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Kieswetter deserves a start
By Rich Abbott 1 month ago, 4 Comments »
Craig Kieswetter’s promotion to the England ODI squad is exciting. It was also, as my friend who played against him in South African schools cricket has been telling me for three years, inevitable. My friend has long forecasted, that of all the sizable holes in the South African selection net, the one which Kieswetter slips through could cost his country the most. Indeed, it’s hard to argue with the steady increase in momentum towards an international career that this young keeper-batsman exudes, and despite what his Cricinfo profile claims, it will be England, not South Africa, who benefit from this eventuality.
Whether or not he’s ready for England is an issue that’s been widely debated, but surely a more answerable question is are England ready for him? My belief that they are is based on Matt Prior’s curious limited-overs batting form. England possess few finer looking batsmen that Matt Prior in full flight. He has, as commentators are fond of saying, been able to come to the party with either innings of substance or important cameos on several occasions in Tests. But rarely has the party been a pajama-clad one – the high expectations and frequent disappointments of his shorter-form batting efforts have had more akin with New Year’s Eve.
In 26 ODI innings since the start of 2008, he has passed 50 only once. It seems an odd regression for a man whose quick scoring capabilities earned him a first ODI cap in 2004. Having said that, over the last year he’s made giant strides in getting up to scratch as a Test-standard wicketkeeper, thus providing a solution to one of England’s most perennial problems. That place should be safely his for the time being. Kieswetter has work to do with the gloves before Test recognition comes his way.
With all eyes on stand-in captain Alastair Cook opening the batting, England could do worse than give him a partner suited to taking the lead from the off. It’s a role no one has played better for England than Kieswetter’s fellow Somerset opener, Marcus Trescothick. Time to see just how much he’s learnt from the best.
4 Comments »Tour diary: Jo’burg, day two
By Rich Abbott 2 months ago, 3 Comments »
Graeme Smith is one of those batsman who, if given a reprieve, you can bet your last rand on making a big score. He is also one of those batsmen who scores big hundreds – especially against England – so Strauss’s men can at least be thankful that his triple figure score today was only the second time, out of six centuries against them, that he’s failed to make in excess of 150.
If that sounds like a small mercy, then that’s all England have at this stage in the match. That, and the wildly fluctuating Johannesburg weather. The weather could yet play a part, but the match situation – South Africa 35 runs ahead, with eight wickets in hand – has developed quickly for an end of day two score. Despite Smith eventually making 105, to complain about the second chance he received when on 15 – an edge behind which was denied by the third umpire despite overwhelming audible evidence – would be to ignore the hopelessness of England’s situation regardless.
Miscarriages of sporting justice occur, and are galling, but complaining about them rarely does the offended party any favours. England have lodged an official complaint, but in the context of this match, the damage has been done. That damage was exaggerated by a few uncharacteristic fielding errors, and as the morning session wore on, the slip cordon began to amble down the wicket in between overs, abandoning the near-sprint they began the day exhibiting. Even Matt Prior’s hyperactive legs seemed drained of energy.
It says much about this match from an Englishman’s point of view, that the most impressive factor of the day’s play was the ground’s drainage system. Not long after the heavens opened, in the afternoon session, about 75 per cent of the the outfield was submerged in water. To an untrained eye, the likelihood of play for the next week seemed remote, but after a lengthy delay, another four wicketless overs were possible, with the outfield holding up well.
Weather-watch will be central to the next three days play. I grabbed a word with Matt Prior during the break. Some South Africans I’ve encountered still like to claim Prior as their own, but I can dispel that once and for all. On the subject of the weather, expecting him to pedal some line about wanting to win the series outright, I was surprised to hear that he’s holding out for three days of solid rain. You can’t get more English than that.
3 Comments »He’s not the Messiah…….
By Richard Seeckts last year, at the start of March, 17 Comments »
Please, please, please let us be spared a chorus of ‘Prior is the new Gilchrist’ over the coming days and weeks.
He isn’t. Adam Gilchrist was a once in a lifetime player and it will do Prior no favours to mention the pair in the same breath.
Almost unbelievably, the suggestion first appeared in print after Prior’s century on debut at Lord’s in May 2007. The West Indian bowling in that match was little better than the club class pies tossed his way today, and the pitch equally as easy as that in Trinidad.
Prior can bat, and hasn’t dropped any howlers recently, but let’s reserve judgement on his class until he has played several series against Australia and South Africa. He may evolve into the new Alec Stewart in time, which would be laudable enough. But Gilchrist, never.
Remember, England spent twenty years dubbing the likes of David Capel, Derek Pringle, Phil De Freitas and Chris Lewis as the new Botham before finally realising that there will never be one.
17 Comments »Paternity
By Richard Seeckts last year, at the end of February, 4 Comments »
Congratulations to Matt Prior and his wife on the birth of their son. Prior has temporarily left the tour, but as he gets to grips with nappies in Sussex, so Tim Ambrose is trying to make the England wicketkeeper’s spot his own in Barbados.
Childbirth is now a serious consideration for travelling cricketers. It is not uncommon for players to leave a tour to attend a birth, risking their place in the side, particularly those with a unique position, such as wicketkeeper. If Ambrose plays a blinder in Bridgetown, catching everything and scoring 150 runs, the selectors have a dilemma.
Given that nature makes no provision for people to breed at specified convenient moments, cricketers, who spend so much time away from home, have it tougher than most. The packed schedule makes it virtually impossible to aim for a gap, let alone hit one.
Perhaps international players think differently from mere cricket lovers.
For club cricketers who would give part of their anatomy to play for England just once, this kind of absence is incomprehensible. Yet for Prior it is a rightful few days off work, albeit with no guarantee of a return to the same job.
But what of family planning among the lowly lovers of our game? No right thinking ticket holder for this summer’s Ashes series will have risked causing a pregnancy between mid-September and mid-December 2008. Abstinence was the only option to ensure those precious days at Edgbaston, Headingley or Lord’s are not jeopardised by the call to a maternity ward.
Imagine getting lucky in the ticket ballots for the massively over-subscribed Tests after a four year wait, only to discover that your beloved is expecting a baby at the same time. And you, prime suspect as father, have to be there. 21st Century society dictates that you have little choice. The beaming delight of a proud father-to-be hides the private fury at your predicament. Of course you love your wife and child, just not when Australia are seven wickets down and 30 short of the follow-on target. A child is for life; Stuart Broad taking an Ashes hat trick is not going to happen twice.
Handle this delicate situation wrongly at home and you might be able to watch all five days of each Test, but risk never meeting the progeny. Attending the birth could mean missing a Hussey hundred, a sublime Freddie performance or, keep dreaming, another Gary Pratt moment.
Somewhere out there, someone is consoling himself with the thought of naming his child after the player who scores a century or takes five wickets while he attends a birth, but few little girls will thank you for calling them Brad or Mitchell.
Prior will go back to work, provided Ambrose doesn’t do too well in his absence. I, for one, won’t be putting money on his son being named Allen.
4 Comments »Big Al’s blondes
By Will 2 years ago, at the end of October, 5 Comments »
You’ve no doubt heard by now that Big Al Stanford (henceforth known as Baz on this wee blog) was pictured with the wife of Matt Prior on his knee. Jigging up and down. Well, we don’t know what to make of it all. Daft plonker, or just a normal bloke who let his guard down and was having some harmless fun? Or, worse – a masterstroke of publicity?
The Daily Mail reported that one England player said he’d have punched Baz had it been his wife on the billionaire’s knee.
Ah well. Spiced up an effing dull tournament, didn’t it? Still, the feeling of pointlessness about the entire week has just shot up.
5 Comments »Shah lofted to No.3
By Will 2 years ago, mid-August, 1 Comment »
So, some 24 hours before the Twenty20 against South Africa, it’s already been called off. Another damp summer, and it’s even turning autumnally chilly too. Expect the heatwave in October and November, then.
But balls to tomorrow’s game: England’s other washout, against Scotland, was made interesting by the elevation of Owais Shah to No.3. This is a good thing. Shah, as Captain Kev pointed out, was wasted at No.6. He did play that Michael Bevan role superbly well, but surely a batsman of his talent – someone capable of hundreds and more – should be higher up the order. I like the early signs of Pietersen’s leadership: balls to whatever’s gone before. He’s in charge now, for better or for worse, and he’s going to stamp his mark. Matt Prior and Ian Bell opening the innings makes me sweat in all the wrong places, though. Potentially powerful, but has Big Game realised how good a player he is yet? It has taken him 46 Tests and a string of bottling efforts until it sunk in for the five-day game.
Anyway. Shah is no shrinking violet, and I like his adaptability at three. Are you in, or are you out? You decide.
1 Comment »Give Ambrose time
By Jonathan Liew 2 years ago, mid-March, 3 Comments »
Tim Ambrose played a very fine knock last night. Dare I say, there was something Gilchrist-esque about the way he took a sticky situation by the scruff of the neck and flayed it through backward point for four.
But, but, but, but, but.
We’ve been here before. You might almost say, if you were in a particularly jocular mood, that we’ve had Prior warning. Tim Ambrose will, at some stage, drop a catch. He will, at some stage, get a few low scores. But now what he needs a decent run in the side. A year, at least, before people start calling for his head on a plate. If he’s going to play innings like he did yesterday, he’ll need confidence, and job security. So by all means give him his due for a superb knock, but we should withhold judgment as to whether he’s The One for a while longer yet.
3 Comments »Prior: from hero to zero in under a year
By Will 2 years ago, mid-February, 3 Comments »
I was struck by the Mail on Sunday’s interview with Matt Prior today, and not just because he revealed an Asian cricketer called him “a white dog”. Perhaps it wasn’t wholly necessary to re-write it on Cricinfo but I felt it deserved as wide an audience as possible, and it was a relatively slow news day for UK readers.
What stood out confirmed to me (if I needed any further proof) just how focussed we all are on sporting figures these days. They are who we aspire to be, in some cases, and at the very least they provide a role model for kids as they wander the streets, pin-pinning themselves on discarded heroin needles and playing chicken on the motorways. Our sportsmen are heroes in an unstable modern world and we expect far too much of them. Poor old Prior – I have a lot of sympathy for him. He came into the side last summer and smacked a very find hundred on debut against a woeful West Indies attack. He was good behind the stumps too, and then it all fell apart.
In fact, what I noticed (I have no statistical evidence to back this up and am too knackered to look) is the quality of his keeping plummeted as series went on. He would start well – remember, he took some good catches – but whether it was tiredness, or the increased attention or his slipping batting form, his glovework went from slick to slippery. He was emphatically jettisoned by England for their current tour of New Zealand, and is finding his axing a very bitter pill to swallow:
Prior has been hurt by the very personal attacks – some even coming from the public; one woman wrote him a letter in which she said: “I can’t let my kids watch cricket any more because of the way you behave.”
“I don’t like the person I am portrayed as being,” he said in an interview with the Mail on Sunday. “When I’ve read the character assassinations, I’ve phoned my family and asked, ‘Is this really me?’”
I don’t often find much sympathy with sportsmen. They are paid handsomely to play a game, one which they have usually excelled at for most of their lives, but the burning gaze of the media and the public must be unbearable at times. In the Mail it even said that Prior was called an “uneducated, skinhead buffoon” by one newspaper journalist, and clearly he has (wrongly) taken all this to heart, even removing his gold earring in a vague attempt to unshackle the chains of vanity. Well, that would seem to be the intention.
Can we expect a mullet and corduroys from him this season? Is there any place in the sport for “uneducated, skinhead buffoons”? Will he return to international cricket?
Incidentally, his rapid sacking sets a dangerous precedent. Clearly the selectors are sick to the back teeth of gloveman, who wear big gloves, dropping simple catches – and this is a fair complaint. But what if Tim Ambrose (what a cruel irony that it was Prior who leapfrogged Ambrose at Sussex) has a shocking tour of New Zealand’s low, slow, dying pitches? Will Phil Mustard replace him for New Zealand’s return trip over here, or will his lack of one-day success count against him?
Everyone talks highly of Ambrose – he has Australian blood in him, after all. The last glove-wearing convict helped us regain the Ashes in 2005, so perhaps it’s time for another. I just have this nagging feeling Prior’s going to come back – complete with Barnet, pipe and slippers – and prove us all wrong.
3 Comments »Prior dropped
By Jonathan Liew 2 years ago, at the start of January, 2 Comments »
Well, this was certainly a surprise. Prior had a pretty good series with the bat in Sri Lanka, and although he dropped a couple of catches, he’s always dropped catches. The selectors knew this when they picked him. His keeping’s actually improved quite a bit since he joined the Test side. And he’s scoring runs.
The good thing, though, is that England have perhaps half a dozen young wicket keepers who could potentially do the job just as well. Ambrose and Mustard have got the nod this time, but it could just as easily have been Steve Davies, Jon Batty, James Foster, Nic Pothas or Mark Wallace. And what if Geraint Jones piles on the runs next summer?
2 Comments »England name squad for Sri Lanka tour
By Jonathan Liew 3 years ago, mid-October, 1 Comment »
England have named their squad for the tour of Sri Lanka, and it’s pretty much as predicted:
Vaughan, Cook, Bell, Pietersen, Collingwood, Shah, Bopara, Mustard, Prior, Broad, Hoggard, Anderson, Sidebottom, Swann, Panesar.
Some initial thoughts:
1) It’s pretty harsh on Chris Tremlett, who hasn’t really put a foot wrong yet for England. Unless – gasp! – they’re punishing him unfairly for his indifferent one-day form.
2) If the selectors were going to drop Strauss they should have replaced him with another opener, rather than naming three number sixes and promoting Vaughan, who doesn’t even want to open.
3) If both of Harmison’s practice games get rained off, where does that leave him?
4) Either Broad or Swann has to bat at number eight. Which means that, cruelly, one of Anderson or Sidebottom has to sit out. Or both, if Harmison waltzes back into the team. In other words, all three pacemen from the India series could be left out in favour of someone who wasn’t even good enough to make the side at the time. Hmmm.
5) The fact that Mustard has been named in the full squad, rather than placed on standby in Chennai, is hardly a resounding vote of confidence in Prior. Is Mustard, in fact, the reserve opening batsman?
What are everyone else’s thoughts?
1 Comment »A statistical coincidence
By Jonathan Liew 3 years ago, mid-October, 2 Comments »
Just a point England’s selectors might want to consider before they pencil in Matt Prior’s name for the squad to tour Sri Lanka tomorrow.
Here are Matt Prior’s Test figures:
7 matches, 397 runs, average 39.7, 1 century, strike rate 64.86, 20 catches.
And here are Geraint Jones’ Test figures at the same stage of his career:
7 matches, 337 runs, average 37.4, 1 century, strike rate 59.43, 21 catches.
I’m not sure what conclusions we can reliably draw from those figures, but it’s quite creepy nonetheless.
2 Comments »Understudy tourists
By Ian 3 years ago, mid-August, 5 Comments »
England will soon have to pick its squad for the winter tours and the three understudy roles up for grabs are those of top-three batsman, wicketkeeper and spinner. My calls for Bob Key were largely dismissed, so I’ll move on to the ‘keeper, who will start as Matt Prior’s back-up, but may get a crack if the Sussex man drops Sangakkara on 0 and becomes Murali’s latest bunny.
It seems England now have an embarrassment of riches at keeper with several stumpers scoring regular runs this season. Foster, Ambrose, Mustard, Read, Jones, Batty have all scored well. Read and Jones have likely had their turn, but Foster may be due another one? Ambrose has been excellent too. Tricky. Mustard must be in line for ODIs, because he’s brilliant at the top of the order for Durham. It’s a shame for Steven Davies that Worcestershire have hardly played this season.
Spinners are more of a quandary. I don’t agree that Pietersen and Vaughan can fill in the gaps. We need a genuine spinner to support Monty, especially in Sri Lanka. The problem is that, as ever, there are no English spinners topping the charts, although I can’t see what Graeme Swann has done to upset the selectors. He would do alright. Adil Rashid has great potential and can bat too. As can Alex Loudon. But would any of them bowl out Sri Lanka? I’m at a loss.
Bring back Shaggy?!
5 Comments »Should stump mics be turned off?
By Will 3 years ago, at the start of August, 7 Comments »
Peter Moores, the England coach, has responded to criticism of England’s behaviour in the 2nd Test against India by suggesting stump microphones are switched off.
“There must be some things that are left on the field to be fair to the players,” Moores said in response to criticism of England’s incessent chatter during the Trent Bridge Test. “They should be allowed to go out there and play the game without being worried that everything they actually say is going to be broadcast. It’s something we’ve discussed as a management team and we’ve spoken to the match referee about it.”
The International Cricket Council rules that stump microphones be turned on whenever a ball is live – that is, when a batsman takes guard, between a bowler’s run-up to the time the ball reaches or passes a batsman, and from the time a fielder throws the ball back to a team-mate or onto the stumps.
It’s a confident reaction from a coach so new to international cricket and I agree, in part. Players should be allowed, within the law, to go hell for leather out there and say whatever they wish. This isn’t Question Time or an audience with the Queen. This is professional sport played by well-paid, talent individuals (supposedly) at the top of their game – and sledging is part of their armoury.
But, as a viewer, only once or twice have I ever heard a “live” sledge (Dean Jones was caught out, remember). Sky always tend to turn it down for viewers – though Matt Prior is, admittedly, probably the loudest England wicketkeeper I’ve ever heard, so it’s entirely plausible his yelps break through. And so what if they do? So what if we hear Prior, for example, call a batsman a gimp – or Zaheer thinks Pietersen’s a hermaphrodite. This has been going on since WG Grace first threw away his razor. Is society so pathetically sensitive, or naive, that it can’t handle the odd bit of banter between players fighting tooth and nail?
And if so…just turn it off and let everyone get on with it. If anything goes too far, the match referee can slap them with a fine or whatever.
You? Should they be turned on or off? Vote below, then leave your comments. If you can’t see the poll below, click here.
First-class ducks
By Ian 3 years ago, mid-July, 1 Comment »
I’ve been accused by venerable Corridor readers of being something of a duck fetishist, although I suspect there are more specialist websites for that. However, for the sake of consistency, it would be wrong to overlook the misfortune of Thomas Poynton, the new Derbyshire gloveman, who this week got a pair on his first class debut. But at the age of 17 years old, he will have better days and do one heck of a lot more in his career than me. In fact, he already has.
Hopefully he will be smashing the ball about in an England shirt before long, although with the recent form of English keepers, he has a lot of frogs to leap. Foster, Ambrose, Mustard, Read, Nixon all in the runs, putting pressure on Prior. Good to see.
1 Comment »What did West Indies have for lunch?
By Will 3 years ago, mid-June, 2 Comments »
Today was a microcosm of the problems facing West Indies. They dominated the first session, bowling superbly and at last making England scrap for every run. England went to lunch with Paul Collingwood and Matt Prior at the crease…but not a lot else to come.
Then what happened? What on earth were they fed at lunch? After the interval, everything fell apart with the bowlers losing their lines and the captain, Daren Ganga, for some inexplicable reason choosing to bowl Marlon Samuels. It was a session of such diabolical cricket that they fully deserve to lose this Test tomorrow. It was utterly depressing.
England did very well to rub their noses in it, though – and Matt Prior continues to impress. But, still…it’s pretty painful watching West Indies at the moment and I don’t see how they can recover, either. The selection of Austin Richards to their one-day team is a case in point. Just why he was chosen in place of Wavell Hinds, Ryan Hinds, A.N. Other is anyone’s guess. I tried to write a profile for him at Cricinfo and didn’t get on very well at all. The cynic in me thinks there is something more sinister afoot other than simply being a “random selection”.
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