The English cricket team lack the talent necessary to win on their tour of South Africa, writes Neil Manthorp
England seem determined to ensure that attitudes, approaches, appearances and results on their tour of South Africa stay the same as on all their other tours this decade.
Based on performances so far, it will take as long to turn the English game around as it does an oil supertanker.
Surprisingly, a tour preview by former England captain Mike Selvey in the British papers two weeks ago stated categorically that the tourists had a chance of winning because youth and inexperience meant a lack of cynicism and slovenliness.
Actually, it just means that the tourists aren’t very good as well as not being very motivated.
True, England have – for the first time in a decade – picked a handful of youngsters. And they’re really going on about it. In fact, four out of 17 are under 25. Six are over 30, with three more aged 29.
Considering the average English county cricketer starts to regard the game as a chore by the start of his fourth season, around the age of 23 or 24, there is more than enough wizened, “I’m a bit sore … think I’ll sit this one out … ” attitude to ensure the status quo of English cricket.
A lot is said and written about the difference between one-day cricket and Test cricket, but it was never more obvious than when all-rounder Gavin Hamilton bowled against a severely weakened WP/Boland XI last weekend. On a pitch offering little sideways movement, unlike his native Headingley, he looked what he is: a tidy, innocuous medium- pacer good for 10 overs in a one-day game.
Alex Tudor, another up-and-coming all rounder, has some natural talent but he is unfit. He was also sore (knee, back and so on and so on). Apparently, having just reached the ripe old age of 22, he has developed a keen personal relationship with the physiotherapist’s bench.
The third of the “new breed” of all- rounders, and the brightest hope of them all, is 21-year-old Andrew Flintoff. He scored 143 off 66 balls in a one-day match for Lancashire against Essex last season, which persuaded him (or his agent) to hold his province to a salary ransom a month or so ago at the end of the season.
Flintoff should be playing baseball, not because he is a superbly clean striker of the ball, but because there seems ample scope for fat boys to succeed in the American game. In fact, being 15kg overweight appears to be a prerequisite. Flintoff’s extra weight has led directly to the back problems that he is currently suffering, and that will almost certainly see him sent home early from this tour.
Michael Atherton, too, is unfit with a bad back. The chronic injury leads to him “nursing” himself. It also leads to a stagnating scoring rate and the loss of 25 runs a day in missed singles and second runs.
On the bowling front, Andy Caddick (fine performer) is motivated by money, and money alone, when he plays for his county, Somerset, and, well, he’s from New Zealand … Allan Mullally is from Australia, but he’s so committed to England that … he still lives in Australia when he’s not playing for Leicestershire or touring.
Darren Gough is injured (back) and, because of the English system, has the body of a 37-year-old despite being only 29.
It’s at this point that we find a bit of fence to sit on, say something like: “But there are some talented players and they could produce a major surprise …”
Not so. The most talented player in the England squad is Duncan Fletcher.
England won’t be beaten, and beaten badly, because South Africa are a great side. They’ll get beaten, and beaten badly, because they are lacking more than a tiny modicum of talent and because they are far, far more interested in the money they are being paid for being on this tour and the kind of food they can eat in South African seafront restaurants.