The 13 Reasons why……….

……..England are no 1 in the world.

History

For various reasons – the legacy of the Empire; the Commonwealth; EU laws – England have a larger pool of talent to select from than ever before. Some – mainly embittered Australians, South Africans and Indians – argue that this has devalued England’s success, but it is surely positive that the England team reflects the multi-cultural, mobile society which it represents. Perhaps the South African influence is disproportionately stronger than the Asian influence, but time will no doubt change that. Besides, those that complain about the ‘united nations’ nature of the current England team would do well to consider the alternative: a system where players from different cultures are alienated and excluded.

Weak playing age and the failure of others

It may seem churlish, but a strong case could be made to suggest we are in a relatively weak playing age. World cricket has few, if any, of the ferocious fast bowlers that dominated in the 70s and 80s, the era of the great spinners has just about come to an end and several teams – Pakistan, West Indies and Zimbabwe – have been beset with in-fighting that undermines the talent they continue to produce.

Even India, a side blessed with immense batting ability, seems to be suffering from a lack of fitness and for prioritising limited-overs cricket, while Australia are reeling from the loss of several great players within a short space of time (Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath et al.) and some muddled selections. South Africa, meanwhile, have been hindered – in the short-term, anyway – by their quota system.

It leaves England as one of the few teams that is no longer guilty of self-harm. They are, perhaps, the only team that have given themselves the best chance of succeeding.

Lord MacLaurin:

Much in the Raising the Standard (August 1997) document that MacLaurin produced as a blueprint for the future of the English game was naïve. For example, it rejected two division cricket and instead backed the three conference system and a 14-game Championship. It also suggested that amateur, club cricketers would play for England.

But MacLaurin understood one thing very clearly: the viability of the game in England and Wales was utterly dependent upon the success of the England team. However obvious that seems now, it wasn’t at the time.

The single act of refocusing all efforts on the betterment of the England side led to everything that followed. It led to an on-going argument with the counties, to the introduction of central contracts, two divisions, higher salaries, better training and coaches and countless other improvements. It might just have been the key episode in the resurgence of English cricket

Chris Smith:

Not an obvious choice, perhaps, but Smith, the Labour Government’s cultural secretary from 1997-2001, made an important contribution. For it was Smith, at the behest of MacLaurin, who made the decision to remove cricket from the ‘A List’ of events that could only be shown on terrestrial (as it was then) television.

This remains a controversial decision. Critics point out – quite reasonably – that the decision to allow SKY to buy exclusive rights has denied some children of the opportunity to watch any live cricket. In the long-term, therefore, there is a concern that it could jeopardise the number of future cricket lovers.

The fact is, however, that the decision enabled the ECB to sell TV rights for vastly increased sums. Indeed, their turnover almost quadrupled. That afforded the possibility of central contracts, specialist coaches, the improvements at Loughborough and countless other advances. Even since the Ashes success of 2005, the England budget has more then doubled from £11m to over £25m

Whatever the long-term effects – and they remain debatable – it is doubtful that England would be No. 1 now unless Smith had been persuaded to allow free-market bidding for cricket’s TV rights.

Peter Moores:

A glance at the stats will suggest that Moores’ reign as England coach (April 07-January 09) was not a success. England were defeated at home by India – their first home series defeat for six years – before going on to lose to Sri Lanka (away) and South Africa (home) and then, finally, in India again.  However, Moores planted seeds that blossomed under Flower. It was, after all, Moores that recalled Graeme Swann and James Anderson. Moores also brought in Matt Prior, Andy Flower and Richard Halsall, who were to play a huge part in the more professional and better prepared England teams that subsequently emerged. Peter Moores is quietly emerging as one of the unsung heroes of English cricket.

Four-day cricket:

Although the advent of four-day cricket far preceded any improvement in the England team (it was first trialled from 1988-1992 and, from 1993 all Championship matches have been scheduled over four days), it took tome for the effects to filter down into every aspect of the game.

It led to tougher cricket, played on better pitches. It led to bowlers learning how to take wickets on flat surfaces and batsmen learning to build innings over time. And it led to players learning to fight to draw games. In short, it helped bridged the gap between the domestic and international game.

It’s a point that might send some warnings to England as they look to the future: changes made to the domestic game now could come back to haunt English cricket in a decade or more. Therefore the ECB should think very carefully before tinkering any more with the Championship.

Two-division cricket:

The advent of two-division cricket in 2000 changed the complexion of the Championship. In the early days of promotion and relegation, three sides were promoted  – and relegated – each season, so almost every game had meaning.

That was a huge culture change. Before that, the Championship was awash with ‘dead’ games, leading to a surfeit of soft cricket. Sides often lacked motivation and the cricket sometimes lacked intensity. The introduction of two divisions helped English cricket develop a tougher core.

Central contracts and continuity of selection

In the Ashes drubbing of 1989, England used 29 players. In 1993, they used 24. In 20-11 they used only 13 and that’s despite an injury to Stuart Broad.

In the past, England squandered their most talented cricketers. They destroyed their self confidence, wore them out and instilled such a fear of failure that many were reduced to nervous wrecks. Few would argue this is the most talented XI England team they’ve seen. Is Cook more talented than Hick; Bresnan more talented than Caddick? Might Ramprakash not, with better management, have scored as many Test runs as Bell?

Now, however, England are maximising the ability of most of their players. Much of that is due to central contracts which have allowed the likes of James Anderson to rest and arrive for international matches in peak condition.

It’s not just about rest and practise, either. It’s about sticking with players during the inevitable dips of form they will experience – remember Alastair Cook ahead of the Ashes of 2010-11 – and instilling a culture of ‘team England.’ As Graeme Swann point out in the last issue of SPIN: “We are much more together now. Back then [before central contracts and continuity of selection] there was quite an insular, selfish feel to the team. There were cliques. It wasn’t 11 guys playing for one another. It was six or seven guys playing that way and four or five playing for themselves.”

Youth teams, the Academy and Lions:

Age group teams and Lions tours have been common for a few years, but the development process has become far more sophisticated and co-ordinated in recent years. These days, the development of the best players is monitored from the time they are in their early teens and the progression from U19s, in particular, through the Academy and onto the Lions and the England side is smooth and predictable.

Not only does this allow the management to not just monitor and assess the best developing players, but it enables them to instil the desired skills, disciplines and culture.

Just as importantly, this helps the players feel comfortable in the environment. When he first made it into the England team – in T20 cricket in 2007 – Jonathan Trott admits to feeling uncomfortable. He knew few of his team-mates and he didn’t know what was expected of him.

By the time he reappeared, in 2009, he had spent more time within the England environment, knew most of his colleagues in the dressing room and he already knew to expect of them and what was expected of him.

Attention to detail and specialist coaching:

The days when England simply selected the best side and trusted to luck are long gone. The planning and preparation extends far beyond the obvious, too. So while the likes of Graham Gooch (batting), David Saker (bowling) Richard Halsall (fielding), Brue French (wicketkeeping) deserve huge credit for their work, there’s a team of unsung analysts, bio-mechanists and other experts who have provided excellent service.

Consider, for example, the work of analyst Nathan Leamon. He’s a maths graduate from Cambridge University who works at the National Cricket Performance Centre at Loughborough. This summer he provided England’s bowlers with a series of colour-coded pitch maps split into 20 sections which detailed how each Indian batsmen would deal with deliveries pitched in each area. It’s typical of the attention to detail which Andy Flower has developed from reading the book Moneyball – Michael Lewis’s book on the importance of learning from statistics in Baseball.

From the tests that showed that Alastair Cook sweated least of all England players (a fact which persuaded the team to use him as ‘ball holder’ when trying to gain reverse swing) to utilising Dukes balls from 2009 (as they swing more), England are now squeezing every ounce of ability from their team. With four England batsmen rated in the top 10 of the Test rankings and five England bowlers in the top 11, it appears to be working.

Hurt:

1999 was, arguably, the lowest moment in the history of English cricket. Humiliated at the World Cup they hosted – England were eliminated even before the tournament’s theme song was released – the Test team were then booed by their own supporters when they lost to New Zealand at The Oval and plummeted to ninth in the Test rankings.

But humiliation and revenge are powerful motivational devices. Years of losses – not least the embarrassing Ashes whitewash of 2006-07 – had filled the whole of English cricket with a ravenous hunger for success. Not only were the players fully motivated, the ECB were happy to fund the central contracts, the support staff, the longer tour and increased number of warm-up matches, the modern coaching devices and training camps that have all contributed to this success. English cricket, stung by years of hurt, has been overhauled in recent years and is much the better for it.

This success has been a long time coming.

The Indian Cricket League, Stanford et al.

The ‘rebel’ ICL is destined to be a footnote in cricketing history. But it is significant, nevertheless. While Lalit Modi denies it (he may well take credit for inventing the sun, the moon and stars), the ICL was the forerunner of the IPL. It showed what a T20 league could be and created a template for the IPL.

It was also relevant because, without the threat of ‘rebel’ cricket, the ICC would never have implemented the widespread use of No Objection Certificates (no player can participate in any cricket these days without their national board granting such a certificate), which would have left the ECB powerless to prevent players going to the IPL – or anywhere else.

The Stanford event may also be relevant. It appears history will not remember this chapter kindly but, had it not happened, it is possible that the power brokers in India would have felt able to steamroller their own interests in the knowledge that no-one had any other options. While the Stanford event ended in tears, it did, at least, provide leverage to use against the BCCI. Without it, the IPL – and the BCCI – would be even more powerful than they are now.

Fortune:

Some at the ECB may pretend that the appointment of the two Andys was a masterstroke. It’s not so. Actually, Flower and Strauss were thrust together when every other option had been exhausted. England had, remember, tried Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen as captain before Strauss. And they had appointed Peter Moores before Flower. Only when KP and Moores were sacked and England were left with no time and no options was Flower appointed as an interim. The truth is, the ECB stumbled upon the right combination.

England’s split leadership: 3 formats, 3 captains

England’s new leadership team

In an unprecedented move, the ECB today announced that England will have 3 captains – one for each format.

Following Andrew Strauss’s not unexpected announcement to relinquish the ODI captaincy, Alastair Cook was today named as the new captain.    Strauss also announced his retirement from international limited overs cricket, something that he wasn’t expected to do because of the impact on his central contract.  Historically, players are just “not selected” rather than retire.

In addition to this, Paul Collingwood has been effectively sacked as England T20 captain to be replaced by fast bowler Stuart Broad – a move that has raised some eyebrows but was necessary because of the question marks over Cook’s abilities in T20 cricket and Collingwood’s injury concerns and poor recent form.

Cook is far from proven as a 50 over opener and indeed wasn’t even in the recent England one day squad although did make a good impression during his captaincy stint in last year’s winter tour of Bangladesh.  Cook said “I have worked hard on my limited overs cricket in recent times, I’ve never seen myself as a test batsman exclusively and I know I have a lot to offer both strategically and as a top order batsmen in one-day cricket”

Strauss said “retiring from One-day cricket will enable me to focus solely on the test captaincy and our on-going development in the Test arena as we strive to be to the top ranked team in World cricket.”

“There is still a long way to go for us in One day cricket and this is the perfect opportunity for someone new to take up the challenge.  I look forward to working closely with both Alastair and Stuart.  They are both proven world class cricketers and have outstanding leadership qualities”.

ECB Managing Director, Hugh Morris paid tribute to both Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood and reiterated that Strauss will continue to play an important strategic role in the development of Team England and a crucial role in developing and mentoring both Cook and Broad.   Broad in particular is a totally inexperienced captain admitting during the press conference that he hasn’t captained a cricket team since school and there are only a handful of scheduled international T20 matches before the 2013 T20 World Cup.   When asked how he will cope with the captaincy having had so little experience he said “every time I step on the cricket pitch I try to think like a captain, think about fielding placements and I have had the benefit of the experience and knowledge of 2 great captains, Andrew Strauss and Michael Vaughan, both of whom have taught me a lot”.

Team director Andy Flower said he did try and persuade Strauss to stay on for another year or so but that Strauss had been fully involved in the discussions about his replacement and the future direction. As Strauss put it “the end of a World Cup is a watershed for all teams not just England and an opportunity to refresh and rejuvenate and plan for the next one.”  It is clear that there is very much a 4 year plan in place to take us to the next World Cup in 2015.

Alastair Cook wasn’t the only candidate for the role though.  Demonstrating how businesslike and professional the England set up is these days, Andy Flower admitted  that a number of candidates went through a rigorous interview process by a selection panel for the role although he wouldn’t divulge who these candidates were or who was on the selection panel.

The decision to have 3 different captains is unprecedented but Flower is, as always, willing to try new things  “this has never been tried before…..we do not know 100% that it will work as an efficient and effective system but we are going to give it a try and it is an exciting opportunity for us to work closely together as a leadership team sharing ideas which will benefit us across all 3 formats. “

Much has been said in recent weeks about overcrowded schedules and although Flower was clear that this decision is not as a direct result of schedule or workload issues he suggested that having “might be the most effective use of our resources”    Flower also talked about how workloads mean that they need to think more smartly about squad rotation.

Paul Collingwood is said to be “very upset” at the decision to remove him as captain and although Flower said he is very much still involved as a player,  if the focus is all on planning for the T20 World cup in 2013 and the World Cup in 2015, it is doubtful whether we will ever see Paul Collingwood in an England shirt again.

When asked whether it’s now a “straight shoot-out” between Broad and Cook who takes over the test captaincy, Flower naturally denied this was the case but they are clearly both being developed for future leadership and Cook may turn out not to be the natural first choice even though he is clearly the front-runner, it may be that there are some question marks about his test captaincy potential and this arrangement leaves the door open for Stuart Broad and possibly even others.  Andrew Strauss is adamant that although you can never predict the future it is his intention to still be captain for both the Ashes series in 2013 and 2014.

The move to 3 captains is not without its logic but isn’t proving to be universally popular with some claiming that it makes England look directionless and chaotic and raising questions about how it will actually work in practice.  One thing is clear though, if any man in world cricket can make an arrangement like this work it will be Andy Flower who will manage Team England like a well run business with his 3 captains running each of their departments with leadership and support from their Chief Executive.

This is the sort of arrangement that happens all the time in the real world and works very well. Individual players are perfectly capable of working out who their captain is on the field and strategic decisions are taken as part of a management team.    It remains to be seen whether in practice it actually works.

Fat cricketers: is there room?

First published in SPIN magazine in 2010.

Dwayne Leverock
Underneath that chubby exterior, there’s clearly an athlete trying to break out. Or perhaps that should be a prisoner, rather than an athlete, as Leverock’s day job is to drive a prison van. And perhaps it should be three or four prisoners. He really is very big.

Leverock started his sporting career as a sprinter. A good one. He represented Bermuda as a teenager a won a silver in the 110 metre hurdles at the Junior Caribbean Games. He was also a promising footballer, who once played for his team, Zebras, at Hull City. Sadly, his mother’s fried chicken proved irresistible to young Dwayne and both he and his sister – who is even larger – soon developed something of a taste for it. His attempt to wean himself off such food faltered when he relocated to a flat above a curry house.
He has made attempts to shed the weight. Coaches reported that no-one worked harder in the gym than ‘Sluggo’ Leverock. Sadly, however, it appears the hard work just made him hungry and he would reappear the next day have eaten his own body weight in order to recover.

A well-known character in Bermuda, he appeared in their version of Biggest Loser, a reality TV show where ‘big boned’ people aim to lose 100-150lbs. He was eliminated after it was discovered that he was smuggling crisps and biscuits into his room.

He could play, though. In 32 ODIs he offered Bermuda control and his economy rate – just four an over – compares with the best. While he was a poor batsman – he didn’t run many twos, let along threes – he was a surprisingly agile slip fielder: who could forget his remarkable catch against India in the 2007 World Cup? Or the celebratory sprint that followed? He dismissed both KP and Collingwood in the warm-up game against England, too.

Though he retired in 2009, he recently announced that he was available for selection again. Aged 39, the statement that he was ‘as fit as ever’ could be interpreted in different ways.

Warwick Armstrong
When Armstrong began his Test career, in 1901-02, he weighed 11 stone. By the time it finished, 20 years later, he had doubled in size and weighed 22 stone. Though he made attempts to lose the weight – he spent the six-week voyage to England in 1921 helping stoke the ship’s boilers to regain some fitness – his bulk barely appears to have hindered him. He hit three Test centuries against England on that tour and, in all, claimed 87 wickets with his leg-spin bowling. Nicknamed ‘The Big Ship’, he was a highly successful captain of Australia and led them to eight successive victories over England between 1920 and 1921.

Harry Baldwin
Harry didn’t look like an athlete. An enormous belly rendered him more like Oliver Hardy than Stuart Broad, but Baldwin had a fine career and was Hampshire’s first professional to be awarded a benefit. Seven times he exceeded 50 first-class wickets in a season with his quackish off-spin and, during a career in which he claimed 580 first-class victims, many feel he is one of the unluckiest men not to have won an England cap. A famous picture of him looking faintly absurd, hitching up an enormous pair of trousers and seeming as if he couldn’t see, let alone touch, his toes, later inspired Spin’s Michael Simkins – author of Fatty Batter – to name his own team of hapless enthusiasts ‘The Harry Baldwins.’

David Harris
Harris may have been a cricketing pioneer in some respects, but his attitude to fitness would surely leave Andy Flower and co. unimpressed. Though he played in an era of underarm bowling (his career spanned the years 1782-1798), Harris developed a technique whereby he could deliver the ball with remarkable pace and make it spit off a length. According to his contemporary, John Nyren, he was “masculine, erect and appalling” and would leave batsmen’s fingers “ground to dust against bat, his bones pulverised, and his blood scattered over the field.”
As his weight and gout increased, however, so Harris’ agility decreased. He would arrive at games on crutches and sit on a chair between deliveries. He died, aged just 48, described by writer Arthur Haygarth as “a cripple.”

Inzamam-ul-Haq
Some people just aren’t meant to be slim. Though Inzamam did attempt to lose weight (he lost almost three stone ahead of the 2003 World Cup, but then managed only 19 runs in six innings), it seemed to adversely effect his batting so he – and the Pakistan coaching team – eventually came to accept his extravagant waistline. He was famously photographed at one net session relaxing in a deckchair while his colleagues trained.
He could be touchy on the subject, however. In Toronto in 1997, Inzi became so enraged by a spectator who kept calling him a potato over a megaphone, that he charged – or waddled, anyway – into the stands to remonstrate.
Inzi’s bulk didn’t do his running between the wickets much good, either. He was run out a record 40 times in ODIs (more often than he was bowled or leg-before) and involved in many more run-outs with his batting partners.

Richie Kaschula
Perhaps there’s something about left-arm spinners? Samit Patel and Ian Blackwell could have made this list, too, but Kaschula makes them seem waif-like by comparison. Weighing considerably more than 20 stone – some say as much as 33 – Kaschula nevertheless bowled with excellent control and subtle variation and was one of his country’s leading bowlers until the early 80s. He was also an outstandingly good slip fielder; Heath Streak rated him as good a slip as anyone he played with. Legend has it that, following his retirement, there was a score board at Harare had a column which kept a tally of the number of beers Kaschula consumed during the day’s play. On at least one occasion, he passed 50 before tea. He later became a national selector.

Arjuna Ranatunga
Few men did more to lead Sri Lanka to the forefront of world cricket than the portly Rantatunga. As captain, he over saw Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup success, with his combative nature helping transform a previously diffident side into an assertive and confident squad capable of sustained success. He rubbed a few up the wrong way in the process, however.
Once, when Shane Warne was pondering out loud how to draw Ranatunga out of his crease, wicketkeeper Ian Healy suggested he could: “put a Mars Bar on a good length, that should do it.”
On another occasion, when Ranatunga asked for a runner – he was an infamously poor runner – in an ODI in Sydney, Ian Healy, the former Australian wicketkeeper, was overheard on the stump microphone informing Ranatunga, “You don’t get a runner for being an overweight, unfit, fat ****!”

Colin Milburn
A larger than life character in every sense, Milburn was as an attacking opening batsman and warm-hearted bon-viveur who struck two Test centuries in his nine Tests, including one in his final Test innings.
Nicknamed ‘Ollie’ (a reference to Oliver Hardy), Milburn might have scored many more had fate not intervened. Sadly, aged only 27, Milburn lost his eye in a car accident. Though he bravely, and cheerfully, attempted a comeback a few years later, he was never the same player.
He had been, however, a wonderfully good – and entertaining batsman, a decent medium-pace bowler and brilliant fielder. He once scored 180 in a session (for Western Australia against Queensland), while innings of 126 (against a strong West Indies side at Lord’s) and 83 against Australia, showed his class. He also set a record for the most catches in a season by a Northants fielder, with 43 (mostly held at short-leg) in 1964.
England were well-served with opening batsman at the time (Edrich and Boycott, for a start) and Milburn’s bulk – he weighed 18 stone – counted against him. On one occasion, one of the England management suggested Milburn order half-pints in an effort to curb his drinking. Milburn promptly turned to the barman and order two halves. Sadly his lifestyle caught up with him and he died of a heart attack, aged just 48, in 1990.
He joined Northants, rather than Warwickshire, as the former offered him 10 shillings a week more.

Andy Moles
While drinks breaks have become a common feature of modern cricket, it’s more unusual to have a snack break. But that’s Andy Moles did during a championship match for Warwickshire when a platter of sandwiches was delivered to him at the crease. What the jeering crowd did not realise, however, was that 16.5 stone Moles, was diabetic and required the food to boost his blood-sugar levels.
It seems likely that his size counted against him. At the time he retired, Moles’ first-class average (40.70) was higher than any Englishman with more than 8,000 runs never to have played for his country.

Bill Foulke
Foulke’s nickname – ‘Fatty’ – speaks volumes. Despite weighing 25 stone, ‘Fatty’ was a fine goalkeeper for Sheffield United, Chelsea and Bradford City, who played once for England (against Wales, in 1897). He also played four times for Derbyshire in 1900, scoring one half-century and claiming four wickets.

He was known to sulk when things didn’t go his way. As well as walking off if he felt his defenders were under-performing, he once left his bath naked and pursued a referee he felt had given an unfair goal. He was also known to throw opposition forwards into his goal and, such was his distaste for running to fetch the ball when it went out of play, that ball-boys were introduced to save time. He ended his career saving penalties from holiday makers on Blackpool beach and died aged just 42.

12th man:
Colin Cowdrey
Fine player though he was, Cowdrey’s attitude to fitness was somewhat relaxed. When Kent introduced a fitness trainer to their pre-season schedule, the shock to Cowdrey’s boby was so great he spent the next few days in bed.

First published in SPIN magazine in 2010.

Why England won the Ashes

The best and worst of 2010

Highlight of the year:
England’s success in the World T20.
Until May, England held an unwanted record in limited-overs cricket. Of all the ever-present Test-playing nations over the last 25 years, England were the only side not to have won a global tournament. West Indies, India, Pakistan, Australia, Sri Lanka and New Zealand all had better records.
All that changed in May. Stung by a series of embarrassing reverses, England coach Andy Flower resolved to adopt a bold, new approach. As Paul Collingwood, England’s T20- captain put it: “It got to the point, last year, when the two Andys [Flower and Strauss] said, ‘Look, we’ve got to do things differently. If we continue to do the same old things, we’ll continue to get the same old results.’ England have never really done very well in one-day cricket. I remember in my early days Duncan Fletcher used to tell us, “Just bat though the 50 overs in a one-day international, because we kept getting bowled out in 40 overs. Our aim was just to bat 50 overs!”
So England selected a new-look side. In it were the likes of Michael Lumb, Michael Yardy, Ryan Sidebottom and Craig Kieswetter – all of whom might be considered T20 specialists – and all of whom combined to form a far more positive, athletic and fearless team than England ever before fielded.
Kevin Pietersen batted brilliantly, Graeme Swann bowled superbly and all their colleagues chipped in with bat, ball and in the field. There was nothing lucky about England’s success: the best team won.

Lowlight of the year
The match-fixing scandal.
It was surely fitting that the news broke during an epic Test at Lord’s – the home of cricket – that should have captivated spectators.
An outrageously talented, young fast bowler – Mohammad Amir – was doing battle with England’s golden boy – Stuart Broad – in a wonderfully entertaining game.
But then ‘those’ pictures were published. Pictures that proved, beyond reasonable doubt, that Pakistan players were taking money in exchange for match-fixing. Amir was right in the thick of it, but the episode has raised serious questions about many of his team-mates and Pakistan cricket in general. It’s no exaggeration to say that the integrity of the sport has never been so badly compromised.
There is a bright side. Such has been the furore around the story that the ICC have finally been forced to confront a cancer that has eaten away at the game for years. Several players face lengthy bans, though it is hard to see how the game can really be clean while Pakistan cricket – rotten to its core – is allowed to compete at world level. Just as it is sometimes necessary to cut off a limb to save a body, so Pakistan cricket requires a substantial period in isolation before we can be assured it will not poison the rest of world cricket.

Comeback of the year:
Worcestershire.
Few gave Worcestershire much hope of success in 2010. After a horrid 2009 saw them relegated after going through the whole Championship season without a win, they then lost five senior players (Kabir Ali, Steve Davies, Stephen Moore, Gareth Batty and Simon Jones) to other counties and had to cut their cricket budget by £300,000.
Yet, thanks to a strong team spirit, some astute recruiting – Alan Richardson and Shakib-Al-Hasan in particular – and some encouraging performances from young players such as Moeen Ali and Alexei Kervezee, Worcestershire achieved an unlikely but thoroughly deserved promotion.
There were still some poor days – remember that loss against the Unicorns? – that suggest Worcestershire remain a work in progress but, with results showing a marked resurgence once Daryl Mitchell assumed the captaincy (they won four CB40 games in and four of their last six Championship games) they may shock a few in 2011, too.
Chris Tremlett also deserves a mention in this category. At the end of 2009, Tremlett was unwanted by Hampshire and in danger of drifting out of the game as a massively unfulfilled talent. Barely 12-months later, however, he has developed into the world-class fast bowler his talent always suggested he could become and is an automatic selection in the England side.

Man of the year
Zulqarnain Haider
He may never have made a huge impression as a player – he played only one Test, after all – but the world of cricket may yet come to be most grateful for Zulqarnain Haider’s contribution.
Haider, a wicket-keeper batsman on the fringes of the Pakistan side, not only declined the overtures of those wanting to lure him into match-fixing, but blew the whistle on their entire operation.
It was a brave move. Not only did it end Haider’s hopes of a career in international cricket, but it may well have jeopardised his safety and the safety of his family. If, as suspected, the roots of match-fixing spread into the worlds of terrorism and organised crime, then Haider has made some powerful enemies. He recently sought asylum in the UK and may require protection for the rest of his life.
The reaction of many involved in cricket in Pakistan spoke volumes. Instead of offering Haider support, he was ridiculed. The reason? His information promises to bring down many players and officials who have made vast sums from match-fixing. It was also telling that Haider reported his concerns not to the cricketing authorities, but to the media. It suggests, surely, how much confidence he had in the game’s governing body to deal with such a serious situation. Remember, it was the media – not the much-vaunted Anti-Corruption Unit – that uncovered the Pakistan match-fixing story in the first place.

Batsman of the year:
Alastair Cook.
Within an ace of being dropped late into the English summer, Cook has responded with a run of form so purple that it threatens records only Don Bradman could reach. Cook has produced match-turning innings in four of his last six Tests and, after 695 runs at an average of 116 a time (with power to add) is fully vindicating the England selectors’ admirable faith in him.

Bowler of the year:
Graeme Swan
Most people thought off-spin was a dying art. Particularly if the spinner didn’t have the ability to bowl the ‘doosra’; a delivery that many feel is impossible without being chucked in any case.
But then Swann came along. With the old-fashioned virtues of flight, control, variation and turn, Swann has claimed 62 Test wickets at 26 apiece this year (with power to add) and played a key role in England’s World T20 triumph. He rose to second in the world Test ratings, third in the ODI ratings and proved that hard work, intelligence and perseverance are qualities that never lose their value at any level of the game.

Near miss of the year:
Somerset.
Runners-up in all three domestic competitions, it was hard not to feel sorry for Somerset in 2010. They remain one of the few counties never to have won the county championship but, having strengthened once again this winter, may well break their duck in 2011.

Crushing margin of victory speaks volumes

Flower’s appointment key for England

It’s taken 18 attempts and 35 years, but England have finally won a global limited-overs tournament.

Victory over Australia – and a crushing victory at that – in the World Twenty20, finally shed an unwanted record: no longer are England the only major Test nation to never have won a major, world trophy. For a team that last reached a major final in 2004 – and hasn’t looked consistently dangerous in limited overs cricket for nearly 20 years – that is a fine achievement.
Perhaps the most pleasing aspect of this success is that it was based around an all-round team performance. England have only used 12 players in the entire event – and Bopara played just the one game while KP was on paternity leave – with all of the first choice XI contributing.

Ryan Sidebottom, who was controversially selected ahead of James Anderson, vindicated that faith by finishing as England’s leading wicket-taker in the event (equal with the excellent Graeme Swann) and claiming two early wickets in the final. Luke Wright contributed with a couple of fine innings and a nerveless over under pressure in the final, Mike Yardy was mean with the ball and Eoin Morgan, despite limited opportunities, reinforced the impression that he could become one of the finest players in the world.

Neither Lumb – who was exposed by Australia’s pace – or Kieswetter – who was lucky to see Swann catch Watson via a rebound off Kieswetter’s iron-like gloves in the first over and has questions to answer against the short ball – are ready for Test cricket.

But they proved the right choice for this event. Broad conceded fewer than seven runs an over and Bresnan showed well-honed skill with bat and ball. All have fielded with commitment and skill. It has been a highly impressive performance.

For all that, one man stood out this tournament. Kevin Pietersen was immense for England. It was not just that he was the second highest run-scorer in the event (only Mahela Jayawardene managed more), it was the manner he scored them. KP’s batting now intimidates bowlers in a way that few  – Bradman and Viv Richards spring to mind – have ever managed. He’s not just back to his best, he’s batting better than ever. A prolific summer looms.

His batting in the final emboldened the team. Before his arrival, Lumb and Kieswetter had both looked troubled by the extreme pace of Nannes and Tait.

KP looked to have all the time in the world, however. Treating Tait – who topped 97 mph at one stage – like a medium-pace trundler – KP, lent back and drove him for six over mid-off. It was batting of the highest class.

Recognition as player of the tournament was no more than he deserved.
Afterwards, Pietersen admitted that his improved form was rooted in “disappointment”. “It was the disappointment of the last 12 months [that motivated me],” he said. “So I worked very hard in Bangladesh and India. I spent hours in the nets, had lots of nights and dinners with ‘Colly’ [Paul Collingwood] when I had lost sight of how I should play.

“So these are moments to savour. It’s difficult to believe. It’s humbling.
“But the team is the important thing and if not for the team, I wouldn’t be here.”

Kieswetter followed KP’s suit with some audacious strokes. He’s nowhere near the finished article, but he demonstrated some raw talent that bodes very well for the future.

And what of Andy Flower? It’s little over a year ago that Flower assumed the England coaching role against a background of chaos and discord. After a tricky start – remember the ignominy of Jamaica and Holland – he’s now overseen Ashes victory and that elusive limited-overs success. That, by any standards, is an excellent achievement and it is no coincedence that England’s revival coincided his appointment. 

England are almost unrecognisable from the rabble he inherited. Where once the players seemed timid and hesitant, they now appear fearless and positive. Where once England were, at best, workmanlike in the field, they are now consistently superb, and where once their bowling was predictable, it is now intelligent and disciplined. Flower must take much of the credit.

Perhaps England had a little fortune in the final. The dismissal of Haddin surely owed more to poor umpiring than fine bowling, but Michael Clarke was quite right when he admitted afterwards that his team had been “outplayed by a better team.” Indeed, he said England played “wonderful cricket.”

In truth, Australia had been living dangerously for a while. Their top-order had rarely fired at this event and, excellent though the Husseys and White remained until the end, it was asking too much of them to continually rebuild.

Collingwood compared the success favourably with any in his career. Including the Ashes.

“It’s very special,” he said. “This is right up there with the best [moments of my career]. To be the first [England] team to win a [cricket] world cup is amazing and it’s something that can never be taken away from us.

“Everyone in the team contributed but, the really exciting thing is that we have a lot more potential. The good team kick-on and we can do that now.

“This [no global success] has been a real monkey on our back. But now we’ve done it on the big occasion; we’ve done it under pressure and we’ve done it as a team. It’s a very special moment.”

Best of SPIN: The making of Andy Flower

First published in the May 2009 issue of SPIN magazine

Interviews with Grant Flower (brother), Henry Olonga (Zimbabwe team-mate), Ronnie Irani (Essex skipper) and Roger Newman (mid-90s Oxford University director of cricket who gave Flower his first job in coaching) by George Dobell

Grant Flower We started out together in the back garden. I’m two-and-a-half years younger and spent a fair amount of those years bowling at him. There was never much coaching, so we had to fend for ourselves. Our dad was a big influence, though. He instilled the idea that we had to work hard, though it pretty much only extended to the sports field. We were always much more orientated towards sports than school work.

Roger Newman I got to know him when he played for West Bromwich Dartmouth in the Birmingham League in the mid-’90s. He was overseas player and I was chairman of cricket. There was an incident that struck me very early on. After getting himself out for about 70 to a poor shot, he went into the dressing room, looked into the mirror for some time and then spat into it. He was so disgusted with himself.

GF Andy was training to be an accountant. It wasn’t until he after he had spent a year playing in the Birmingham League that he considered taking up cricket professionally. It was a very important time. There’s a bit of pressure on you if you’re the overseas pro; you’re expected to bat through and win games. I think it helped him mature and realise what a good player he could be. He also realised how much he enjoyed playing cricket and how many opportunities there are for professionals here.

Henry Olonga As a player, he led by example. I made my Test debut under Andy’s captaincy [in 1995]. I was only 18 and, no thanks to me, the game saw Zimbabwe win their first-ever Test, against Pakistan. Andy scored 150 in that game, as well as keeping wicket and captaining.

GF Our stand (of 239) against Pakistan – a record stand for brothers in Test cricket – is certainly the highlight of my career and I know it’s special to Andy as well. But there were times when we really struggled as a side. There was a Test against South Africa [in 2001] where Andy scored a hundred in each innings [142 and an unbeaten 199] but we still lost by nine wickets. It really doesn’t say much for the rest of us, does it?

HO His method? Hard work. There’s no magic. He’s not the most talented player in the world, but he had unbelievable levels of concentration, he was very fit and he worked harder than anyone.

Ronnie Irani I first came across Andy on England’s tour to Zimbabwe in 1996. That was the ‘we bloody murdered them’ tour. He was by far their best player and we were punished for underestimating them. We didn’t give him, or their team, enough respect and he proved us wrong.

GF England were a bit patronising towards us; particularly [coach] David Lloyd. But it did us a favour, really. We were spurred on as a group of players. It suited us to be the underdogs. Andy used that to inspire him.

RI He’s a thinking cricketer. Remember that last Test, when we should have won, but they kept bowling wide and the scores ended level? I bet that was his idea. It wasn’t against the rules at the time and it saved them the game.

RN I was director of cricket at Oxford University and asked Andy to be the coach. He was 28 by then. He had been playing Test cricket for four years but no county had come in with the offer of a contract. Andy was going to come over and play as a league pro again. But we gave him the opportunity at Oxford. Why did I pick him? Well, I thought he would know what it was like to be the underdogs. He was used to being in a team that had to punch above its weight.

GF His best innings? He scored a double-century against India in Nagpur [in 2000] when the ball was turning square. He attacked them and reversed the pressure. It was a top innings and saved the Test. As a batsman he was up there with the very best.

HO To become the No 1 rated batsman in the world is an extraordinary achievement for a guy playing in a struggling team. Those two hundreds in a Test came against a really fiery South African attack. And we still lost heavily. He was outstanding in India, too. He dominated against their spinners, on their pitches, and made himself into a superb player of spin bowling.

GF I don’t think all those hours of facing my bowling in the garden helped much. Let’s face it, it’s not as if I turn it. He just did a lot of extra work. He used to get guys to bowl at him on dry parts of the outfield so he could practise against the turning ball.

RI We – England – had no answer to his batting. He could play every sweep possible and there was nothing we could do to stop him. He was technically fantastic and an absolute rock in terms of concentration.

RN We didn’t have the strongest Oxford side. Only Mark Wagh and James Averis went on to enjoy careers in the game. But, thanks to a good team spirit, we beat Duncan Fletcher’s Glamorgan the year that they won the championship. We were set about 275 in 57 overs and people assumed we wouldn’t go for it. But Andy said, ‘We’re going for them and we’re going to get them.’ And we did. We won by five wickets. He had such authority that everyone believed him when he spoke like that.

HO As a player he just kept improving. I remember when we used to train as a team and net sessions would end and we’d all go. But he and Grant would just keep going. He set the benchmark for professionalism.

GF He was always stubborn. Incredibly stubborn. I’m sure that helped him become such a determined batsman.

RI It was Graham Gooch’s idea to bring him to Essex [in 2002] and it was an absolute inspiration. He’s as a good an overseas player as the club has ever had – up there with Allan Border, Mark Waugh and Ken McEwan. Gooch knew that Andy was a fighter and he knew he was a winner. We saw him as an all-rounder who could bat at three or four and keep wicket while James Foster was away at university.

GF He was a very tidy ’keeper. Obviously there were times when the work load of batting, captaining and keeping wicket became hard, but it was the way he liked it. He became No 1 in the world when he was doing all three. He loved to be involved in the game and he felt that watching the ball out of the bowler’s hand helped him keep his eye in. He really missed it when Tatenda Taibu took over.

RI He’s underestimated as a wicketkeeper. He was top class. Really, he was as good as anyone I played with or against, including Jack Russell. Ask Gooch; he’d agree with me: Standing back he could catch pigeons and his work standing up to my bowling was the reason I was called back into the England team [in 2002]. Without him, I’d never have got back into international cricket.

HO With England, he’ll be particularly strong on fitness and mental toughness. As those are areas that England have been quite weak, you might see quite rapid improvement. He’ll give one or two of those England players a bit of a wake-up call.

RI Lots of overseas players work very hard on their own games. Andy probably took that to a new level, but the real difference with Andy was what he did off the pitch at Essex. He was the perfect team man, always thinking about other people and helping them with their games. He threw himself into club life and his team ethic was second to none. There was no talk of him coaching before he joined us, but he went to work with the youngsters straight away. Undoubtedly the likes of Ravi Bopara, Ali Cook, James Foster owe him a hell of a lot.

RN He worked incredibly hard and hated losing. Once at Oxford, after we had been easily beaten by Nottinghamshire, someone suggested a game of football between the sides. We lost again, about 4-0, and then all went to have a shower with the thought of heading home. But Andy had other ideas: he sat everyone down to dissect the game of football. He was unhappy about the lack of effort from some of the guys. ‘It’s only a game,’ one of them said. ‘You don’t get it,’ Andy said. ‘It’s about winning. You must never, never accept losing.’ That was the mentality he took to his cricket.

RI He could adapt to any situation. If you wanted to someone to grind out a hundred to save a game, then he was your man. But if you needed someone to smash 100 in 70 balls, he could do that, too.

GF People will know where they stand with Andy. He was brought up to be honest and he’s not afraid of speaking his mind.

RN He had a game against the MCC coming up and wanted some extra practise. There was no-one else around so I bowled to him. After a while he asked me to bowl from 18 yards. Then 15. And then 10. He wanted to replicate the pace of professional bowlers. After an hour or so, I was exhausted. ‘How much more?’ I asked him. ‘Just another hour,’ he said. What other people thought of as hard work, he thought of as a warm-up.

RI He will insist the players are very fit, and quite rightly. But I don’t think he is as fanatical about that as some are suggesting. It’s winners he’ll want most, so he’ll be looking for guys with the right skills; not just guys who can run marathons or the 100 metres in 11 seconds.

GF We were always very keen to be the fittest we could be. We figured that, if we were fitter than the guys we played against, we’d have an advantage. And, later on, we thought we should set an example to our team-mates. We always tried to work a bit harder than the rest. He won’t take any excuses over poor fitness. How can there be any? There have all the time and all the support, in terms of physios and trainers, that anyone could need.

RI He’s old school. He lives, breathes and talks cricket. He was always happy to talk to the opposition at the end of a game and offer them any advice he could. The England boys will learn a lot just by talking to him.

HO The way he stood up to Robert Mugabe should demand the instant respect of every England cricketer. But then there’s his record as a player. That should demand instant respect from all England players, too. And he’s a nice guy. He’s the whole package. They’re lucky to have him.

RI He doesn’t suffer fools. He puts the mileage in and he expects others to do the same. The England squad will soon find out that he will not tolerate any slacking.

HO He wasn’t a naturally political person. He was drawn into the black armband protest [against President Mugabe, at the 2003 World Cup] by a combination of frustration and patriotism. If you’d asked him about politics only a few years previously, he would have said, ‘I’m a sportsman; all I want to do is play cricket.’ But it hurt him to see our country falling apart and our to see the demise of our sport. He watched the farm invasions and the economy collapsing and he felt he had to do something. He’s a true patriot.

GF It was a huge decision to stop playing for Zimbabwe and leave the country that we love. We talked about it a lot, but it was probably harder for him as he had a young family. Life isn’t ideal, though, and we were very lucky to be able to play county cricket.

RI He’s a streetwise coach, very good at identifying talent. He won’t just judge on playing ability; he’s a big believer in character. He’ll look them in the eye and decide whether they’re up to it under pressure.

HO Andy approached me with the idea for the black armband protest, because I was the senior black player.

GF I wanted to join in the black armband protest. I spoke to Andy and Henry about it, but they felt it would be more powerful if it was one white guy and one black guy. There were several white guys prepared to do it, but only one black guy. It took a lot of guts.

HO We informed the rest of the team on the morning of the game. Andy called a team meeting about an hour before the start. We had released a statement to a friend of ours in the media, Geoff Dean of The Times, so there was no going back. Vince Hogg, the chief executive of the Zimbabwe cricket board, implored us not to go ahead with it. He warned us that we were putting ourselves in danger. But we knew the risks. We knew we could be in danger and Andy knew it was the end of his international career.

GF He comes from an environment where you are brought up to speak your mind and keep things simple. His mental strength is one of his strongest characteristics. You can see it in the way he has pursued his career.

HO Maybe I was a bit naive. I knew there’d be some reaction, but the anger did take me a bit by surprise. I received some nasty emails and then was tipped off that the police were gunning for me. I left the country and I haven’t been back. It will be interesting if Andy has to go back to Zimbabwe as coach of England. He’s a British citizen now, so I presume he’ll be safe. But there’s radical element out there that is still mad at us.

RI He’ll know which coaches he wants. I’ve no idea who he plans in bring in, but he worked well with Darren Gough at Essex and I’d love to see them together again.

HO Ten years on, I’d like to think that all our team-mates would say ‘Good on you.’ They weren’t all supportive at the time – one has been very derogatory – but I think most of them would reflect on everything that has happened and at least understand why we did it. Our intentions were good.

GF I’m proud of him and I know he’ll give the job his best shot. But if it doesn’t work out, he’ll dust himself down and move on. He’s very strong mentally.

RN Andy is a loyal person and he was right behind Peter Moores. I imagine he thought a great deal about walking away from England, as he didn’t want to be seen from benefiting from Moores’ departure.

RI I just hope they allow him to make the important decisions. There are quite a lot of people involved with the management of the England team and I’m not sure what they all do. They’ve picked the right man in Andy; now they need to back him.

HO He has changed. He’s matured gracefully and he’s become a much more rounded man. He’s experienced a bit more than cricket and it’s made him wiser. I just hope they give him time. England have lost a lot of their best players in quite a short space of time and they need to rebuild. They couldn’t quite finish off the West Indies in a couple of games, but at least they got in a position to win. Andy will take them the extra mile to win those games.

GF I am slightly concerned about the press in England. They are relentless and there’s a bit of the tall poppy syndrome. But Andy can look after himself. He’ll be honest and most people respect that. He was a bit unsure whether he wanted the job ahead of the West Indies tour, but he enjoyed it very much and was very keen afterwards. I think he’d always have had some regret if he hadn’t accepted the job now.

RI He’s the right man for the job. If he had been allowed to have both hands on the reins over the winter, I’m sure England would have done much better. He’ll still only be as good as the cards he’s dealt, but I believe that, under Andy Flower, England can win the Ashes.

RN He has his work cut out as England coach. I hope he is given the authority to go with the responsibility. All I can say is that, when things are tough and everything looks hopeless in cricket, there’s no-one I’d want beside me more than Andy Flower.

HO Kevin Pietersen can look up to Andy as a coach. I’m not sure you could say that about Peter Moores, could you? You can imagine Pietersen asking Andy to show him how to play the sweep; he wouldn’t have done that with Moores, would he? Andy is a nice guy, a decorated cricketer and a qualified coach; what more do you want? England have got themselves a good man.

Andrew Strauss: ‘We’d be mad to be satisfied by Ashes win’

Andrew Strauss puts the Ashes win in perspective in his interview in the special 2009 Review issue of SPIN, which is in shops from Friday November 27.

SPIN: You’re very feet-on-the-ground about the Ashes win, aren’t you?  There’s no triumphalism – you feel it was the start of something rather than the end-goal…

Andrew Strauss: It has to be. Look at our world ranking and look where Australia are. Anyone who thinks that we’ve achieved our life goal would be… mad. Quite frankly.

But it is the life goal of every English cricketer to win the Ashes…

Well, it is, but…

So it would be a reasonable reaction to think ‘job done’…

Exactly. It’s so important to our country: the history, the tradition, the rivalry. But in pure cricketing terms at the moment, there are bigger challenges for us. We may not have the same euphoria if we win in South Africa, but it’s a bigger challenge. I personally think it’s sad that the England team has never been the No 1 team in the world for any extended period of time, certainly in one- day cricket. And we’re going to be taking as many steps as we can to make sure we get somewhere near that.

To England fans, the 6-1 NatWest Series defeat to Australia after the Ashes may have looked similar to the 5-0 thrashing your side took against Sri Lanka in 2006. Has there been any progress at all? Did the two series feel any different to you?

Well, some of the traits were similar. At that time [2006] we had a pretty good Test side but we were experimenting with one-day players: Tim Bresnan and a couple of other players came in for that Sri Lanka series probably when they weren’t quite ready. This time, we are maybe a bit more settled as a side. But when you’re losing like that it makes you reassess what you’re doing as a side. Myself and Andy Flower have a number of areas that we feel we have to improve upon if we want to compete with some of these teams away from home as well as at home in the future. And the Australian defeat was really a catalyst for us to start putting some of those plans into action…

Writing in SPIN, Eoin Morgan said that defeat gave England a new carefree, nothing-to-lose  approach to their batting. He used the phrase ‘hell-for-leather’…

Well, there’s a number of things we’re looking to do, some of which we haven’t spoken to the players about yet, actually. But that attacking intent is a good one, away from home in particular. To live with the likes of India and some of these teams you have to play that way. But at the same time, you can’t use that as a crutch: ‘I got out but at least I played my shots’. We need to be more consistent as a batting unit, so we need to improve our skills. If we want to be more attacking and more consistent, our skills need to improve a lot. 

Andrew Strauss’ book, Testing Times – In Pursuit of the Ashes’ is published by Hodder and is in shops now. This is an extract from an interview in the Christmas issue of SPIN, also featuring Stuart Broad, Michael Vaughan, Garry Sobers, Viv Richards and the debut of Andy Caddick as our hard-hitting star columnist – as well as our now-traditional Top 50 countdown of the year.

Coach Andy Flower: the secret history

The man who gave Andy Flower his first job in coaching has been speaking exclusively to spincricket.com about the new England team director.

Roger Newman was director of cricket at Oxford University in 1997 and appointed the Zimbabwean keeper-batsman as the student side’s head coach.

Under Flower, the team went on to beat Duncan Fletcher’s Glamorgan side, months before they won the county championship. 

Flower had first got involved in coaching back in 1995 – again at Newman’s behest. “Andy was playing as a pro for West Bromwich Dartmouth in the Birmingham league – he’d been recommended to the club by his Zimbabwe team-mate Dave Houghton who had been the pro the previous year,” recalls Newman.

“At that point I was coaching Warwickshire under-17s and I asked him if he’d like to come and do some part-time work for me. He struck up an instant rapport with the lads and showed immediately the sort of qualities he shows now: his ability to relate to people and he had a very good knowledge of the game. 

“Then in 1996, I was asked to be director of cricket at Oxford and I appointed Andy as our head coach for 1997. Apart from Mark Wagh, our captain, James Averis was the only other player who went on to play professional cricket. It was a very young, inexperienced team – but I think Andy’s time with Zimbabwe had showed him that if you work together as a team and have a common goal, the sum of the parts is much stronger than the individual abilities. 

“I know Andy always refers to that win over Glamorgan as one of his happiest moments in cricket.

“Andy was 28 by the time he came to Oxford. He had been playing Test cricket for four years but no county had come in with the offer of a contract. Andy was going to come over and play as a league pro again. But we gave him the opportunity at Oxford and he didn’t play in 1997.

Offering clues as to how a Flower-led England side would be organised, Newman went on. “Andy realised the importance of working as a team: it was a similar situation to Zimbabwe: we were always going to be the underdogs. That was one of the reasons I chose him. He was used to being in a team that had to punch above its weight. 

“Andy stressed to everybody the importance of the whole team pulling together both on and off the pitch. The Varsity match at Lords’ was drawn – Ed Smith played for Cambridge – but that was a fantastic moment for Andy: to walk into Lord’s as head coach of Oxford University. 

“Andy insisted on a very professional attitude, even though the team were part-timers. He said to them once that they were profesisonal cricketers who happened to be students. Everybody responded to him. At least half the team scored their maiden first-class fifties that season. We played 11 first-class matches; it was the last-ever season when university cricket was taken seriously, I think. 

“After we lost to Notts, we played them at football on the outfield – and lost 4-0. Andy gave the team a good talking to after that. People were going, ‘Come on, it’s only football.’ Andy said: ‘It’s not about football, it’s about winning.’

“Against Durham, we were facing defeat and our last man, James Bull, had a broken hand. He’d told the others he couldn’t bat but Andy said to him,’Come on, you’ve got another hand’, it was different. Out of respect for Andy, James said he would go in and have a go.

“Andy’s belief was that you had to be technically sound – which comes from practice – but you also needed good cricket awareness, tactically, plus the ability to want to succeed: mental toughness, the will to work hard.

“Provided he’s allowed to do the job the way he wants to – and I’m sure the ECB will allow him the control he wants –  I have no doubt Andy can put together a team who meet all three requirements: he has an ability to spot people who are technically good and to make them better. He has the ability to improve them tactically – how to control matches whether you’re batting or fielding – and he will only accept people who really have the will to work 100 per cent at their game at all times.

“Andy has experience, enthusiasm and expertise. This is the best appointment the ECB has made in a senior position in cricket for many years.”

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