The MCC university cricket system provides a chance to prepare for life after the game while pursuing a county contract

George Dobell22-Jun-2012If the last few days have taught us anything, it is that there is far more to life than cricket. So while the outcome of the final of the British Universities and Colleges Cricket (BUCS) competition might not, in itself, seem particularly important in the grand scheme of things, such encounters actually carry much deeper significance. Indeed, you could make a strong case to suggest that the introduction of MCC University cricket (MCCU) is, alongside Chance to Shine, central contracts, four-day cricket and the adoption of promotion and relegation, one of the most positive developments in domestic cricket in the last 20 years.Professional sport is a seductive beast. It sucks you in with whispered promises of glory and glamour and spits you out with broken dreams and an aching body. For every cricketing career that ends in a raised bat and warm ovation, there are a thousand that end on a physio’s treatment table or in an uncomfortable meeting in a director of cricket’s office. Many, many more stall well before that level.And that’s where the trouble starts. Young men trained for little other than sport can suddenly find themselves in a world for which they have little training and little preparation. Without status, salary or support, the world can seem an inhospitable place. It is relevant, surely, that the suicide rate of former cricketers is three times the national average.The Professional Cricketers’ Association does sterling work trying to help former players who have fallen on hard times, but prevention must be better than the cure, and a huge step on the road of progress has been taken in the form of the MCCU.It has had different names along the way but the MCCU scheme was set up in the mid-1990s by former England opening batsman Graeme Fowler. Confronted with a choice between university and full-time cricket when he was 18, Fowler opted for university. It was a decision that provided the foundations for financial stability that extended far beyond his playing days. As Fowler puts it while watching the Durham MCCU team he coaches play Cambridge MCCU in the BUCS final: “Even a cricketer as successful as Alec Stewart had more of his working life to come after he finished playing. And not everyone can be a coach or a commentator.”The fundamental aim of the MCCUs is to allow talented young cricketers to continue their education while also pursuing their dream of playing professional cricket. It is to prevent a situation where they have to choose between the two. It should mean that young players gain the qualifications and skills for a life beyond cricket while still giving themselves every opportunity to progress in the game. Graduates will have enjoyed good-quality facilities and coaching while also maturing as people. It should be no surprise that several counties actively encourage their young players into the scheme as they know they will return, three years later and still in their early 20s, far better prepared for the rigours of professional sport and life beyond it.It works, too. Just under 25% of England-qualified cricketers currently playing in the county game graduated through the system. Durham MCCU alone has helped develop more than 50 county players, six county captains, three England players and, most obviously, England’s Test captain, Andrew Strauss, who credits the initiative as vital to his success. “It was at Durham University that I went through the transition of being a recreational cricketer to one who had the ambition to play the game for a living,” he has said. The MCCUs have a mightily impressive record.And, these days, it costs the ECB nothing. Not a penny. Instead the six MCCUs (Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Cardiff, Leeds/Bradford and Loughborough) have, since 2005, been funded by the MCC. Each institution receives £80,000 a year and hopes to cobble together enough extra funding from sponsorship and other smaller grants to meet their annual running costs of around £130,000. You might well ask why the ECB – despite its annual income of around £110 million and rising – cannot find some more money for such an admirable scheme.Indeed, it is interesting to reflect on the roots of the MCCUs. In the mid-1990s, the ECB (or the TCCB as it was known at the time) lost its Lottery funding as the Lottery Commission was concerned that the sport did not possess a complete development programme that incorporated higher education. The board, in panic, embraced Fowler’s plans and appointed a couple of dozen regional development officers. Had the Lottery Commission not intervened, it is debatable whether the ECB would have had the foresight to act at all.

Fowler never actually wanted the games to carry first-class status but worries that if such status is stripped the funding may disappear too. He also worries that the matches against the counties – key factors in the development of his young players – might go

There are detractors. When, in April, Durham MCCU were bowled out for 18 by a Durham attack that contained Graham Onions, among others, it provided fresh ammunition for those who say that such games should not hold first-class status.It is a fair point. Fowler never actually wanted the games to carry first-class status but worries that if such status is stripped, the funding may disappear too. He also worries that the matches against the counties – key factors in the development of his young players – might go. Without those two facets, the system loses its attraction and the safety net disappears. The odd aberration in the first-class record might well prove to be a price worth paying for the benefits of MCCUs.As it was, Cambridge MCCU, boosted by an innings of 129 by Ben Ackland, defeated Durham MCCU by 24 runs in the BUCS final in the scenic surrounds of Wormsley. Perhaps only four or five of the players on show have realistic hopes of enjoying a career in cricket – Surrey’s Zafar Ansari is currently with Cambridge MCCU, though he missed the BUCS game, while Paul Best (Cambridge MCCU and Warwickshire), Chris Jones (Durham MCCU and Somerset) and Freddie van den Bergh (Durham MCCU and Surrey) are among those already affiliated with counties – but it was noticeable that at least one first-class county sent a scout to the match.”I spent my whole professional playing career on a one- or two-year contract,” Chris Scott, the Cambridge MCCU coach, says. “It probably made me a more insecure, selfish cricketer than I should have been. The MCCU scheme provides a safety net for players and helps them grow up and improve as players as people. It helps prepare them for life, whether that is in cricket or not.””And it’s not just about playing,” Fowler adds. “Some of our graduates have gone to be coaches or analysts at counties. Some might have become solicitors, but set up junior coaching schemes at their local clubs. There is a cascade effect that people sometimes don’t appreciate.”The quality of the head coaches is a vital factor. Scott, for example, is a philosophical fellow well suited to preparing his charges for the inevitable slings and arrows. He has needed to be. As Durham wicketkeeper he was, after all, responsible for the most expensive dropped catch in first-class history. Playing at Edgbaston in 1994, he put down Brian Lara on 18 and moaned to the slip cordon, “I bet he goes on and gets a hundred now.” Lara went on to score an unbeaten 501.Cambridge are the standout side among current MCCUs, and Scott’s record in aiding the development of the likes of Chris Wright and Tony Palladino should not be underestimated.The graduates of Durham MCCU are also lucky to have Fowler. Not just for his playing experience – anyone who scored a Test double-century in India and a Test century against the West Indies of 1984 knows a thing or two about batting – but also his life experience. For his easygoing good humour and mellow wisdom. He enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a player, but the formation of the MCCUs is surely his biggest contribution to the game.

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan18-May-2012Gayle struck 13 sixes in his innings, equalling Brendon McCullum’s record for the most sixes hit in an innings in the IPL. Gayle is the only batsman to hit eight or more sixes on four different occasions. Adam Gilchrist and Yusuf Pathan are the only other batsmen to do so on two occasions. Gayle took his tally of sixes in the IPL to 127 in just 42 matches (more than three sixes per game). Suresh Raina, who is next on the list of batsmen with the most sixes in the IPL, has 91 sixes from 78 matches.In the 2012 season, Gayle has been even more spectacular, hitting 57 sixes in 14 matches while Kevin Pietersen, who is second on the list, has hit 20 sixes in eight matches. Gayle is also the leading six-hitter overall in Twenty20 games (279 sixes), followed by Kieron Pollard, who has hit 198 sixes. Gayle also became the only batsman to score three centuries in the IPL. Before this game, he was level with Adam Gilchrist and David Warner, who have both scored two centuries each. Gayle now has eight centuries in Twenty20 matches, the most for any player. Warner is second, with five centuries. During his century, Gayle scored 82.81% of his runs in boundaries. While his tally of boundary runs (106) is the second-highest in the IPL behind that of McCullum (118), the percentage of runs in boundaries is fifth on the list (100-plus scores only). Sanath Jayasuriya is on top, with 102 of his 114 runs in boundaries (89.47%). Gayle took his series aggregate to 706 runs in 14 matches. It surpassed his tally of 608 in the 2011 season and also went past Sachin Tendulkar’s record aggregate in an IPL season (618 runs in 2010). Gayle’s aggregate is also the highest ever for a player in a Twenty20 series, surpassing Jimmy Adams’ record for Hampshire in 2010. Gayle played out a maiden over off Umesh Yadav during his century. In his previous century (against Kings XI Punjab) on May 6, 2011, Gayle played out a maiden over too. However, on the other two occasions that he played a maiden over, he failed to register a big score. Against Deccan Chargers on May 6, 2012, he was dismissed for 26 and against Kings XI on May 17, 2011, he was dismissed for a duck. The 204-run stand between Gayle and Virat Kohli is the second-highest partnership in the IPL. The highest ever stand is the 206-run partnership between Adam Gilchrist and Shaun Marsh against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the previous season. The top four partnerships in the IPL have all been second-wicket stands. Incidentally, both the double-century stands came in matches played on May 17. It is also the fourth century stand between Gayle and Kohli, the most by a batting pair in the IPL. The match aggregate (409 runs) is ninth on the list of highest aggregates in an IPL game. There have been 12 IPL games where the aggregate has exceeded 400 runs. Of the 409 runs, 276 were scored in boundaries. This is the sixth on the list of most boundary runs scored in an IPL match. The total of 215 is Royal Challengers’ fourth 200-plus score in the IPL. Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI are joint-first, with six such scores.

Plays of the Day from the final day of the second Test between England and South Africa at Headingley

George Dobell and Firdose Moonda at Headingley06-Aug-2012Wicket of the Day
For the second time in the match, Kevin Pietersen struck with just his second delivery. His part-time offbreaks were, in the absence of Graeme Swann, the only spin option available to England’s captain, Andrew Strauss, but Pietersen soon showed what might have been had England selected a more balanced side by extracting extravagant turn from the pitch and beating Jacques Rudolph’s forward press. It was another reminder, if any were required, about the folly of omitting Swann from the team. To rub salt in the wound, Pietersen finished with 3 for 52 – his best Test figures – both highlighting his worth to the England management and their selectorial mistake. It is also worth noting that, by scoring a century and taking four wickets in the Test, Pietersen achieved something that Andrew Flintoff never managed.Resuscitation of the Day
South Africa were ambling to safety and the Headingley Test was all but dead when Stuart Broad charged up the defibrillators. He had AB de Villiers out lbw and, with no reviews left, de Villiers could not challenge the on-field decision although replays showed it was missing leg by some distance. Broad’s next ball had no ambiguity about it. JP Duminy did a comical half waltz with his feet and was trapped low on the pad. With two wickets in two balls and a chance to repeat the heroics he performed against India last year, Broad had brought the match to life. He did not get a hat-trick but earned his five-for.Opening moment
While most attention focused on the opening partnership for England in their second innings – Pietersen being promoted to open with Alastair Cook in an obvious show of positivity – the opening bowling partnership was just as interesting. South Africa persisted with Morne Morkel despite the fact that Andrew Strauss was not there to bowl at.Telling statistic of the Day
When Graeme Smith and Rudolph took their opening partnership to 100, it became the first time since the Timeless Test in Durban of 1939 that England had conceded a century opening partnership in both innings of the same Test. For an attack that came into the series with a reputation as one of the world’s best, it is not a statistic the England bowlers will savour.Surprising statistic of the Day
When Strauss scored his sixth run, he reached 7,000 in his 176th Test innings. That means he reached the milestone quicker than quicker than Shivnarine Chanderpaul (177 innings), VVS Laxman (181 innings), Saurav Ganguly (183 innings), Mark Waugh (183 innings) and Desmond Haynes (190 innings).Drop of the Day
If England were to have any chance of winning this game, they had to take every chance offered. Instead a series of edges from Rudolph, in particular, dropped agonisingly short or flew wide of the fielders and, when Smith was on 44, he was missed by James Anderson at second slip off Tim Bresnan. Even worse was the drop – also by Anderson – of De Villiers off Pietersen when the batsman had 23: a relatively simple chance that Anderson spurned at slip. It seemed, at the time, as though the chances came too late to make any difference to the result but, bearing in mind the run chase finally set England, it may have made all the difference. It was another example of England’s increasingly fallible slip fielding of recent months.

Murali Kartik writes to his Lachhi mama

Murali Kartik20-Aug-2012Dear ,Where do I begin to sum up the times we have shared? Let me start with an incident. As you know I have bowled to you many, many times in the nets. But on the eve of the Ahmedabad Test against Sri Lanka in 2005, you charged and hit an uncharacteristic drive early on in the nets. Even before I could react you were so apologetic. In that lovely Dakhni, which we call Hyderabadi Hindi, you said: ” (I did not hit you on purpose. But since this is practice, I had to hit you). What an endearing statement. How could anyone not have liked you?If you do not mind me saying this, I think of myself as lucky to have become a close friend. In this dog-eat-dog-world, you were always comforting to have around. Right from my international debut against South Africa in 2000, you always made time for me. I played against you for the first time at the Pachaiyappas College ground in Chennai in a practice match and incredibly, from that day till today, you have remained the same man.You have been my best friend in Indian cricket. I was honoured when I was the only cricketer to have been invited to your wedding ceremony in 2004. If you remember, there was a ritual where the priest hands over two wooden artifacts, of a boy and a girl, representing the family that the marriage will create. Traditionally they are given to the groom’s sister. You gave it to my wife Shweta, and when your children were born, you came over to our house in Gurgaon to pick them up.If I think of when we became close pals, one incident does come to mind. It goes back to 2003 and it makes me laugh. I am sure you already know what I am referring to. Prior to the 2003 World Cup, I was picked for the away tour of New Zealand after I had a good home ODI series against West Indies. I did not play in New Zealand, but was surprisingly – okay, I was surprised – dropped from the one-day leg of the tour.You were the only one who comforted me, saying things like this happen. New Zealand was not a spinner’s territory anyway. There was not much I could have done as Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh were the senior spinners in the side then. I had been looking forward to the ODI series, especially as the World Cup squad was going to be announced soon.But when the World Cup squad was announced, shockingly, your name was not to be found in the side. Ironically, both of us found ourselves playing against the other in a Ranji Trophy match in Hyderabad and a month later, we were off to the Caribbean as part of the India A tour. When we thought of New Zealand, we would laugh. Needless to say, neither of us were not present mentally on that A-team trip, especially you, considering you had registered four consecutive ducks in the first two matches. You said at the time: “From now on Kartik, I am never going to advise you because the same thing happens to me as well.” To be your friend is a much bigger reward from cricket than any other award I will ever get.I was also lucky to have played under you as captain. Including you, I have played under three very good captains: VB Chandrashekar at India Cements followed by Azzu (Mohammad Azharuddin) at the international level. You were one of the best leaders I have played under. Your style was very much from the Azharuddin school of thought: the bowler is his own captain to a certain extent. For me, that was brilliant because I knew what I was trying to do and if my captain was backing me, what more could I expect? You never tried to impose or intrude on me. You were positive, set attacking fields and made me, the bowler, feel like a champion.I clearly remember the Mumbai Test against Australia in 2004 when you played a match-winning hand with 69 in the second innings (highest by any batsman on both sides) on one of the trickiest pitches. Despite that you were so generous in complimenting me after I won the Man-of-the-Match award for my seven-wicket haul. On the big plastic cheque that came with the award, you were the first to write: “Absolute matchwinner. Always believe many, many more to come.”But we know that the true matchwinner was you. On so many occasions, especially in the second Test against Australia in Adelaide in 2003. It was 45 degrees, but you and Rahul Dravid batted amazingly to grind out a quality opposition in a 303-run stand after India were on the mat at 85 for 4. People will continue to talk about your 281, but I enjoyed your 148, which played such an influential hand in taming the Aussies and help India win a Test abroad. That victory played such a big role in India’s transformation in the years to come as we went on to become the No. 1 Test team.

I know you would have thought you were not doing the right thing if you carried on playing. How many people think about Indian cricket and about the fact that a young cricketer needs to break in to the team for him to be groomed? You could have easily added more to your 134 Test caps

Personally I have always been surprised about how you never said anything bad about anyone – your critics, even people who have harmed you. Not many remain silent.Remember when you decided to divest the icon status at Deccan Chargers in the inaugural season of the IPL? I knew you never had any fascination for money; what you were eager for was to make sure Hyderabad had a strong team. You always strived to make an honest attempt to make your team perform. When I suggested the name of a senior player in the Indian domestic circuit, who was ignored earlier during first IPL, you went out of your way to get him into the team.We saw your your selflessness on Saturday again, when you said goodbye to international cricket. When you came into the Indian team you had played overseas in the first few years. But with India having not performed well abroad in the recent past, it became important for a young batsman to play well at home first and establish himself. I know you would have thought you were not doing the right thing if you carried on playing. How many people think about Indian cricket and about the fact that a young cricketer needs to break in to the team for him to be groomed? You could have easily added more to your 134 Test caps.I have always believed in the saying the right thing and not the nice thing. You were very soft-spoken and at the same time very idealistic. Your attitude taught me to be the way I am. You always have maintained there are certain things you can’t change about destiny. That has helped me to remain inspired, motivated and not get disgruntled about cricket despite being left out of the team so many times.I really can’t believe you will not play international cricket anymore. When I heard about your retirement, I was in tears. You have, and will remain, a calming influence in my life. If Sachin is called the god of cricket, then you, VVS, are the angel we all strive to be.Yours truly,
Kartik

Stats review of the third round of Ranji Trophy matches

S Rajesh20-Nov-2012

• After 51 hundreds were scored in the first two rounds, 24 more were added in the third, taking the overall tally of hundreds in this Ranji Trophy season to 75 in 36 matches. On the other hand, there were more five-wicket hauls in this round – 15 – than there were in the first two rounds combined (13).
• Despite bowlers having a slightly better time in this round – the average runs per wicket was 34.23 compared to 39.29 in the first two rounds – only two of 12 matches produced decisive results. In the first two rounds, eight out of 24 had decisive outcomes, which means in the season so far, there have been 26 draws in 36 games.
• Among those on the fringes of national selection, Manoj Tiwary used this round better than anyone else. His 191 against Gujarat was the second-highest score of this round, and it lifted his season after ordinary performances in his first two matches, in which he had scored 98 runs in four innings. His tally for the season is 289 in five innings, at an average of 57.80.
• Overall, though, the highest run-scorer for this season is Himachal Pradesh’s Paras Dogra, who has 462 runs in four innings, including hundreds in each match – 121, 210 and 122, the last of those against Andhra Pradesh in the third round. Punjab’s Jiwanjot Singh is the other batsman with 400-plus runs in the season so far – 442 in four innings.
• Arlen Konwar, Assam’s offspinner, remains the only bowler to take ten wickets in a match this season, but three bowlers came close to achieving the feat in the third round, as Basant Mohanty of Orissa, Saurashtra’s Ravindra Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar of Uttar Pradesh all took nine wickets in their matches. The leading wicket-taker in the season so far, though, is Jharkhand’s Shahbaz Nadeem: in three matches he has 24 wickets at 16.79. In fact, two Jharkhand bowlers are among the top three wicket-takers, with Sunny Gupta, the offspinner, in third place with 18 at 17.61. In second place is Konwar with 20 wickets at 19.50.
• Yashpal Singh of Services scored an unbeaten 250 against Tripura, which was the only double-hundred of the round. It’s also the highest score by a Services batsman; the previous record also belonged to Yashpal, who’d scored 240, also against Tripura, a decade ago.
• The other stand-out batting performance in this round came from Amol Mazumdar, who scored a century in each innings for Andhra against Himachal Pradesh, in the process taking over from Wasim Jaffer as the highest run-getter in Ranji Trophy history.
• One of the two winnners in this round was Odisha, who beat Haryana by four wickets in a low-scoring match in Rohtak. It was Odisha’s first win in a Ranji Trophy game in four years: the last time they won a match was in November 2008, when they beat Punjab in Bhubaneswar. Since then, and before this win against Haryana, they’d played 25 matches, losing 11 and drawing 14.
• For Haryana, meanwhile, this has been a forgettable season so far, especially for their batsmen. They’ve lost both their matches, and languish at the bottom of group B, with the batsmen largely responsible for these results: in their first match of the season, they were bowled out for 55 by Vidarbha, their lowest first-class score; against Odisha, they were bundled out for 66, which is their joint third-lowest.

Bowlers might find it frustrating when umpires check for a no-ball after a batsman is dismissed, but they have nobody to blame but themselves

Brydon Coverdale in Brisbane13-Nov-2012On the first morning of this Test, Australia’s bowlers were out in the middle of the Gabba with a measuring tape and a can of spray paint. It has become a ritual of the modern-day bowler, calculating to the centimetre the distance they require from the crease to the top of their run-up, and marking the spot with a graffito of their initials and a line. It is a precise operation. It is also becoming a futile one.When James Pattinson steamed in on the final day and bowled Hashim Amla, the Australians were jubilant. Briefly. The umpire, Asad Rauf, told Amla not to walk off the ground just yet. He suspected Pattinson had over-stepped the crease and asked the third official to check the replays. Rauf’s instinct was right. Pattinson had delivered a no-ball and Amla was reprieved. It was the third such incident in this match.On the first day, Peter Siddle had Jacques Kallis caught at mid-off. Again it was Rauf who wanted the replay checked, and again the bowler had over-stepped. And on day three Morne Morkel, a serial no-baller, thought he had Ed Cowan caught behind and the South Africans asked for a review of Rauf’s not-out decision. The first footage to be viewed by Richard Kettleborough was the side-on angle, and he deemed that Morkel had not bowled a legal delivery.Three dismissals disallowed by no-balls, in addition to another that was called on the spot, which Michael Clarke appeared to edge behind off Morkel. When run-ups are measured so precisely, how can that be? Geoff Lawson, the former fast bowler and coach, argues that the run-up length can only ever be a rough guide because when a bowler is running in, the length of his steps will vary based on a number of factors. Is there a head-wind or a tail-wind? Is the outfield soft or hard? Is he running marginally uphill or downhill? And when he bowled Amla, Pattinson was in such a fired-up mood that he might have been running in faster than usual, lengthening his strides.

Reprieving a batsman on a late no-ball call is vastly preferable to wrongly calling one and having a batsman dismissed. The bowling team would feel aggrieved, and rightly so. But nor would it be fair to give the batsman out retrospectively

Still, some bowlers find a way around no-balls. It is often claimed that Michael Holding sent down only two in his Test career. Ben Hilfenhaus bowled one in the first Test in the West Indies in April, but hasn’t been called in the three Tests since then. Is their secret to measure a run-up and then start from yet another step back? Who knows. But it was notable that when the Australians asked for a review of a Hilfenhaus caught-behind appeal, his front foot was so far back in legal territory that his toes weren’t even touching the crease.Others, like Morkel, get it wrong on a frustratingly regular basis. When Morkel made his first-class debut at the age of 19, he sent down 17 no-balls in a five-over spell. The habit has stayed with him. On the last day of the Lord’s Test in August, Morkel had Matt Prior caught in the deep off a no-ball. Siddle also has prior form. At the MCG last year, he bowled Rahul Dravid and the umpire, Marais Erasmus, asked for the no-ball to be checked. Siddle had overstepped.It could be argued that the standing umpires should be more inclined to call bowlers on the spot, rather than waiting for a wicket to fall. Who knows how many no-balls are missed during regular play because the umpire hasn’t felt sure? Certainly in Pattinson’s case, Rauf could have made the call himself, for Pattinson was over the crease by a considerable distance. But the Siddle and Morkel margins were minimal.The umpires still called 33 no-balls for the match and had assistance for less than a handful of those. If in doubt, umpires must err on the side of caution. Reprieving a batsman on a late no-ball call is vastly preferable to wrongly calling one and having a batsman dismissed. The bowling team would feel aggrieved, and rightly so. But nor would it be fair to give the batsman out retrospectively.Who can say if a batsman would have played the same shot had he not heard the umpire call no-ball? Against a genuinely fast bowler, batsmen don’t have time to adjust to hearing an umpire’s call, but they do against spinners. And what of medium-pacers? Or a fast man’s slower ball?There must be one blanket rule and the current system is the best option. It is certainly preferable to a batsman being sent on his way, only for TV viewers to later see he was dismissed off a no-ball. Whether the review process adds to or detracts from the spectacle of the game is a matter of opinion. Whether bowlers are overstepping, generally, is not. Perhaps some should look to Holding and Hilfenhaus for inspiration.

Charlotte Edwards has captained England to two World Cup wins and is at the centre of a fight for greater recognition and professionalism for women’s cricket

Ed Kemp03-Feb-2013All Out CricketCharlotte Edwards is singing. It was Sarah Taylor, England’s star wicketkeeper-batsman, who, bounding into our photo shoot, had put the music on. And now that Edwards has finished being photographed, official duties done, she launches herself into the high notes of Maria McKee’s early Nineties power ballad “Show Me Heaven”. Behind her, fast bowler Katherine Brunt is pulling faces at the camera – it’s her turn to pose now – and Edwards (in between verses) keeps telling her off – “Nunny [Brunt’s nickname], are you doing what you’re told?” – as the Yorkshire-born quick dances and bites the white cricket ball she’s holding as a prop. For anyone who accuses the England captain of being a “cricket geek” – and they do, her team-mates especially – she now has an answer: “You heard it here first. I tell you what, this time next year… .”It’s been a long day. Here at Edgbaston, England women have just finished their last home training camp before they fly out to India for the World Cup – Edwards’ fifth – where they are defending the crown they won four years ago in Sydney. Having narrowly missed out on the World Twenty20 title in October (they lost the final to Australia, by four runs), there has been an extra edge to their preparation here: their reputation as the best side in the world is at stake. More than that, after the inspiring events of 2012, women’s sport is firmly on the map, and they don’t want to let the side down now.So it’s understandable if they’re blowing off a bit of steam. Edwards has been captain of England since 2006, and is the face of the game in this country; her contract with cricket charity Chance to Shine – which allows women cricketers to play and train while being paid, in “coaching ambassador” roles – has allowed her to become the closest to a full-time professional the women’s game has known. Whether it’s encouraging the next generation of young cricketers in schools, appearing at a club training session, presenting prizes at an awards do, giving interviews to media, practising in the nets, slugging away in the gym, planning for games or playing in them, cricket is not only Edwards’ job, it’s her life.Lucky then that she loves it. I mean, loves it. I’ve rarely met anyone whose passion for the game is so complete. “I just absolutely love it,” she says. “I’m a bit of a geek! That’s what I get told anyway. I’m always learning about it, watching it – just this morning I was watching the Big Bash and being excited by it. It gives me a wonderful feeling. And I’m very fortunate that I’ve been able to play at the highest level for as long as I have done and still feel the way I feel. I hope I put my love of the game across to other people.”In truth, it’s this commitment that has kept her in the game. These days, talented young players are identified early and treated to high-level coaching from the start; then, when they reach the senior England squad there is a whole team of support staff dedicated to them, from the head coach, Mark Lane, to the assistant coach, specialist skills coaches, a physio, strength and conditioning coaches, data analysts and a media manager. When Edwards debuted in 1996 at the age of 16 she had to pay for her own cap and blazer.”My first England game was also my first and only played in a skirt! [England’s women’s team still played in traditional culottes until 1997, when they finally switched to trousers. Edwards, who had been used to playing boys’ cricket – very much in trousers – was relieved.]”I can still remember that day like it was yesterday. We didn’t have a sponsor, I didn’t even wear three lions on my shirt. But that doesn’t take away from what a feeling it was to make my England debut. I’ve still got the blazer and the cap I paid for, and they were brilliant days. I think the blazer was about 60 quid! But I would have paid any amount of money to play cricket for England – that’s where we were back then. But to have been part of it and watch it all evolve over the years – it’s unrecognisable from the game I started playing.”And as befits the maternal way she has with her players – most of whom are in their early 20s – Edwards is not shy of reminding her girls how things used to be. “Don’t you worry, I don’t ever miss an opportunity to tell them! The support the team gets now, they’re incredibly lucky, and it’s so important they know that and appreciate what they get – I certainly do. And I won’t let anyone get too big for their boots in this team, because we’ve come a long way. Ultimately the players deserve it now because they put in the hard work, but I keep them very much grounded, and it’s important I keep myself grounded as well.”Edwards grew up in cricket. She used to watch her dad play at Ramsey CC in Cambridgeshire from “the age of three or four”, and was such a talented young player herself that she captained all the boys teams, even her county Huntingdonshire’s Under- 16 boys side (these days there are more opportunities for girls to play girls-only cricket at representative level, but for someone who scored as many runs as Edwards did, acceptance in male cricket was not an issue). She came into the England side with quite a reputation, proceeding to hit two tons in her first six ODI knocks and hardly looking back thereafter. In 2010 she became the most capped women’s ODI player of all time.

“If I got annoyed every time someone patronised women’s cricket or myself then I’d be a really grumpy person”

Her career has coincided with a huge development in women’s cricket, particularly in England. The running of the women’s game was taken over by the ECB in 1998, since when there has been a huge increase in investment. The majority of the squad are now either on Chance to Shine contracts, at university, or part of the MCC Young Cricketers programme, allowing them to play and train for most of the year.That investment has borne fruit. In 2005 they regained the Ashes for the first time in 42 years, and in 2009 they won it all: the World Cup in Australia (after which Edwards was awarded an MBE), the World Twenty20 three months later in England, and then the Ashes, which they will contest again at home later this year. Today they are the world’s No. 1 side.But though the T20 format has helped market the sport, there is still much to do. Double- header events, where a women’s match is played immediately before the men’s, on the same ground, such as we saw in the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, have been particularly effective in raising awareness and, crucially, showcasing the skill levels of the top players. But the battle to prove that women’s cricket is worth watching is not over. When games are televised, there is enormous pressure to perform, and not only to achieve results for the team. The fight is on, and for Edwards the gloves are off.”The whole time I’ve been playing, you’re always having to prove yourself as a female cricketer. In more recent times we’ve changed a lot of people’s perceptions of the game, but when I first started playing, it was: ‘Why is a girl playing cricket?’ Particularly when we were playing in skirts. But in the last four or five years I’ve seen a huge shift in what people say about the game.”Laughing, Edwards says: “Sometimes when people talk to me, they say, ‘Oh, you can throw and catch, and you bowl so well!’ It’s quite interesting. They’re positive comments, but they’re surprised how well we play.”Does she ever feel patronised? “Look, as a female sportsperson, and especially a cricketer, I think I can’t get too upset with people’s comments. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, and if I got annoyed every time someone patronised women’s cricket or myself then I’d be a really grumpy person. It’s just water off a duck’s back to me. The most important thing is our success on the pitch, and people can have their opinions, but hopefully we’re changing many of those.”Edwards is happy to acknowledge that one reason England are the best team in the world is the increased investment. Financially England are the best-supported side in the world, and as Edwards readily says: “You’re only going to get the success if you invest money.”But it’s not the same everywhere. Of the eight teams competing in the World Cup, England and Australia are currently head and shoulders above the rest, with New Zealand and India behind them, and during the World Twenty20, in games between the smaller nations, there were occasionally incidents of the kind of sloppy cricket that does the image of the game no favours. (Of course, there are in men’s cricket too, but the women’s game will inevitably be judged more harshly.)Is Edwards the stateswoman of women’s cricket, rather than Edwards the England captain, satisfied with the standard worldwide?”I think overall it’s hard. There’s a perception that maybe us and Australia are moving away from the rest of the nations in terms of skill, but I was really impressed at the World Twenty20 with how teams like Sri Lanka and Pakistan have come into their own; they’re beating India, they’re beating the West Indies, so I’ve come away from that event really pleased with where the world game’s at.”I think more teams are now competing. The support that the Sri Lanka and Pakistan boards have put in, you can see the difference it’s made. Maybe the world game’s not quite as strong as we would like across the board, as probably it was five or six years ago, so it’s important that the boards are really supporting their women’s programmes, because they will see a difference when they do.”And the difference can be lasting. One of the many advantages today’s youngsters have over Edwards’ generation is an abundance of female role models. The England captain barely saw any women’s cricket on TV as a child. Now she and her team-mates are going into schools around the country, delivering a healthy mix of cricket and inspiration.”Mrs Cricket”: Edwards receives her honorary life membership of the MCC, in 2012•Getty ImagesAnd then, of course, there is the impact of the Olympics, which did so much to highlight the strength of female sport in the UK. “We’ve got some amazing female role models now, which, when a lot of us were growing up, probably weren’t around. So we’ve got to thank the Olympics for that. After that we went to the World Twenty20 and we felt like people were actually following us more now because we’re female, which is something the country’s really bought into.”True as that is, only a handful of England’s players are widely known, even in cricket circles. When it comes to requests for interviews in the media on women’s cricket, it’s invariably Edwards who gets the call. Which means she is pretty busy. That’s fine; it is a big part of her job. But making more of the players more famous has to be a goal if the game is to keep progressing. Whisper it quietly, but Edwards will not be around forever; the game needs new heroes.”To really raise the profile of a lot of the players would be a great thing, but that also comes from performances on the pitch. They go hand in hand. We’ve got world-class players in our team – people like Sarah Taylor are now getting the recognition they deserve, and the more individuals we can have as role models, and written about, the better – rather than boring old me all the time!”A lot of the girls are actually quite shy and they won’t talk about their achievements – which is a good thing in one way, but when you’re wanting to sell the team, sell the game, sell themselves, they probably need to be a bit less modest. We’ve got some wonderful people in the team who’ve done some wonderful things. Hopefully we’ll see that in the next few months, and this time next year they’ll be talking about 80% of the team instead of the 20% that a lot of people know at the moment.”That she should desire this is indicative not just of her commitment to the wider cause but also of her markedly maternal care for her team. Humble she may be, but Edwards is unquestionably the team’s leader; looking after them, building them up, pushing them forward, guiding them through the difficult moments.Taylor, who Edwards says is the best batsman in the world and “can be as good as she wants to be”, was 17 when she came into the side nearly six years ago, and Edwards was already captain. She has been a key figure in Taylor’s career ever since. “She’s just always been proud of everything that I’ve done,” Taylor says. “She always says to me she’s proud, and I think that actually takes the pressure away a little bit. You think, ‘She’s proud of what I’ve done so far, so I’m doing the right things.’ If anything, you put more pressure on yourself. She just lets me get on with it.”It’s similar for Brunt, 27, who has played with Edwards since 2004, when Brunt’s debut against New Zealand was marked by one of Edwards’ ten international tons.”Charlotte? Basically my whole life has revolved around cricket since I was eight, and Lottie has been a part of that for a huge chunk of my career. When I first met her she was quite wild, but she’s very focused on what she does. She’s a fantastic captain. She knows her game plans inside out for each team and every player we come up against, but then within that she works on instinct. She’s a huge trier, and she’s very competitive – she’ll give it her all. In my opinion you can only have someone of that sort of character to lead you.”And is she a nerveless character? Before big finals, for example? “No, no one can really hide that completely. You can see it, but she never lets it affect her, and if she did, she wouldn’t be a very good captain. You can tell she’s nervous, but you can also see that she’s excited and she wants it more than anything, so it doesn’t unnerve you at all. If anything it makes you want to work harder for her.”Taylor calls her skipper “Mrs Cricket” and although a joke, there is a sense that Edwards married to the game. Female athletes have always been under more pressure to find a balance between career and private life. They are invariably subjected to more questions about their “plans for the future” than the boys. “Aren’t you going to retire and get on with your life?” they seem to be asked, however implicitly.

“She’s a fantastic captain. She knows her game plans inside out for each team and every player we come up against, but then within that she works on instinct”Katherine Brunt on Edwards

But things are changing. England allrounder Arran Brindle rejoined the national squad in 2011 after taking a break to start a family, and increasingly women are able to stay within the game without being lost to cricket prematurely.But what of Edwards? Does she feel she’s made sacrifices? Not a bit of it.”My life for the last three months [between World Cups] has just been cricket. I wanted to throw everything into my preparation for the World Cup. You know, it might be my last, so you want to do everything you possibly can. I’ve just been training non-stop. But that’s a choice I’ve made, it’s what I love doing, and I wouldn’t have it any different because I know I’m the kind of person who’s 100% or nothing. That’s how I’ve always been.”Sometimes people think, ‘God, you’re just all the time!’ But that’s what I love and that’s how I tick, so I don’t feel like I sacrifice anything, because this is how I want to live my life, and I enjoy what I do. That’s how you get the best out of yourself.”But what if cricket just plain didn’t exist? “God, that’s a really good question. I’ve been in cricket all my life!”I do love my time just at home – I’m a bit of a home bird, I like spending time with my family. My brother’s just about to have a little baby due near the World Cup, so I’m going to be an auntie for the first time, so I think that’s going to be a nice release for me, to have something outside of the game.”What else would I want to be? I’ve always been interested in the police – I’m not sure if I’d be any good at it, but I’m quite nosy. I quite like crime programmes…”Or a property developer. I’m really into at the moment.” The Simon Cowell-endorsed singing career can wait.Though she has no intention of retiring – she’s in the form of her life, one of the world’s leading players, named Player of the Tournament in the World Twenty20 – Edwards will naturally remain in cricket when the time eventually comes. Next year she plans to develop her coaching experience at a more elite girls’ level, and it’s quite possible that she could one day make the transition from England captain to England coach.”I won’t be too far away from the game when I do decide to hang my boots up. I feel I’ve got too much to offer in terms of passion and knowledge. And I feel like I’ve got a lot to give back to a game I’ve got so much from… But I’ve got a lot more to achieve as a player.”When would be a realistic target for her, playing-wise? “Well, I did hear on the quiet that the 2017 World Cup is maybe going to be in England, and if there was any carrot, that would be it. But at the moment, four years – God! – it seems a long way off. But you see guys go on into their late 30s – I’d only be 37 then. Players are playing on longer now, thanks to all the strength and conditioning coaches and physios, so we’ll see.” Being asked so often when she might retire has made her consider it, come up with an answer: words to reply to the question. But she’s going nowhere soon.Good news. Whatever happens from now on, Edwards deserves to be seen as one of England’s finest-ever captains – one of Britain’s greatest modern sportspeople. And while, as she says, women’s cricket today is now a world away from the game she joined at 16, these days it would be utterly unrecognisable without her at its heart. She is a star. No talent show required.

From Martin Keats, United Kingdom Having watched England captains since Colin Cowdrey, I have to say that in KP I have seen something really different

Cricinfo25-Feb-2013Martin Keats, United Kingdom
Having watched England captains since Colin Cowdrey, I have to say that in KP I have seen something really different! I too was doubting the wisdom of KP for England captain. I was however very impressed with his “man management”. The way he encouraged individual players and gave a little personal acknowledgment to players for “good effort” was certainly one thing that I have not seen in an England team.Take for instance the after Tea session where the Sky commentary team were calling for Harmison and Anderson to be brought straight on to knock over 9, 10 and jack. After Monty finished his half over he gave the ball to Stuart Broad. ‘Broady’ had bowled well during the day but just lacks a little in confidence. With KP talking to him and encouraging and calming he took two wickets.Having tried Harmison and Anderson to knock over the last man, only to be met with stubborn resistance and steady if not spectacular scoring from the last pair who seemed capable of leaving the ball and staying put against the pace, KP brought back Monty and talked him into the well flighted ball that completely foxed Ntini. Rock on KP!

Three days between Tests does not give Australia long to digest their eight-wicket loss in Chennai but there are several lessons they can take from that match

Brydon Coverdale27-Feb-2013A leaking spinner is of little value
Bowling spin successfully in India is about many things: subtle variations, finding the right pace and using the rough to create doubt in the batsman’s mind. They are all factors in keeping the pressure up and the runs down, which Nathan Lyon struggled to do in Chennai. Over the course of the Test, Lyon gave up 132 runs in boundaries, the same number as James Pattinson, Peter Siddle and Mitchell Starc combined. And he did it bowling 33.1 fewer overs than the three fast men. He was also milked for 74 singles, almost as many as the three quicks (83). It may seem incongruous, but Lyon was simultaneously too predictable and too inconsistent. There were too many short balls and low full tosses, and when he hit the right length he lacked flight and variations in pace. Lyon does not need to attempt doosras and other tricks but he does need to find ways to subtly deceive the batsmen. That will not only increase his chances of getting wickets but reduce the likelihood of another unwanted double-century. It is also worth noting that in the tour match against India A, Lyon was more economical than Xavier Doherty.Quality pace has its place
One of the real positives to come from the Test for Australia was the work of James Pattinson, who finished with match figures of 6 for 109. He was quick – in the 150kph region in the first innings – and accurate and built the pressure from his end. Unfortunately for Australia, Pattinson didn’t have the wicket-taking support he needed from the fast men at the other end. Peter Siddle’s only wicket of the game came with a slower ball and Mitchell Starc was barely a threat. There was no seam movement on the Chennai pitch and not as much reverse swing as Australia had hoped for, meaning the bowlers had to find other ways of challenging the batsmen. Pattinson did so with his speed and a consistent line just outside off stump. Starc was much more erratic, trying too many things and releasing the pressure on the batsmen. His place might go to Mitchell Johnson, who is on his third Test tour of India. In six Tests in India Johnson has 21 wickets at 37.23, an average that at home would be unacceptable but in these conditions looks pretty decent. Whoever is picked, Pattinson has shown them what can be achieved through speed and consistency on an unhelpful pitch.A handy 30 is not enough
In the lead-up to the Test, Michael Clarke made a point of saying that batsmen who got a start on the Indian pitches and failed to turn it into a big score would be more accountable than those who fell cheaply. “It is a really difficult place to start, especially against spin or walking in against the reverse-swinging ball,” Clarke said at the time. “So the guys who get a start, it’s up to them to take the team forward and keep running with that momentum.” Fittingly, given his comments, MS Dhoni’s 224 from 265 balls was the difference between the two sides. It was notable that after Clarke drove a catch down the throat of long-off on 130 in the first innings, he shook his head and chastised himself as he walked off the field. He knew that an even bigger innings was there for the taking. But really it was the middling scores that cost Australia. Ed Cowan made 29 and 32, Shane Watson made 28 and 17, David Warner scored 59 and 23 – had any of those men capitalised on their starts it could have been a different game.Moises-like poise is priceless
It’s remarkable how often players get promoted based on past successes or potential rather than current form. But the selectors got it right with Moises Henriques in Chennai. This Sheffield Shield season he has made 385 runs at 77.00 and taken 14 wickets at 18.00. In his last Shield game before flying to India he scored 71 and then in the warm-up games he contributed with both bat and ball. A confident Henriques showed supreme poise in making 149 while getting out only once on Test debut. He never looked ruffled and he handled the spin in his own way, often playing deep and watching it off the pitch, but without getting caught on the crease. His concentration was immense but it was not all about defence and he put away the bad balls when they arrived. The rest of Australia’s top order can learn from their newest team-mate, who showed how R Ashwin and Co should be handled.India are beatable
That might sound strange given the eight-wicket defeat Australia suffered. But for the first eight sessions of the match, and then the last two, it was an even contest. But from tea on day three until tea on day four India got away, first through MS Dhoni and then their spinners. Three bad sessions cost Australia the game. Had Australia held a few difficult chances or won a couple of line-ball lbw decisions, the outcome could have been very different. If Australia can learn from their mistakes and stay sharp for the full five days, the remaining three Tests of this series won’t be a walk in the park for India.

In the Ashes squad – Part Two, Andy Zaltzman advises Steve Davies to fake an illness and skip the Ashes, and asks you trick questions about Strauss and KP

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013Having sought the assistance of Big Mama Stats to prove why England will definitely, decisively and unarguably win the Ashes, I will now ask her to prove that Andrew Strauss and his men are heading for a definite, decisive and unarguable pulping.()THE ASHES-LOSING ENGLAND XI, 2010-11Strauss
Deceptively inconsistent throughout his Test career, for one who is outwardly as unflappable as a granite pterodactyl’s wing. Strauss seems to have a bizarre and inexplicable fixation with averaging between 24 and 26 in series of longer than three Tests – he has done so in five of England’s last seven such rubbers.These include the last two major series, in South Africa and at home against Pakistan (in which his highest score in eight matches was 54), and his previous tour of Australia, on the supposed 2006-07 Ashes, when he allegedly averaged 24 if Australia claims are to be believed. He has not scored a century for 13 Tests, and only one in his last 17.As a captain, he masterminded England’s 2009 Ashes triumph by sitting in the pavilion in Cardiff quietly wetting himself whilst Anderson and Panesar held on for a draw, then skilfully led his team to a drawn series in South Africa by doing the same thing twice more.Cook
Too often bats as if he is trying to befriend the slip cordon, his legs, arms and bat moving like frantic passengers at a busy station all heading for different trains. Averages just 26 in 10 Ashes Tests, and, since the start of the last Ashes tour, in 36 Tests against the top-seven ranked Test nations (i.e. excluding Bangladesh and West Indies), he averages just 33.Trott
The Cape Town Compulsive Twitcher averaged just 29 in his only previous winter of overseas Test cricket, as his game melted down like a dead zebra’s ice cream on his return to the country of his birth.Pietersen
Here’s a question for you: What do Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen have in common? Is it: (a) they were both born in South Africa; (b) when they eat a fishfinger, they both nibble the top corners off first to make it look like a fish cricket bat; (c) neither of them has read War And Peace, start to finish, in the original Russian; (d) they were both shortlisted for the role of Tim Curtis in the forthcoming Hollywood blockbuster The Savage Blade, the $150-million biopic of the former Worcestershire and England opening batsman (in the end, the part of three-Test wonder Curtis was given to Vin Diesel, with Kiefer Sutherland as county team-mate Stuart Lampitt, and Scarlett Johannson as England chairman of selectors Petra May); or (e) they have both averaged under 26 in England’s last two major series?It was a trick question. The answer is of course: all of the above. In his last six series, over 16 Tests, Pietersen has averaged 35, with no centuries, and has plinked only five sixes from his once explosive bat. He is far from the dominator he once was. He hit 32 sixes in his first 18 Tests, but has crossed the ropes just 21 times in 48 matches since then, whilst his scoring rate has dropped by 20%. Pietersen needs to regrow his successful, almost unstoppable 2005 badger hair. It was a source of strength and inspiration for him, and fear and confusion for the Australians.Collingwood
The glue holding England’s batting together has been decidedly unsticky of late – he has posted six single-figure scores in his last eight Test innings. In his last 17 Tests, he has scored just one century and averaged a sedate 37. In the eight Ashes Tests since his Adelaide masterwork (“The Sistine Chapel ceiling of Durhamite batsmanship” – The Durham Weekly Sprout), Collingwood averages a Brearley-esque 23.Bell
The Flamethrower Of Eternal Justice averages a piddling 25 against Australia in 13 Tests, dreamy cover drive or no dreamy cover drive. The latter, in most of his Ashes innings – Eternal Justice has trousered a scarcely believable 14 single-figure scores in just 25 Ashes innings.Could be vulnerable to verbal attack. On his last tour of Baggygreenland, the Australians, masters of psychological intimidation that they are, sledged him using techniques they had clearly learnt from CIA terrorist interrogators – they teased him about looking a bit like someone from a film. “What works in Guantanamo, works at the MCG,” explained captain Ricky Ponting, as he scuttled off to try and put an orange jumpsuit on Alastair Cook.Prior
As a wicketkeeper, his handling skills were once compared to those of a baby-hating midwife. This is not true, but the point stands. As a batsman, in his 14 Tests against the three highest-ranked teams of recent years (Australia, India, and South Africa), Prior averages 26, with no centuries.More pressingly, Prior, about to make his first trip to Australia, will be fretting bucketloads about his future career prospects. England have changed their wicketkeeper in four of their last five Ashes tours. The last five keepers to don the gloves for England in Australia for the first time have never played Test cricket again after the end of that series – Rhodes in 1994-95, Hegg in 1998-99, Foster in 2002-03, and Jones and Read in 2006-07.Alec Stewart in 1990-91 is the last England gloveman whose career was not ended by his first Ashes tour, and that series was also the last England jaunt to Australia that did not signal the total annihilation of a wicketkeeper’s Test existence. Even then, established first-choice Jack Russell was jettisoned after three Tests, and was in and out of the team for the rest of his battered-hat-festooned career. Furthermore, in 1986-87, Jack Richards kept wicket in all five Tests as England triumphed. He was promptly dropped for the first Test of the following summer, played only three more times, and never passed double figures again.Since Alan Knott, England’s wicketkeepers in Australia have averaged 20.66 in 45 Tests, with one century and five fifties, all whilst crawling along at a fraction over two runs per over. In summary, Australia is a bad place for English wicketkeepers.Swann
Is Graeme Swann: (a) the world’s most valuable all-round cricketer who holds the key to England’s Ashes hopes; or (b) a fortuitous chancer who has buffed up his bowling average against some of Test history’s most inept batting line-ups? It’s another trick question. The answer is (a), with a bit of (b) thrown in. Swann averaged 40 with the ball in his previous Ashes series, and, against the higher-ranked Test nations, averages close to 36. He averages just 15 with the bat in his last 11 Tests, with a highest score of 32.Broad
The man who puts the “petulant” into “often needlessly petulant” has seldom produced for England overseas – he averages 37 with the ball and just 14 with the bat in away Tests (compared to 32 and 39 at home). He has not taken five wickets in an innings since that Ashes-winning apparent breakthrough at The Oval in 2009, and has never averaged more than four wickets per game in a series.Anderson
Could win the Ashes single-handedly. If they were being played in cloudy conditions in England, with Pakistan’s batsmen playing for Australia. Sadly, that is a big “if”. Perhaps the biggest “if” since Rudyard Kipling started projecting the titles of his poems onto the skies above Gotham City. The Ashes will not be held in England with Pakistani batsman. Not this year. Anderson has taken just 17 wickets in eight Tests against Australia, at an average of 56. Over his whole career, in overseas Tests, he has taken 52 wickets at an average of almost 44.Finn
Struggled to take wickets in his two previous overseas Tests, against Bangladesh, and tends to leak runs – his economy rate is 3.77 in Tests, 3.61 in first-class cricket. Finn is tall. Martin McCague was tall. He once bowled one of the worst opening spells in Ashes history. Logically, therefore, Finn will definitely do the same.Finn has taken fewer Ashes wickets than, amongst others, Len Hutton, Uzman Afzaal, Ranjitsinhji, and Alan Igglesden (and I guarantee that is the first time in human history that those four names have appeared in the same sentence). Finn can play the “lack-of-opportunity” card as hard as he likes, but the fact remains that he has taken the same number of Australian Test wickets as actress Julie Christie, controversial former professional pope Pope Pius XII, my wife, Diego Maradona and 1997 England one-cap left-armer Mike Smith.BACK-UPMorgan
His brilliant array of strokes will not be of much use if his technical flaws against seam bowling continue to rear their indecisively-fiddling-outside-off-stump heads. He has scored just 103 of his 257 Test runs against pace, and been dismissed six times by quicks (compared to 154 runs for once out against spin and dobblers).Davies
He could become the first English-born wicketkeeper to make his debut for England since James Foster in 2001 – the previous five England-born glovemen to debut for England since Alec Stewart (Foster, Read, Hegg, Rhodes and Blakey) have, between them, averaged 19 with the bat in careers lasting an average of seven Tests.Also, see Prior’s entry above for the fortunes of England’s wicketkeepers in Australia. In addition to that list of woe, of England’s reserve wicketkeepers on Ashes tours, Gould (1982-83) never played in a Test match at all, Tolchard (78-79) never added to his four caps, Taylor (70-71 and 74-75) played one Test in New Zealand at the end of the 70-71 tour then waited seven years and a Packer revolution for his next. Going further back, surprise first-choice AC Smith never played another Test after the 1962-63 tour, back-up keepers Keith Andrew and Arthur McIntyre played only one Test each after their tours 1954-55 in 1950-51 respectively, Paul Gibb never played again after the 1946-47 tour. Nor George Duckworth after 1936-37. Dodger Whysall played just once after 1924-25. Arthur Dolphin never played after 1920-21. I’m boring myself now. The point is: Davies should fake a serious illness if he wants to have a future as an international cricketer.Bresnan
He struggled to hit the ball off the square or take wickets in his Tests against Bangladesh; expensive and unpenetrative in ODIs this summer; has had a poor first-class season for Yorkshire. No current reports of anyone in the Australian squad waking up in the middle of the night sweating and screaming, before clambering into their parents’ bed, and asking, “Mummy and Daddy, is it OK if I sleep in your bed again? I’ve had another nightmare about Tim Bresnan.”Panesar
He has spent much of his recent international career on a learning curve. Unfortunately, that curve has been heading downwards. He averages over 40 in his most recent 22 Tests − the reincarnation of Ashley Giles himself, but with the useful batting and fielding having gone AWOL during the changeover. Monty averages 44 in 17 overseas Tests. His batting has never kicked on from the promise shown in that one straight drive he hit in Perth four years ago that had critics excitedly hailing the new Garry Sobers. And he fields as if he has read the wrong instruction manual, but refuses to back down.Tremlett
He has taken little over three wickets per match in county cricket over the course of his career. The last time England took a temperamentally suspect giant fast bowler to Australia, the first ball of the series almost killed second slip.It all looks very, very bleak for England. If you ignore the last blog. And it all looks fantastic if you ignore this one. Statistics are a fickle mistress. I think it will be a close series. Two-all. Or 5-0 either way.