Even to a layman it must have been inevitable. His Achilles injury was hampering hi movement and preying on his mind. Kevin Pietersen has been ruled out of the third test at Edgbaston, and indeed, the rest of the 2009 Ashes series.
And so the harbingers of doom prepare to forecast batting collapses a la the dark days of the 1990’s, for the England’s batting unit comprises of only one player, not six or seven as some aficionados of the game would have you believe.
Or does it? And does the omission of one player indeed spell doom and destruction, or is it in fact a golden opportunity for other players to step up and show their true colours?
For too long England have relied on Kevin Pietersen to make a big score and win or save games. Yes, he is a fine player, a genius no doubt, but can he be continually relied on to produce a match-winning innings?
His first innings in the Cardiff test would seem to answer this perfectly. Having played so well, with care that was out of character, Pietersen looked well set to make a massive score. But what actually happened? He threw his wicket away playing a truly daft shot against a bowler probably not fit to bowl to him.
My point is this: Pietersen is without doubt the most gifted player in the England set up. But has everyone forgotten the old adage, genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration?
Whatever the team announced at Edgbaston, there are six or seven batsmen in the team (eight or nine if you include Broad and Anderson) and the non-attendance of a limping Pietersen should give ample opportunity for another player to stamp his authority against a badly misfiring Australian bowling attack.
This blog has no worries about the opening pair of Strauss and Cook. Indeed, Strauss’ majestic hundred at Lords’ should relax him for the rest of the summer and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he goes on to be England’s leading run scorer in the series.
Nor do I have any serious qualms about Ravi Bopara. You don’t score three successive hundreds in test matches unless you are a quality player, even if it is just against the West Indies. You just don’t. And in the World Twenty20 (easily the best one-day tournament I have witnessed) he truly looked like a man for all formats. England must stick with him.
Shane Warne can say what he likes about Paul Collingwood, but he must know as well as the rest of us that no one deserves to score a double hundred against Australia in Australia and still end up on the losing side, and his innings at Cardiff must have ended all doubts about his right to his place.
Matt Prior could go on to emulate his mentor, Alec Stewart, and bat anywhere in the order such is the quality of his hitting. And runs from Andrew Flintoff, in his swansong, will only be a bonus as it is indubitably his bowling that will win the Ashes for England this time round, and ensure that the series is remembered as ‘Freddie’s Ashes Part 2’ if he ankle and knee will hold up long enough.
But it is KP’s replacement, probably at no 4 (I’d like to see him bat at 5 or 6, but suspect the selectors will keep changes to a minimum) that intrigues the most.
When Bell first came on to the scene I immediately thought that he looked like Michael Atherton, but with shots. What I mean by this – and heaven forfend I should ever offend an outstanding batsman, captain, commentator and writer – was that Bell looked very similar, i.e. classy, compact, solid in his defence but unhindered by a chronic back complaint.
It all seemed rosy at first, until he was thrown in at the deep end in the Ashes series of 2005, where, apart from back-to-back fifties in the third test at Old Trafford Edbaston McGrath and Warne clearly had the wood on him and he ended the series bagging a pair at the Oval.
The return series of 2006-07 (I must be one of the few who remembers that series ever took place) was no picnic either and he was famously referred to by Shane Warne as ‘the Shermanator’ – an unkind reference to the red-haired geek in the American Pie franchise who found it necessary to lie about his sexual prowess.
His place was in doubt at the start of the 2008 season but an innings of 199 at Lords’ secured his place for a while. Not long enough though, and his abject dismissal in the first test against the West Indies in the winter series, which precipitated a shocking collapse to 51 all out, gave licence to the new captain and coach (sorry, team director) to make wholesale changes.
Owais Shah filled the berth for a while, but did little to suggest that, at 30, he has a long-term future with England. Ravi Bopara has done well, but the jury is out as to where in the order he should bat.
KP’s injury therefore gives Bell another chance. There is no doubt that the England management have talked to him at length about his commitment and desire to play for England, and the need for him to make the most of his unquestionable talent. It is a golden opportunity, and he knows it.
But can the Shermanator now become the Terminator?
One can’t but help thinking this might very well be Ian Bell’s time.
Copyright © Jonathan Weedon, July 2009
Monday 27 July 2009
Monday 25 May 2009
Marcus Trescothick - Meeting A Legend
As this blog has been set up primarily for me to post my reflections on the Ashes summer of 2009, it seems only fitting to pay tribute to a luminary of the game and one of the leading players of that magical series in 2005, Marcus Trescothick.
This year I was lucky enough to meet Marcus as he attended the Swindon literature fest on May 12th with his ghost writer, Peter Hayter, to discuss his autobiography, Coming Back To Me.
Whilst the evening was probably more aimed at promoting the book, I had already read it whilst on holiday last September. I normally struggle with ghosted biographies - they somehow seem to lack the passion as if the player had written the book himself - but this was by some distance the read of the holiday, and probably of 2008.
In it, Marcus speaks in depth and with surprising candour about the depressive illness that brought his career to a premature end, how it manifests itself, the symptoms, and the types of personality likely to be affected. Someone close to me has suffered exactly the same type of illness, and the book has made me understand the affliction a great deal better than I did previously. For this reason I wholly recommend that everyone, cricket fan or not, reads Coming Back To Me.
I remember first seeing Trescothick playing for Somerset at Bath vs. Sussex just before his England debut in 2000. At the time, he was already being touted as a future England player, and on the evidence I saw that day, it was easy to see why. Two players really stood out in that match, Trescothick being one, the other Australia's Michael Bevan - at the time the No 1 one-day player in world cricket. I knew at the time I had witnessed something special.
Trescothick duly made his debut for England in limited-overs cricket, with astounding success, but the selectors (short-sighted as usual at the time) were reluctant to chance him in the longer form of the game. His debut in test cricket duly came, of course, and he became Michael Atherton's first regular opening partner since Graham Gooch.
Atherton retired shortly afterwards, at the end of the Ashes summer of 2001, but noted in his own autobiography that he wouldn't be surprised if Trescothick were to pass Graham Gooch's record as England's leading run-scorer in test cricket. Many of us believed that would be the case, but alas it won't happen now.
Not that Trescothick hasn't made an indelible mark on the progress of English cricket in the early 21st century. His role in the Ashes victory of 2005 should not be underestimated; his solid starts at the top of the order gave England the impetus they needed to push for victory and the tone he set on the first day of the second test at Edgbaston could well be regarded as the time the worm turned.
It should also not be forgotten that had it not been for Kevin Pietersen's pyrotechnics on the last day of the series at the Oval, the man from Keynsham would have finished the series as England's leading run-scorer in the series. He truly was the one unsung hero of that glorious series triumph.
His replacement, Alastair Cook, has of course made a fantastic start to his career and I wouldn't be at all surprised if one day he were to top the list of England's leading run scorers in test cricket. He recently said in an interview that it isn't about how you get runs, it's how many you get that counts. Whilst this is no doubt true, it is doubtful he will ever be able to dominate bowling attacks the same way his predecessor did and that fact that there is no place for him in England's one-day team illustrates this perfectly.
Indeed, it is possibly in the shorter form of the game that Trescothick is most missed - evinced by Andrew Strauss' recent request that he play for England as a specialist twenty20 player, which was promptly turned down. As someone said to me, when you've been to hell once you don't want to go back.
Trescothick's England career is over, cut off in its prime. It is, of course, a horrible, crying shame. But one hopes that some good will come of it; in writing Coming Back To Me he has encouraged fellow sufferers to speak openly about their illness and maybe, just maybe, the issue of player burn out will be addressed as a result of such a high-profile casualty.
The talk only reinforced the sadness of the situation, to my mind. It was noticeable to me that Markus became most animated when speaking about his days as an England player - in a lighter moment he became most humorous when talking about the desserts at Lords' - and when asked what he thought about the amount of money paid to cricketers these days he replied simply "I think it's great."
After the reading I waited, as is my wont at such events, for most of the other autograph-hunters to disappear, so I could have a word in private. I thanked Markus for what he has done in helping to break the taboo of mental illnesses, and judging by his reaction I would say he appreciated my comments. I obviously wanted to talk to him about my own novel, Ashes Summer, and gauge his reaction (it would have been fascinating to know what a player in the 2005 series thought about a novel set around it!) but he was clearly tired and probably just wanted to get back to leading his own life, so I shook his hand, wished him well and left it at that.
I sincerely hope he makes a full recovery and enjoys the remaining years of his career with Somerset. No doubt every time he puts a bowling attack to the sword and bludgeons his way to a hundred in double quick time people will sigh and wonder why he isn't playing for England. My advice would be the same as it is for non-aficionados of the game: read Coming Back To Me. You may very well learn something from it.
Copyright © Jonathan Weedon, May 2009
This year I was lucky enough to meet Marcus as he attended the Swindon literature fest on May 12th with his ghost writer, Peter Hayter, to discuss his autobiography, Coming Back To Me.
Whilst the evening was probably more aimed at promoting the book, I had already read it whilst on holiday last September. I normally struggle with ghosted biographies - they somehow seem to lack the passion as if the player had written the book himself - but this was by some distance the read of the holiday, and probably of 2008.
In it, Marcus speaks in depth and with surprising candour about the depressive illness that brought his career to a premature end, how it manifests itself, the symptoms, and the types of personality likely to be affected. Someone close to me has suffered exactly the same type of illness, and the book has made me understand the affliction a great deal better than I did previously. For this reason I wholly recommend that everyone, cricket fan or not, reads Coming Back To Me.
I remember first seeing Trescothick playing for Somerset at Bath vs. Sussex just before his England debut in 2000. At the time, he was already being touted as a future England player, and on the evidence I saw that day, it was easy to see why. Two players really stood out in that match, Trescothick being one, the other Australia's Michael Bevan - at the time the No 1 one-day player in world cricket. I knew at the time I had witnessed something special.
Trescothick duly made his debut for England in limited-overs cricket, with astounding success, but the selectors (short-sighted as usual at the time) were reluctant to chance him in the longer form of the game. His debut in test cricket duly came, of course, and he became Michael Atherton's first regular opening partner since Graham Gooch.
Atherton retired shortly afterwards, at the end of the Ashes summer of 2001, but noted in his own autobiography that he wouldn't be surprised if Trescothick were to pass Graham Gooch's record as England's leading run-scorer in test cricket. Many of us believed that would be the case, but alas it won't happen now.
Not that Trescothick hasn't made an indelible mark on the progress of English cricket in the early 21st century. His role in the Ashes victory of 2005 should not be underestimated; his solid starts at the top of the order gave England the impetus they needed to push for victory and the tone he set on the first day of the second test at Edgbaston could well be regarded as the time the worm turned.
It should also not be forgotten that had it not been for Kevin Pietersen's pyrotechnics on the last day of the series at the Oval, the man from Keynsham would have finished the series as England's leading run-scorer in the series. He truly was the one unsung hero of that glorious series triumph.
His replacement, Alastair Cook, has of course made a fantastic start to his career and I wouldn't be at all surprised if one day he were to top the list of England's leading run scorers in test cricket. He recently said in an interview that it isn't about how you get runs, it's how many you get that counts. Whilst this is no doubt true, it is doubtful he will ever be able to dominate bowling attacks the same way his predecessor did and that fact that there is no place for him in England's one-day team illustrates this perfectly.
Indeed, it is possibly in the shorter form of the game that Trescothick is most missed - evinced by Andrew Strauss' recent request that he play for England as a specialist twenty20 player, which was promptly turned down. As someone said to me, when you've been to hell once you don't want to go back.
Trescothick's England career is over, cut off in its prime. It is, of course, a horrible, crying shame. But one hopes that some good will come of it; in writing Coming Back To Me he has encouraged fellow sufferers to speak openly about their illness and maybe, just maybe, the issue of player burn out will be addressed as a result of such a high-profile casualty.
The talk only reinforced the sadness of the situation, to my mind. It was noticeable to me that Markus became most animated when speaking about his days as an England player - in a lighter moment he became most humorous when talking about the desserts at Lords' - and when asked what he thought about the amount of money paid to cricketers these days he replied simply "I think it's great."
After the reading I waited, as is my wont at such events, for most of the other autograph-hunters to disappear, so I could have a word in private. I thanked Markus for what he has done in helping to break the taboo of mental illnesses, and judging by his reaction I would say he appreciated my comments. I obviously wanted to talk to him about my own novel, Ashes Summer, and gauge his reaction (it would have been fascinating to know what a player in the 2005 series thought about a novel set around it!) but he was clearly tired and probably just wanted to get back to leading his own life, so I shook his hand, wished him well and left it at that.
I sincerely hope he makes a full recovery and enjoys the remaining years of his career with Somerset. No doubt every time he puts a bowling attack to the sword and bludgeons his way to a hundred in double quick time people will sigh and wonder why he isn't playing for England. My advice would be the same as it is for non-aficionados of the game: read Coming Back To Me. You may very well learn something from it.
Copyright © Jonathan Weedon, May 2009
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