- The Observer,
- Sunday April 13 2003
For those who traipsed around South Africa, players and press alike, there has not been much respite before the cricket season is upon us. But since the World Cup passed by the majority of cricket lovers here - it wasn't on terrestrial television and England departed early again - there will still be a tremor of anticipation around the country as the season gets under way.
It starts in earnest on Friday with the first round of championship matches, but this weekend several of the counties have been exercising their muscles against students. Loughborough UCCE have become the latest side to acquire first-class status. We should all have been overflowing with enthusiasm by now but since the World Cup was such a lacklustre affair the season has to set off from a standing start.
What is on offer? The three touring sides, Zimbabwe (assuming President Mugabe has no objections to their coming to England), Pakistan and South Africa, are arguably in greater disarray than England. Zimbabwe are leaking players. Andy Flower has been their greatest player, Henry Olonga their greatest character. Flower will be playing for Essex, Olonga may make the odd appearance for Lashings, the celebrity side based in Kent, while Heath Streak and his men soldier on against England.
England should beat Zimbabwe in both forms of cricket. They could use the first two Tests of the summer to conduct a few experiments for the future by introducing some fresh players, although the instincts of Duncan Fletcher and Nasser Hussain will be to avoid handing out Test caps 'like confetti'.
Pakistan have already introduced fresh faces after their dire performances in the World Cup and they have just won the Sharjah Cup. Still denied the chance to play international cricket in their own country, they pop over to England for three one-day internationals in June.
Then come South Africa still stunned after their World Cup flop with a new, inexperienced captain, Graeme Smith, at the helm. South Africa currently head the ICC's Test Championship table, although this says more about the ludicrous nature of that table than the strength of South African cricket. The South Africans are beatable.
There will be many more overseas visitors. For the first time in two decades every county is now permitted to have two overseas players in their team. Most counties have taken up that option. Glamorgan say they can't afford a second overseas player; Kent are planning to stick with one and so were Yorkshire until they realised that Craig White was likely to be missing for three months because of a rib operation. The idea is to raise the standard in the wake of the England players being so regularly absent from domestic cricket. Twenty years ago this was undoubtedly the case. With a far more limited international calendar, just about every Test player in the world was keen to play in England. So we had Richards, Marshall, Greenidge, Hadlee, Garner, Imran, etc.
Now only a quarter of the overseas players engaged in England are currently in their country's Test team and most of them must flit to and fro during the summer according to their country's needs. Twenty years ago I was a fer vent advocate of two overseas players. I'm not so sure now.
There is a new competition, the Twenty20 Cup, which replaces the old Benson and Hedges Cup. This 20-over competition, which starts on Friday 13 June, is designed to bring a new breed of spectators to the game. A match lasts two-and-a-half hours and will be 'action-packed'. I take the Charles Kennedy view of the Twenty20 Cup. At the outset I was against the undertaking, but now it's going ahead I hope it will be a success.
In the championship, Surrey are the hottest favourites for years. They have a team crammed with internationals, although ideally not many are current internationals, plus the odd talented youngster like Rikki Clarke. I hope Surrey don't win - not for any vindictive reason - but just so that we can delay the day when financial clout in cricket correlates almost exactly with playing success, which seems to be the case in football.
Already we have to say one farewell. Following the Middlesex tradition, which was begun by Angus Fraser last year, of retiring at the start of a season rather than at the end, Phil Tufnell takes his leave. This is a pity. For all his frailties - or maybe because of those frailties - Tufnell was an endearing throwback. He could barely bat once the ball exceeded the speed limit, his fielding was creaky, but he could bowl and that was enough to keep him playing for Middlesex for 16 years and for England on 42 occasions.
At his best, which was often at the Oval, he was the Artful Dodger, pilfering wickets through sleight of hand. 'Flight rather than force' was his motto; he took flight when batting, he could entrance with flight when bowling. Now he becomes the latest to discover that talking about the game is a darned sight easier than playing it.
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