A question of depth

I worry for English cricket sometimes. While I may not be English, I still hope for competitive Ashes series when we take on the Poms, as competitive as duels between India are getting these days.

Sadly England is always one step behind, and especially when they have injury troubles they are caught out even worse. Their lack of depth is sadly evident.

England is currently fielding a five man bowling attack (Including the much needed Flintoff), some of which have questionable claims for being there (Namely Broad, who lacks any venom, and Jimmy Anderson, whose inconsistency continues to baffle).

The stocks in county cricket aren’t too bad for bowling. Durham has a whole plethora of good fast bowlers at their disposal, including the still developing Liam Plunkett, Graham Onions, Western Australian Callum Thorp, and the oddly ignored Mark Davies, who consistently takes more wickets than his companions.

There is other solid talent hovering around such as South African convert Ryan McLaren, who has achieved great results for Kent as an all-rounder. Chris Woakes at Warwickshire has made a fine start to his career, and of course, looming over at Worcestershire, is the bowler that cemented his reputation in the 2005 Ashes, the speedy Simon Jones.

The batting ranks look thin. Ravi Bopara is churning out runs, but apart from him, no young batsmen, apart from maybe Samit Patel, are standing up to be counted. Bob Key has led Kent well but his returns have been inconsistent. Australian-born Paul Horton looks like the best bet to replace Andrew Strauss if the latter runs out of form though.

In an odd coincidence, two former English wicketkeepers in Matt Prior and Chris Read have had good seasons with the bat, with Prior amongst the top run makers so far this year and Read leading the high flying Nottinghamshire with gusto.

That hole could be fatal if some players start to lose form and the replacements just aren’t up to scratch. The comparison England has to teams like India and Australia is that while England may have good talent on the field, they don’t have a multitude of players waiting in the wings.

Australia’s depth borders on the ridiculous. Any other nation would cry out for the luxury of having Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Chris Rogers and Ashley Noffke waiting in the wings, not to mention young talent of the quality of Shaun Marsh, Luke Pomersbach and Ben Hilfenhaus. That’s the vital strength of Australian cricket. While some nations may have equal or more talented players, Australia has continued to churn them out.

India is beginning to show signs of this as well, already having an impressive youth set up and a number of young players showing the ability to eventually take over from an aging and transitional Indian side that will soon have to move on Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, V.V.S Laxman, and that legendary figure himself, Tendulkar.

England has been accused of resting on its laurels during a time it could have dramatically raised its stock following the epic streak of 2004 and 2005, when it laid claim to being at the top of world cricket. Instead of capitalising, England got sloppy and it has cost them their prestige and a place at the top of the pecking order, now fought over between India, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Australia.

A good sit down to thrash out why they have not achieved what seemed possible all those years ago is recommended. Maybe they should look to adapting some Australian development models, or even reduce the number of county teams to encourage competitiveness.

One thing on I’d like to point out though is that talent will not be coming through if county cricket continues to allow Kolpak players into the competition. Look at Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, you could form another South African side with the numbers those teams have.