SPIN August 2010 Sampler

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The inside story of England’s new one-day contenders

LUKE WRIGHT TONY COZIER

DARREN STEVENS JASON ROY

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INTERVIEW SPIN MEETSINTERVIEW SPIN MEETS

INTERVIEW DUNCAN STEER

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DARREN STEVENS

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You might be wondering, if you follow English cricket with any kind of attention, how the cricketer who was officially, the Most Valuable Player in the 2009 Twenty20

Cup did not even make it to the provisional auction list for the Indian Premier League six months later. Darren Stevens’ team-mate Rob Key was on the list as had been, in previous years, Samit Patel and Shaun Udal. Hampshire’s Michael Lumb went further: he made it to the IPL proper, did well for Rajasthan Royals, got in the England side and had a World Cup winners medal within three weeks of his debut. But Stevens was nowhere to be seen.

The reasons seem remarkable.“Because I don’t have an agent, I’ve

got no one to push me,” he says. “I should have looked into it myself but I didn’t. No-one spoke to me about it. I’ve spoken to a couple of agents but I need to find the right one that’s going to push me for IPL. Because that’s what I’m looking at now. And an agent to push me for places like New Zealand and South Africa too. I’ve been trying to get on it this year.”

It’s possibly revealing of how ineptly cricket spends its money that no overseas franchise approached Stevens directly to inquire about his services.

Agent or not, Stevens, now 34, finally made it back into England Lions colours in June, through sheer weight of runs: since the start of 2009, he has hit eight centuries in 37 first-class innings and averages nearly 60, despite often having to nurse Kent’s inexperienced middle-order and long tail this season. With the

Lions, Stevens topped the averages for the triangular one-day series with India A and West Indies A, hitting three 50s in his five outings, despite having limited opportunities going in behind Ravi Bopara and Ian Bell at 5, 6 or even 7.

Stevens has been in the England selectors’s sights before – but his 2002 call-up to the ECB Academy (when he was already 26) seems a lifetime away now. By his own admission, Stevens has only really started playing properly in the last five years

“Everything really started for me when I left Leicester in 2004,” he says. “I was still a kid then – even though I was 28. I didn’t know my game. I didn’t know anything. I was a professional cricketer, a young lad who enjoyed that life until I realised I could be a good player. I didn’t realise that until it hit me in the face when I got released.

“Until then, first-class cricket was just fun for me. I didn’t see it as a job. I was a bit lazy in my training and preparation. Even when I got picked for the Academy, I wasn’t even thinking about the main England side. I was just thinking, ‘Brilliant! I’m going to Adelaide for 12 weeks, I’m going to Sri Lanka for 12 weeks and we’re going to play a bit of cricket!’ I actually did alright on that trip to be fair. But it’s a just a shame: I didn’t realise what an opportunity I had until I was released by Leicester. That opened my eyes up to everything.”

Stevens is not the only player to have reflected on his early career in these terms: the last player to do so in SPIN was none other than Michael Vaughan. But in this supposedly all-new era of ice baths and diet sheets and the life-changing potential of the IPL, can there still be players around

who are happy just to coast, ambitionless and here-for-the-beer, round the county circuit? Stevens chuckles.

“Yeah, I see lots of it, mate,” he laughs. “Loads of it. It’s amazing. The young lads in the England side now are fortunate: they’ve figured it out early. But some people don’t see it. They enjoy the fun of being a profes-sional cricketer. But the sooner you figure it out the better for you.”

Some have seen Stevens’ Lions call-up at 34 as just window-dressing, rather than a serious stepping-stone to the first team. Is he being given a reward for good service rather than a genuine shot at the title? The sceptics may not, however, realise the unu-sual shape of Stevens’ career and why a late call-up would not be quite so strange. In cricket years, Stevens is still pretty young: unlike his fast-tracked team-mates in the Lions set-up, Stevens did not make his first class debut until he was 21 – and, remark-ably for a top player of his generation, did not play cricket at all until he was 16.

“The school I was at was mainly a rugby and football school. I played softball and football. It was only the last year I was there that we played cricket, after I started badg-ering the coaches. Then I joined a local club and never looked back. Within three or four years I had a professional contract.”

For a late-starter, the notion of a life as a pro sportsman must have, understand-ably, seemed something of a bonus and Stevens looks back ruefully now on his lack of ambition to go any further. He paints his career in two halves, the first of blithe underachievement, followed by a knuck-ling-under period inspired by his mentor, ex-team-mate Neil Burns, that took

His relentless runscoring for Kent finally won him Lions recognition. He’s 34 now but, he tells SPIN, it took him a long to even get started

A mighty piece of new research by statistician Dave Wilson rates the world’s best players – batters, bowlers and all-rounders – in one all-time chart. And Don Bradman comes second…

Test cricket has become a turgid batting nightmare for many fans. Too many pitches offer little spin, pace or bounce and give nothing to the hard-working bowlers who

trudge in on them like factory workers in the film Metropolis. Most Test wickets are brown; it would be hard to sell the idea that the pitches are even made of grass to someone who knows nothing of the game. It seems that the sole thing Test match groundsman are told to do in 2010 is to ensure that the Test goes five days, by any means necessary.

It doesn’t make for pretty, entertaining or engaging cricket. It means that shuffling batsmen will nudge and nurdle all day, while the odd attacking batsmen will take tired bowlers to the sword as they strain to find anything out of surfaces deader than Bela Lugosi. A pitch with any life is now, apparently, almost impossible to play on for modern Test batsmen. There are some pitches of recent times that look like they are built to last up to 10 days of cricket; they are indestructible surfaces that could probably outlast a Nuclear Apocalypse.

None of this makes Test cricket too appetising as concept at the moment. The MCC World Committee meets once a year and most of their conversations seem to revolve around making Test cricket more entertaining. They release plans for pink balls, day/night tests, and Test world

championships. They do all this because, for all the chat about re-addressing the balance between bat and ball, they can’t really change the one thing that is needed, the pitches.

This is why they should look to county cricket.

County cricket is often written off as a relic but this year has seen a major innovation that Test cricket would do well to replicate. County cricket has become a place synonymous with result cricket. Some county fans that travel to the ground

only so they can have a kip in the sun have been watching the cricket instead.

Whey are 50 per cent more matches ending in a positive result this year? There are many factors: good weather has meant more play, generally; many more games have been played earlier in the summer, traditionally a time bowlers enjoy the most favourable conditions; there has been a change in the rules that gives two more points for winning and one less for drawing; the Tiflex balls in Division 2 may be a factor; and, since T20 became such a

52 SPIN AUGUST 2010

NUMBER-CRUNCHING BANNING THE ROLLER

Sixty per cent more county games are ending in positive results this year thanks to the ban on the heavy roller. Time to do the same for Test cricket? Jarrod Kimber thinks so.

Test cricket is too

for batsmen

NUMBER-CRUNCHING BANNING THE ROLLER

dominating force, scoring rates have increased and games, generally, run their course more quickly.

But the main factor is the ECB’s brilliant (not often you hear that not said sarcastically) decision to ban the heavy roller from use during the game.

The ECB tinker with the county system like a smothering mother. Their changing of the one-day competition to 40-overs this year was a perfect example of changing something for the worse. But getting rid of the heavy roller is not a mistake. It is

perhaps the best thing to happen to county cricket since they started serving Pimm’s. It has brought youth and vigour to this archaic institution and given its fans results rather than tedious draws. It has worked so well this season already that the ICC (even without a Vice President) should surely be looking at trialling it straight away. It is such a simple idea that it is amazing that it has taken this long to make it to cricket.

Before this year, the heavy roller has been used during county games like it is used in first class cricket and International cricket around the world as per the laws of the game: seven minutes of rolling between innings and at the start of each day’s play. It isn’t a lot, but the heavy roller does two things: it makes it batting easier for an hour or so after it has been applied – and it compacts the pitch making it less likely to break up over the course of the game.

In the last ten years pitches have become flatter and flatter, and they no longer break up at the end of matches. In the last ten years opening batsmen have taken over cricket. Matthew Hayden, Shane Watson, Virender Sehwag, Tamim Iqbal and Tillakeratne Dilshan are not typical openers: they are dashers, but with pitches as they are there is no reason not to let guys like this off the leash and let them run amok.

Once, batting on a fifth day pitch was a nightmare. That doesn’t happen very often

any more. Now record chases and fourth innings chases are completed with ease. Making a second innings hundred for a batsman is now no longer a badge of honour, but just another hundred. For spinners, the ball no longer turns sideways on the last day; in some cases it spins a lot more on the first or second day. Fast bowlers rarely run through teams on the last day with the help of inconsistent bounce.

There has been 18 scores of over 400 runs in the fourth innings of Tests. Seven of them have come since the year 2000. New Zealand have twice made over 400 and lost, so have Bangladesh. South Africa made chasing 400 against Australia look like a cake walk. It won’t be long before sides start chasing down totals of 500, or even 600 to win Test matches if nothing changes.

The offing of the heavy roller might be the change that is needed. If you are thinking that I am just some mad man with a hatred for the heavy roller here is a summary of results over the last four seasons.

SEASON RESULTS DRAWS RESULT %

2010 57 15 79.1

2009 64 64 50

2008 64 64 50

2007 78 46 60.9

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Scoreboards like this are becoming rarer in county cricket. Below: Banning the roller in Tests would bring spinners like Graeme Swann more into the game as pitches started to break up. Opposite: Caribbean wickets have become ultra-friendly/dull in recent years – the 2009 Windies-England series saw an average of 46.71 runs per wicket

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When Andrew Flintoff turned down an England contract two summers ago, he coined the phrase “freelance cricketer”. The prospect of his becoming the first English player to turn his back on international cricket in favour of a life hopping between lucrative Twenty20 events all around the world was ultimately scuppered by injury.

But an increasing number of players are doing well out of selling their services to a number of clubs in different countries. The shape of cricketers’ ambitions are already changing: where once, international cricket was automatically seen as the pinnacle of the game and the place to be, the riches of

ANALYSIS FREELANCE CRICKETERS

Have bat, will travelAs the international calendar becomes a slog and the lure of quick-bucks T20 grows, NICK SADLEIR asks if cricketers’ ambitions are changing – and whether the future is freelance

T20 have blurred the lines. Some players try to have their cake and

eat it. New Zealand’s 2008 tour of England started, pointlessly, with warm-up games for a second-string side while the big guns Daniel Vettori and Brendon McCullum were still at the IPL; West Indies captain Chris Gayle arrived barely before the start of the first Test against England in 2009 because he’d stayed for an extra game (and an extra $10k or so) at the IPL

Increasingly, though, rather than trying to fit everything in, players may be drawn to a way of life that allows them to make big money for a series of short sharp

tournaments. And while a place in the IPL may be the golden ticket, there are T20 tournaments all over the place paying good money to foreign players who are not tied to national contracts and can pop over for a few weeks to hit a ball out of the park.

West Indies’ Kieron Pollard rose to fame by smashing a lot of sixes over a few days for Trinidad and Tobago at the Champions League in India eight months ago. He’s a handy medium pacer too. And while he is a part of the West Indies limited overs setup, Pollard doesn’t crack the nod for the Test side.

So, instead of losing one tiring and time-consuming Test series after another and

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will travelhoping to get some money out of the West Indies Cricket Board, Pollard is free to play for whosoever he likes. Since the beginning of the year, he has been earning good loot at the KFC Big Bash (for South Australia) the IPL (for Mumbai Indians), and now he is hitting sixes in the Friends Provident T20 (Somerset). His six-week stint at the IPL alone earns him $750,000 a year. Nice work if you can get it. Oh, and there is a big Twenty20 tournament in the Caribbean soon and then the Champions League in South Africa in September.

The reason Pollard is able to play for Somerset instead of going on a West Indies A tour is that although he is contracted by the WICB, he has never signed a retainer contract with them. The board is angry, but what can they do?

Whilst virtually all players feel obligated to play for their Test sides if selected, it is becoming very hard to imagine that that will not change. As the former India spinner Bishan Bedi says: “This is a natural offshoot of the cricket

world today. You know, today cricket is like any other job; you do well, you get promotions, if not, you slide down the ladder and maybe, look for other avenues.

“Whether a cricketer opts to try for the national team or opts to become a freelancer, it is after all an extremely individual choice. I can only hope that national pride takes precedence over mercenary instincts.”

The two main ways to become a freelance cricketer are to either not be good enough to make the Test side, or to retire from it. Adam Gilchrist has played in three IPL tournaments over three years since he threw in the gloves in Test cricket and this summer was enjoying himself at Middlesex Panthers.

It helps to be a big name to be a freelance cricketer. IPL teams regularly pay above the price for players that will add a bit more brand value to their side. Cricket is in the entertainment business now. Andrew Symonds picks up $1.35m from Deccan Chargers for the six weeks of the IPL. Last Australian summer, he had a T20-only contract with Queensland and this summer

he has been playing for Surrey in the Friends Provident t20. He has effectively retired from first-class cricket.

Gilchrist admitted he did not touch a bat in the six weeks between the last IPL game and his first T20 in England; after a sticky start, couple of imperious innings, against Kent and Glamorgan, showed that he still had it. But Symonds averaged just 22 for Queensland and 21 for Surrey, showing that the notion of a freelance player turning up and doing their thing, without being in the rhythm of the team nd the season may be a flawed one. Is there much point paying megabucks for a big name if it takes them three weeks to recapture their touch.

‘Cricket is now like any other job; you do well, you get promoted. I hope national pride takes precedence over mercenary instincts’

Money talks (opposite): the Stanford T20 tournaments pre-dated the IPL, kicking off the era of T20 riches. Top: Kevin Pietersen in Bangalore colours. Above: Younus Khan, out of Test favour, could become a T20 gun for hire

AUGUST 2010 SPIN 57

The club versus country dilemma has long been an issue in so many sports but cricket was largely untroubled by its consequences until the IPL came along. A few big tournaments aside, football is more of a club than an international game. But you can’t play for both Manchester United in England and Boca Juniors in Argentina. In cricket however one can be a member of more than one team, which is unusual if not unique at top-level sport. And, naturally, being a short-term big-money signing can pile on the pressure even more than being a big-name signing for one team.

Surrey manager Chris Adams told SPIN, “When Andrew Symonds arrived, he had

Since losing the Ashes in 2009, Australia’s Test results have been pretty impressive: seven wins out of eight, ahead of the neutral series

with Pakistan in England. That’s been helped by scheduling, of course: the West Indies, Pakistan and New Zealand usually lack the consistency to challenge over the course of five days (or, in Pakistan’s case, over the course of two sessions) and this last round of matches proved no different, even against Ricky Ponting’s rebuilding (and, possibly, aura-less) Aussies.

But despite the success, there are still plenty of selection headaches to be dealt

with before Ashes hostilities resume in November – not least that pesky issue of a spinner. Australia has been on the hunt for an effective and consistent Test spinner ever since Stuart MacGill announced his retirement in June 2008. Nathan Hauritz has been the closest they’ve come, having played 14 Tests since his shock recall to the Australian squad (he had to abandon drinks duties for New South Wales). In the year after MacGill’s retirement Australia had used six specialist spinners but it was Hauritz that ended up on the plane to the United Kingdom, much to the delight of England fans. While Hauritz’s return of 10 wickets

from three Tests was modest it was by no means embarrassing and he’s remained Australia’s first choice spinner ever since.

Hauritz faces competition from two slow-bowling all-rounders from New South Wales, both of whom may benefit from the foot injury that forced Hauritz home from England prior to the Test series against Pakistan. The two Steves – the leg-spinner Smith and the slow left-armer O’Keefe – moved up the pecking order thanks to some unfortunately timed injuries to candidates from other states and now find themselves with an outside chance of an Ashes role. Steve Smith is the more likely to displace

With the Ashes just four months away, form and fitness issues have left Australia some tbcs in their first XI. Jono Russell weighs the options

ASHES COUNTDOWN AUSSIE ISSUES

Up for grabs

46 SPIN AUGUST 2010

grabs

his Blues colleague from the XI – not just because of the lethal/blonde/Australian leg-spinner combination: his all-round talents would provide Australia with plenty of flexibility should they want to play four seamers (or even two spinners).

Former Australian spinners Kerry O’Keeffe (no relation to Steve) and Terry Jenner have expressed reservations over Smith being fast tracked into the Test team and have urged for expectations to remain realistic. They see him more as a batsman who can bowl legspin – much like Cameron White before him. As with White, Smith lacks the ability to spin the ball prodigiously, something Warne and MacGill made look easy, and it was his “exciting stroke-play” (or agricultural hoofing. You choose) that got the selectors interested in the first place.

So it may not be Hauritz that is most under threat by the emergence of Smith. In his 13 first-class matches for New South Wales he has shuffled up and down the batting order as needed, batting as high as five or as low as eight. But his most recent innings for his state was against South Australia in March – he batted at six, scoring a hundred. And that’s just where

AUGUST 2010 SPIN 47

Ryan Harris is pushing for a seam place, while (below) Marcus North is the most under-pressure batsman