SPIN September 2010 Sampler

SPINT HE I NDEP ENDEN T V O I C E O F CR I C K E T

BAT BETTER IN 10 MINS PAGE 72

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INSIDEJONATHAN TROTTRYAN SIDEBOTTOMOWAIS SHAHWHERE NEXT FOR PAKISTAN?

STEPHEN PARRYMARK COSGROVEBRYCEMCGAIN’S AMAZING TALE

SEPTEMBER 2010 £3.95WWW.SPINCRICKET.COM

LORD’S SPECIAL: SPIN GOES ACCESS ALL AREAS AT THE HOME OF CRICKET

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SPECIAL FEATURE INSIDE LORD’SSPECIAL FEATURE INSIDE LORD’S

STORY: MATTHEW PRYORPORTRAITS: GILES PARK

Inside the

Home of

Cricket

SEPTEMBER 2010 SPIN 39

The first ball of the day at the home of cricket may be bowled at anything from 10.30 to 11.00 over the course of the summer, but the

day at Lord’s begins much much earlier than that. For a Test match, there are members in the queue outside the Grace Gate from two in the morning, looking to get the best spot on the unallocated seating on the benches in front of the pavilion. Even for this Test match: Pakistan v Australia, the first neutral Test to be staged in England since 1912 and a sign of changing times not just within world politics but within Lord’s and the MCC itself.

Once cricket was run from Lord’s: the Imperial (later, International) Cricket Conference was based in the small cottage opposite the Nursery Ground, a suitably cosy arrangement. Indeed, the MCC administered the ICC until 1993. But the game’s seat of political power shifting to the ICC’s new offices in Dubai in 2005 and the wealth of Indian cricket has meant the MCC has had to look to its laurels and become more pro-active. Everyone in world cricket still respects MCC and Lord’s. But these days, deference is off the agenda. Even revered organisations have to box clever.

MCC receives no special favours when it

Lord’s is an academy, a museum and a theatre of dreams.It’s also the place Brian Lara goes to play table-tennis. SPIN goes backstage during the first neutral Test in 98 years to sample life within cricket’s greatest institituion.

Home icket

22 SPIN SEPTEMBER 2010

4 What job will you turn to when you retire from cricket? I don’t know really. I did think about having a restaurant, but I’m not so sure now. I’m not sure about coaching, either. I was watching the Bears in the T20 quarter-final and it was driving me mad. I don’t think I’d be calm enough to be a coach.

5 Best 100 It probably has to be the century at The Oval last year. Just the context of it, really. It was my Test debut, it was the defining Test in the Ashes and it made a difference. It was the best atmosphere I’ve ever played in, too.

6 Fastest bowler you’ve faced?Brett Lee, at Old Trafford last year. I’ve not faced Shaun Tait and I’ve only faced Shoaib Akhtar in the nets.

England’s No 3 on breaking windows, making a mark and refusing to wear a wig...Interview: George Dobell

1 What’s your first cricketing memory?I was at my dad’s cricket club l when I was three. I was batting and smashed one through a window. I thought I’d be in big trouble so I ran off and hid in a toilet for an hour.

2 First 100 I was nine and playing for an under-11 side against Western Province Prep School. I can even tell you the details. I faced 90 balls, hit seven sixes, 12 fours, 16 singles and a two. I reckon that adds up to 108 not out.

3 Have you ever had a ‘real’ job? Not really. I cleared tables in a pizza place for a while when I was 15 or 16, but I’ve wanted to be a professional cricketer since I was four years old and don’t really know anything else.

16QUESTIONS FORJONATHAN TROTT

16 questions

SEPTEMBER 2010 SPIN 23

7 Best bowler you’ve faced?Shane Warne.

8 Was it tough to watch England in the ICC World Twenty20 final after being dropped from the side? Yes, it was. I’d be lying if I said any different. I did watch a fair bit of it though and I thought they played very well. I was delighted that they won.

9 Why do you re-take your guard so often? Oh, too much is made of that. But I do it to occupy my mind more than anything. It’s a long day and it doesn’t help if you’re thinking too much: ‘Will the ball swing. Are my feet moving right?’ Cricket is a pretty simple

game and sometimes we think about it too much. As long as I don’t hold up the umpires or the other players, I can’t see the problem.

10 Do you read about yourself in the media?Not really. You can’t avoid it, to some extent, but I don’t take too much notice. I’ve seen people who don’t know me from Adam talking about my mental state and things: amazing. The problem is, there are so many people writing about cricket and sometimes they try and outdo each other, even if there isn’t much to write. Some of what they write isn’t great.

11 How much longer do you intend to play?About another 10 years, I think. Until I’m just about 40. And, one day in the distant future, I’d like to have a go at captaining Warwickshire.

12 What’s been Warwickshire’s problem in the county championship this season?I think it’s to do with application. We’ve just lacked a bit of application with the bat.

13 Neil Carter has been a revelation. What’s his secret? There are a few things. For a start, he had an operation on his knee to clear out any debris. And he knows his body better now. So he doesn’t do as much running and keeps fit by cycling instead. He’s much more patient with the bat and, with the ball, he’s just meaner.

He’s realised that if he bowls in championship cricket like he does in limited-overs cricket, he’ll give away fewer runs and pick up more wickets. He’s been brilliant.

14 Would you consider a hair transplant like him? No way. I’m not having a drop-in hair cut!

15 After being harshly dropped from the England ODI team, it must have been satisfying to return to the team and do so well?Yes: I put in a lot of hard work, I had some fortune and yes, I guess I did show a bit of mental strength. I always felt I could do well for England in all formats, so it was nice to show that. It was a bit of a surprise to play; I only found out the day before the game in Bristol. I was disappointed not to see the job through [Trott scored 94 in the run chase v Bangladesh in July, but England lost], but yes, generally it went very well.

16 Would you be prepared to open the batting in the Ashes, or for Warwickshire? I suppose so. But I’d rather not. Yes, I made my Warwickshire debut as an opener and made a century. But I never wanted to open and the best thing about scoring that century was that it meant I could have a choice about where I batted.

Trott hit 100 on Test debut in the 2009 Ashes decider (above right) but lost his ODI and T20 spot in the winter, returning with 94 v Bangladesh in July (below left)

‘Cricket is a pretty simple game and sometimes we think about it too much’

60 SPIN SEPTEMBER 2010

THE BIG READ BRYCE MCGAIN

Giving up the day jobBryce McGain only gave up his job in IT to become a full-time cricketer when he was 35. When he was 36 he played for Australia – now he’s playing for Essex. Jarrod Kimber traces his remarkable story.

E veryone has a dream. I always wanted to become some sort of Tom Waits-singing Charles Bukowski-writing Mushtaq Ahmed-bowling

recluse who lived on pizza and bourbon. While I tried hard, I have fallen short. Most people do give up their dreams, especially the ridiculous ones, like being an astronaut or playing Test cricket for your country. At age six they seem reasonable; at 12 they seem like a remote possibility; by 18 they are already well beyond you.

In modern cricket most future professional cricketers are spotted by some cricket coach in their teens. They are thrust into an academy. They make age group teams. Get picked up by a first class team. There are occasionally players that come via a different path. Maybe they played football professionally like Nick Jewell of Victoria or Keith Barker of Warwickshire; perhaps they weren’t very good at underage level but grew a few inches in their early 20s and became a fast bowler.

Bryce McGain didn’t become a full time professional cricketer until he was 35 years old. When he was 36 he was playing Test cricket for Australia. At 38 he played his first county match. He is a modern marvel. He never went to an academy. He was never spotted by anyone. And for years he went to training after his day job in IT was over.

Now he is Essex’s latest recruit, brought in to cover for Danish Kaneria who was, at the time, busy bowling badly for Pakistan. In McGain’s first outing for Essex in July he took a five-wicket haul, against Kent. It was not a barnstorming get-the-whipped-cream-and-handcuffs sort of five-wicket haul. This was one pure McGain.

Entrenched at one end he was attacked, disregarded, and overlooked by the Kent batting line-up. Yet after the scorecard was tallied up and McGain had bowled his 33.3 overs he had the hard-working figures of 5/151. It might not have been the most breathtaking debut in county cricket, but for a 38-year-old legspinner with one Test to his name it was a good start.

McGain’s bowling is not that dissimilar to Kaneria’s. Far from being an exciting legspinner in the Imran Tahir or Stuart MacGill mould, McGain’s main skill as a leggie is landing the ball in the coach’s favourite ‘right areas’ for hours on end. Add to that a very smart bowling brain and enough spin to beat the bat when required and you have a more than handy bowler. Like Kaneria he has the ball that goes left, the ball that goes right and the ball that goes straight on. It appears that on most occasions McGain tries to get settled into his spell, and then waits for the batsman to come at him.

Usually they do. Whether it is because he is old, a leg spinner or his unusual facial

expressions upon delivery, batsman love coming after McGain. He seems to thrive on being attacked, and as he is an even better limited overs cricketer, batsman are playing into his hands by attacking him. There are few cricketers with more patience than McGain.

While Shane Warne was making a name for himself with Australia, McGain, just two years younger, was a respectable club bowler in Melbourne’s District Cricket competition, perhaps one of the toughest club competitions on earth. McGain struggled to keep his place in the first XI for Frankston Peninsula, often taking many wickets for the seconds only to be promoted again. At 28, he moved to the one team that he always took wickets against, Prahran.

At this stage McGain was an IT worker with one second XI game for Victoria to his name and mildly more chance of playing for his country than you or I do right now. Yet, McGain never felt like that. While others thought he had no chance at all, he thought that if he kept improving, he could one day play for his country. This man who throughout his 20s had struggled to stay in his club team’s first XI was convinced that he could make it as an international player.

McGain told me that he would often watch cricket sober while his friends got

drunk around him. He wasn’t a tea-totaller but every time he watched cricket he was trying to learn. Through the super slomo cameras following Shane Warne he learned about wrist position and technique. Through the speed gun following Daniel Vettori he learned about varying your pace. With experts like Ian Chappell and Richie Benaud talking about field settings he picked up what he could. Then there were the ever-present Shane Warne master classes, sometimes for the cameras, other times just by bowling. McGain took it all in.

Almost every spinner in Australia or England with a flicker of talent was rushed into a session with Warne’s mentor Terry Jenner. McGain was not. But he worked on his leg spin every chance he got. He read about it online and in old books and even went to spinning seminars. McGain is the ultimate leg spinning nerd.

Eventually, Victoria gave him a chance and, in 2000/02, at the age of 30, he played his first Sheffield Shield game. In two games that season he took six wickets and was not embarrassed. But when he played just one more game in 2003/04, it looked like McGain was going to finish on three first class games. With Cameron White now in the team as a leg-spinning all-rounder, there seemed little need to play someone 13 years older than him who couldn’t really bat.

SEPTEMBER 2010 SPIN 61

‘The story was a fairy tale until the moment he came on to bowl. His first over went for 10…and Ponting saw something he didn’t like’

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THE BATTING DOCTORWITH GARY PALMER

72 SPIN SEPTEMBER 2010

A SIGN OF A GOOD PLAYER is one who can hit the ball through straight mid-on and a sign of a good technical batting coach is one you can teach it. Follow the points here and you can master the techniques used by great attacking players, such as Viv Richards and Sachin Tendulkar. I must stress, too, that perfecting your technique is all about grooving: the more time you spend repeating the same techniques in the nets, the better they will work for you in the middle. For info on Gary’s courses: ccmacademy.co.uk

SECRETS OF BATTING – PART 2

MASTERCLASSFOR ANY YOUNG LADS OUT THERE…

APRIL 2010 SPIN 73

1POINT YOUR FEET UP THE WICKET. When driving and defending the ball straight and

towards mid -n the front and especially the backfoot should point up the wicket towards very straight mid off. This gives you better balance and overall access to the ball.

Common fault Back foot stays too sideways. This causes you to lean slightly towards the offside thus effecting your balance and it also makes you slightly blocked off, affecting your alignment. When the back foot is too sideways your reach is restricted. This minimizes the number of deliveries that you can drive down the ground.

If the back foot is too sideways prior to the drive then it tends to finish up too turned in after the shot which causes the player to square up and the bat swings across the line.

Remember: point the feet early, prior to hitting the ball; hold the shape and swing the bat in a straight line to the ball with good balance and alignment.

Hitting the ball through straight mid-on

in practice

4DON’T TRY TO SWING THE BAT TOO FAST through the line of the ball when driving straight

as you will compromise your technique. Swing the bat with a rhythmical flow so that technique is maintained to the max and timing is executed.Common faults You hear the terms ‘bat speed’ and ‘quick hands’: these two comments are counter productive for straight batted drives as techniques deteriorate and timing is lost. Quick hands are more for the hook cut pull where it is important to swing the bat quickly.3 FINISH ALL DRIVES AND

DEFENCE WITH HIGH HANDS AND LEADING ELBOW. This means

the bat will swing in a straight line through the ball towards the target area while the full face of the bat will be presented towards the ball for the maximum amount of time. This will lengthen your hitting zone and allow you to drive more deliveries down the ground in the V with minimum risk of getting out.Common Faults Dropping the leading elbow too early after striking the ball will minimise the length of time the bat stays on the line of the ball and will also encourage a closed face of the bat on contact.

Again this will minimise and restrict your scoring areas in the v making you vulnerable to getting out.

HOLD THE COMPLETION OF THE SHOT ie high hands and leading elbow with toe of bat pointing directly toe at the target. This ensures the full face of the bat contacts with the ball, thus improving consistency of shot.Look to always check drive in the V with a dominant top hand to help you maintain good technique.

Great players have a very dominant top hand when playing straight.Common faults Swinging arms through with too much bottom hand and collapsing the wrists so elbows finish pointing downwards,. This leads to closing the bat face just before or after contact with the ball thus minimising, the number of deliveries you can hit straight. Hitting length deliveries over the top straight becomes very difficult to execute with a straight bat because the tight bottom hand restricts your reach.

2 WHEN PLAYING THE ON DRIVE take a smaller stride and place your front foot down the line of leg

stump. This gives you good balance and alignment to play the shot. Common faults 1) Too big a stride thus making it difficult to open up and hit with the swing or turn when the ball is moving in. 2) Putting the front foot wider than the line of leg stump thus opening you up too much and causing you to tip to the off side. This means you are playing across the ball too much and aiming it to square on the leg side, which is of high risk.