spin dec-jan 2010

SPINNO 1

FOR CRICKET

WORLD CRICKET MONTHLY

ANDREW STRAUSS

WITH NEWIMPROVEDEXCLUSIVEHAWKEYE

‘The hard work starts now’

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INSIDEANDY CADDICKSTUART BROAD

SOBERS ON STANFORD

‘I STILL TRUST HIM’

DEC/JAN 2010 £3.95

MICHAELVAUGHANA no-holds-barred exit interview

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good reasons to remember 2009+ MICHAEL SIMKINS VIV RICHARDS ANDY MOLES

REVIEW CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

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Sif he’d won the lottery - or at least the tournament. Earlier Thomas had taken 2/25 from his four overs, in a bowling spell that included 12 dot balls. His all-round effort won him man of the match honours in Somerset’s only victory in India.

IPL TEAM FAILURES ! A TRIUMPH OF TEAMWORK OVER MONEYAssembled at price tags in excess of $100 million and playing in front of sold out home crowds, how could the IPL sides have been so vastly outperformed by the likes of Trinidad and Tobago or the Diamond Eagles?Surely no-one could have predicted that the three IPL teams would finish so poorly in the Champions League; no IPL side reached the semis, with only one making it through to the last eight. Or could they?

Bangalore coach Ray Jennings made the following observation early in the

The fact that Lee ended the tournament with eight wickets at 9.87, scored runs and fielded well was remarkable. That his bowling economy throughout the Champions League was only 3.76 runs per over, miserly even in ODI cricket, is unbelievable. There was no other contender for man of the series.

ALFONSO THOMAS’ MATCH"WINNING KNOCK With Somerset reeling at 99/7, 14 overs into an unlikely chase of 154 against IPL champs Deccan Chargers, the chance of victory appeared slim. Enter Alfonso Thomas, the Sabres’ No 9 batsman. Thomas struck 30 off 17 in a 58-run partnership (from 32 balls) to steer Justin Langer’s side to an unlikely win.

Thomas smashed consecutive fours off the last two balls of the match, then sprinted off for a celebratory hug with team-mates as

BRETT LEE: MAN OF THE SERIESWhen the New South Wales Blues cash in their Champions League bounty, they have Brett Lee to thank. Lee almost single-handedly won the Blues the final: he followed up his 31-ball innings of 48 with a bowling spell of 2/10 – plus two catches in the field – to earn NSW a 41-run victory over Trinidad and Tobago. The victory made the state side, winners of the 2009 Australian domestic competition, a mere $2.5 million (US) in prize money.

Lee, who rarely plays for the Blues, helped NSW recover from 83/6 in the 12th over to post 159/9. He then obliterated William Perkins’ stumps, held on to an astonishing caught-and-bowled chance to dismiss Lendl Simmons – and safely caught a Kieron Pollard-despatched ball that came down with snow on it to put an end to Trinidad and Tobago’s unexpected run of success.

The IPL teams were nowhere as NSW Blues took the first world club T20 title. Nick Sadleir selects ten reasons to remember the Champions League

ALL-STAR AUSSIES SCOOP FIRST CHAMPS LEAGUE

Man of the tournament Brett Lee celebrates removing Diamond Eagles’ Rilee Rossouw

84 SPIN DECEMBER/JANUARY 2010

REVIEW CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

‘The non-IPL sides are a lot better than the IPL sides…’tournament: “The non-IPL Champions League sides are a lot better than the IPL teams because they play together throughout the year and have a team culture in place. But with the IPL sides, there are players from around the world and that will be a problem,” he said.

The prediction proved spot on, as the team spirit displayed by Trinidad and Tobago – the only national side playing in the tournament – seemed to far outweigh that of the IPL teams. It was refreshing to see such a closely-knit side play as a whole that was far greater than the sum of its parts.

DUMINY’S !! NOT OUTIn the first-ever CLT20 match, the Cape Cobras looked dead and buried at 14/2 in pursuit of 181 against the Royal Challengers in Bangalore. But Jean-Paul Duminy, South Africa’s brightest new batting talent of the past year, had other ideas.

The Cobras had suffered from stage fright in the field and were looking just as bad with the bat when an imperious Duminy stole the show. Duminy’s 99 not out came off only 52 deliveries without a single rash shot. He worked the ball around, building partnerships, before finishing off the show in style with eight fours and five sixes to complete the most unlikely of wins.

Duminy has often produced remarkable innings when his side has not managed to chase down a total – but this time was different: it was for the team, not himself.

On 98 not out and requiring only a few runs to win the match, JP took a single with four balls remaining. He finished the tournament as the leading run-scorer.

PUTTICK’S "#$ NOT OUTThe only hundred of the tournament was a wonderfully composed unbeaten century by Cape Cobras captain Andrew Puttick.

Making the most of the beautiful Hyderabad surface, Puttick, who was only included in the squad at the eleventh hour as a result of an injury to Graeme Smith, helped his side post an imposing total of 193/4. His 104* came from only 62 balls and included 12 fours and three sixes, as Puttick scored freely using textbook cricket shots to all areas of the park. It helped the Cobras to a convincing 54-run win over Otago.

HENRY DAVID’S ON%AIR RUN OUTCape Cobras’ Henry Davids made his fair share of fielding errors in the tournament but he also had moments of brilliance. In the match against Otago he followed up a fine catch at third man to dismiss Brendon McCullum with the impressive run out of Neil Broom – while wired up on-field and talking to the TV commentators. Viewers were treated not only to the sight of his shuffle, collect, hard accurate throw and grunt – but the sound too. Surely a cricket coverage first.

CJ DE VILLIERS’ SUPER OVERThe Diamond Eagles had been cruising for an easy victory at 70 without loss in pursuit

Below, left: despite the presence of the megabucks IPL franchises, it was the home-grown all-stars of New South Wales who took the title. Right: Alfonso Thomas celebrates his heroics against the Deccan Chargers

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After a decade of playing through pain, England’s talisman finally called time on his Test career two days before the Lord’s Test. England had played 141 Tests since Flitnoff’s debut in July 1998; Flintoff had taken the field in just 75 of them, his career interrupted by injuries: first, back injuries (2000), then a double hernia (2002), three ankle operations (2005, 2006, 2007) and knee surgery in April 2009, as well as all the rehab and other niggles in between.

“There’s a limit to how much you can put your body through and a limit to how much you can put yourself through emotionally and psychologically,” he said. Flintoff’s participation in each of the last four Tests seemed touch and go, to both distant observers and the England management if not the talisman himself. Hence every time he took the field, both England supporters and Flintoff himself had a ‘last-chance-to-see’ intensity about them. Flintoff put England 1-0 up with an emotional five-for on the last day at Lord’s, helped clinch the Oval decider with an inspired run-out of Ricky Ponting and, having played through pain all summer, had another knee operation the day after England had won the Ashes. What a way to go.

9FLINTOFF’S LAP OF HONOURJULY!AUGUST

Lord’s: Flintoff’s man-of-the-match 5/92 puts England 0ne-up

2009 REVIEW TOP 50


government, stricken by the MPs expenses scandal, the collapse of the economy, the war in Afghanistan and so on, will attempt to claw back some popularity by… getting the Ashes back on terrestrial TV?

Apparently so.Four times as many people

saw the finale of the Ashes in 2005 (7.5 million) on Channel 4 as saw this year’s (1.9m) on Sky. A decade ago, it was the ECB itself that asked the government to take Test cricket off the list of ‘Crown Jewel’ events that, by law, had to be shown on free-to-air television. The debate over the pros and cons of that decision has continued ever since. Then, in October, a leak: Ashes Tests would be put back on the list, thanks to the advice of a government review led by former FA Chief executive David Davies. In November, the ECB braced itself for some top level talks with the government. Expect a big public row early in the New Year.

11 GAYLE BADMOUTHS TESTSMAYIt was a bleak month for cricket. English IPL players sloped back to join the Test team a few days before the start of the series with the Windies. Windies players returned even later. And, riled at squeezing in a Test series in freezing conditions, when he could have been coining it at the IPL, West Indies skip Chris Gayle put the tin hat

on it all by giving an interview to the Guardian in which he said that: 1) he “wouldn’t be so sad” if Tests were replaced by T20s 2) said Andrew Strauss might be sadder at such a development as “there is no way he can make the change. So tough luck” and 3) apropos of the Windies captaincy: “It’s definitely not something I’m looking to hang on to. I need some time for myself to be honest with you.”

Naturally, Gayle’s comments on Test cricket drew ire from purists. But the stands at Chester-le-Street for the second chilly Test seemed to be remarkably free of any spectators, purist or otherwise.

10SHAHID AFRIDI DOES THE BUSINESSJUNESPIN carried the definitive Afridi interview way back in 2006, when his cult hero status was still based on a decade of thrilling six-and-out cameos, his instinctive talent accompanied by a pile of what-ifs. Yet this summer, finally, at the age of (supposedly) 29, the maverick whacker/twirler put his days of being an entertaining footnote behind him and brought home Pakistan’s first major silverware since the 1992 World Cup. After Pakistan’s comically hapless start to the ICC World T20 – defeat to England; say no more – it was Afridi who inspired theirturnaround: four wickets against Holland; an inspirational catch

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The Oval: Fred runs out Ponting and tries out another celebration

Afridi: sensibly-directed genius

2009 REVIEW TOP 50


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2009 REVIEW STUART BROAD1

INTERVIEW MATTHEW PRYOR


2009 REVIEW STUART BROAD

T hree Tests into the Ashes, Stuart Broad averaged 57 with the ball and looked like the weak link in England’s attack. With the

mooted recall of Steve Harmison, he was favourite to make way.

Despite taking his first international five-for in the West Indies, it had been a tough year for Broad. He had been at the sharp end of the defeat to Holland at the World T20 and, more seriously, had to deal with the shock of his father, Chris, being caught up in the terrorist attacks in Lahore.

But Broad’s ability to bounce back –

notably after conceding six sixes at the first World T20 – has been obvious throughout his short career. And despite his apparent underachievement at the start of the Ashes, England kept faith.

It helped Broad’s cause that he bats like a genuine No 8, hitting 55 at Birmingham and following it up by hitting 61, with the game lost, on the last day at Leeds. But ultimately Broad is in the side for his bowling – and Strauss’ and Flower’s unshakeable faith was rewarded on the Friday afternoon of the Brit Oval Test when Broad produced one of the great spells in recent Ashes history, to, finally,

swing a back-and-forth series England’s way. It was a life-changing afternoon: Andrew Flintoff said that Broad was better than him; Jonathan Ross invited him on his show – and now, there’s a book, too, rapidly produced, celebrating the 23-year-old’s life and career to date.

SPIN: Momentum is one of England’s favourite words: where was the personal shift for you in the Ashes?Stuart Broad I’d say a key moment was at Edgbaston. I hadn’t bowled for 50 overs in the second innings and I was running from fine leg to fine leg as a spectator really. I had felt a little momentum shift with the 50 I got in the first innings there, because I felt I belonged and made an impact on the series, had a bit of a battle. But then not to get the ball for 50 overs when I was a bit fired up shocked me a little bit. But when I got my chance I got Hussey in my second over.

It’s quite rare that you play three Test matches without making any impact and still stay in the side as a bowler. But that spell – I think I got two for 30-odd in 15 overs – that gave me a huge amount of confidence to get back to just trying to hit the top of off and stop trying to buy wickets and let them come. Then finishing with back-to-back fiver-fors [at Headingley and The Oval] obviously carried that through.

So people who think it was the 6/91 you took at Headingley that turned it all round are missing the point?It’s really weird how it works: to everyone else getting North on 90-odd, Hussey on 60-odd [at Edgbaston], it was a worthless spell really. It was, ‘Come on let get this day over, we’re not going to win’. But to me I was playing for my Ashes place so I charged in, got plays-and-misses and got North when Jimmy [Anderson] took a great catch. I walked off laughing

‘Was it at all lucky? Oh, enormously.’Stuart Broad reflects on the half-hour of magic that won England the Ashes, how close he came to being dropped – and how string made him the man he is

August 21 2009: Stuart Broad leads England off, after skittling the Aussies’ top order


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2009 REVIEW ANDREW STRAUSS


2009 REVIEW ANDREW STRAUSS

Andrew Strauss first captained England as long ago as the summer of 2006 when. Then, in the absence of the first two

choices Michael Vaughan and Andrew Flintoff, he took on the poisoned chalice of the ODI captaincy for a 5-0 thrashing by Sri Lanka, before leading the team more successfully in the 3-0 Test series win over Pakistan, that concluded in the Hairgate fiasco at the Oval.

Strauss, one of the few England squad members to have had captaincy experience at county level, missed out on the permanent job once Flintoff was ‘fit’ again that winter. And by the time the captaincy next came up in the summer of 2008, he had only recently won his place back in the Test team, after a mid-career loss of form.

He didn’t have to wait long. In January, after a week of backstage rows between Kevin Pietersen, Peter Moores and ECB management, England turned to Strauss. They had lost four of their last six Test series and been outclassed in their most recent one-day series in India. The camp was apparently divided. And the first Ashes Test was only six months away…

SPIN: In your book, you say every time the captaincy had come up before, it had “concerned” you. But not this time. What did you mean by that?Andrew Strauss Well, for instance, when it came up before the Ashes in 2006, I was concerned by the fact that Andrew Flintoff was actually the vice captain, so for me to take over would be a big snub for him; there’d been a big media debate about whether it was the right thing or not. It just didn’t feel… quite right to me.

Even though you’d been in charge successfully that summer?I’d been in charge in his absence. So that didn’t feel quite right. And when Michael Vaughan resigned in 2008, I was only

playing in one form of the game and wasn’t in brilliant form. So again, it just didn’t feel like it was my time. Whereas when it came up in January, I was in good form, the other guys had had their chance almost and, erm, it seemed like I was the right guy to do it. And that made me very clear in my own mind that I wanted to do the job.

Was it actually a good thing for you not to get captaincy for that 2006 Ashes?Erm… probably. I still maintain that if I’d been captain or Michael Vaughan or Andrew Flintoff, we wouldn’t have won that series with the side we had and the way we were playing. So, yeah, if I’d captained that series and we’d lost then maybe that would have been my chance gone. It’s hard to say.

You said during the Ashes that the Australians didn’t have the same aura as previous Aussie teams. But how did your own side feel different to the 2005 vintage?Well, I think we’re a lot earlier in our development. And probably the only reason that we were able to win that series is that Australia are going through a period of redevelopment as well. If we’d played the 2005 Australian side with the side we have now we would have struggled. But at the same time we’ve got a lot of the raw ingredients there and a good mix of youth and experience in the side and I think we can go a lot further and get a lot better. Whereas in 2005, we felt we could go a lot further and

get a lot better but then we realised that actually guys were towards the back end of their careers and they were getting injured and that side never really played together again…

What issues did you face when you took over as captain? What was the first thing you felt you had to do?Well, the first thing was to try and get things back on an even keel, which meant finding out how players felt about the whole Moores-Pietersen thing and then trying to move on from that as a side and start focusing on what lay in front of us. And that wasn’t as difficult as I thought it was going to be. I think people were very keen to move on from it. The second thing was to get players thinking for themselves a bit more and buying into the team environment a bit more as well. And that’s an ongoing process, from which we’ve seen some dividends in the Ashes but we’re going to need it more and more going forward as well.

It will seem strange to our readers that the England team before you took over weren’t expected to take responsibility and think for themselves. What does that mean, specifically?I just think it’s one of the dangers of ‘professionalism’ is that there’s a coach for everything. There’s always someone to support you and talk stuff through with. And those guys have to justify their jobs. And part of the danger of that is that they end up telling you what to do all the time as a schoolmaster might and not allow you to find things out for yourself.

We want players to use the coaches as consultants to tap into or not as you see fit. And for that to run smoothly you need coaches to feel secure about their abilities and their jobs and players who are ready to let go of that potential crutch and say, ‘I’m going to do it my way and if it doesn’t work, I’ve got no-one to blame but myself.’

Andrew Strauss took England from fiasco to Ashes glory within eight short months. He tells SPIN how he did it – and why the hard work is only just starting

‘Anyone who thinks we achieved our life goal by winning the Ashes would be… mad’

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INTERVIEW MICHAEL VAUGHAN

INTERVIEW DUNCAN STEER


Michael Vaughan was last interviewed in these pages as recently as May. That was the start of the Ashes summer and

the speculation was that a place in the England team was there for the taking. Vaughan had taken a break after his emotional step-down from the England captaincy in 2008. “I feel refreshed and ready for a few more years,” he said then. “I will be playing cricket next year. We just have to wait and see where.”

Within weeks, however, he had been left out of the England squad and lost the will to play for Yorkshire and one of the iconic careers of the modern game quietly came to an end. Vaughan ended the summer not eking out his 15-year Yorkshire career or sharing in the Ashes glory at the Brit Oval, but working on a book reviewing his career in the game. Time to Declare is a candid account of a decade that could be taken to define English cricket. Vaughan first took guard when England were two for four against South Africa in 1999; then took the team to their highest point in 20 years in 2004-2005; before an anti-climactic finish marred by injury and backstage in-fighting; and a tearful goodbye.

In his memoir, Vaughan has taken the opportunity to tackle many of the unanswered questions of that period head-on: not just of the secrets of the most successful England captain of all

time – he won 26 of his 51 Tests in charge – but also of the fallings-out that preceded and followed his time in the sun. From his belief that Chris Read was too unforthcoming for such a key role as keeper to the detailed inside story of his clash with Peter Moores – too much treating the players like children; too much ‘management speak gobbledygook’, apparently. There’s even an hilarious assessment of exactly what Vaughan learned from playing under the highly-strung Nasser Hussain which is best summed up as ‘do the exact opposite’.

As the most successful England captain in history and a key architect of Ashes fever, readers might expect Vaughan to have been consulted by the ECB at every turn since 2005. But one of his major frustrations appears to be that while the media built his reputation as some kind of string-pulling Godfather of English cricket, he was, he says, seldom consulted at all by the ECB. In all, freed from the shackles of diplomacy imposed by being an ‘insider’, Vaughan’s memoir is essential reading for anyone with an interest in English cricket over the last ten years.

SPIN meets Vaughan at his publishers in London, as his book is launched. Of the dozens of interviews Vaughan will give to promote the book, ours is the first. The ex-England skipper is relaxed, drily funny, very open and good company, as he offers an intriguing post-mortem on a decade at the top of world cricket.

History will say your career was effectively by your knee injury – but your book suggests that mental fatigue was more significant…Oh, I dunno. I think that year out with the knee [2006-2007] took two or three years off my career… Without the knee injury would I still have been playing county cricket? I’m not sure. I just didn’t get the buzz from county cricket at the end. I tried my best to get back in the England team. I just felt it was best to move aside and let the young players have an opportunity at Yorkshire, the way I did when I was 18 years old. And now... I don’t sit here thinking I wish I was going to South Africa with the team. I’m going out there to do some commentary with the BBC. I get on pretty quickly with my life. I move on quite fast.

Your real low-point, emotionally, after resigning the captaincy was only just over a year ago. You seem to have recovered equilibrium quite quickly…It took probably three or four months after resigning the captaincy to feel normal again. When you’re England captain you get in a position where you think you’re very very important. And you are – but not as important as you think you are. Every single day all I would think about is the England cricket team and the England captaincy. That’s how you have to be but for five-and-a-half years – including that year with injury – thinking about the team.

Michael Vaughan on the secrets (and angst) of being England’s most successful captain, what went wrong with Peter Moores – and the players he just didn’t fancy…

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INTERVIEW MICHAEL VAUGHAN

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INTERVIEW INDIA’S PACE REVOLUTIONINTERVIEW INDIA’S PACE REVOLUTION

W est Indies started the year with a 1-0 series victory over England, but already the straws were in the wind: before the win had

been confirmed, Sir Allen Stanford, whose millions had been slated to professionalise Caribbean cricket, had been accused of a massive financial fraud, for which he was later arrested and charge. The farce of the abandoned second Test at the Viv Richards Stadium in Antigua played by comparison.

Later, the long-running dispute between the players and the board erupted into a full-on strike that saw Chris Gayle and most of the first-choice players missing, first the home series with Bangladesh – played to empty grounds – and then the ICC Champions Trophy.

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Some kind of redemption – or at least raising of the spirits – may not be so far away: the travelling carnival of goodwill that is the ICC World Twenty20 starts its next edition in Barbados, Guyana and St Lucia on April 30.

ut what about the longer term? SPIN spoke to four of the greatest players ever to play the game – all of them formerly on Stanford’s board of legends – to discuss 2009’s events and why, come what may, West Indies will always be a heartland of cricket and a magnet to cricket fans the world over.

SPIN A year ago, we were all in Antigua watching the Stanford Super Series. None of us could have known what was about to happen to Allen Stanford or his empire. What will Stanford’s legacy be?SIR GARFIELD SOBERS I don’t

From Stanford’s arrest to the players strike, 2009 was a tough year for West Indies cricket. SPIN asked four Caribbean legends for their verdicts

Islands

Sir Viv RichardsPlayed 121 Tests, 1974-1991. Regarded as greatest batsman of the modern era.

Sir Garfield SobersPlayed 93 Tests, 1954-1974. Like Richards, one of Wisden’s five cricketers of the 2oth Century.

Richie RichardsonPlayed 86 Tests, 1982-1995. Only Jack Hobbs has hit more than his nine Test centuries v Australia.

Reverand Wes HallPlayed 48 Tests, 1958-1969. Legendary fast bowler and, later, Barbados’ Minister for Sport.

THE SPIN PANEL

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INTERVIEW INDIA’S PACE REVOLUTION


INTERVIEW INDIA’S PACE REVOLUTION

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ANALYSIS HAWKEYE

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The big performances of 2009 as revealed in SPIN’s exclusive Hawkeye graphics and data

STUART BROAD’S ASHES-WINNING SPELL

STUART BROAD’S 5/37 in Australia’s first innings at the Brit Oval that ensured a handy lead for England – and set them on course for an Ashes-winning victory. Graphic 1 shows Broad’s pitch map to Australia’s right handers in that innings, including four of his five wicket

balls (white). Whereas in earlier Tests Broad had bowled too short too often, he finally got his length right – all but one of his wickets were from pitched up deliveries. When he did stray short, Australia’s batsmen were able to pick up rare boundaries (yellow). But the vast majority of

balls were pitched in the ideal channel outside off, on a perfect length. Graphic 2 shows all Broad’s wicket-taking deliveries. As well as a reliable line and length, Broad offered movement off the deck: Ponting was undone by a ball that moved back into him, causing him to chop it on to

his stumps (blue), while the only left-handed victim, Mike Hussey, misjudged a leave to be trapped leg before (yellow). But perhaps the most memorable of Broad’s wickets was to reduce Australia to 111/7: it was pitched up to Brad Haddin (green), straightened and flattened his off-stump.

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PLAYERS OF THE YEAR


ANALYSIS HAWKEYE

MITCHELL JOHNSON IN DURBAN

THE MAN WHO PIPPED Strauss for the ICC Cricketer of the Year gong did so largely thanks to a brutal passage of play at Durban (his 80 wickets in the voting period helped, too). Mitchell Johnson bowled quickly and accurately, and reduced the usually solid South Africa batting line-up to a

stunned injury ward. Graphic 5 is his pitch map to right-handers in that innings, showing his three wicket balls (white), two of which came in the opening over, to leave South Africa two wickets down without a run scored. But it was the short stuff that really troubled the batsmen – not

only was it fast, but also very well directed and hard to score off (red balls denote dot balls). Johnson conceded one boundary (yellow) but the Proteas’ priority was survival. That was particularly the case in his second over (Graphic 6). All but one delivery landed on a short length, with the first ball

of the over (yellow) striking Graeme Smith’s hand at 94mph. By mid-over Smith had retired hurt. Johnson didn’t relent: he then struck AB de Villiers on the gloves. If he wasn’t tormenting South Africa with well directed short balls, he was pitching it up and getting movement back into the right-handers.

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ANDREW STRAUSS - 2009’s RUN MACHINE

ANDREW STRAUSS just lost out on the ICC Cricketer of the Year title, despite having scored 1323 runs, including six centuries, at 60.13 in the qualification period. Promotion to the England captaincy seems to have helped Strauss’ consistency, and he’s also managed to turn tons into even more substantial knocks: he

scored more than 150 in two of the six innings.

Graphic 3 is Strauss’ wagon wheel from his 169 against the West Indies in February – in his first series since taking over the captaincy on a permanent basis; while Graphic 4 is from his 161 at Lord’s against Australia.

Both knocks were in the first innings and handed England the

upper hand in the match. Strauss’ was striking at around 60 in both innings, hitting 24 and 22 boundaries respectively.

Earlier in his career, Strauss’ favoured scoring area tended to be square of the wicket but these show how well rounded Strauss’ batting has been this year – with plenty of boundaries (blue) all around the wicket.

Nonetheless, the Lord’s graphic does show a cluster of boundaries from cut shots, thanks to Mitch Johnson’s erratic bowling on the first day, when Strauss and Alastair Cook combined for a 196-run opening stand. It was one of only two England centuries in the Ashes set the platform for England to end their 75-year Lord’s hoodoo.

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MASTERCLASSFOR ANY YOUNG LADS OUT THERE…

CRICKET IS A SIDEWAYS GAME…When I was a young player, writes Gary Palmer, this mantra was repeated to me all the time. Now, I’m a coach, I’m convinced it’s not good advice at all. The turning point for me came when I was at Somerset and had a session with the great West Indian batsman Roy Marshall: he suggested it would be easier for me to hit the ball straight if my shoulders were more open: I tried it and it worked for me.

The only time a batter needs to get into a good sideways position is when the lines of delivery are on or outside the line of off stump. This applies to both front and back foot shots. To play a ball on the line of off-stump (or outside off-stump) the shoulder closes towards the off side and the front foot will land across the line of the back foot so that the bat can swing towards the target area for the maximum amount of time.

But when the ball is straight or on the line of leg stump, being perfectly sideways becomes a problem: you get closed off and

start to hit around the front pad. It becomes impossible to hit the ball with the full face of the bat.

This happens because players are concentrating too much on trying to point their leading shoulder, rather than their head, towards the ball. If the shoulder goes at the ball when the ball is straight or on leg stump, the batter ends up falling over to the off side and playing around his front pad. This is a problem Alastair Cook had this summer. Owais Shah is another player who, to me, looks as it he is trying, quite self-consciously, to lead with his shoulder.

The solution is not necessarily adopting the wide open, crab-like stance of, say Shivnarine Chanderpaul. But having a slightly open stance will help prevent you from having to play round their front pad. Adopting a more open shoulder position when playing straight and through mid on gives you a good sight of the ball, good balance and good alignment to play the shot.

The players that have a more open

shoulder position and keep their head in line and behind the ball will be the players that can swing the bat in a straight line through the target area for the maximum time.

With back-foot shots you need to go back and across the crease as this helps to open you up. If you go straight back this can get you closed off and will limit your stroke play.

Fast bowlers will exploit batters who are too sideways-on because it is difficult to play the short ball aimed at the body from a sideways position. Your backswing goes behind you and therefore the hands are initially hidden behind the body and they have to swing all the way around the body in a golf swing action to get at the ball. Clearly, this takes longer to get the bat at the ball.

The more open shoulder position allows the hands to move in a straight line to the ball while the body remains still.

The back foot should turn in slightly, pointing down the pitch, prior to playing the shot as the shoulders begin to open when playing the ball on middle stump line. If the


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AUGUST 2008 SPIN 79 JUNE 2008 SPIN 79

Who’s had it?Last winter both Graeme Smith [pictured below] and Stuart Clark were sidelined with it – while Sachin Tendulkar suffered with it throughout 2005 and 2006.

What is it?Tennis elbow is medically known as lateral epicondylitis which is chronic inflammation and partial tearing of a sheet-like tendon which attaches the forearm muscles on the back of the forearm to the bony tip to the outside of the elbow. It is a common condition and when it occurs it can be very disabling, however, with pain over the outer aspect of the elbow radiating down the forearm. It is a sickening pain which is aggravated by gripping, lifting, and throwing. What is the cure?The cure or treatment for the condition involves a huge spectrum of measures from simple rest to forearm stretches, and use of compressive type support, at the least invasive level. The next tier up of treatment is injection therapy which can either be a series of up to three Depo-steroid injections administered at six weekly intervals or injecting your own blood or centrifuged blood onto the injured area. Another technique involving needles is needling the injured tendon under ultrasound control to try and stimulate it to bleed, releasing stem cells which can heal it. The

final option is a surgical release which can be done with open surgery or arthroscopic surgery. This operation can have a fairly poor track record with low success levels and is not often required. How long does rehab take?The condition can take up to 12 to 24 months to settle. One can try and avoid developing the problem by doing regular forearm stretches before and after sports you should be able to get your personal trainer or physio to show these to you. Simon Moyes is one of the UK’s leading Orthopaedic surgeons and works out of the Wellington Hospital, where he has recently started the Wellington Foot and Ankle Clinic. His websites are www.ankle-arthroscopy.co.uk and www.simonmoyes.com.

Tennis elbow By Simon Moyes

back foot stays very sideways you will be closed off slightly.

Look at the Australian top-order. Or Sachin Tendulkar or Sir Vivian Richards. They all adopt the more open body position and that is why they are so well balanced and aligned to play in the ‘V’ so effectively.

On a closely related topic: many right-handed batters at all levels struggle against a left-arm over pace bowler. Why? Because the angle of delivery exaggerates their being in a more sideways position. If you open your feet and shoulders towards where the ball is coming from you will align your bat to be on the line of the ball for as long as possible. Now you can aim to drive the ball back towards where it came from, with minimum risk of getting out.

Gary Palmer has been batting coach to many county and international players and has helped a series of young players win pro contracts. www.ccmacademy.co.uk

1) When practicing front and back foot drives against a bowling machine put the machine in the position in the crease where a left arm over would bowl at you. Set the machine to swing the ball in at middle and leg (on the line marked by the red balls in the bottom two pics).2) Set some cones out in front of you so the ‘V’ area you are looking to drive the ball is between very straight mid-on and mid-wicket.

3) Try to hit balls through the target area first from the more open body position I have been talking about and then try it being too sideways. See which is easier. Finish the session with the machine over the wicket swinging the ball away on off stump line to make sure you remember the correct position for the off drives. Remember now to turn your front shoulder to get in to the more sideways position for the off /cover drives.

in practice

spin dec-jan 2010

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