Poor Freddie!
February 28, 2006: The TVS Cup Test series is shaping up into a bit of a David vs. Goliath battle, only I think the ending will deviate from mythology and Goliath will end up winning the contest! At the best of times, defeating India at home is not easy – hardly any touring team has done it – and given the current state of the England squad, I am afraid the conclusion to the series may be foregone.
From experience, I can safely say that the keys to series in India are spinners and batsmen. So where are the English spinners? Shaun Udal, Monty Panesar and Ian Blackwell are hardly likely to strike fear into the hearts of the imposing Indian batting line-up. Frankly, I hadn’t heard of Panesar until this series, and there are probably half-a-dozen better spinners than him playing on the Calcutta maidan! As for the batsmen, with Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick out of the picture the cupboard looks a little bare, doesn’t it?
The thing is, preparation is everything, whatever the job. And England just has not had enough of it. I know the idea these days is to have shorter tours with back-to-back games squeezed in so that the players don’t have to be away from home for too long. That is the modern way and I completely disagree with it. I may be old-fashioned but I think it’s all wrong.
Why? Well, for one, there aren’t enough practise matches. In my days, we would play a minimum of four practise matches before the series proper, which meant we were on tour for months. Indeed, our 1981-82 Indian tour lasted nearly four months, comprising six Tests and three ODIs. Besides, there were four warm-up games at the start of the series, and a match against the North, South, West, East and Central zones interspersing the Tests and ODIs. Whereas on this tour, we will see three Tests and seven ODIs played in a month-and-a-half, with two warm-up games. Need I say more?
What can you expect when you take youngsters like Alastair Cook and Owais Shah, who have never played in India, and throw them into a Test match? They are not mugs, mind you, but they simply do not have the preparation to play India in India. And this is where England are making things difficult for themselves. Look at all the niggling injuries that are troubling the players. Given a longer build-up to the Tests and at least two more four-day matches, they would have sorted these niggles out and still have had time to play themselves in, unlike someone like Kevin Pietersen, for instance, who will come straight from an injury into a pressure situation.
Poor Andrew Flintoff. Ordinarily, he should be thrilled to bits about the captaincy and it ought to be one of the proudest moments of his life. But in my 25 years of playing and 20 years as commentator, I cannot think of a worse time to be the England captain. Make no mistake, Flintoff will take it in his stride because he has been the England team’s best player and its focal point for the past two years anyway. He has shouldered all the expectations and delivered every time. He never bowls badly, is the best slip catcher in England since Ian Botham, and a terrific cricketer all round, not to mention a smashing lad off the field. He will bowl at you with great aggression and ferocity, yet will be the first to shake your hand if you play well.
Nevertheless, now is not the time to talk about Flintoff’s future as captain. England already have the best captain in the world in Michael Vaughan, and one potentially ordinary tour won’t change that.(Gameplan)
More Geoffrey Boycott Columns
Send your comments to jiyocricket@yahoo.co.in
