Thorpe shaping up as role model (19 July 1999)

19 July 1999

Thorpe shaping up as role model

Mark Nicholas

The County cricket set adorned the small side boundaries at Woodbridge Road, Guildford, last week. Some had crossed the border from leafy north Hampshire, plenty more were down from the Smoke.

Others, who live a street or so away, took toll of their once-a-season opportunity to wander back and forth from Saqlain v Smith ("awesome bowler," said Smith after Hampshire's defeat) and Tudor v Udal ("very fast" said Udal, arm in a sling).

Corporates at one end contrasted with committee at the other and in the middle, club ties mixed with tee-shirts over ice-cream and warm beer.

Fourteen internationals were on parade for this top-of-the-table bash. As if to express the dreaded inconsistencies of the English game, the play lurched from Test class to tiddlers' class in bursts of extravagant theatre

Sixteen wickets fell on Wednesday - "swung a bit," said the lads, "and there were plenty of **** shots," - but only five fell on Thursday when the umpires kept their fingers in their holsters to the frustration of agonised bowlers.

Graham Thorpe stood a pedestal above any batsman in the match, mixing slick footwork and a straight bat in defence with delicious flicks, cuts and sweetly-timed drives in attack. When Ted Dexter and Geoffrey Boycott first saw Thorpe in the indoor nets prior to the England A tour of Zimbabwe in 1990 they were riveted by his uncomplicated method and cool exterior.

They didn't quite holler 'The Messiah', but not far from it. Now, almost a decade on, Thorpe must take it upon himself to lead the English batting in the same way as men like Kenny Barrington and Graham Gooch did before him.

Surrey are such a dangerous team and, dare I say it, for I appear to be in a minority group on this one, an enjoyable one, too. I can live with the swagger, especially as it increasingly represents genuine self-confidence rather than the fabricated stuff borne of insecurity a few years back.

They have been well led this season by Adam Hollioake and Mark Butcher, have a varied and interesting bowling attack and bat with vigour and style, if not always permanence. The suspicion lingers that they lack a sense of discipline, not so much with the willow but with the process that takes the team on to the field of play, the preparation and organisation which reflect in consistency of performance.

If their opponents at Guildford don't win the championship, then I hope Surrey do. It would be good for the English game if a team of real talent with an approach based on attack and a team of two class spinners were to visit Buckingham Palace in the autumn. What a deliciously waspish thought: Butch and Bickers; Big Al and not so big Ali; Sals and Saqlain and the Hollioakes major and minor making their way down The Mall to accept the pot of gold from his Royal Highness.

The opponents, of course, were Robin Smith's splendidly spirited Hampshire team. Watching the county who were the main part of your life play so well - a little against the odds one should say - makes for a glowing day out. It is as if you have landed in some faraway place and discovered by chance an old friend. The closeness of the relationship remains, but with none of the inherent niggles which invade familiarity. The dressing room was riddled by old jokes which are new now and hope springs eternal from even the darkest hour.

Hampshire were horrified by their last-ditch loss to Lancashire in the NatWest Trophy a week ago, but they dragged themselves off the deck, dusted down some aching egos and relocated the start button for their promising championship season.

Only good leadership can do the dragging and the dusting and here Hampshire are served by a collosus of the game. The incomparable Robin Smith may not quite bat like he once did - it is the eyes and feet that are the first to be afflicted by ravaging time - and neither does he sprint about the boundary edge with Olympian effect, but boy, do 11 men bust a gut for him or what?

If you thread your way through that modern county cricket bible, The Cricketers' Who's Who, you will find that Smith remains the most popular player in the land. Indeed, I have met no one inside or outside the game anywhere in the world who speaks other than enthusiastically of him.

Because of it, everybody wants a piece of him and he has, at times, been pulled from pillar to post. This stretches personal limitations and can even threaten family life. Being a chap who never says no, he has taken some wrong turns, but captaincy appears to be a vocation and he has responded with elan.

Never mind talent - and he had a bundle of it - it is the generosity of his spirit which has made the man. I doubt Hampshire have ever had a more valuable, more loved and more respected cricketer.

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph