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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 »Why Blair would keep Tim Ambrose at six – and Brown wouldn’t
By Jonathan Liew 2 years ago, mid-July, 4 Comments »
You may have disagreed strongly with the idea of Tim Ambrose batting at number six, but the thing is, it’s done now.
Whenever you mess around with something as fragile as a batting order, you unsettle a team. England undervalued a generation of world-class batting talent in the 1990s by shuffling their batsmen around on a fortnightly basis. Stewart opens. Hick at three. Stewart drops down. Smith opens. Ramprakash at three. Ramprakash at six. Crawley at three. Hick at five. Knight opens. Hussain at three. Butcher opens. Butcher at three. Hussain at four. Ramprakash opens. You get the idea.
Which is why some of the press speculation in the aftermath of the Headingley defeat has the whiff of the knee-jerk about it. We armchair experts can pontificate at great length about the changes we would make if we were in charge, without ever having to engage with reality. To move Ambrose back down to seven would be the simple short-term solution, but counter-productive in the long-term: the weak, cowardly act of a ditherer. And as any opinion pollster will tell you, ditherers hardly inspire confidence – either within their own ranks or among the public.
Far better, surely, to give Ambrose more than two innings to bed down in his new position. And remember that Ambrose outscored Strauss, Vaughan and Bell at Headingley. And remember further that with Broad and Anderson at eight and nine, there’s some lower-order insurance there should it be required.
Pattinson can go – no worries about that. But England’s selectors should resist the urge to tinker with their middle order yet again.
4 Comments »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 »Ambrose readies himself for England
By Will 2 years ago, at the start of March, 5 Comments »
When Tim Ambrose makes his debut on Wednesday, he will be the sixth wicketkeeper England have tried since Alec Stewart hung up his gloves in 2000, and the second with an Aussie twang after Geraint Jones. Andrew Miller met him yesterday.
5 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’s reserves
By Will 3 years ago, at the start of December, 1 Comment »
The news came through today that Billy Godleman, the Middlesex batsman and James Harris, Glamorgan’s 17-year-old fast bowler have both been called up to England’s academy squad in India. Or, to give them their new and irritatingly forgettable title, the England Performance Programme (EPP) squad. What a stupid, stupid name for a team that is. What was wrong with National Academy? Anyway.
Here’s how the ECB describe the EPP. “The purpose of the EPP is to provide world class support for the England team, currently in Sri Lanka for the Test series and to provide an ideal environment for players to progress with their individual development.”
That’s quite some statement when you consider just who England have to call upon, and how inexperienced they are.
Moeen Ali – Worcestershire
Tim Ambrose – Warwickshire
Tim Bresnan – Yorkshire
Michael Carberry – Hampshire
Steven Davies – Worcestershire
Joe Denly – Kent
James Hildreth – Somerset
Graham Onions – Durham
Adil Rashid – Yorkshire
Chris Schofield – Surrey
James Tredwell – Kent
Chris Tremlett – Hampshire
Jonathan Trott – Warwickshire
Luke Wright – Sussex
James Harris – Glamorgan
Steve Finn – Middlesex
Billy Godleman – Middlesex
Of course they don’t have to call upon just this lot, and they’re in India for their own development as much as cover for the senior side. But it’s always interesting to see who the selectors consider to be future England batsman and bowlers. Matt Prior needs a good tour in Sri Lanka…Tim Ambrose is a little bit good.
1 Comment »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 »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 »Pass the gloves, please
By Emma 3 years ago, at the start of May, 6 Comments »
Wicket keepers and national selection have been much on my mind when watching the last few games of county cricket. Yes, one of the batsmen is going to have to drop out for Vaughan, and there are a fair few bowlers queuing for a run up the Lord’s slope two weeks from now. Yet both these battles are limited: no one expects the April top scorer to encroach upon a direct battle between Cook, Bell and Collingwood; Harmison and Hoggard have performed too well to expect other non-tourers to feature. The war of the wicketkeepers, however, just keeps hotting up.
Of course, a couple of weeks ago, Nixon and Prior were announced in the ‘Performance’ squad. Anyone who thought that Moores woudn’t opt for Prior had obviously missed the barrage of articles on Moores’ coaching history. However, the Sussex gloveman has made only 158 runs in seven completed innings. Nixon hasn’t yet had opportunity to bat in a first class game. Despite the Times making several mentions of Hampshire ‘keeper Nic Pothas’ England qualification in the early season, the player who has made the most waves in the last couple of weeks is Prior’s former competitor for the Sussex gloves, Tim Ambrose.
Now I’m never one to gloat, but it seems that, for once, I said something first. Of course, as a rather rampant Warwickshire fan, I might be accused of bias, but the numbers are rather impressive. In four innings, he has only once failed to make more than fifty, with the latest contribution a massive 251*, with a strike rate edging towards 80. This was the highest championship score by a wicketkeeper in a decade. In two fifty-over Friends Provident fixtures he has made 166 without losing his wicket. If he can maintain this kind of form, surely he must edge himself forward for international consideration.
Young hopeful Steven Davies has had a match to forget at New Road so far, with a couple of juggled stumpings on a track that the batsmen have had to be prised off. Geraint Jones has shown a little bit of his fine form of Cricket Past, with a flourishing 49. Then no ‘keeping summary would be complete without a nod to Chris Read, who took five catches in Glamorgan’s first innings and made a helpful 34. It may be an open contest – but is it open enough for any of these county tradesmen to overcome the Development Squad hurdle? Will Nixon be rewarded with a Test cap? Or will Moores’ long-standing affiliation with Prior win through? In a fortnight’s time, we might at least have more of an idea.
6 Comments »