Following On

David Tossell

Description

Following On tells the stories of the fourteen 1998 Under-19 World Cup winners against the backdrop of a historic year (2009) for their sport. There are Ashes heroics, clashes with county committees, fallouts with selectors and even a campaign of death threats. The result is a fascinating insight into the cricketing profession, through those who were once the English game's golden generation.Featuring interviews with Graeme Swann, Owais Shah, Robert Key and Graham Napier

Sujets

• Críquet
• Cricket

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing (Brighton) Ltd
• Date de parution: 05 décembre 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781908051295
• Langue: English

Extrait

FOLLOWING ON
A year with English cricket s golden boys
David Tossell
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Introduction: The Boys of 98
The Karachi Kid
Don t Look Back in Anger
The Third Man
Home and Away
Opening Up
The Key Issues
Logan s Run
Too Much Too Young
Only a Game
The Season After the Night Before
England Expects
Short and Sweet
The Umpire Strides Back
Midsummer Dreams
Dr Comfort s Ashes Revelations
Political Games
Green and Pleasant Land
Joy and Pain
One-day Blunders
The End of Days
The Boys of 2010
Appendix: 2009 Playing Statistics
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
W RITING ABOUT a particular group of players becomes a much harder, less rewarding task without the support of the whole team. I am very lucky, and very thankful, to have had the cooperation of every member of the England Under-19 squad that won the 1998 World Cup: Ian Flanagan, Paul Franks, Michael Gough, Jamie Grove, Giles Haywood, Rob Key, Richard Logan, Graham Napier, Stephen Peters, Jonathan Powell, Chris Schofield, Owais Shah, Graeme Swann and Nick Wilton, as well as their coach, John Abrahams.
I am also grateful to David Capel, David Graveney, Paul Grayson, Ian Thomas and Simon Timson for their time and insight. Others who do not appear in the book have offered valuable assistance, including Jeni Crouch, Chris Kelly, David Morris, James Motley, Haydn Parry, Nathan Ross, Natasha Sutherland, Arlo White and Richard Whitehead.
Simon Lowe supported the project from the beginning and Paul Camillin at Pitch Publishing saw it through to its conclusion, while Graham Morris at www.cricketpix.com and the staff at Colorsport and Getty Images were most helpful in coming up with photographs.
My family were as supportive as always, especially my wife Sara, who managed never to sound too exasperated when turning down social invitations because David s going to be out watching cricket . One day I ll surprise her by writing something she might actually read.
INTRODUCTION THE BOYS OF 98
The Under-19 World Cup was one of the happiest times of my life and I have got goose bumps now just talking about it. It was absolutely brilliant - Graeme Swann
J OHN ABRAHAMS is a cheerful man who rarely talks for long without a chuckle passing his lips. He is also, should you ever need such information, the answer to a couple of cracking cricket trivia questions. If asked who was named Man of the Match in a Lord s final after being dismissed for a duck and not bowling a ball, remember that his captaincy was considered worthy of such an award in Lancashire s victory against Warwickshire in the 1984 Benson and Hedges Cup. At the time of this book s completion, Abrahams also remained the only coach to lead a male England cricket team to success in an official ICC global tournament, the 1998 Under-19 World Cup. Discussion of the latter of those achievements ensures a relentless current of laughter and happy memories.
They were a great bunch of lads, he recalled, squinting against the sun that pierced the windows at English cricket s National Performance Centre on the campus of Loughborough University. As coach on a trip like that you have to fill many roles and the last persona I want to take on is that of headmaster. But I can t remember any disciplinary stuff with them. Either Abrahams has simply seen worse over the years or is being protective of his old boys because the players themselves admit they were hardly choirboys. I do know that they went out but they were sensible about it, he admitted. But they were self-policing, they looked after each other and they knew when things went a step too far. And they came together as a team on the field when it counted.
Born near Cape Town and arriving in Lancashire as a boy when his father Cec - a stalwart of the Cape Coloured cricketing community in the days of apartheid - accepted an offer to play league cricket in England, Abrahams s role as head of Elite Player Development for the ECB still includes hands-on involvement with the Under-19s in the capacity of team manager. Despite increasing sophistication in his area of work, some aspects remain unchanged from the ten winter weeks of 1997-98 when he and the likes of Graeme Swann, Owais Shah and Robert Key took on the world. If you have got some contact time with these kids you can start instilling in them the behaviour expected of an England cricketer. We remind them that people will know who they are if they are in an England blazer so the message is, Don t let yourself down. You build a rapport and players come to know what is non-negotiable. That team knew the expectations.
Before the players had a chance to pack for a tour that would take in Test matches and one-day internationals against their South African hosts, followed by participation in the World Cup, England captain Michael Atherton and coach David Lloyd visited them at their training base at the Lilleshall sports centre in Shropshire to give Nelson-like speeches. After all, there had not been a lot for English cricket to celebrate when Abrahams, team manager Phil Neale and the selectors sat down to pick their touring party in the autumn of 1997. In the previous 18 months, England had flopped at the World Cup, lost at home to Pakistan, been held to a drawn series in Zimbabwe and, finally, been beaten at home in the Ashes. Perhaps the brightest spot of the latest summer had been the mature, match-winning knock of 19-year-old Ben Hollioake on his one-day international debut at Lord s. Quite apart from the expectation it created around the player himself, it meant that the list of names comprising the Under-19 squad was scrutinised closely for someone else who might step up to the senior side so effortlessly. The players under the microscope were:
Ian Flanagan (Essex): Left-hand batsman.
Paul Franks (Nottinghamshire): Right-arm fast-medium bowler, left-hand batsman.
Michael Gough (Durham): Right-hand batsman, occasional off-spin bowler.
Jamie Grove (Essex): Right-arm fast bowler.
Giles Haywood (Sussex): Left-hand batsman, right-arm medium bowler.
Robert Key (Kent): Right-hand opening batsman.
Aaron Laraman (Middlesex): Right-hand batsman, right-arm fast-medium bowler.
Richard Logan (Northamptonshire): Right-arm fast-medium bowler.
Graham Napier (Essex): Right-arm fast-medium bowler, right-hand batsman.
Stephen Peters (Essex): Right-hand opening batsman.
Jonathan Powell (Essex): Off-spin bowler, right-hand batsman.
Chris Schofield (Lancashire): Leg-spin bowler, left-hand batsman.
Owais Shah (Middlesex): Captain. Right-hand batsman, occasional off-spin bowler.
Graeme Swann (Northamptonshire): Off-spin bowler, right-hand batsman.
Nick Wilton (Sussex): Wicketkeeper, right-hand batsman.
Having suffered a back injury, Laraman would return home prematurely without playing a major game on tour, leaving his 14 colleagues to contest the first youth World Cup to be staged since the inaugural event ten years earlier. We selected a side that could play four-day Tests but also compete in the onedayers, explained Abrahams, who had not long inherited his role from former Essex batsman Graham Saville. They were the best players anyway, so we thought they could perform at both forms. We had one or two with first-class experience and some had gone to Bermuda with us that year for an Under-19 tournament where we d played what was basically our Under-17 team. The core group had been through our development system and then we obviously looked at performances during the season. We had quite a few all-rounders, so there was strength in depth and it was a fairly well-balanced side. The bowling attack was not threatening but accurate.
One of the bigger calls is how a young player will cope being away from home and all you can do is suck it and see. Unless they have been on tour with you before you have no idea, although you try to communicate with county coaches to see what they are like. With that being such a long tour and being away for Christmas and New Year it was not easy, but to their credit all the players stuck together.
Paul Franks, one of older and more experienced team members, recalled, Some of us had been hardened by county cricket, but we knew the challenge would be massive and we didn t underestimate the task ahead. The preparation was tremendous. We went away for about three training camps and we had the likes of Neil Foster and Geoff Arnold passing on their wisdom.
According to Stephen Peters, Lilleshall was like a second home in those days. We used to go to the pub at the end of the drive and play pool. It was a great time and my memories of the whole thing are so fond. It was the best bunch of lads I have ever been with. Everyone got on fantastically well.
Michael Gough added, The thing that sticks out for me is the early morning runs. At about half past six we would meet in the pitch black to jog down the drive and back, which was about two miles. It was character building and got your fitness up. Then we had a full day in the nets. We were miles from anywhere so there were no distractions and the guys used to show up bleary-eyed but in decent shape.
Owais Shah, the captain, admitted that he did not exactly lead from the front in those sessions. I was not one of the fittest and I remember coming last in one of the runs that we did. I didn t really do much fitness as a kid because it was boring and I would rather bat or bowl or field. I didn t see a problem as captain coming last, as long as I tried my best. My attitude was, When it comes to cricket I will be there for you.
Once in South Africa, team morale was tested by events in the two Under-19 Tests either side of Christmas, both of which followed similar patterns. We were hanging on by our cuticles, Abrahams smiled. We were outplayed in both games.
In Cape Town, having given Test debuts to Gough, Richard Logan and Nick Wilton, England lost the toss and were sentenced to a long stretch in the