Monday, August 6, 2007

Just not Cricket

Bish: "Hold your hands up"
Eurosport - Thu, 02 Aug 14:39:00 2007
Eurosport.Yahoo.com's cricket expert Ian Bishop says the England side should take the lead in improving behaviour in the final Test.

More StoriesCook: We didn't overstep the mark
Whatever the players and coaches said after the match, there is no doubt in my eyes that the aggression shown between England and India went too far at Trent Bridge.

The way I looked at it is that any father would not want his son to see players reacting in such a manner and he certainly wouldn't want his own son behaving that way on a cricket pitch - and I think that all of the 22 players would agree with me.

It crossed the line. There is talk of 'mental disintegration' and 'gaining a mental advantage,' but the West Indies team that I was involved in did little of that; we were of the view that the bat and the ball should do the talking.

England should come out and take responsibility. Before the next Test, as a team they should come out and apologise and promise to improve their behaviour on the field.

I know Michael Vaughan quite well, we used to play together a long time ago in Sheffield; Vaughany isn't someone who usually likes to get involved in chat. It was out of character for him.

Now, I don't blame the players for defending themselves afterwards. They have to stick together and defend their approach and their tactics; that is what helps build good team spirit. But, deep down, I think they will all be thinking that the match went over the line of acceptable behaviour.

By all means play the match hard, offer no quarter and play with intensity. But no-one wants to watch players constantly chatting, shoulder-barging each other, dropping jelly beans on the pitch or brandishing bats at each other.

In the end, India were deserved winners. Last week, I spoke in this column about India having to start the match well, to put England under pressure from the first ball to give themselves the confidence to go on and win the match - well, they certainly did that.

Winning the toss helped, but they utilised the conditions well and in the end, their bowling performance in the first innings went a long way to winning them the match. Their lines were much tighter than in the first Test at Lord's, and with regular seam and swing movement it was very difficult for the England batsmen to make a decision on whether to play or not.

That said, I think if England had managed to set India a total of around 180 in the second innings, they might have been able to defend it, as Chris Tremlett showed with his three wickets on the final morning.

He is a bowler that is ideal on a wearing, last-day wicket. But more than that, when I saw Tremlett bowl yesterday I saw a guy who is quickly becoming an ideal bowler in almost all conditions. I think Tremlett will be a tremendous bowler for England if he can stay fit.

He is acclimatising to Test cricket quickly and gaining confidence. His obvious asset is his bounce, but he also gets the ball to regularly move away from the right-hander thanks to a brilliant seam position. Comparisons with Steve Harmison are obvious but he goes for far less runs than Harmison, meaning he can be used as a defensive option as well as an attacking one.

Finally, on to matters closer to home, with the news that the West Indies Cricket Board on Sunday appointed Julian Hunte as their new president.

I am pleased that Mr Hunte immediately spoke about rebuilding the confidence and credibility in the board, although it is going to be a very demanding but not impossible task.

As president, what people don't always realise is that he has to try to convey to and convince a number of people as to his vision of the way forward. Governance by committee can be challenging, and he has a democratic system to abide by therefore presiding over such a large administration is a tremendously difficult task.

I am pleased thar Mr Hunte has identified the topic of confidentiality and issues leaking out in the press, also improving the relations with the players, because these have deteriorated recently.

I wish him all the best. It is unwise to prejudge him and I hope he can make a difference. He will have to call on all his life-skills to be a success.

One of his first jobs will be to try to sort out the row over the proposed Stanford 20/20 tournament in the West Indies. Personally, I don't agree that the tournament is in anyway hampering the West Indies cricket.

The Stanford tournament is moving in a very professional manner. Sir Allen Stanford is giving over US $250,000 to each territory for preparation and development; that is development money that these territories have not been able to comeby in West Indies cricket before.

A lot of cricket pratice facilities at, but particularly beyond the test venues in the Caribbean are not great, as some players echoed during the World Cup earlier this year. Players have never had a truly professional system through which to develop in the sport. This money will go some way to assisting in this vein.

Sir Allen Stanford and the Stanford committee have always sought to work hand-in-hand with the WICB. The allocating of over a quarter of a million US dollars to each territory for development, and additional funds to the board itself shows that he is interested in a mutually beneficial relationship with West Indies cricket.

If both parties can work together, it has the potential to be a good venture for all concerned.

Ian Bishop / Eurosport

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