Home-bred Burkinshaw wins my vote as next man in (7 June 1999)

7 June 1999

Home-bred Burkinshaw wins my vote as next man in

David Lloyd

Last week was wretched at the start. After a couple of days at home with 'no calls please' firmly in place, England and all the other World Cup nations assembled prior to our appointment at Buckingham Palace. There was such a contrast of personnel on view with, on the one hand, a subdued England, West Indies, and Sri Lanka, and on the other the happy bank of Super Six teams; Scotland, Kenya and Bangladesh were up-beat too. They had their moments and played their part.

The reception at the Palace was wonderful. As this would probably be my only chance to visit, I was determined to take it all in. The rooms, the paintings, the atmosphere and meeting royalty will live long in the memory. Another massive plus was that all the teams were together and everyone was content just yarning away.

I am now on the outside looking in on the England scene, and if you are to believe what you read, three of the five shortlisted for the coach's job are foreigners. I have said it is an Englishman's job and I believe it is. Pride and passion at representing your country comes into it and I would hope all the appropriate questions will be asked concerning the overseas coaches - most importantly, why they are not required by their own countries?

There is also a theory among the 'top brass' that the new coach will be influential in choosing the captain, whether it be Alec Stewart or anyone else. The fact is that a foreigner does not know the players and therefore is not in a position to do so.

Jack Birkenshaw does know them and he has guided Leicestershire to two county championships in the past three seasons. His team is high on energy, intensity, team spirit and ethics - qualities many are suggesting as being requirements of a successful England team. It will be a long haul.

I recently received a letter from Peter Philpott, who worked with us on the recent Ashes tour. The gist of it was that we did everything possible but we were 'out-talented'. Talent is obviously the main ingredient of a successful team.

It has been suggested that Birkenshaw, at 58, is a little long in the tooth. He could be persuaded to do a 'Joe Mercer' and keep the seat warm for someone else. That someone else is Bob Woolmer. Bob badly needs a rest and I know where he is coming from on that score. If Birkenshaw could be seconded from Leicestershire for the winter tour to South Africa and be in close contact with Woolmer over there, he could hand over at the start of our domestic season in the year 2000. So, Bob gets his rest, Jack keeps Leicestershire, England have a coach in the interim who knows the ropes. Simple.

My new life as a Sky Sports commentator began at The Oval for India's game against Australia. The Australians are my fancy to win the World Cup. When the going gets tough, just watch them go. Against India they were awesome. Their batsmen responded well to being put in by Mohammad Azahruddin, with Mark Waugh leading the way once again. Everyone contributed, but what I admired most was when, on two occasions, they had two new batsmen at the crease, they were not inhibited in any way and kept the board moving with singles, whilst never missing an opportunity to find the boundary.

Their total of 282 was a big ask for India and we all looked forward to the Glenn McGrath-Sachin Tendulkar encounter. It was over in a flash. McGrath did him, just as he had done for Brian Lara. Lest there is any doubt, these two are seriously good players, and rightly billed as the best batsmen in the world.

I am sorry for sounding boring, but I have said it before and I will say it again - the seam on the English cricket ball is too big. The evidence is overwhelming in this World Cup, where the top order is knocked over time and again by extravagant seam and swing. There is something wrong when teams consider hiding their best players from the new ball.

Whilst I am at it, just spare a thought for our county cricketers. They have to contend with this ball, red or white, day in and day out. And again to repeat, it keeps captains preoccupied with seam at the expense of the spinner.

The best ball is the AA Thompson Kookaburra. The seam is less pronounced but it does swing early on, and reverses when it is old. In between, you need spin to get any lateral movement.

There are many, many batsmen in this competition who have not had a show yet. It is not that they are 'out of nick', they are coming up against world-class bowlers in helpful English conditions and a ball with what seems like a washing line wrapped round it. Not everyone is failing though. Moin Khan coming in late in the order is scoring heavily but the man of the moment has got to be Lance Klusener.

I bet there have been some protracted team meetings courtesy of Lance's Lot. He is so uncomplicated: a pendulum swing of the bat and the ball is invariably out of the parish. He has done it time and again for South Africa and he has needed to. They are another team who have been knocked over at the top quite regularly and it was significant that Hansie Cronje said that they must do better.

The quality of his team is such that if they do get in a scrape, Klusener, Shaun Pollock and Mark Boucher can get them out of it. They were dead and buried against Pakistan on Saturday and probably lost 80 per cent of the game, but character saw them home. It will be interesting to see how Wasim Akram's team respond against India at Old Trafford on Tuesday. A game not for the faint-hearted.

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph