Cookie and the new way
The sheep don't know what's happened. - Alastair Cook
To someone who hasn't been aware of the quiet process of rebuilding that has been happening in the English setup since the Hussain-Fletcher days, the budding talk of English dominance in cricket looks a very jaunty and flashy bit of sunshine in an English summer of rain, but it is one that threatens to continue: for, yet again, cricket brings in its own inimitable way the sort of incorruptibility that makes it the only great sport to watch and follow. One would have thought that Twenty20 and the greedy Indians and Australians have already done away with the game, that utter reflection of life itself, Test cricket; and behold, there it is, though this time in the guise of a humiliating flagellation given to a team (India) that has never boasted of much gamesmanship.
In many ways, Cook epitomises all that's [great] about cricket: his unflappability is much different from that of Jonathan Trott, cool in cricketing terms as they both are. While Trott is much like Kallis, or even a bit more attractive but less solid version of Dravid, a bricklayer, Cook is the craftsman looking for perfection: each ball to him has an attribute about it and he thinks of each ball as the end in itself, just as for the craftsman each thread has its own colour and story to tell. While Trott sees the bricks in their entirety, Cook is in love with the bricks and his ability to understand each brick; curiously, often both Cook and Trott give the same impression to those who don't understand cricket much or to those who just want to get the building done as fast as possible, who cares how that is done, so they can have all the fancy brackets and doorknobs to fit somewhere.
What will now be the litmus test for Cook is that how well he manages the twin responsibilites of being Cook in Tests and being the English one-day captain: he must not let mix the two. A craftsman, at least as a batsman, has no role to play in one-day cricket; Cook will have to rather enjoy his captaincy and bat with a mixture of sturdiness and swish, but build a stronger team than himself around him. And when he goes back to the Tests, he needs to again play the music. This is the next challenge not only for Cook but also for England. Central to it would also be Eoin Morgan: he is too good a player to not finally become a very good Test player, even if his credentials to some seem more like that of a shorter-format player. I don't see Pietersen lasting more than a couple of years, and Morgan it is then who could have the talent and devastating effect that Pietersen promised often but delivered rarely: Morgan though seems to have a much more balanced head on his shoulders.
As a side otherwise, the only other weak spot that England has is that they lack any other excellent spinner than Swann. They need to find another wicket-taking spinner soon, and maybe also need to have a relook at Panesar and encourage him to take wickets even if he goes for runs. Someone like Irish George Dockrell or Dutch Pieter Sielaar could be great, as they are quite attacking and also very young, if they could qualify for England (though I wish Ireland start the procedure to get Test status; they are much better than West Indies, Zimbabwe or Bangladesh any day). In the present team, Ravi Bopara is the last remnant of those English teams of the past composed of players who could hardly bat or bowl and yet were selected year after year: those horrible years of Blackwell, Shah and Snape. Not to forget the bit earlier times of able but unwilling players like Stewart, Fairbrother and Lamb: all in their cocoons. Soon, Bopara has to make way for great youngsters coming through the England Lions setup and directly from the county teams: mental strength is a must in cricket, and in fact in most sports; the highly talented failure Vinod Kambli is one of the best examples of that.
The one thing that England must always remember is that good cricket makes for good memories. And that is what it is exactly for: not for riches from mindless games played for mindless people in search of fast food.
To someone who hasn't been aware of the quiet process of rebuilding that has been happening in the English setup since the Hussain-Fletcher days, the budding talk of English dominance in cricket looks a very jaunty and flashy bit of sunshine in an English summer of rain, but it is one that threatens to continue: for, yet again, cricket brings in its own inimitable way the sort of incorruptibility that makes it the only great sport to watch and follow. One would have thought that Twenty20 and the greedy Indians and Australians have already done away with the game, that utter reflection of life itself, Test cricket; and behold, there it is, though this time in the guise of a humiliating flagellation given to a team (India) that has never boasted of much gamesmanship.
In many ways, Cook epitomises all that's [great] about cricket: his unflappability is much different from that of Jonathan Trott, cool in cricketing terms as they both are. While Trott is much like Kallis, or even a bit more attractive but less solid version of Dravid, a bricklayer, Cook is the craftsman looking for perfection: each ball to him has an attribute about it and he thinks of each ball as the end in itself, just as for the craftsman each thread has its own colour and story to tell. While Trott sees the bricks in their entirety, Cook is in love with the bricks and his ability to understand each brick; curiously, often both Cook and Trott give the same impression to those who don't understand cricket much or to those who just want to get the building done as fast as possible, who cares how that is done, so they can have all the fancy brackets and doorknobs to fit somewhere.
What will now be the litmus test for Cook is that how well he manages the twin responsibilites of being Cook in Tests and being the English one-day captain: he must not let mix the two. A craftsman, at least as a batsman, has no role to play in one-day cricket; Cook will have to rather enjoy his captaincy and bat with a mixture of sturdiness and swish, but build a stronger team than himself around him. And when he goes back to the Tests, he needs to again play the music. This is the next challenge not only for Cook but also for England. Central to it would also be Eoin Morgan: he is too good a player to not finally become a very good Test player, even if his credentials to some seem more like that of a shorter-format player. I don't see Pietersen lasting more than a couple of years, and Morgan it is then who could have the talent and devastating effect that Pietersen promised often but delivered rarely: Morgan though seems to have a much more balanced head on his shoulders.
As a side otherwise, the only other weak spot that England has is that they lack any other excellent spinner than Swann. They need to find another wicket-taking spinner soon, and maybe also need to have a relook at Panesar and encourage him to take wickets even if he goes for runs. Someone like Irish George Dockrell or Dutch Pieter Sielaar could be great, as they are quite attacking and also very young, if they could qualify for England (though I wish Ireland start the procedure to get Test status; they are much better than West Indies, Zimbabwe or Bangladesh any day). In the present team, Ravi Bopara is the last remnant of those English teams of the past composed of players who could hardly bat or bowl and yet were selected year after year: those horrible years of Blackwell, Shah and Snape. Not to forget the bit earlier times of able but unwilling players like Stewart, Fairbrother and Lamb: all in their cocoons. Soon, Bopara has to make way for great youngsters coming through the England Lions setup and directly from the county teams: mental strength is a must in cricket, and in fact in most sports; the highly talented failure Vinod Kambli is one of the best examples of that.
The one thing that England must always remember is that good cricket makes for good memories. And that is what it is exactly for: not for riches from mindless games played for mindless people in search of fast food.
Labels: cricket
posted by ankyuk at
9:26 am
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