Victory at the Oval could herald a new beginning (15 August 1999)

15 August 1999

Victory at the Oval could herald a new beginning

Nasser Hussain

This is the start of one of the most important weeks I have encountered as an England player. Three weeks off have given me the opportunity to take a step back and look at things and, after more meetings than I have ever experienced, I have had ample time to plan ahead and get a clear idea in my own mind of the direction we must take.

I spoke, in a press conference immediately after the drawn Old Trafford Test, of starting with a blank piece of paper when looking to the Oval and that is exactly what happened when I sat down with David Graveney and Duncan Fletcher in a Northampton hotel on Thursday night to pick our squad for the decisive fourth Test.

That should not be interpreted as a pledge to throw out all our existing players; it meant that we would look at everybody on an equal footing, regardless of whether they were in the current team or not, and decide if they were the right people for the future.

The press, rightly or wrongly, would argue that they reflect the mood of the public and I have been aware of a number of reports demanding youth. But I have also received many letters from people urging me not to pick youngsters just for the sake of it and I can assure those supporters that there will always be more criteria than simply age to any England selection that I am part of. Remember, also, that in recent years the selectors have chosen people like Ben Hollioake, Andrew Flintoff, Alex Tudor and Chris Read at very young ages so they can hardly be accused of ignoring youth.

Injuries have played a part in a couple of those young players not becoming established in the Test team but perhaps the press have been a factor in some of them not yet fulfilling themselves by demanding more changes if they were not immediately successful or expecting too much of them too soon.

Certainly, if you look at all the coverage our game and performances have received in recent weeks and then ask a complete outsider what the series score was, I am sure he would say 3-0 to New Zealand. Now, unless the tourists have won a match since I started writing this article, it's 1-1 with all to play for on Thursday and that there should be such a depth of analysis and level of criticism at this stage of a series worries me.

Having said that, being around the dressing room at Old Trafford, I could see our body language and levels of confidence at close hand and it was obvious New Zealand, admittedly having had much the better of conditions in the last two Tests, had the upper hand in both these crucial departments.

That made me think that the time was right for an injection of something -whether it is youth, new faces, characters or whatever - that can create a spark which could change the momentum of this series and our cricket in general. This has to be done in partnership with a fundamental policy statement and that is what will happen this week.

Much has been made about the departure of Graham Gooch and Mike Gatting as selectors, a move which has been interpreted as an axing, but that is not the case. Graham approached me at the stat of the last Test and said that, with Duncan Fletcher coming in, things were moving on and he did not have that much time left as a selector. He then told me it would not be a problem with him if we wanted to pick the team for the last Test without him and Gatt, because Graham has always tried to do the right thing. He has much to offer English cricket in whichever position he takes up, but there comes a time for fresh input.

Like any good business, we have to plan ahead for the next two or three years because we do seem to have lost our direction. A lack of direction can come from reading every report and listening to all conflicting advice and I must decide who to listen to and trust - people like Keith Fletcher, Jack Birkenshaw and a couple of players who I know can be unbiased about their own team-mates. You have to back your gut feelings, talk to your network of people and stick to what you believe in because in our game and society there will always be people telling you to pick a player one minute and then demanding his sacking a couple of Tests later.

Whether sticking with the bulk of our team or starting again, we need to have a policy and stay true to it, while asking the public to give the people selected every chance. As captain, my policy will be to achieve the right balance of senior players who set the right example and still have hunger with newcomers who have the right mental toughness.

Then it will be up to me to make them into my team so that the new faces can progress and feel at home while the older ones enjoy it and feel they still have much to contribute without being under pressure for their places every game.

Whatever the grand scheme of things, we have a Test and a series to win and the best recipe for building a successful side is winning. If the team we announce today could begin by winning a Test and a series then that will be the best possible start. The Oval, with the exception of last year, has been a happy hunting ground for us in recent times. I will be fit and I am looking forward to the game and the challenges ahead.

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