to treble the amount of compensation to the counties - to L1 million each summer - for releasing their players to England. Fine that the counties, notably Surrey, should be recompensed for producing the stars of tomorrow, but that was never intended to be the object of this exercise.

England's Test players should be prepared, trained and rested to be at their peak for Test cricket: that must be the object. Yet under the new proposals counties will have their England players for all Benson and Hedges and NatWest matches, and for other matches "in consultation with the England management", which is effectively the same arrangement as now.

It will be a worthwhile exercise only if the premise is turned right round, so that Test players never play for their counties except as and when the England management see fit.

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