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duncan-fletcher
Duncan Fletcher shows a new side
By Will 2 months ago, 2 Comments »
Ah. Maybe not then. Go on, Dunc – cheeeeeeeeeese.
From Test Match Special on Flickr.
2 Comments »Duncan Fletcher on TMS
By Will last year, mid-November, No Comments; be the first!
On Friday I happened to be sat in the bar where I interviewed Duncan Fletcher two years ago, when his autobiography caused such a flapping, and it reminded me firstly of how uncomfortable he seemed to be – arms in his jacket pocket or folded defensively – yet how impressively dogged he remained. He had his opinion, he’d made his choices, and he stuck by them. It may not have come across in the piece I wrote, but by the end of the interview I came to admire his bloodymindedness. It helped bring England a lot of success.
Anyway, Duncan’s back and is making an appearance on Test Match Special this winter. He’s since defected to the Boks as a consultant coach, whatever the fuck that means, so it’ll be interesting to hear Agnew and co attempt to prise any blood from that famously stoney stone.
No Comments »Michael Vaughan’s autobiography: Time to Declare
By Will last year, at the end of October, No Comments; be the first!
Michael Vaughan’s autobiography, Time to Declare
The Times are serialising some of it and, in what we desperately hope will be a revealing insight into one of England’s most successful captains, and not mere fodder for the shelves, he has spoken out of his troubles in forging a successful working relationship with Peter Moores.
(From March 2008)
“The team is starting to get irritated by the new management regime – being told what to do and treated like schoolkids. Peter (Moores) loves talking and having the last word.”
“I still think that the England captain should have ultimate control, but Peter wanted to be in charge from the sidelines.
“What I found is that he wanted to do everyone’s jobs for them …
“Duncan would never do that; he would trust me to get on with it.”
Should be a good read.
No Comments »Ashes win just the start for the new England
By Will last year, at the end of August, 5 Comments »
England win the Ashes. No one even ponders an open-top bus tour. No medals are hung around players’ necks and, with due respect to MPs Brown and Cameron – and the Queen – very little fanfair has been afforded this England team.
And thank god for that. England’s win was unforgettable, in a tense, thrilling, pendulum-swinging series which might have lacked the greats of the game that we had in 2005, but for entertainment it was very much on a par.
Did the better team win? Just about. Man for man, the two sides are very close indeed, but England beat Australia on home advantage and a clearer idea of where they’re heading. Before the series, I thought England would win 2-1 owing to having an in-form spinner who can bat, and having a more balanced attack; the fact Hauritz wasn’t picked at The Oval by Australia was a remarkable decision. Surely, surely, they must have been made aware the pitch was a bunsen. It wouldn’t have taken much to realise that on first glance 24 hours before.
I almost felt deflated by the win. 25 days of ball-by-ball commentary can do that to you. But having had time to reflect, only now do I feel really excited; pleased that England won, even though it feels like a heist, because this is just the beginning. In 2005, the regaining of the Ashes was the culmination of Nasser Hussain, Duncan Fletcher and Michael Vaughan’s extensive planning. The 2009 win has come sooner than even Andy Flower would’ve hoped, and is just the beginning.
And one other thought, which I’ll write about when I can be bothered: Matt Prior, you played a blinder. What a turnaround in his career it’s been.
Oh, and by the way – just 457 days until the next series in Australia.
5 Comments »Time to take stock and try again
By Mark Tilley last year, mid-March, 4 Comments »
A great deal has been mentioned already on the subject of England’s series defeat in the West Indies. It’s an odd thing; England didn’t necessarily play their worst cricket we’ve seen and, at times, dominated the West Indies. Indeed, Andrew Strauss can point to two key sessions where had his side picked up just a few tail-end wickets, then they would have won the series (the last wicket stand in Antigua and yesterday’s tense finish in Trinidad). However, what is patently obvious is that good Test teams would have made more of those opportunities. Dominant sides like South Africa, Australia and India would have found the extra spark in those moments to do what was needed and win the game.
Tom Fordyce picks upon this point in his BBC blog. He also talks about the need for winning momentum in the run up to the looming Ashes series. Before that heart-stopping triumph in 2005, England won series in both the Caribbean and South Africa, as well as a summer whitewash over the New Zealand and West Indies in 2004. England had the mentality and the aura of a winning side. Under the astute leadership of Michael Vaughan, they were fresh, confident and effective.
One can argue that the quality of players back then was greatly superior than that of the current crop. But the bare facts still make for stark reading; England have now lost three consecutive Test series and are in poor, poor form. And whilst a few weeks ago some were saying that England need not worry about their own tribulations as the Australians were in a sharp decline of their own, those of that opinion need only look at the remarkable and supremely impressive resurgence of the Aussies down in South Africa. As much as I loathe to say it, they’re back and they’re looking ridiculously formidable.
As ludicrous as it sounds, there were precious few positives that England can reflect on in the aftermath of their defeat. Andrew Strauss embodies a man possessed with the desire to score as many runs as possible and it is clear that the captaincy of the side is driving him on and on. Alastair Cook finally got the ‘no century in ages’ monkey off his back and scored that elusive Test hundred, albeit in a nothing situation on a pitch more akin to a road that a competitive wicket. Ravi Bopara, Matt Prior and Paul Collingwood also notched up much needed runs, in a variety of situations, which will help their own personal form and confidence.
Stuart Broad bowled like a identikit version on a young Glenn McGrath. Naggingly accurate and massively consistent, he bowled to an immaculate line, picked up the prized wicket of Guyanese defensive wall Shivnarine Chanderpaul three times and bagged his first Test five wicket haul in Jamaica. He may not have the raw pace of Steve Harmison or Andrew Flintoff but a reliable, line and length bowler is just what England need and his runs at number eight are ideal for the the inevitable England batting collapse. Duncan Fletcher must rue not having him around when he was coach.
Regardless of individual promise, it is abundantly clear that England have problems – problems that require immediate and urgent attention if they are to ever get out of this decline and start becoming an competent Test side again. Will that era be shepherded in with a glorious Ashes victory this summer? At the moment, you’d pick up seriously long odds.
4 Comments »Fletcher attacks Harmison
By Will 2 years ago, mid-April, 3 Comments »
Watch out, fading fast bowlers the world over. Duncan Fletcher has spoken to his former ghost-writer, Steve James, and has some things to say about Steve Harmison:
“It’s typical Harmy, I’m afraid,” he says, “We’ve seen it over and over again. He could and should be the No 1 one bowler in the world but he can’t seem to be able to put it all together.
“I saw an interview on TV the other day where he was having a go back at some current players who’d criticised him. He said something about not being able to wait to see them from 22 yards. Why does he need things like that to motivate himself? Why can’t he just motivate himself? I think he’ll find it hard to get back in. He’ll need some consistent performances to do so.”
And Matthew Hoggard:
And his fellow omission in New Zealand, Matthew Hoggard? “I was not surprised,” he says, “He always struggled when he was the main strike bowler. His speed has been dropping for a while. I heard someone saying he’d lost his nip but I thought it had gone a while ago.”
And…well, you get the idea. James is full of praise for Fletcher – they are good mates and, from the few occasions I have spoken to him, James comes across as a shrewd assessor of a man’s character. Fletcher’s is the sharpest mind in cricket, he reckons. So have a read.
3 Comments »Have England started caring?
By Jonathan Liew 2 years ago, mid-February, 4 Comments »
Here are some of the things Paul Collingwood has said during the current one-day series:
“There are 11 blokes in the dressing-room who are devastated.”
“There are a lot of people in that dressing room that are very, very hurt about tonight’s performance.”
“If I had just hit those stumps, we were a millimetre or so away from winning the game. I will probably be dreaming about it for many years to come.”
Compare this with some of the quotes emanating from the England camp after their last proper one-day humiliation, the 5-0 whitewash against Sri Lanka:
Fletcher: “It would be very interesting if Sri Lanka were missing eight of their players and we had eight of our players back. That is the formula you have to look at. What then would the result have been?”
Trescothick: “Nothing seems to have gone our way this series, nothing’s worked. We’ve talked about a lot of things, but not put them into practice too well.”
Strauss: “Sometimes you’ve just got to hold your hands up and say, ‘Well played.’”
It may be that England finally have some sort of emotional investment in their one-day cricket. In the 2006 quotes there’s hardly any sense of hurt or wounded pride. Rather, the tendency was to see one-day defeat as an annoyance, mitigated by the prospect of finally being able to play some ‘proper’ cricket again. It was the equivalent of being spurned by a lover and then protesting that you didn’t want them anyway.
Under Moores – and I’m sure there’s other factors as well – one-day cricket is a fully-paid up, fully equal partner to the longer stuff. Even though the bowling performance yesterday was insipid, there’s no doubting they really wanted it. Perhaps that hunger told in the end. Compare that with Steve Harmison sleepwalking his way through ten overs of rubbish.
The one-day party has been in full swing for about 20 years. Only now, it seems, have England decided to take their coats off.
4 Comments »Fletcher’s first
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of November, 1 Comment »
Good spot from Patrick. Yesterday marked eight years since Duncan Fletcher’s first Test in charge of England (scorecard).
1 Comment »England’s number eight crisis
By Jonathan Liew 3 years ago, at the end of November, 4 Comments »
I like Ryan Sidebottom. He’s a smart bowler, a hard worker and a thoroughly nice man. He is not, however, a Test match number eight. There’s a very real prospect that England could find themselves this time next week 150-6, with Sidebottom, Hoggard, Panesar and Anderson to come. With Muralitharan wheeling away at one end and Malinga at the other. It’s frightening to contemplate.
Slagging off Duncan Fletcher is all the rage at the moment, but his emphasis on batting all the way down the order was one of the more commendable things he did for the England team. He understood that losing your last five wickets for peanuts hands the momentum to the opposing team, as well as undoing all the good work of the batsmen. It’s a lesson Peter Moores is in danger of ignoring by leaving both Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann out of the XI for the final warm-up game.
Your number eight has to bat. And while England don’t have a Pollock, Lee, Vettori or Vaas, the least they can do is shore things up a bit by playing Broad or Swann (both of whom, by the way, have earned a chance with the ball). In the long term, Flintoff might drop to seven. But for the moment, playing four number elevens in a place like Sri Lanka isn’t just unwise, it’s suicidal.
My choice would probably be Swann, with Anderson to miss out.
4 Comments »Have Australia done England a favour?
By Will 3 years ago, mid-November, No Comments; be the first!
Have Australia done England a favour, asks Dileep. It’s something I was pondering today when the news came through that Farveez Maharoof will miss the England series. They are receiving a hammering from Australia and yet the first Test against England begins on December 1.
When Sri Lanka lost 2-0 away to India two years ago – Murali was in the squad – the damage wasn’t done by pace bowlers, but by Anil Kumble [in Delhi] and Harbhajan Singh [in Ahmedabad]. If England’s batsmen apply themselves as well as they did in the middle three one-day games, they have every chance. As Australia have shown, neutralising Murali is half the battle won. Deny him wickets, and the Lankan lions looks toothless. If they continue in this vein, Michael Vaughan’s younger pride might just inflict a mauling.
Neutralising Muralitharan is of course the principle aim for England. Half the battle is then won. I was chatting with a colleague briefly today about England and we both admitted to being excited about this series. Peter Moores was in charge over the summer, but the shadow of Duncan Fletcher still loomed over him and England. With his book now out, al the revelations exposed, I think he is now firmly relegated to the past and England can move on. It’s an exciting time and my editor, who was down in “Bell’s Kitchen” the other day, told me he sensed a new and fresher England side. New coaches, fresh faces, new enthusiasm – time to crack on and nail the Lankans while they’re down.
Winning in Sri Lanka did wonders for Fletcher. With the youth of this side, it’s a delicious prospect to think what Moores and co might achieve.
Loading ...Fletcher’s book not yet in the top 10
By Will 3 years ago, at the start of November, 1 Comment »
On the eve of its publication and in spite of a week’s worth of superb publicity, Duncan Fletcher’s autobiography, Behind the Shades, is languishing at a distinctly Zimbabwean 79th place on Amazon’s bestseller list. The people of Britain clearly rate Karl Pilkington, the gormless radio character infantilised and made famous by Ricky Gervais, more than a former England cricket coach.
Even The Official Highway Code ranks higher, not to mention The Beano Annual 2008. So come on, get ordering – it’s going to be a great read.
1 Comment »Harmison feels betrayed by Fletcher
By Will 3 years ago, at the start of November, No Comments; be the first!
I asked Stuart Broad for his thoughts on the Duncan Fletcher futore the other day. “Don’t read books,” he announced with a broad smile (sorry). “Not enough pictures!” It was a predictable response, and I applauded his blatant bullshitting.
Steve Harmison, though, doesn’t really care what he says these days – especially if it means coming to the defence of his old chum Andrew Flintoff. Somehow, though, Harmison’s comments don’t carry the weight of, say, Andrew Strauss or Matthew Hoggard. You feel if Flintoff had run over a dog on purpose, before roasting it on a spit, Harmison would say “Andrew has learned his lesson. He might be a canine killer but he’s still great fun to be around; an inspiration. Just ask anyone. Anyone but the dog and its owner of course.”
Nevertheless, his outburst to the Daily Mail made for enjoyable reading and was yet another nail in Fletcher’s coffin. I can’t see how this affair will simply “blow over”. I see Nasser Hussain has also been making comments, in the same paper, about the lily-livered decision makers in the ECB, and their handing jobs to Hugh Morris and Mike Gatting. It feels like 1999 all over again…
No Comments »An alternative cover for Fletcher’s autobiography
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of October, 1 Comment »
Another cheeky piece of photoshopping from Mike who has created an alternative front cover for Duncan Fletcher’s autobiography, Behind the Shades.
Nestled between the Home Office and a children’s classic
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of October, 1 Comment »
What company does Duncan Fletcher keep? Well it’s certainly not with Ian Botham, Geoff Boycott as we’ve found out today. But here’s his book, on Amazon’s bestsellers nestled between a weighty-looking tome of Life in the UK (hmm) and There was an old lady who swallowed a fly. It’s 127th at the moment and could well be in the top 10 if the Daily Mail continues to serialise it. My copy’s about to land on my desk too, which is thoroughly exciting.
Notes from the pavilion
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of October, 1 Comment »
- Bikini girl Lara Bingle bowls Michael Clarke over | The Courier-Mail – Nauseous…
- The effect of Botham on Flintoff – …and the influence of Vaughan on Freddie. Simon Hughes’ column earlier this year
- ‘Tresy cried when he was given out, we had to send him back home’ – Talk about a betrayal of doctor-patient confidentiality. Fletcher’s burning every possible bridge it seems…
