The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Will the England juggernaut roll on?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 12, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

Will the England juggernaut roll on?

By Ted Corbett

MANCHESTER, AUG. 11. If Brian Lara's West Indies loses the third Test against England at Old Trafford, beginning on Thursday, he will be second to Australia's Allan Border as the most defeated captain of all time.

He is already second to England's ex-wicketkeeper Alec Stewart as the most defeated player in history. The chances are that, after losing five of the last six Tests against England, West Indies will go down again although the return to form of its young fast bowler Fidel Edwards, who took 10 Derbyshire wickets last weekend, might level the balance between the two sides.

It seems an injustice that a batsman and captain so talented as Lara should have such a bad record.

His 38 matches in charge have resulted in 10 wins and 21 defeats. Border lost 22 out of 93 Tests and England's Mike Atherton 21 in 54. It all makes a huge contrast with Michael Vaughan who, in his first year as England captain, has won 11 of 17 and lost only three.

Lara, the batsman, continues unchallenged. He still requires seven runs to reach 10,000; not that he needs figures to prove what a champion he is.

Giles and Briggs

Ashley Giles, a spinner whose performances were between ordinary and average until recent Tests, also has a chance to write his name in the history books. If he takes four wickets in the first innings of this Test he will join Johnny Briggs, a spinner from cricket's dark ages, in an unusual record.

In 1891-92, Briggs took four or more wickets in six successive innings; sadly he had an epileptic seizure and had to retire early and died aged 40 in an asylum, bowling imaginary overs, boasting about his successes to the nurses.

Giles has taken five wickets in five consecutive innings like another old-timer Tom Richardson in 1894-95, Sid Barnes (1912), Alec Bedser (1952), Jim Laker (1956) and Fred Trueman (1963). Beyond the white cliffs of Dover, Waqar Younis and Muttiah Muralitharan, with nine, Charlie Turner of Australia with eight in 1886-87 and Murali again, with seven, have bettered Briggs' figures.

Giles will be the only spinner on display. The selectors picked Gareth Batty in the belief that the new Old Trafford pitches helped spinners, but it rained — not a rare occurrence in Manchester. So Batty has been sent home and the choice lies between James Anderson, a local lad, and Simon Jones, the reverse swing expert.

Anderson, the quiet achiever, is my choice but no one ever grew rich predicting what the selectors will do. It is easier to say that England will take another step towards the 4-0 clean sweep.

The teams (from):

England: Michael Vaughan (capt.), Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss, Robert Key, Graham Thorpe, Andrew Flintoff, Geraint Jones, Ashley Giles, Gareth Batty, Matthew Hoggard, Simon Jones, Steve Harrison and James Anderson.

West Indies: Brian Lara (capt.), Chris Gayle, Devon Smith, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul,, Dwayne Bravo, Ridley Jacobs, Omari Banks, Pedro Collins, Corey Collymore and Jermaine Lawson.

Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and Simon Taufel (Australia); TV umpire: Mark Benson; Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka).

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