SPIN
SPIN
THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF CR ICK E T
WWW.SPINCRICKET.COM
NOVEMBER
2010 £3.95
E ARE TH
‘I COME FROM AN AREA WHERE IF SOMEONE KICKS YOU ONCE, YOU KICK ’EM TWICE’
S E I S S AU ROPES?
11
9 771745 299042
ON THE 36 PAGE
DAVID LLOYD Answers your questions
IAN BELL DANNY BRIGGS OWAIS SHAH STEVE KIRBY
RGDR
BNTMSCNVM
COLLY
‘ This England team is better than 2005’ Exclusive interview
I SSUE 57 NOVEMBER 2010
FULL 2010 COUNTY REVIEW FOUR COUNTY COACHES TELL THE INSIDE STORY OF THE SEASON
Contents
44
32 52
SPIN
10 LEADING EDGE
Morning, everyone and welcome
24DANNY BRIGGS
NOVEMBER 2010
to issue 57 of SPIN, the UK’s only independent cricket magazine. This month: another packed issue, as we reflect on the 2010 season with a panel of county coaches, look ahead to the Ashes with Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell, subject David Lloyd to readers’ questions and ask, not entirely frivolously, whether the Aussies, having lost three Tests on the trot, are on the ropes. Invitations: 1) Join us back here next month for our Ashes special. 2) Guarantee your SPIN every month with our offer on page 22. 3) Join us at spincricket.com and on twitter and join the mailing list for our live events at spincc@ spincricket.com. Enjoy the magazine! Message ends.
SUBSCRIBE TO SPIN, CALL 01283 742 970
George Dobell’s season review; what is county cricket for? Phil Tufnell in bed. Plus: do modern cricketers play more cricket than their predecessors? (No).
Teenage spinner on getting the England nod after one season with Hampshire.
28
DAVID LLOYD
Who first called him Bumble? Should Twitter be banned? Sky’s gantry vaudevillian answers SPIN readers questions.
34
COUNTY REVIEW 2010
Mick Newell, Martyn Moxon, John Morris and Ashley Giles look back over the county season, name stars for the future and reflect on matters arising.
40 44PAUL COLLINGWOOD
FIRST & LAST: IAN BELL
Belly welcomes us into his world.
Why the England of 2010 are better than the 2005 vintage – and other revelations in an exclusive interview with England’s World Cup-winning skip.
52AUSSIES ON THE ROPES?
Whitewashed in India, Ricky Ponting’s men have had the worst possible build-up to
an Ashes series. Is it time to press the panic button? And what would that involve?
56MOVING ON
Thirtysomething England hopefuls Owais Shah and Steve Kirby are moving counties this winter for markedly different reasons. Matthew Pryor tells their stories.
62CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Nick Sadleir reports from world cricket’s biggest state tournament.
82THE THIRD UMPIRE
Are the ICC awards a televisual feast or a broadcasting nadir? Hmm?
REGULARS
22 SUBSCRIBE TO SPIN
Get SPIN delivered direct to your door for half price. There. Is. No. Catch.
THE BACK 66 BOOKS
Whatever happened to Engand’s 1998 U19 World Cup winners? Plus Jonathan Agnew and a cricketing remake of Last of the Summer Wine (ish).
74 CALENDAR 76 ICC RANKINGS
BACK PAGE THE THIRD UMPIRE’S CLUB
TALE OF THE TAPE
THE THIRD UMP’S MONTH IN CRICKET MEDIA
O
nce, the Glasgow Empire was considered the toughest gig on the showbiz circuit, a place where English light comedians were met not just with heckles and boos but volleys of steel rivets being thrown with murderous intent by shipbuilders in the gallery. Now, we have the ICC awards, where the brave MC is met by an almost-aslethal volley of indifference from an audience who couldn’t appear less enthusiastic had they been herded into the building at gunpoint. This year, it’s Ravi Shastri’s turn to take the hit. I caught the ‘high’lights. Here’s how they went.
complete silence to the stage. “A big round of applause there for Aleem Dar,” says Shastri, apparently nonsensically. What to make of this? Maybe Dar really is getting an ovation but the sound editing is so incompetent we can’t hear it at home? 20 mins To present the next award… Rahul Dravid! You wouldn’t think, to look at him, that he was a renowned prankster and dressing-room comedian with a roster of entertaining tales up his sleeve, would you? And, indeed, you’d be right, because he isn’t. Shastri informs us that there is a wall in Bangalore named after Dravid. He doesn’t say if said wall is called, simply, ‘The Wall’. But I’d like to think it is.
1 min Shastri tells us the event is coming live from Bengaluru. “What a city this is!” he reads, bloodlessly. “A spectacular city for a spectacular occasion!” Camera cuts to audience. They don’t look as if they are at a spectacular occasion. They look a mix of bored and anxious, with some already cradling their faces in their hands. 5 mins Shastri introduces last year’s cricketer of the year to present the 2010 award. “Mitchell Johnson!” he says. A few silent moments follow – no fanfare, no clapping, no Johnson – before a smattering of applause. Johnson shuffles belatedly onstage and starts to read, ‘And the winner is…’ But the microphone seems not to be turned on. He tries again. The winner is… Brendon McCullum, who can’t be with us tonight. Lucky him. 9 mins Steven Finn, Emerging Player of the Year, drifts to the stage accompanied by hesitant applause, a tinny fanfare and a disco lightshow that suggests something much more exciting is happening. “Steve, many congratulations,“ says Shastri. “How much does this award mean to you?” Good question, no? It’s not, is it? Brilliantly, Finn is standing about 20 yards away from Shastri, using a microphone that appears to be about a foot too low. Not ideal.“Yeah, yeah,” says Finny. “It means a lot
43 mins Sachin Tendulkar is voted the most famous player in the world or the one with the most sponsors or something. He speaks well, in his jeans and team polo shirt. The quality of the speaking tonight has been inversely proportional to how much the speakers have dressed up. I think I saw Harsha Bhogle in the audience. Wearing a top hat.
‘Finn drifts to the stage, to a tinny fanfare and hesitant applause’ to win this award and I’m thoroughly privileged to win it.” So there you have it. 18 mins Umpire of the Year. Film clips asking what would the nominees have done if they hadn’t been top-level officials. “I wanted to be a rock star but there was never any hope of that, was there?” laughs Steve Davis, improbably. “So I suppose being an umpire is the next best thing.” Is that what they told him at the careers office? Aleem Dar wins and walks through
50 mins A treat! To play us out, one of the world’s top cricketers is going to sing! Is Mo Yousuf (pka Cat Stevens) going to bring the house down with some big-bearded jigs and reels, backed by the Dubliners? Of course not! It’s bowl-headed strummer AB de Villiers plying some mid-paced stadium rock. He emotes his way through The Calling’s Wherever You Will Go – heroic, closing titles, wind-in-thehair stuff – and looks the part. Sadly, he appears unable to sing a single note of the song’s verse. To be fair, we are treated to just 15 seconds of the cabaret. Maybe the rest of his set was note-perfect and the hapless editors have just elected to broadcast a bit that makes me yearn for the sweaty competence of Mark Butcher Band. Given the production values of the rest of tonight’s staging that explanation is, I suppose, entirely plausible. www.twitter.com/thethirdumpire
WWW.SPINCRICKET.COM
INTERVIEW PAUL COLLINGWOOD
‘I’m proud of having scored 200 in Adelaide but it’s not the highlight of my career. The result leaves a sour taste’ pitches, my 70 mph seamers were treated like throw-downs by good batsmen. I had to learn some new tricks, so I’ve worked hard on bowling cutters. When did you start to feel established in the Test side? Probably in 2006 and 2007. Scoring that double-hundred in Adelaide made me feel pretty comfortable at that level. And then, after the Ashes, I scored a couple of centuries and won the man of the series award when we won the CB Series. After the depths of the
When you made your debut, England were a poor side in both formats. Your career has coincided with a period of sharp improvement… Yeah, I’ve been through it all. I keep telling the lads: we’ve the best squad together now that I’ve seen in my ten years in the game. There’s been times when we’ve had some absolutely world-class individuals within the team that, when they clicked, could win us big series, like the 2005 Ashes. But, as a team, we’re better now. We’re more consistent and we’re closer knit. I honestly believe that. We’ve got a lot of strong characters in the team, but we’ve a lot of skill, too. 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. So our aim was just to bat 50 overs! England have never really done very well in one-day cricket. We’d reached a couple of finals, but we’d never won anything. It got to 46 SPIN NOVEMBER 2010
the point, last year, when the two Andys 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.’ They were very good. They really grabbed hold of things and they changed our mentality a bit. It wasn’t just about being more aggressive. The training changed. There was more emphasis on pressure in training and in the nets and it made it much easier when we got out in the middle. They looked at what the world’s best teams were doing and learned from them. Duncan Fletcher infamously said he’d seen you bowling at 85 mph. What was the fastest you’ve been timed? 83.5mph. It was in the 2005 Ashes and Langer nicked off, but it was too quick for Tresco at slip. But Duncan never said that I bowled at 85 mph. It was just a misunderstanding. Look, I realised quite early on that, particularly on sub-continent
Ashes, it was great to win that and, even though it wasn’t Test cricket, it really helped me feel comfortable at that level. Michael Vaughan referred to the last Ashes tour to Australia as akin to a booze cruise. Was it really that shambolic? Nah, you can read too much into those comments. I know people look for reasons why we lost 5-0. People come up with excuses. They say we were boozing or whatever, but I disagree with all that. We were beaten by the better side. They had a lot of motivation to win back the Ashes after 2005 and they were probably the best side ever to have played the game. Langer, Gilchrist, Hayden, Ponting, Warne, McGrath... they’re all great players. I remember a conversation I had with Justin Langer at Brisbane. I was trying to put a bit of pressure on him by saying that Phil Jaques was after his spot in the side. But Langer just said, ‘Listen mate, I’m retiring after this series and it doesn’t matter what Phil Jaques does.’ They were playing with no pressure on them. They knew it was their last time playing together. They were very good, very motivated and playing without pressure or fear. That’s why they won.
May 2010: skipper Colly hits the winning runs as England take the ICC World T20.
Obviously I’m very proud of having scored a double-century at Adelaide, but it’s not the highlight of my career. The result just leaves a sour taste. Hopefully I can put that right this time.
(Main pic and top left) December 2006: Colly hits 206 in vain in Adelaide.
The last time we went out there, we had a few grey areas in certain positions. There were some injuries. This time around we’ve been playing really solid cricket for 18 months. We’ve been growing all the time and we’ve been getting better. We’re ready for the challenge. The guys are fit and, mentally, everyone should be pretty refreshed. We’re in the best situation we possibly could be. Well, as good as we can be bearing in mind the amount of cricket we play. It’s a long, long winter. We’ve two days at home between the Ashes tour and the World Cup. Then it’s off to the IPL. What should people read into the fact that you quit the captaincy under Peter Moores and took it back under Andy Flower? I quit for selfish reasons. I quit because I was going to lose my place in the side. As a kid, I grew up wanting to play cricket for England and that was being taking away from me by the affect the captaincy was having on my batting. I never felt I could recharge my batteries. You’re thinking about it all the time – selection, the players coming through, tactics – and, mentally, I found it exhausting. Andy Flower was a major influence in me taking it on again. He persuaded me. I was quite reluctant. I’m still not performing as well as I want to in T20, but it’s not affecting me in the other formats. When I was ODI captain, it was affecting everything: my Test form, one-day form, T20 form: everything. But this time, I knew it was only a threeor four-week period. It wasn’t going to affect me so much. So, Andy [Flower] persuaded me I was the right person for the job and I was happy to go along with that. The two Andys have put a lot of strong values into the team. There’s a strong team ethos now. Andrew Strauss drives home those values during the majority of the NOVEMBER 2010
SPIN 47
2010 REVIEW ROUND TABLE
2010and beyond
COUNTY CRICKET Four county insiders review the season and assess where the game goes next
SPIN: There’s been 50 per cent more result matches this year, as the outlawing the heavy roller after the start of championship games has evened up the balance between bat and ball. Do you see that as a positive development? MICK NEWELL Yes. In 2009, lots of pitches just died as the match wore on, but this year there was more pace and bounce. That was great news for us [Notts] as seam bowling was our strength. There were times when there was excessive help for the bowlers, but that had more to do with the pre-match preparation of the pitches. JOHN MORRIS I thought we needed the heavy roller in April. With the championship season starting on April 9, some of the wickets INTERVIEWS were quite damp and GEORGE DOBELL ended up helping the bowlers too much. Later in the season, though,
it was a positive thing. Maybe we could come up with a system where it’s staggered and we only use it for the first month. Either way, we need to play four-day cricket on the best pitches possible. MN It had a big impact. In previous years, people would use the heavy roller and all the pace went out of the pitch, so it was a good decision to abandon it this year. It’s an interesting issue, though. The roller wasn’t the only change. The points system was also different, with more points offered for a win and fewer for the draw. We have to be careful not to go back to a system where we have the result pitches that were so common a few years ago. All that does is provide bowlers with too much margin for error and produce tentative batsmen. And there aren’t any international wickets like that, either. It’s important that the PLOs [the pitch liaison officers] do their job properly and ensure that games are played on good cricket wickets. We don’t want them starting green and wet.
THE PANEL
Martyn Moxon
John Morris
Mick Newell
Ashley Giles
Yorkshire’s director of cricket. Yorkshire finished third in the LV County Championship, failed to progress in the FP t20 and reached the semi-finals of the CB40.
Derbyshire’s director of cricket. Derbyshire finished bottom of the second division in the LV County Championship and did not qualify from the group stages in either the CB40 or the FP t20.
Nottinghamshire’s director of cricket. Notts won the LV County Championship and reached the semi-final of the FP t20 but did not progress beyond the group stages of the CB40.
Warwickshire’s director of cricket and England selector. Warwicks won the CB40, reached the QFs of the FP t20 and narrowly retained their first division status in the LV County Championship.
ASHLEY GILES The jury is still out. Nothing happens in isolation and, combined with the change to the points system, I’m not sure it did work very well. The new hover covers at Test grounds are relevant, too. Unlike old-style covers, which were open at the sides, the hover covers seem to retain moisture in the pitch and, as a result, help the bowlers. There were too many two-day finishes and bowlers had too much artificial help. That might make for exciting cricket, but is it good quality cricket? I’m not sure it helps prepare players for international cricket. The ECB introduced financial incentives to encourage counties to play more players under the age of 26 this season. What impact is that having on the game?
MN It didn’t make a scrap of difference to me. I’ve never been told to select a team with that in mind and I wouldn’t want to do so. We already have financial incentives to get Kolpaks out of the game, so I’m not sure we need any age-related incentives. JM They’re having a negative impact. I believe they’re a poor thing for the game. Experience plays a big part in this game and young players need older players to help their development. I benefited hugely from having guys like John Hampshire, Alan Hill and Bob Taylor in the dressing room when I started playing. We now seem to be saying that players over 26 are not required and that’s a mistake. It will damage young players. I definitely had to bear the incentives in mind and balancing revenue and quality
don’t always go hand in hand. It can’t be right that we don’t always feel we can pick the best team. MARTYN MOXON I’m a bit concerned about them. Experienced players have a big part to play in the development of young players. I can understand the thinking, but we have to be careful not to drive experienced players to extinction. At Yorkshire we haven’t been selecting a team on the basis of any financial incentives. We’ve a strong policy of Nottinghamshire celebrate their 2010 championship success
G LEA DEIN DGE
The day I played with… 3. Wasim Jaffer
H
uddersfield league bowlers will not remember the 2010 season fondly. Across the league and cup competitions, 14 batsmen made more than 1,000 runs – but head and shoulders above even this exceptionally strong pack was Skelmanthorpe’s new recruit – Wasim Jaffer, veteran of 31 Tests for India, including five Test centuries. The man from Mumbai tore up local record books in making 2,083 runs, with 10 centuries. He also made two hundreds in the local Twenty20 competition – in 11 overs and 12 overs respectively – taking his season’s run stash to more than 2,500. “We have had the pleasure of watching a sublime cricketer over the summer months,” says club president Andy Needham, who managed to meet Wasim’s “very modest” requirements at the beginning of the season. “We got the deal of the century,” grins first team all-rounder Kristian Whittaker. With overseas talent secured, Skelmanthorpe targeted the Huddersfield League’s Sykes Cup. Jaffer, who has lost two cup finals with his previous club Scholes, was happy to help – making yet another unbeaten century in the final and hitting the winning runs to spark a pitch invasion – which can be viewed on Youtube – from 1,300 gathered fans and his adoring teammates. “The delight and outpouring of passion he demonstrated that day will be my abiding memory of Wasim,” says Needham. “For someone who was so cool, reserved, and unflappable he was like a school kid who had scored his first-ever six.” Despite a career in which he has partnered Tendulkar, opened the batting with Virender Sehwag and made a first-class triple-century, it is Jaffer’s attitude towards Saturday afternoon club cricket in Huddersfield that stands out according to Whittaker. “I’ve never played with anyone who is as respectful of the opposition as Wasim,” he says. “Be it a 17-year-old kid or one of the league’s prolific bowlers, even if it’s the 48th over, if it’s a good ball he’ll block it back. He will not give his wicket up. “He tends to build an innings and then tee off from the 47th over. He leaves it really late but in those last 18 or 24 balls if he gets going it’s frightening. You just can’t bowl at him.” Story: Josh Burrows 20 SPIN NOVEMBER 2010
In bed with Phil Tufnell To Victoria Station, where Mr Philip Tufnell is lying on a giant bed, as he tries to talk non-stop for 24 hours, in an attempt to break the world record for a conference call. (As if such a thing exists). The erstwhile twirler is talking over a headset to erstwhile ‘glamour’ ‘model’ Jodie Marsh, herself lying on a bed in Waterloo, all laid on by phone folk
powwownow.com. I settle on the bed, ignoring the catcalls down the line from Marsh about looking like John McCririck and can I let her know who’s going to win the 3.30. The Cat suggests this is his “craziest” publicity stunt yet. He’s been in bed for precisely 32 minutes. I tell him he looks knackered already. The Tufnell face crumples (further): “I don’t
Don’t know they’re born? Old-timers may be sceptical when modern cricketers complain of over-work but even a study of the number of match and travelling days – never mind the increased intensity of play – would seem to bear their complaints out. In 1950, the county programme consisted of 28 three-day games for each county – a total of 84 playing days. This summer, a team going all the way in every competition – Somerset, say – had e a potential total of 96 playing days, divided across 50 different matches (51 if you count both games on T20 finals day). The frantic schedule has abated a little since 1990, when, across four competitions, counties could play up to 58 different games. Hard as it may be for those raised on pyjama fare to get to grips with, as recently as 1960, there were 96 days of Championship cricket a year.
KEMP INVESTIGATES Left: Phil Tufnell, fatigued by 24-hour chat challenge. Below: Mo Asif. He’s got the weight of the world on his shoulders, of course.
know whether we’re gonna do it, mate. I don’t know how we’re going to do it! 24 hours is a long time. But I’ll get through it. I’ve always been a trier.” As we sit before our public on the concourse, Tuffers tells me the most famous person on his phone is Jonathan Ross, Marsh continues to harangue me and I reflect that it’s all a long way from the post-cricket life of Deadly Derek Underwood. “I don’t mind a deerstalker. I’ve
worn one out and about, down the pub,” muses Tufnell. “But I think I’d say my favourite is the porkpie hat.” So now you know. Word reaches me of an impressive bowling feat that you don’t hear of every day. In fact, it’s only been achieved 61 times in the whole of first-class cricket. Richard Topham of Woodcote CC in the Berkshire League took all 10 wickets as they, or rather he, crushed Greys Green CC in a Sunday league match in September. “It was swinging around,” says Richard, “and everything just fell into place”. The Woodcote Wizard ending up cleaning bowling six and finished with 10/24. Ringing to congratulate him, Kemp
finds a man after his own heart. “I got a bit of stick when I was on nine wickets,” says the latterday Laker. “I could have thrown down the stumps for an easy run-out, but, well, as I told
the team, it might have gone for overthrows, so I held onto it”. Proving not to be a man after Kemp’s heart, all the drink were on him after the game. “Quite a night,” he understates. Just time for a word on Kemp’s old mate, Mo Asif [pictured] who recently appeared in public to scotch any suggestion that he lived extravagantly, like some kind of prince, as scurrilous tabloids had been suggesting. As if!
Total playing days and number of matches in each format
120 90 60 30 0 1950 Total match days
1960 3 day
1970 4 day
1980 40 over
50 over
1990 55 over
2000 60 over
2010
T20
NOVEMBER 2010
SPIN 21
READERS QUESTIONS
DAVID LLOYD
DAVID LLOYD Test double-centurion, umpire, England coach, Sky gantryist, national treasure… As he embarks on a national tour, Bumble answers questions from SPIN readers
D
avid Lloyd has done everything in cricket: debuting for Lancashire in 1965 as a spinner, he ended up playing nine Tests as an opening bat for England, hitting a double-century against India in his second game in 1974. Six months after that, Lloyd played his last Test, one of many casualties of England’s 4-1 Ashes trouncing Down Under by Lillee and Thomson’s Australia. The left-handed Lloyd was a key part of the Lancashire side that dominated English one-day cricket in the early ’70s, winning the first two Sunday Leagues (1969 and 1970) and three Gillette Cups in a row from 1970. By the time he played his last game, in 1985, he had made nearly 27,000 runs all told in a 21-season career. In retirement, Lloyd turned first to umpiring and then to coaching, first with Lancashire before being rapidly promoted, to the England job. Lloyd was in charge of the national team between 1996 and 1999 before retreating to the Sky gantry. Lloyd’s time as England coach was mixed. Using specialist coaches alongside his own Churchillian approach to team talks, Lloyd’s tenure laid foundations for the future: the win over South Africa in 1998 was England’s first in a major series for 11 years and the side was at least competitive despite losing the Ashes 3-1 the following winter. But failing to win a game on tour in Zimbabwe in 1996 and the debacle of the 1999 World Cup exit cast a shadow. Steeped in cricket and always entertaining, in his decade with Sky, Bumble has become the natural heir to Dickie Bird’s mantle as cricket’s No 1 maverick national treasure and this month he embarks on a national theatre tour to meet his public. There’s
plenty of them: at last count he had over 90,000 followers on his Twitter account.
When you retired as a player, did you think you would be an umpire for the rest of your career? Daniel Mitchell
No. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a good time in my life. But I probably knew I would go into coaching because I’d done lots of coaching badges. But when I was an umpire my ambition was to be an international umpire – and if I’d got that far, I would maybe still have been doing that, I don’t know.
You’re about to take to the stage – who are your own comedy heroes? Anne Dickinson
Going way back, Jimmy James [music hall star; radio and TV shows in 1950s; died in 1965]. He had a trilby and a fag and he never looked at the audience. He had two stooges: Eli Woods, who had a proper stutter, not put on; and Roy Castle. All sorts of other comedians... Tommy Cooper, of course, then right up to date, The Fast Show, Paul Whitehouse, all that lot.
Who first called you Bumble? Andrew Grigg
John Sullivan, who was at Lancashire in the ’60s. He gave me the nickname because I looked like one of the characters on Michael Bentine’s show, the Bumblies, that was very much like the Simpsons.
“I wouldn’t tow the diplomatic line. I come from an area where if someone kicks you once, you kick ’em twice…”
When was the first time you spoke in public? Mike Alderson
It would be when I was captain of Lancashire mid-’70s. I’d have a good guess at it being Liverpool Cricket Club. I think I just had to introduce the team and told a couple of anecdotes about each one. Someone in the audience said they’d like to book me to speak at a function and I said, “No, I don’t do any of that.” But it moved on from there...
Do you think you should you have played more times for England? Catherine Watson
[Emphatically] No! I came back [into the one-day side] in 1980 and I should never have been picked. Botham was captain and you know how bad a captain he was – he chose me to play in that game. He must have been mad. I couldn’t see for a start. I mean, I could see alright for county cricket but he brought me back against the West Indies. And there was no chance of seeing them.
Has anyone been as frightening to watch or play against as Jeff Thomson was on that 1974/75 Ashes tour? Gordon Foulds
One I played with who was ferocious was Colin Croft – and against, Sylvester Clarke NOVEMBER 2010
SPIN 29