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CRICKET ROADSHOWS
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Week 7 Review - 23 Jun, Lord's
Boycott and Slater fire opening salvos |
It was a tale of two openers on this morning's Channel 4 Cricket Roadshow, with Michael Slater (above) giving a batting masterclass in his last programme before concentrating on the Ashes and Sir Geoffrey Boycott opining on England's present one-day traumas.
Slater, who was omitted from Australia's one-day squad but is a surefire starter for the Test series, emphasised the importance of good foot movement whether facing pace or spin.
"When I was younger my coach said it was really important to be on the balls of your feet ready for the delivery. He said you should be like a boxer, prepared to go forward or back depending on the length of the ball," said Slater.
The dependably controversial Boycott, who was nursing a bandaged right hand after a domestic accident, laid into England's woeful one-day form, the continuing selection of Alec Stewart and the ongoing ground security conundrum.
"I think England have been at least a year behind in their preparation for the World Cup; the Aussies starting preparing immediately after they had won it. They're the champions and they dropped one of the finest one-day players in world cricket – Darren Lehman – because they thought that in four years time he wouldn't be mobile enough.
"They brought in some young kids who are very good fielders and they moved on straight away ready for the next one. We seem to be just starting to plan now after we've made a right mess in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and now here. We should have been doing it a long time ago," said Boycott.
"If you actually went through our players now we probably only have seven players who I could say would be my pick for the World Cup and guaranteed to play. That's Trescothick and Knight, the captain Hussain and Thorpe, I've got Gough and Caddick and Craig White when he's fit. That's seven.
"The Aussies have got 14 here, they don't mind which 11 play because they're all very good, very positive. They can rotate them around and they're a very, very good side."
He said part of the problem was the ECB's dismissive attitude towards one-day cricket.
"It's been looked on as second rate. We've been concentrating on getting our Test side right but we should have been trying to get the Test side right and our one-day side because when the World Cup comes round, like it did in 1999, and we have a poor World Cup then it doesn't go down very with the public."
Part and parcel of England's problems, he added, was their muddled thinking about 38-year-old Alec Stewart's role in the side.
"I love Alec dearly and I'm very fond of him but I wouldn't have played him. I think we had to be looking already for a young wicketkeeper who can bat and getting him in already. If Alec retires and says 'I'm not going to India' we'll look stupid trying to find a young keeper with just a few matches before the next World Cup in 2003. We should be planning now. If Alec is playing well in two years then we can use him, but we should have a young keeper ready now so we have options."
Boycott was also critical of the day-night format in England – "I think it's an unfair contest" – and advocated a no-nonsense approach to prevent further invasions.
"You need to get about 50-60 dog-handlers with big alsations and say 'Listen, if you come over there they're going to bite your balls off', simply that, because there has to be a threat or deterrent to stop them. Then if they do come on have legislation like Australia where you fine them or if they do it a second time you're going to prison and so forth.
"But we also have to look at this as administrators because we've been allowing crowds to come on at the end of our domestic competitions and our domestic players have been running like hell to the pavilion. Nobody's got hurt and we've only had a few hundred, but now we're getting thousands, so if we stop people at international matches we have to stop it in our domestic matches and hold the presentations somewhere else."
Elsewhere on the show there was the usual cocktail of features, including an update on England's walking wounded, an interview with the ICC's David Richards and the weekly Jokes & Jaffas section.
Mail the Cricket Show team at cricketshow@cricket4.com
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