Triumph of the poms
England expects to win the Ashes.
What’s going on? Mike Atherton on the game plan that led to victory Sometime during the last Test at the Oval next week, England expects that Michael Vaughan will become the first England captain for 18 years to hold the little urn aloft. If it happens, the scenes will be rapturous, and reminiscent of the day at Kennington when another resolute Yorkshireman, Leonard Hutton, stood on the famous balcony with the urn in his grasp after an interlude of 19 years.
Back then, in 1953, Dennis Compton hit the winning runs. Who would bet against his modern-day equivalent, Andrew Flintoff, administering the full stop to this most magnificent of sporting dramas? Flintoff and Vaughan have been the individuals most showered with praise during this Ashes series. But to understand the fundamentals behind England’s resurgence you have to go back to another Oval moment, albeit a rather less glorious one.
Six years ago at the fag-end of a miserable summer — in which England were bundled out of the first stage of the World Cup and defeated at home by lowly New Zealand the then England captain Nasser Hussain was roundly booed by those who had stayed to watch the Kiwis administer the coup de grâce. Although South Africa had been beaten in a five-Test series only the summer before, the defeat by New Zealand was perceived as a nadir. The result was that inertia — so long the watchword of English cricket administration — was replaced by action.
The most important decision, agreed during the following winter and implemented the next summer, was one that for the first time placed England’s premier cricketers under contract to England rather than to their counties. Initially, 12 players were handed this ‘central contract’.
Why was this so important? Before central contracts, the England coach had no control over his players except when they were actually playing in an international game, no control over their fitness levels, the technical advice they received, and, crucially, no control over how much cricket they played. Before 1999 England’s cricketers routinely played county cricket in between international matches — a never-ending treadmill of moderate cricket that often induced mental fatigue and physical injury.
In 1995, when I was captain of England, as well as playing six tests against the West Indies, I played in 30 matches (12 first-class, 18 one-day games) for Lancashire. This year Andrew Flintoff has hardly played for Lancashire at all. Just imagine: if this year’s epic draw at Old Trafford had taken place a decade ago, Flintoff, after a gruelling five days, would have played in the four-day Roses match that began the day after the Test, then in the one-day semi-final the day after that. Two days later he would have been preparing for the next Test at Trent Bridge, inevitably exhausted and probably carrying a niggle. Instead, Flintoff was rightly pulled out of Lancashire’s matches and was able to recover, and clear his mind of cricket, by going to France for a few days. He went to Nottingham completely refreshed and ready to play his best innings for England.
Central contracts are a key to England’s renaissance for two other reasons. Before 1999 selection was inconsistent. Players came and went. Once 12 names were announced in 2000 as the first centrally contracted players, it was clear who the England team was. If the selectors faced a close call, they would invariably stick with the contracted names for fear of losing face and for financial constraints. The result was consistency.
With that came a feeling among the team that they were no longer county cricketers who occasionally represented their country, but that they were England players who were occasionally leased out to their counties. It was a crucial change of ethos and mindset. No longer can England cricketers routinely be found checking Teletext for county scores during a Test match. Their primary loyalty has changed. The England team has become a team, in the truest sense of the word, rather than a disparate bunch of individuals who occasionally come together for a match. They train together, practise together and socialise together.
There were two further developments after the New Zealand series of 1999. The decision was taken to put in place a national academy so that our best young cricketers could receive a complete cricketing education. As with central contracts, other forward-minded countries had set up academies years before. England’s was based upon the Australian model and Rod Marsh, the director of the Australian academy, was given the job of polishing England’s rough diamonds. Of the current team, Andrew Strauss, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Flintoff, Simon Jones and Stephen Harmison have all spent varying amounts of time under Marsh’s gaze.
The final reason for the significance of the summer of 1999 was that Duncan Fletcher was appointed England’s coach. He had been appointed before the New Zealand series but only took up his duties for the South Africa tour the following winter. This quiet and taciturn man has been as responsible as any individual for the rise in England’s fortunes. What qualities has he brought? Technical expertise for sure, but more importantly calmness and clearsightedness.
First with Nasser Hussain and then with Michael Vaughan, Fletcher has produced teams that have beaten the West Indies for the first time in living memory, and beaten Pakistan, Sri Lanka and South Africa in their own backyards. Before summer 2005, only Australia had proved to be too good for Fletcher, doling out drubbings in 2001 and 2003. Regardless of the result of this summer’s series, the closeness of the contest proves that England now stand up to Australia as equals.
And what a team Fletcher has under his command right now! The final pieces of the jigsaw have been the emergence of a couple of players who have the ability to be regarded — towards the end of their careers — as great. Stephen Harmison, the rangy fast bowler from Durham, gives Vaughan what every captain yearns for — a high-quality strike bowler. Flintoff, meanwhile, has emerged as an iconic player, one with gifts beyond ordinary mortals, with a temperament and competitive spirit to match. My guess is that Kevin Pietersen, in time, will also prove to be special.
Pulling the strings on the field is Vaughan himself. There were plenty of doubters when Vaughan first took over from Hussain. Some thought him too soft, others too tactically naive. In fact, he is tough and calm, and though he took a while to grow into the job, he is now good enough to rank alongside those other Yorkshiremen who proved themselves to be great captains of England: Hutton and Ray Illingworth.
So far this summer England has proved to be a better team than Australia. If I had predicted this the day Hussain was booed six years ago, the men in white coats would have been sent for. But it has happened. Six years in the making and England has a cricket team to be proud of. Over the next three or four years it may prove itself to be a great cricket team. All lies before it.
Previous page
