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Prior: from hero to zero in under a year
By Will 3 months ago, 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 »Trouble at t’mill
By Jonathan Liew 3 months ago, 9 Comments »
It’s hard to pick just one scapegoat out of the wreckage of England’s latest one-day catastrophe, but let’s start with Ravi Bopara.
Clearly Bopara’s poor series in Sri Lanka has knocked the stuffing out of him. His one-day career, one sparkling innings aside, has been mediocre, and his suicidal run-out of Alastair Cook smacked of a crucial deficit of confidence.
Which raises a valuable question - what on earth is he doing batting at seven? Like most of the England batsmen, he bats in the top three for his county. But seven is possibly the hardest position in which to make your mark - you’ve generally either got three overs to hit out, or thirty to save an innings in crisis. In both situations, Bopara tends to freeze.
So here’s an idea: instead of ringing desperate changes, as the selectors will probably be pressured into doing, how’s about swapping Bopara and Mustard around? Mustard may ultimately be England’s pinch-hitter, but at the moment he doesn’t look like hanging around much longer than the first Powerplay. What’s he like in the middle overs? How will he play spin? This is how you find out.
He’s also the kind of guy you want at the death, unlike Bopara, who for all his hustle has never hit a six in an ODI. It’s worth remembering that even Gilchrist started his one-day career down the order before moving up later.
A top three of Cook, Bopara and Bell might seem a bit stodgy, but it’ll provide some much needed platforms for the likes of Pietersen and Shah to have a blaze later. And all three can score at a fair lick when they’re set, whereas Mustard’s inimitable brand of haru-kiri currently means they’re constantly having to rebuild.
Having said all that, listening to England’s capitulation made me pine for one player in particular - Super Ramps. He’d put that upstart Styris into Row V.
9 Comments »Prior dropped
By Jonathan Liew 4 months ago, 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 last year, 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 »Understudy tourists
By Ian last year, 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 »First-class ducks
By Ian last year, 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 »