The Hindu : Englishmen have learnt to be positive

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 10, 2003

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Sport - Cricket

Englishmen have learnt to be positive

K. SRIKKANTH

In the final England-South Africa Test at the Oval, we had yet another glimpse of the emerging trend in Test cricket. It is now more attacking, more positive.

How else would you explain South Africa reaching 484 in the first innings and still losing the Test? For this to have happened, England should have stepped on the accelerator. And it did.

The England cricketers, have in the past, been accused of dishing out dull, boring cricket. But the likes of Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Flintoff, both exciting players, has been forcing people to have a rethink on England's image.

It was England's positive mindset that allowed the side to pull the rug from under the feet of the Proteas in the final Test. Both Trescothick and Flintoff are fluent and clean strikers of the ball and when they got into the groove, the South Africans were chasing leather.

Graham Thorpe may not give the ball as big a thump as Trescothick or Flintoff, but he is a busy player who keeps the scoreboard ticking. In other words, whatever be the situation, Thorpe seldom gets bogged down.

It is no coincidence that three of most positive players in the English camp — Trescothick, Thorpe and Flintoff — played a prominent part as England managed to gain a 120-run `match-winning' first innings lead, getting a mammoth 604.

The Aussies have shown the world, over the past few years, that making runs at a breezy pace not only throws the opposition attack into disarray, but also provides more time to their own bowlers to get the job done.

It is this aggressive gameplan that has transformed Australia, from a winning side, to a destructive force that invariably ends up blanking its rival in a Test series. There is a lesson for all the teams to be learnt here.

Going further back, the West Indians were such a formidable force in the late 70s and for much of the 80s because they, apart from having an awesome bunch of pacemen, possessed a glittering array of strokemakers.

That was a team that had men like Gordon Greenidge, Roy Fredericks, Desmond Haynes, Alvin Kallicharan, Vivian Richards, Lawrence Rowe and Clive Lloyd who could put any attack to the sword. It used to be a brilliant exhibition of batting, with runs flowing in a cascade.

And there would be no respite for the beleaguered opposition when Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Colin Croft and later, Malcolm Marshall, came steaming in and unleashed thunderbolts.

The Australians under Steve Waugh are doing much the same. Giving the opposition little respite, dominating it mentally with attacking batting and aggressive bowling. And they keep winning.

Positive cricket will never die, it will live on. Even the Englishmen appear to have realised this.

www.kris-srikkanth.com

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