Get your ‘thinking’ right from an early age Most people know from an early age what level they want to aim at within their sport – most aim high whet

Get your ‘thinking’ right from an early age

Most people know from an early age what level they want to aim at within their sport – most aim high whether they are prepared to work at it or not. Initially, enthusiasm carries them along a certain road to begin with and then they find that effort and guidance then has to kick-in if they want to progress. Cricket is such a complex game, with many different departments, and until a certain level of physical growth is achieved (say 11 or 12 years old) my tip is to purely enjoy the game for all it has to offer.

The horrible gambling scenario, and current news story surrounding the young Pakistani bowler, Mohammed Aamer, has highlighted him and just what can be reached at a young age. He was the youngest bowler ever in test cricket to reach 100 wickets. From the age of 15 he has been performing at high levels within cricket suggesting that he worked on the right things from an early age. Bad habits can hold a young player back and make change difficult, in the same way that a crease in a pair of trousers ironed heavily in the wrong place, can prove very hard to take out. Correct coaching, not only shows the right way carry out certain points, but can also give you the right frame of mind and attitude. I was lucky I had two elder brothers who were bigger, better and stronger than me, so I was always working hard just to keep up with them – fortunately I also has some good players around to show me how.

One promise – whatever you put into cricket, you will take out and plenty more. But effort and work has to be ’put-in’ first. Go for it!!

So much more than a few inches over the line!!!

When a slogan under a cartoon in the paper reads “This is the BBC’s sports desk giving you tomorrow’s cricket results” you know that the joke is more than cricket can take. I don’t think I will see another Pakistan home international being played in my lifetime and with the horrendous flood scenario in Pakistan the guilty four players could hardly have done their country more harm. With the bowlers overstepping the line to order makes this ‘cheating to order’ even more vile but it is just another nail in the Pakistani cricket coffin. If only that were true in isolation. All cricket and cricketers have suffered along with their relevant Governing bodies. I am worried that the British public will show their discontent by not attending the very important one day internationals we have to come. Pakistan certainly cannot afford it!

However, the Pakistan Cricket Board has so much to answer for, as it cannot be a coincidence that they have had so many captains, that even the keen spectator loses count. The disarray of this Board is not entirely unsuspected with all the political overtones and involvement that it has to endure.

Many of their players get paid ‘peanuts,’ and with some of them coming from very poor backgrounds, that ‘dangled’ money, even at this lowly level waved in front of them, is just too much for them to refuse. The whole integrity of cricket suffers and, if found guilty, the players MUST suffer a life-time ban. The lose/lose scenario is made even worse when considering the tremendous potential that a player like Mohammed Aamer has and the rewards he is likely to receive in his international career, as surely, at age 18, he would have become a world class bowler in a short space of time.

The ICC has to act strongly here as, in the past, Pakistani players have received lifetime bans only for the Pakistan Board to revoke this decision at a later date. Pressure must be put on the Pakistan Cricket Board to act in a proper manner with a threat of expulsion from International cricket if this happens again. The drug cheats in athletics are thrown out – this is cricket’s life threatening drug problem!!

Why are batting averages going up?

More and more we hear that to average 50 is now the new yard-stick for what used to be 40! Even though I probably agree with this I cannot logically explain ‘why’?

Could it be, better bats, better wickets, poorer bowlers, smaller seams on the ball, slightly smaller boundaries………………….?

Why Oosthuizen would make a good slip catcher

Louis Oosthuizen’s runaway victory at St Andrews had similar connections to a successful cricket approach. Oosthuizen was advised by his ‘mind coach’ to wear a red spot on his glove to trigger a certain thought pattern when striking all golf shots. His reasoning for this was that he felt it impossible to concentrate 100%, for four and half hours, whilst on the golf course.

Bobby Simpson, the former Australian, regarded as possibly the best slip catcher ever, worked on the same principle. He deliberately switched off as soon as the ball had passed the bat or was played to a fielder. He would then switch on again as the bowler started his run. He realised that he could not hold total concentration for over six hours and trained himself to adopt this method – it certainly worked!!

Back to the Power of Pace

Shaun Tait reminded us once again of the potency of real pace. Not surprisingly he went through England’s top order in a way that gave England a hard task in their one-dayer against Australia at Lords. Whenever the pace is ‘ratcheted up’ above the more normal 90 – 92 mph batsmen struggle, and always have done, especially when sideways movement is added to the delivery. Shaun Tait bowled around the 100 mph mark with inswing and outswing, with the new ball, and few were able to play it. In the past Lillee & Thompson, Shoaib Aktar, Waqar Younis, Marshall, Holding, Roberts, Daniel, and a long list of other West Indians, have caused havoc when upping the pace about the norm!

If Tait stays fit this winter his pace will challenge our batsmen greatly. We have had to contend with McGrath and Lee but the extra 8 – 10 miles an hour will make it a different game. Forget night watchmen scoring runs, in the form of Jimmy Anderson & Co, it will be hard for those batting in the last four to contribute too, and I am speaking as somebody who did the ‘nighters’ job more than most.

Last Saturday also showed the benefit of having wickets still left, with twenty overs to go, paid huge dividends when posting a good score – aided by their superb fielding and catching. Although England won the series, Australian gave the England captain & selectors enough to worry about when considering the Ashes Tour this winter.

Sun shines but England will need to shine even brighter

At the time or writing the sun is shining, Murray is still in Wimbledon, Surrey have just won another County match and England are 3 – 1 up in the one day series. At the one dayer at the Oval Australia did exactly what we expected them to, i.e, bounced back with a strong performance, reminding us that they are very much a ‘power’ that has far from faded!!

Ponting and Clarke batted in the most aggressive and professional way and justified their World Class status, certainly in one day internationals. England’s first four batsman gave an area of concern, possibly because the Australians had three bowlers bowling well and at a pace of over 90 miles and hour. England naturally are never happy at losing but Bill Gordon’s wicket at the Oval was as good as you could ever get when chasing a total of 290.

Yardy and Bresnan are two of the ‘less glamorous’ selections and yet both showed they merited a place in the team with fine performances. Some aspects of modern cricket have improved but generally we don’t ‘do repetition’ as well as we used to. Taking pace off the ball, and variations, are an important part of bowling in limited over cricket, but they still have to be delivered accurately, especially in power plays.

Many of this Australian team will be up against England in the Ashes this winter so let’s make sure they get used to England putting it up ‘em. Put the train back on the rails please lads!!!

A once in a lifetime round with Garry

I played golf yesterday with an old pal, Sir Garfield Sobers, at Walton Heath, a test for any golfer, especially off the white tees (as we played it).

I first played against Garry when I was 19 in 1966 and bowled more overs at him than I care to remember. I also played with him in a Rest of the World team in Karachi.

The likes of Garry Sobers only come along once in a lifetime. Many truly great sportsmen develop a charisma after they have packed up, but Garry’s worldwide charisma started even when he was still playing cricket. He turned up, immaculate as usual, with a large sunhat sporting the Sandy Lane, Barbados logo. Once playing off a 2 handicap but now has just reached double figures of a 10. His knees are ‘shot to pieces’ so he took a buggy around the course.

His eye surgeon, Tim Leonard, accompanied us. Tim has operated on Garry’s troublesome eyes twice before and brought him back from virtual blindness. With the vision practically gone in one eye, and the sight in the other just about ‘OK,’ made playing golf quite a challenge. He walks up to the tee with his unmistakable gait and then ‘CRACK’ and with those lightening fast hands the ball still flies down the fairway. On one hole there is a cross bunker in the centre of the fairway, 258 yards off the tee, Garry thudded it into the face. “I used to be able to carry that” he said, but at 73, with dodgy knees and eyes, it was still some feat that few younger men manage. Although some of the ‘savagery’ has left him, the touch around the greens was still there. During the round possibly 20 people came over to him from other games just to shake his hand. Garry, forever the perfect ambassador for Barbados and cricket, made everybody, with their embarrassment for intrusion feel, very comfortable.

We were never hurried and he was always keen and ready to answer questions on Alan Stanford, Peter Short, Seymour Nurse, Arthur Bethall, Tony Cozier, Sylvester Clarke, Michael Holding, Malcom Marshall, Clive Lloyd and dozens of other players.

I have played golf in so called ‘Celebrity’ charity days for 30 years, and with very many well known and house-hold names, but, nothing was as special for me yesterday. I was trying to think of an equivalent name to Garry’s within golf and the closest I came to was a mixture of Seve and Jack Nicklaus. I was very lucky!!