Personally Speaking: Testing time follows one-day showcase (23 June 1999)

23 June 1999

Personally Speaking: Testing time follows one-day showcase

E W Swanton

Today and maybe tomorrow marks a very brief hiatus in a summer of vast consequence to English cricket and the worldwide game, for the International Cricket Council are now in session at Lord's.

We await in the next day or two the news as to the England captaincy and to the identity of the new coach and manager; and then, while the four-Test series against New Zealand takes our attention, the 18 counties grapple with one another to determine their immediate futures. Upstairs or downstairs? The answers will not be complete in this longest of all seasons until Dec 19.

The final of the World Cup, won by Australia at the expense of Pakistan, ended as do so many one-day battles in the most overwhelming of victories, a disappointment, of course, depriving the enormous audience of a possible 36 overs of conflict and a whole ration of excitement. Of the 42 matches, only a quarter had close finishes.

For those at Lord's, though, there were compensations such as sight of the first 1999 full-dress picture of the great ground itself. I write as an enthusiastic convert to the media centre. English cricket may be in eclipse but architecturally as in other aspects MCC (despite a fractious minority of members) lead the field.

Critics are inclined to mention the pitch only to complain about it, so let me congratulate groundsman, Mick Hunt, on a true pitch fast enough to enable Adam Gilchrist to snick a six over second slip and withal receptive enough to enable the great leg-spinner to turn the ball the width of the stumps.

Let us admire the genius of Shane Warne and rejoice in the example his art gives to the young, if not what Mark Nicholas has called his 'deafening ego'.

Steve Waugh described the semi-final against South Africa as the best match he had ever played in and I dare say those able to see it on television may reckon, as I did, that they had never seen a better one, this not withstanding the utter bathos of the last ball, which saw the splendid Klusener and Donald performing like demented boys in a junior house final.

To sum up in a few words, the impact of the 1999 World Cup has underlined the inter-dependence of both versions of the game. Only first-class and Test cricket can produce the best players, one-dayers fully exploit them and give them a world stage.

For many with undying affection for orthodox cricket who are prepared to tolerate the one-day version, the sticking point is the coloured clothing. It infuriates many of the older generation to see, on a sunny day, fielders, from head to foot, in a medley of colours, mostly darkish, umpires dressed as for a funeral and black sight-screens. Purple pads! Has it occurred to the marketing men that, so far as I know, every degree of club in the land down to the humblest village continues to play in white, the traditional uniform of the cricketer for 150 years or so?

Of course, the modern game is built on sponsorship and I expect that advertising on the shirt must be here to stay. But oh, for a sponsor coming forward who ordains coloured shirt with names and numbers, but white trousers and sight-screens and a red ball!

---

NO goodwill follower of English cricket will have other than sympathy for the quartet whose responsibility it is for deciding on the captaincy, Messrs Graveney, Gooch, Gatting and the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, Lord McLaurin.

There is a general move for change in the captaincy and beyond it. As I wrote three weeks ago, Alec Stewart's triple function was too heavy for anyone to fulfil. One alternative, therefore, would be to choose a specialist keeper who can make runs and retain the captain for the New Zealand series. That solution would please those who believe that the team for South Africa in the winter must wear an altogether fresh look.

They no doubt remember that David Graveney, chairman of selectors, has said that failure in the World Cup had its origins in the dispute involving the senior players about financial reward, which persisted almost until the first match. They would hope that from the four Tests a suitable leader would emerge, even one possibly without previous experience. Such were two previous captains who, admittedly a while ago, were highly successful, George Mann and Tony Lewis, now president of MCC.

An almost unanimous press have been flying the same kite with the name of Nasser Hussain thereon. I do not believe the matter has been cut and dry for weeks, though the guess may proof correct.

The performance and personality of the captain of England has a deep reflection among all Englishmen who love cricket. Hussain would bring two vital qualities as a leader, courage and determination. By reputation he is, or used to be, abrasive, insensitive and unduly aggressive.

Those are all disqualifications, which Hussain or any other candidate would need to conquer. We need a generous-minded captain and not least a cheerful one.

---

Sign of the times: The oldest fixture in the calendar, Eton v Harrow, dating from 1805, the year of Trafalgar, is to be decided at Lord's next Tuesday by limited overs, with a maximum of 55.

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph