Hilf and North strike a blow for anonymity

Well...................well...................another Ashes series gone by and another result not everyone expected.

In 2005, we watched England down a far superior Australian team boasting several immortals of the game. In 2006/2007, we watched a highly fancied England team get annihilated by ‘Dad’s Army’. What does that leave us with in 2009?

Well it was probably a case of two mediocre teams battling to stop themselves from being the first to drop the ball, which in the end was all that was needed at The Oval. Australia dropped the ball badly and England capitalised in a big way to secure a 2-1 win that no-one really expected to happen.

Now in my opinion, the pitches were once again shite. I hate how curators are turning pitches into bland batting strips. It annoys me that the bowlers are getting the raw end of the deal. Why can’t we see a green pitch for once where the ball moves around like a nightmare? Why can’t we have a dustbowl that turns square? Why can’t we have a bouncy pitch that has a chance to rattle a batsman’s helmet?

But enough griping, on to the point at hand.

The stats make great reading for the series, especially since Australia had three bowlers with 20 wickets and four batsmen with over 300 runs yet still found a way to lose the series. Only one bowler managed to average below 30 as well, a further example of the pitches turning out like the M4 Motorway.

Australia came to England’s shores with a team made up of fledging stars and young guns, with a lot of the hype centred on Phillip Hughes and bowlers Johnson and Siddle.
Yet it was the unknown soldiers Ben Hilfenhaus for the bowlers and Marcus North for the batsmen that provided a solid base for the rest of their team.

Hilfenhaus was unheard of when he came to England. He had been well known in Australia for several season after emerging as one of the best young quicks coming through the ranks, particularly in the season Tasmania managed to win the Pura Cup (Now back to Sheffield Shield thank God) for the first time.

Conditions definitely favoured him, and in the five test series he collected 22 wickets and bowled some magnificent outswingers, although he never took a five wicket haul he so deserved. The English will have a lot of respect for the quiet former bricklayer who worked hard for his wickets.

North came through a different route. Now 30, he has plied his trade for Western Australia and has been a county pro for many years now, playing for five different counties during his time in the country. His selection for South Africa was a gamble, but in England it made perfect sense as he had the years of experience in English conditions.

His two centuries and a 96 left him a formidable object at number six and we could well hold onto that position for some time. And with Mike Hussey out of sorts and on the wrong side of 34, he could even be boosted up the order.

The success of Hilfy and the Australian cricket team’s only smoker are a good sign for the team and a victory of anonymity. Let’s hope that they continue to prosper for Australia’s sake.

A worrying lack of depth

While a lot of the media attention during this Ashes series has been diverted to the Australian form woes and Freddie’s impending test retirement, I’ve noticed something alarming about the England side that no one has really delved into.

KP’s injury was a bad setback for England, which, while I concede he’s not in the greatest form, leaves a big hole in their batting lineup. He is one player who stands head and shoulders above his teammates and is one of the few batsmen in their lineup that thrives against the strongest teams.

Ian Bell is his replacement, a very talented batsman with a technique quite pleasing on the eye and eight test centuries to his credit. That said, Belly (Or ‘The Sherminator’, as Warney calls him) has never scored a test century without someone reaching the mark before him. He has frequently lacked the necessary steel to mix it with the best sides, and his record as England’s number three was decidedly woeful.

There lies the problem. When a regular team member is out, does Ian Bell fit the criteria of England’s next best batsman?

Look into the county system and you’ll start to see the problem. At the top of Division One’s run scoring chart is Marcus Trescothick, now retired from international cricket. Michael Carberry is next, but he’s an opener. The first middle order batsman you find is James Hildreth, whose numbers this year have been partially bolstered by an unbeaten 303 against Warwickshire.

His nearest opponent is Jonathan Trott who, at 28, is a more mature debutant and has been scoring prolifically in the last few years. But he has 18 hundreds as opposed to 40 fifties. Slight conversion rate issue there.

In Division Two, there problem is even worse. The top four players are past their prime as test batsmen (With Martin Van Jaarsveld also a South African!). The nearest young batsman is Alex Gidman, whose record is rather modest. And below him is Phillip Hughes!

I’ve heard a number of calls for Robert Key or Joe Denly, but neither is really true and tested yet. That statement is arguable for Key, who has a test double century to his credit, but at 30 he isn’t really a young face. Denly needs another year or two to really figure out his technique before he gets thrown into the deep end. He didn’t have a particularly good year in 2008 and Division Two isn’t full of the top bowling talent.

England do have decent bowling numbers to fall back on, with Harmison waiting in the wings (Although hopefully they won’t need him) as well as the solid Tim Bresnan, Ryan Sidebottom, the young but sharp Luke Fletcher, and the spectacularly successful Alex Shantry, who has been snatching up wicket for Glamorgan. No spinners are really being noticed though, apart from those currently in the England setup.

Mark Davies was a player I thought needed to be in the test side, but he is struggling to get a regular game with Durham and despite a truly remarkable bowling record, he may become part of the unrecognised heap.

England is not short on keepers, with James Foster a class act and the unlucky and brilliant Chris Read.

But what can England do if they start losing batsmen to injury or retirement?

And the final question for you to ponder on, what will England do when Freddie leaves the test side?

Jimmy, will you please stand up......

England will be banking on its new look bowling attack taking the fight to the Australians during the Ashes. But in my opinion it is not Flintoff that holds the important card, it is Jimmy Anderson.

Jimmy has had a mixed bag of a career, pretty much summed up by one good spell and then six or seven ordinary ones. He looked the goods at times, and then he came crashing back to earth.

His Ashes series in 06/07 was nothing short of a disaster. He collected five wickets at the horrible average of 82.60 and was manhandled by Ricky Ponting and co.

Good signs were showing soon however. During the English summer he collected 5/42 against a powerful Indian batting lineup. The next two tests he was again ineffective. The story was continuing.

It took New Zealand’s tour to England to finally get the best out of Anderson. And he delivered with career best figures of 7/43 to wreck the Kiwis. He swung the ball alarmingly both ways at good pace. Had he finally arrived as a test cricketer or was it another in a long line of false dawns?

He did well against South Africa, fumbled on India’s batting tracks, and then performed brilliantly without much luck against the Windies.

Now, on the eve of the Ashes series, he has taken 5/34 against an admittedly weak Warwickshire side and has established himself as his team’s premier paceman.

England’s success will hinge on his performances. He needs to hassle openers Phillip Hughes and Simon Katich with his swing, and get the ball moving both ways. Hughes was also unsettled by the short ball in his brief stint against the Lions and he may find himself becoming an early Anderson target.

This is Anderson’s greatest test, a series against the oldest enemy Australia in which he is the unanimous spearhead. If he fails, his career will once more hit the stalling point it has hit before. If he succeeds, maybe he will have finally reached his immense potential.

My mate Hughesy

I live in a little suburban town in Sydney where we call a spade a shovel and outdoor sports are a good way to meet and greet the populace. During my failed cricket career, I was privy to meet the then President of my cricket club, Steve Mullally (No relation to a certain England left-arm quick who couldn’t bat), before he became a talent scout for Cricket NSW.

One day I was fortunate enough to bump into him (He’s extremely busy these days), and out of curiosity asked him whether there were any players I should keep an eye out for.

‘There’s a young bloke that’s playing for Western Suburbs called Philip Hughes. He’s going to go all the way’.

And thus I did, being the good cricket tragic that I am, keep an eye out for him. That was about 2006, when he had just come down from his banana farm in Macksville, and he was already setting the Sydney first grade scene alight.

Three years later he is the most talked about Australian cricketer in the world. His astonishing rise to the baggy green might someday become something of a folk legend.

I watched in the papers for Hughesy, but grade cricket receives limited coverage. He was picked up for some under 19’s Australia teams, but he didn’t really achieve much. Finally in November 2007, his big appetite for runs and enormous potential became too much for the selectors to ignore.

He made his first class debut against Tasmania and made a grinding 51 in a game that Doug Bollinger took 12 wickets. Simon Katich, the captain of NSW and then on the road to the most runs in an Australian first class season, took the young man under his wing.

There were several half centuries that season but the youngster has failed to convert them into the hundreds sorely needed to get his name noticed. But then came the Pura Cup final against the strong Victorian team, containing a young fast bowler that would soon come into the Australian team, Peter Siddle.

Hughesy made only six in the first innings. But in the second, backed by the insatiable Katich, he made 116 to become the youngest man to hit a century in an Australian four day domestic final.

I was there the day Hughesy made that century, full of sharp drives, some lucky edges, and some excellent running between the wickets, and I was one of the loudest to cheer when he made the magic milestone. I’m not sure Hughesy remembers the loud guy with glasses in the stand willing him to succeed.

He made appearances for the academy team during the winter, and then came an important season for the young man the next year. Matthew Hayden was fading fast, Phil Jaques was out with injury, Chris Rogers was getting on and Simon Katich, his mentor, was in the side and whispering in ears.

Hughes took the opportunity to have a devastating season, scoring 891 runs against some of the finest domestic attacks in the world. Only Rogers and the reborn Michael Klinger scored more runs that season.

His finest performance that season was a brilliant double of 93 and 108 on a seaming Bellerive pitch where the next highest NSW score was 42.

Suddenly with Hayden retiring, Australia might have a young talent who would fill a big hole left by the powerful Queenslander.

Some were sceptical of the possibility of sending the young lad into what would be a tough debut series against the recently victorious South Africans. But the selectors decided to watch him play against Tasmania in Newcastle to have a second opinion. Hughes made 151 and 82 not out. He had booked his ticket to South Africa.

What followed was nothing short of incredible. After an embarrassing duck in his maiden test innings, Hughes grafted 75 in the second innings to help Australia to a hard fought win. Then he surprised the cricketing world by knocking off George Headley to become the youngest player to hit twin centuries in a test match with 115 and 160, knocking up his maiden century with a towering six.

He finished as Australia’s highest run scorer for the series and was probably only beaten by Mitchell Johnson and AB De Villiers as men of the series. He has now secured his role as Australia’s test opener for as long as his batting oozes runs, which may not be too hard considering his voracious appetite for runs, one usually associated with the truly great players.

As the Ashes loom, England now have a new player to worry about, one that has flogged three centuries and two fifties in five first class innings for Middlesex. One that has already scored test hundreds against arguably the most ferocious attack in the world.

You will hear a lot more about Philip Hughes before his career is over.

An culture of suspicion

An old problem has just been highlighted by Pakistan captain Younis Khan, and one that is always inflammatory and brings out the worst in parochial cricket fans.

He mentioned on Cricinfo following the third ODI that controversies seem to rear their ugly head whenever an Australian team plays a nation from the subcontinent, and some degree he’s right and to some degree he is wrong, although I’m not sure to what context he is speaking.

The problem stems from the recent trouble over suspect bowling actions, with Saeed Ajmal reported for problems with his doosra and before that Johan Botha was called once again during the South African series over his doosra and quicker ball.

Now the suspicion in this case would not have come across in most cases, except that the team involved following both incidents was Australia.

It takes only that sort of evidence for the narrow-minded to draw to the conclusion that Australia, who have struggled recently, are attempting to take bowlers who have had successes against them out of play. And to be honest, it is really easy to see the connection considering the history.

Muttiah Muralitharan was initially called for throwing in Australia in the early 90’s by Darrell Hair, and that sparked a massive controversy. Ross Emerson did the same thing on Sri Lanka’s next tour during an ODI, and that again sparked problems. When the 15 degree rule was introduced, Murali no longer has any problems.

Part of the problems is not with the Australian team as such, but as how the Australian team is viewed. The Australian team that has dominated the greater part of the last decade has played superb cricket, but has come to be viewed as boorish, arrogant, overconfident and aggressive.

That is true in quite a few respects; they were certainly no angels on the field. But there is no such thing as a saint on a cricket field. That issue was mostly developed under Steve Waugh’s ‘Mental Disintegration’ ploy. It’s not like Mark Taylor needed to sledge so intensely to win.

The Australian team has been viewed, primarily in the media, as bad losers and even worse winners and thus a lot of teams have their opinion switched firmly on the dislike. This has not been helped by the controversies that seem to follow them around, some of which they cause and some of which they are unfortunately drawn into.

It wasn’t the Australian team that called Murali, and in the two recent cases the spinners were called by neutral umpires, one of which was from the home country. Saeed Ajmal claimed that Shane Watson spoke to the umpires about it, but I’m sceptical about that claim as there isn’t really any evidence of it and it wouldn’t make any sense for the Australians to do it.

They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The last Indian series was one of the bitterest series in recent memory. Indian fans were baying for blood following the Sydney fiasco (Many STILL go on about it), and the attitude among the newer elements of the Indian team was to match the aggression of the Australian team.

Australia was never going to win that series, but the many on-field and off-field incidents left a bad taste in the mouth.

Australia has become a great scapegoat for problems due to the fact that they are most unpopular team in world cricket. Hell, they are liked less than George W Bush.

The Left-Handed Pearl

Left-Arm Fast bowler. They are the mythical bunch that is a diamond dozen, but those who have made it to the top have shone as some of the finest bowlers of the game.

Mitchell Johnson has blown his way to the top of Australia’s bowling attack following a humble start, and Zaheer Khan has emerged from a long and difficult apprenticeship to be India’s top bowler. But the main reason they cause excitement is that they are left-arm quicks, and can do things a right-armer would dream about.

The history of left-arm quicks traces all the way back to the very first test, where England fielded Tom Emmett, a bluff Yorkshire professional who could bowl very fast on his day. Australia’s attack, missing Fred Spofforth, opened the bowling with John Hodges, a Victorian bookmaker who played the first two tests and never played test cricket again.

On the return match in England, Fred Spofforth was supported by Frank Allen, once hailed ‘the bowler of the century’, and a man who was allegedly a gargantuan swinger of the ball. He took 4/80 in the match as Spofforth annihilated England.

England would tend to rely on left arm orthodox bowlers in its early history, but they did produce an all-rounder who could be dangerous on his day in the form of George Hirst, who achieved more with the bat than the ball in his few test appearances.

More successful was Jack Ferris, who teamed up with Charlie Turner to form one of the most lethal partnerships in test cricket history. Ferris’ career was blighted by the weakness of the Australian batting at the time, and eventually left to play in England as a professional.

When South Africa initially came into the test arena, they struggled to match the strong Australian and English teams, but they did have Arthur ‘Dave’ Nourse, a left-arm swing bowler who was the ‘Grand Old Man of South African Cricket’.

In the late 1920’s, England unearthed a young lad from Nottinghamshire who would make his mark a few years later as the accomplice of one Harold Larwood. Bill Voce, although yards slower than his older partner, was a key figure in Bodyline where he would set the leg trap and use his awkward angle and great height to create havoc and a long run of bruises.
He would have sporadic success in his career, and his last tour with Wally Hammond’s team in 1946/47 to Australia when he was long past his peak was a disaster.

After World War Two Australia unearthed a candidate for one of the all-time left-armers in Bill Johnston, a droll Victorian who had been a spin bowler before he turned to swing. He took 16 wickets against India in his debut test series and then in the next five took at least 20 wickets. Not bad, especially when you consider that he was competing with Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller for the new ball.

Frank Worrell, a much-underrated bowler due to his batting talent, was often called upon to open the bowling for the West Indies as the struggled to find the next Learie Constantine. He took a best of 7/70, but a younger all-rounder from Barbados would supersede him as an all-rounder and player. Garry Sobers, arguably the greatest all-rounder of them all, took 235 wickets bowling swing, genuinely fast, or any type of spin he felt like.

When Australia toured South Africa in 1957/58, a lot of their hopes were pinned on Alan Davidson, who was finally being given the new ball after having to wait behind the impenetrable Lindwall/Miller/Johnston combination. He was acknowledged as a master bowler, but had played 12 tests and had taken an unremarkable 16 wickets at 34.06.
In the next 32 tests he took 170 wickets at under 20 to reduce that average to 20.53. Doing that he established himself as the finest left-arm quick of that time, and he is only challenged as the greatest of them all by one man.

South Africa had developed Trevor Goddard as a useful all-rounder who at times opened the batting and the bowling for his country. When the arrival of some genuinely fast men gave him better support, the ferocious South African team of the 60’s was born.

The generation gap between the next gifted lefties was bridged by Richard Collinge, a gigantic but gentle swing bowler whose best was overshadowed by Richard Hadlee, but always gave his best for New Zealand.

Lefties struggled to make an impact in the 70’s. Bernard Julien was spoken of as another Sobers but failed to have an impact. John Lever played 21 tests as a classy swing bowler, but had to shake rumours he used slave or something similar to get swing.

Australia produced two with vastly different careers. Gary Gilmour was a spectacular swing bowler and hard hitting batsman who produced his best in the one day game. He struggled later in his career as the increasing professionalism left players of his ilk in the cold.

Geoff Dymock, a maths teacher who struggled with remote postings for many years, was a determined, hard-working bowler who improved to such a state in his early 30’s that he was considered good enough to partner Dennis Lillee during the Post-WSC reunion. He was the first person to dismiss all 11 batsmen in a team at Green Park in India in a match his batsmen still managed to lose.

In the 80’s there was little to be seen of the left-arm quick, and it was thought they had gone out of fashion as quick as the Malcolm Marshall bouncer. Then suddenly out of Pakistan came a young man with a whippy action that could bowl fast and swing the ball both ways alarmingly late.

Wasim Akram took 5/56 in his second test and showed signs of greatness. At the turn of the decade, he was acknowledged the finest fast bowler in the world, even better than Windies beanpoles Curtley Ambrose and Courtney Walsh.
Australian captain Mark Taylor, a man who managed a century against Akram hailed him as the most difficult bowler he had ever faced, and much better than any West Indian of the time. His record is formidable: 414 wickets at 23.62. He suffered during his career from a myriad of scandals, and late in his career he lost a lot of the zip that made him the most feared bowler in the world.

That said, in my opinion Wasim Akram is the greatest leftie of them all.

Australia managed to produce a tall, gangling WA quick that could make the ball swing and lift from a good length. Bruce Reid suffered from back problems his entire career, but managed 113 wickets at 24.63, he was no mug when he got it right.

Sri Lanka, after initial struggles, unearthed an invulnerable warrior who to this day carries their pace attack. Chaminda Vaas was never lightning fast, but he learned progressively as he went. He forsook pace to become a crafty swing and seam bowler, capable of blowing away teams on helpful pitches and containing batsmen with his accuracy.

Nathan Bracken had been earmarked as the next Bruce Reid when he came through the ranks, but it took a long time to make his mark. And now at 31, and having not played a test since 2005, a classy swing bowler seems to have cruelly been cast as a limited overs bowler, despite being widely admitted as one of the finest swing bowlers in the world.

But the leftie rides again. Johnson and Zaheer are at the pinnacle of this class at the moment, but South Africa has Wayne Parnell waiting to take the fight. Pakistan’s Sohail Tanvair is a wrong-footed and unpredictable quick with strong potential. And there is definitely one out there who could be the next Alan Davidson. The next Wasim Akram.

Now that would be a treat.

Bracks left scratching his head

As Steve Magoffin joins Brett Geeves over in South Africa in case Peter Siddle or Ben Hilfenhaus need a replacement, the world’s premier one day bowler must be shaking his blond locks in disillusionment after he went from Australia’s best swing bowler to typecast limited overs gun.

That reasoning has the twang of the ridiculous about as you consider that Bracken, for a long time one of the most talented bowlers in the country, has destroyed teams in the Sheffield Shield/Pura Cup for years.

In 2004/2005, when NSW once again proved that Queensland could not beat them in a final (They still haven’t), Bracken devastated their strong batting line up with 6/27. Earlier that season he had bowled out South Australia for 27 in 15 overs, taking a barely believable 7/4. That evokes stories about the time Keith Miller did something similar to South Australia when claiming 7/12.

Doubters will point to his limited success in five tests, 12 wickets at 42.08. That fails to explain a one day record of 159 wickets at 22.90, with a strike rate of 31.1. In the last four years he has been a major driving force in Australia’s successes in the one day arena.

In the 2007 World Cup, his presence meant that Glenn McGrath was dropped to first change in his last hurrah, with Bracken, McGrath, and Shaun Tait proving a formidable one day attack.

In South Africa, the conditions always favour quicker bowlers with ample seam movement, good swing, and bouncy pitches. Bracken is Australia’s best swing bowler. What has he done to deserve such shabby treatment?