A batsman's game...

After another disappointing weekend, the season is not quite turning out how we had planned. In situations like this, it is important to keep our heads, go back to basics and focus on doing the simple things right.

One of our biggest problems at the moment seems to be that, as a side, we are just not batting well enough. All this comes despite Jimmy Adams claim on Saturday night to me that ‘it is, and always has been, a batsman game’.

It is an interesting accusation, and one that I feel needs more exploration. Yes, this may seem like a bowlers moan, and given this argument has come from Jimmy, there is no better person at moaning. However, there are some valid points to be made.

Firstly, I am going to look at the laws of the game. In league cricket now, it is common place for the rules to state that any ball down the leg side is a wide. Yet why is this the case? All this rule does is take away a perfectly effective line of attack. The actually law as written by the MCC states “The ball will be considered as passing wide of the striker unless it is sufficiently within his reach for him to be able to hit it with his bat by means of a normal cricket stroke.”  There is nothing within that saying we want batsmen to only be able to score on the offside or the bowler must bowl to the batsmen’s strengths, so why do we now meddle in the laws? Yes, it does provide consistency of decision, but surely we can trust our umpires to decide what is a wide or not. In addition, with the advent of switch hitting, and the batsman’s ‘right’ to effectively change what is the leg side and off side, it could be argued such laws are now just outdated.

The same logic applies to regulations on how many fielders you can have on the leg side. Why are we limited to 5? If a batsman is hell bent on swiping the ball to leg, why can’t I set a field which says to him ‘hit me in the off side son’.

Jimmy’s main gripe was one I had never actually considered. Currently, the bowler is reprimanded for running on the pitch. Fielders are told to avoid the pitch. Yet the batsman, the apple of the umpires eye, is permitted to wander down, pick up any loose bits of turf he or she wants to discard, prod down any protruding parts of the pitch that might invoke some uneven bounce, and just generally alter the condition of the surface. What right does he have to do this over the bowler? Never mind the ‘accidental’ running down the middle of the wicket in the last ten overs of the innings!

A batsman out 'gardening'

Finally, I would just like a quick word on technology. Since arriving at Kimberley, I always knew the ‘cozy’ boundaries would prove a challenge to a slow bowler. As a spinner, you don’t mind having short boundaries provided that when you do deceive the batsmen, you get as much value as when the batsmen hits you cleanly. Unfortunately, nowadays, with modern bats, even the clothed hits can find their way to the boundaries for six. So while bat technology has moved on, the ball has remained ever the same.

All in all, we know that people come to watch batmsen not bowlers, but we need to be careful that as batting techniques and equipment continue to improve, the ‘equal’ partners in our great game don’t get too rough a deal.

Schooling the cricketers of tomorrow

Departing Birchover Park last Sunday, following our disappointing collapse against West Indian Cavaliers in the National Knock Out, many of our dressing room were left scratching their heads trying to work out the best method of playing the devilishly difficult spin of former Pakistan Test ace Saqlain Mushtaq. Saqlain has been kicking about the club circuit now for a couple of years, playing as an amateur of course, his love of the game obviously being the huge pull bringing him into league cricket.

I first came across him playing for my former club Leicester Ivanhoe while Saqlain was turning out for Syston. That match produced one of the best innings from a 16 year old that I have ever seen. Shiv Thakor, now with Leicestershire and England Under 19s, scored a fine 50 to win the game. It was a brilliant innings, not because it was explosive or innovative, but just because he refused to play the script that Saqlain had written. Setting 7-2 leg side fields, Saqlain encouraged Shiv to play against the spin, but time and time again, Thakor just worked the ball with the spin into a gap that Mushtaq had not been able to plug.

Shiv Thakor in action for Leicester - Leicester Mercury (c)

One of the great disappointments from that season was that we could not have Thakor playing more often. Shiv, continues to develop into a fine young cricketer under the tutelage of Trevor Ward at Uppingham School. This means that Shiv, as do many of England’s upcoming young cricketers, hones his talents playing not in Premier League Cricket, but on the school playing fields of the independent education sector. While this was ultimately frustrating from a personal and club point of view, it does beg the question, what form of cricket should our top young players be playing to best develop their talent?

Let us start by looking at the facts. In the current England side (if we remove our two overseas players Pietersen and Trott) 6 of the remaining 9 attended Independent Schools for their education, including all of the batsmen in our top 7. Only Jimmy Anderson (St Theodore’s RC High School), Graham Swann (Sponne School) and Tim Bresnan (Castlefield High School) attend schools in the state sector.

Why does school cricket seem to have the formula for player development? Well firstly there are some obvious advantages. Independent Schools often employ the services of top quality cricket coaches, who work with excellent facilities, indoor and out, for extended periods both in and out of the season. In addition to this, there is a culture where sporting success is treated as almost equal to academic success, so pupils are driven to perform to the highest level possible.

Perhaps more crucially though, players are given the time to develop their skills in match situations. Some schools still operate around two day matches, and if not they certainly play time matches. This enables batsmen to spend time building an innings, being selective with their shots and mastering the skills of constructing and chasing a score. Too often in league cricket, a young player is brought in, bats at seven in the order, and goes in under extreme pressure to score from the off. As a result, a couple of bad innings’ and their confidence can be shot. It can be the same for a bowler. In a school game they might get the chance to bowl their overs, develop strategies for taking wickets and be allowed to make mistakes along the way. In league cricket, you might come on in the 40^th over, go for 10 runs in your first over with an incorrect field, and be taken off an over later.

So does league cricket hold any role in developing the international players of tomorrow? Of course it does. How else are the next generation of state school players going to make the international scene otherwise? The ECB and club cricket in general have made great strides in recent years improving the provisions for young players coming into the game. The junior club cricket scene is now much stronger, and the Chance to Shine programme has seen cricket brought into primary schools. However, much still needs to be done. Too much cricket in the secondary state sector is a token gesture. Not enough specialists, not enough facilities and exam pressures mean cricket is done but with a small c. Schools should be talent identifying, and directing young players to clubs where they can develop their talents. In addition, I would also like to see the development of a Sunday U19 league at a club, or cluster club level. These matches could be developed into two day games across two weekends in the middle of the summer where young players can learn to play with more patience (too much of junior cricket is twenty over slap and dash).

So while I can’t wait to see Shiv Thakor pulling on an England Test shirt in a few years’ time (no doubt claiming to the person sat next to him I taught him all he knew) I would love to think that a pupil at my school might have the chance to go and play alongside him too.

Weather to rearrange?

Could I say it? Might I risk it? It looks like the dreadful weather that we have been experiencing might just be starting to turn the corner. There I’ve done it. Now before you touch wood, cross your fingers or spill salt over your shoulder, whichever superstition you prefer, it is important to consider just impact the weather has had on our cricket season already.

As I write, two of last year’s title challengers in the Nottinghamshire Premier League sit in the bottom four of the table. This is wholly due to the fact that they have only managed one completed game between them. West Indian Cavaliers, have yet to bowl a ball in anger and Welbeck Colliery have only managed one outing, last week’s home defeat to high flying Cuckney.

While this has really thrown open the league this year so far, it does beg the question, can this be fair? Surely, for a team to be over 40 points behind the leaders, having yet had a chance to get out on the pitch, it seems a little harsh. Yet how on earth could we do it in such a way that would avoid such disparities, when the circumstances are beyond the control of any of us?

Kimberley Institute has its own mangle to save us from the rainy days

Coming from a multisport background, my experiences playing and coaching hockey and rugby through the winter months opens up some suggested solutions. It is quite common during the winter for our hockey matches to be lost to snow or frost (occasionally a waterlogged pitch too!). Yet, we do not go down the route of an abandoned game with equal points awarded. We have set slip dates, Sunday’s across the season, on which rearranged league matches are then played. If the slip date is also off? Then another date is scheduled. Indeed, this year we needed to extend our season by a week in order to get our last match in.

So why can’t we just do this in cricket? Well firstly, we all know that cricket loves a cup competition (PK Riley especially). There is the 45 over National KO, the County Twenty20, the Derbyshire Cup and so on. So our Sunday slip dates are already mostly booked, and in addition, where would the slip dates for the cup games be?

Secondly, and probably most importantly, the incentive to play a match on a damp day would quickly evaporate. As I eluded to in my recent article, the hard work of ground staff, players and volunteers to get games of cricket on in wet conditions, often produce some of the most exciting games of the season. However, if we move to a culture of slip dates and rearrangements, you would see more and more people, who are less willing to play on a wet day, ‘when we could wait for a better day later in the year’.

So how can we solve the problem? Well one option is to alter the points so it is not such a big difference between an abandonment and a win, however, we would suffer from many of the issues just mentioned with it proving to be a disincentive to play. Another, more pragmatic option, which has been used by some leagues in the past, is to call off all league matches on a particularly wet weekend, and fix a date for all the block fixtures to be played later in the season. While it may hit a little friction in that there may be cup clashes, it does seem a sensible solution that perhaps could have been used during round one and particularly two of the Nottinghamshire Premier League fixtures.

The fact is, with a game which lasts for a full day, and that is so dependent on the elements, including the daylight hours, there is no easy solution when the weather intervenes. So reach out for the table, get those fingers crossed, or throw that salt over your shoulder and let us that hope May and June bring a little more sunshine than those dastardly April showers.

Benefit of the doubt or doubting the benefits?

With a Brother-in-Law as a Blackburn Rovers season ticket holder, it was not a good night for the family on Monday, as a late goal from Wigan consigned them to relegation. The 87^th minute goal, was almost clawed off the line by Paul Robinson, the Rovers keeper, and for a moment, I sensed another goal line technology argument about to erupt in our ‘national sport’. In the end, his hand was too weak and the ball slipped over the line. Yet throughout recent weeks, the issue of technology in sport, particularly football, has been hitting the headlines as frequently as Oggy goes through a superstition when batting.

In cricket, assistive technology is something we have now become accustom to. It first started with the TV replay for run outs and stumpings, then came the video help for whether a catch had been taken, and now we have seen the plethora of electronic tools for ascertaining LBW and snicked off decisions.

Obviously, league cricket in Nottinghamshire has not got the resources or necessity to introduce technology (although word has it Rob Naylor is in the market for a second hand JVC Handicam), but can we see its effects in the way our games are now umpired?

When I first started playing, it was rare to see the ‘close call’ run outs given in the fielding sides favour. However, with the technology now in the professional game, we see that when the tight ones are often slowed down, it is that batsman who is often left short of his ground. This is especially the case with direct hits as Athers and Bumble so often tell us ‘when its direct, they’re usually out!’

TV replay's have changed umpires perceptions on run outs

So now in league games, you hear umpires declaring, “he was just out, his bat bounced up as he slid in” or “it was only a centimetre or two but it was the direct hit you see”. Yet I find myself thinking, can you really see that well from 20 yards away? Even the slow mo’s on TV are often inconclusive until it is taken to frame by frame. So maybe, just maybe, the umpires are starting to see things that they think they should be seeing, and not what they actually see which is a very close call.

Technology does seem to have eroded the concept of ‘benefit of the doubt’ to the batsman in the matches it has been used in. They have tried to temper this, with the ‘Umpires Call’ element on the Hawk Eye system, a worthy addition which I think is a most practical way of finding the balance. Yet the truth remains that technology is eroding away the levels of doubt that league umpires once trawled through before they could even muster the thought of raising the dreaded digit.

League umpires do a splendid job for the vast majority of the time in finding the balance. However, it is clear to see that as technology continues to change perceptions in the professional game, at an amateur level we must also begin to deal with the consequences. Most notably, how many of those LBW shouts from very round arm left handed spinners are actually plum. I hope your reading umpires of Nottinghamshire…



Scoring high results behind the scenes

With all the rain that has engulfed the country during the last couple of weeks, it was remarkable that we managed to play almost a full game on Saturday. This was only down to the hard work of our ‘ground staff’, as they are most commonly referred, but in reality, they are just volunteers who kindly give up their time to ensure we get to play some cricket.

Cricket clubs are wholly reliant on volunteers to operate. Whether it be the secretary who co-ordinates the membership, the Welfare Officer who ensures the Junior Section runs efficiently, or the many people who kindly work on the ground during the week, all of these people give up their own time for the fulfilment of others. It is this selflessness that can easily be forgotten by the players who turn up on the Saturday and expect everything to be in place.

One of the most important aspects of your game on a Saturday is the scorer. I played for two seasons recently at Premier League level where our side failed to have a regular scorer. Not only was it embarrassing, it was also less than helpful when trying to organise your batting order and your scoring rota at the same time. Kimberley are blessed with a fantastic scorer in Rob Nayler. His dedication to the job goes beyond the cause, and he is always quick to assist a bowler keen to spy his stats or a batsman looking to brag about his strike rate (JT?). Rob is particularly excited this season to be able to use a computer based system which is able amongst other things, to produce wagon wheels for both batsmen and bowlers. Despite Jimmy’s disappointment that these were not edible, this feature will no doubt prove extremely useful in analysing and improving individual player’s performances, as well as providing useful information on opponents. I really hope we can harness this facility well as the season progresses.

With two matches to look forward to this weekend, I am hoping the forecast is correct and we get some dry weather, which should hopefully ease the burden on our ‘ground staff’ to again work miracles. However, when you do arrive for your game, just spare a thought for the people that make it happen each week, without them, league cricket just simply wouldn’t function.

STOP PRESS

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