Neil Manthorp: Cricket
Contradictions are an integral part of cricket. Without them, the game would be baseball … or something. The three-legged finals of the World Series, beginning on Friday at the MCG between South Africa and Australia, have been preceded by the strangest contradiction of the tour so far.
It is this: 1 Hansie Cronje’s team is the hottest favourite in 20 years of the competition. 2 One-day cricket is a “lottery”. It has been astonishing to read, and listen to, former players, journalists and fans saying the same things over and over.
In fact, it’s not only the former players; Steve Waugh, the Australian one-day captain, started the trend himself: “The finals will be a whole new ball-game,” he stated after his team’s embarrassingly inept performance against South Africa in Perth last Sunday. “We will be competitive in the finals.”
Perhaps Australia will, but they will have to raise their game significantly and, even more importantly, they will have to banish any remaining notion that one-day cricket is a lottery. Steve Waugh explained that he had been in cricket for a long time so he knew that it was only a matter of time before the “wheel turns in our direction”. The wheel must be turned though, it does not happen automatically.
Bob Woolmer is aware that Australia simply must try something different on Friday and in the second and third (if necessary) legs in Sydney on Sunday and Tuesday. They have lost all four games to South Africa, by such increasingly large and, in the case of Perth, humiliating margins, that something must change.
“There are several things they might try,” says Woolmer. “Obviously Mark Waugh will be back to open the innings, which is bound to give them more impetus. But generally their bowlers are going to have to perform a lot better. We expect them to deploy specific plans for our main batsmen because they’ve bowled without a plan until now.
“They’ll probably bowl short to Lance (Klusener) and around the wicket to Gary (Kirsten). But we’ve
been preparing for that. Each one of the guys has the ability to adapt their games and, hopefully, maintain our team dominance.
“They might try a couple of other things, too. Perhaps they’ll play two spinners because we can be sure that the wicket will be shaved of all grass and have no pace in it. But that can easily backfire. I’m not sure they’ll want to take the risk of playing an inexperienced spinner alongside Warne.
“Whatever they do, I think we’ll be ready. Hopefully one step ahead, actually. If they do come up with something that we haven’t thought of, good luck to them. But we’ve prepared and planned well.”
Woolmer has increasingly been described as a “one-day specialist” — a coach more astute in assessing the specific roles and skills required to master the 50-overs version, rather than the five day version. One man, in particular, has criticised Woolmer incessantly for South Africa’s lack of success in the longer version while accepting his coloured-clothing success with something approaching a sneer.
Eddie Barlow, a much-travelled player and coach himself, actually appears to enjoy criticising Woolmer. He is happy to talk about batsmen’s techniques, about how to play Warne, about attitudes and approaches, but amazingly, he has never, ever offered any of these pearls of wisdom to Woolmer, Cronje or anyone else with the national squad.
Whatever Woolmer’s faults might be, he can never be accused of selfishness or personal promotion. He is a very good coach, but he not only listens to advice from other quarters, he positively encourages it. Ironically, it was Woolmer who invited Barry Richards into the touring squad while in Australia to share his expertise and advice with the players.
Ironic, that is, because Barlow raised his eyebrows in sarcastic style implying that Woolmer was somehow lacking an important ingredient. If only Barlow would realise that his knowledge, which Woolmer respects hugely, would be as welcome as Richards’s.
“I’m a cricket coach, not a one-day or a Test coach,” is all Woolmer says. “I coach both forms of the game. If people wonder why we’re so successful in limited overs cricket then perhaps they should look at the composition of our side. We’ve got three, four or five all-rounders brilliantly suited to the game. It’s probably the best combination of players in an international one-day team ever. Because of that I’m labelled as a one-day coach! “
The Australian public will be following the personal contest between Jonty Rhodes and his heir-apparent, Ricky Ponting. Local newspapers have carried several stories comparing the two fieldsmen and their impact on their respective teams.
Rhodes, modest as ever, has been forthright with his respect and admiration for the 21- year-old Tasmanian who said before the beginning of this season that he wanted to overtake Rhodes as the world’s best fielder. “He’s a very fine fielder,” Rhodes said. “He’s got more run-outs this season than I’ve hit stumps! He’s right on top of his game … that’s the way it it often works with ‘fielders’, when they’re batting well they field well too.
“If he’s aspiring to be as good as me, and he’s already as good as he is now, then that is a hellova compliment to me. I’ve never, ever aspired to the title ‘world’s best fielder’. If I can be remembered for being the world’s happiest fielder, than that will do me just fine!
“The ‘world’s best fielder’ sounds like a lot of hard work to me. I wouldn’t want that title to weigh me down; I’m happy with what I do. And I hope Ricky is happy with what he does.”
So who does Jonty rate as the world’s best? “Ponting, certainly. Brian McMillan, the two Waugh brothers. Not too many on the sub-continent because they don’t like to dive on those rock-hard fields. Mac is probably the world’s best slip fielder, the Waughs are good anywhere, Shaun Pollock has great pace in the outfield and a superb throwing arm. Polly is actually a great all-round fielder.”
If Ponting is to become better than Rhodes, how much extra practise must he put in over and above nets? “I used to do a lot but not now, especially not the diving catches that I used to train at for hours. My hands are very sore and the rest of the body takes a pounding when you’re diving around.
“I’ve been practising catches a lot recently, but Bob wants us to hit the stumps more often. Since Ricky has been hitting with about two out of three attempts we’ve been left playing catch-up. He has set a new standard and we’ll be determined to match it during the finals.”
ENDS