It's All In The Ed

I admit, two innings is not much to go on when judging a man. However, having spent a lot of the lull between Christmas and New Year catching up on the Boxing Day Tests from Melbourne and Durban, I think I have gained enough to qualify the statement that I'm about to make. Which is this - debutant Australian opener Ed Cowan should be given a future at this level as he brings an important dimension to the side.

Let me look into my crystal ball and see the eventual retirements of Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey, both of whom are big reasons why Australia are still in the current Test match with India. Surely skipper Michael Clarke will move up to No.4 in the order, with Shaun Marsh at 3, and Shane Watson returning to bat at 6 to save his ailing body for his useful role as the 5th bowler in the longer form of the game. I back Usman Khawaja to come good eventually and make big runs in state cricket to fill Hussey's shoes at 5. Which leaves David Warner at the top. With the exception of Khawaja, you have a group of players whose natural game it is to play their strokes, generally successfully. Whilst Watson and Warner are naturally aggressive, Clarke and Marsh are technically gifted and more liable to play shots to make the purists purr. However, some balance is needed at the top to allow them all to play with freedom. And this is where Cowan comes in.

68 and 8 are scores not necessarily indicative of great things. But the grit shown in the first innings, coupled with solid technique and a range of strokes to put the bad ball away, suggested that Cowan had the fundamentals to succeed at this level. He generally judged the ball's line and length very well (aside the one he left from Umesh Yadav to be stone lbw in the 2nd - however this looked more just a simple error than a technical flaw and should hopefully be disregarded) and covered the seam movement that the Indians extracted from the drop-in pitch very effectively on the 1st day. What impressed me most was the confidence that Warner, Ponting and Clarke all showed in him. All of them got starts and, although they died by the sword, they got to decent scores playing naturally. Because they knew the man at the other end would survive and graft his way through the innings. Take the last great Australian team. Who was there to support the brutal Matthew Hayden at the top of the order? Nuggety wee Justin Langer. Cowan is Langer's heir apparent for the next few years. To say he is the next Simon Katich would be slightly more unkind, but again the method of building an innings is similar, even if the batting technique is not.

I said I didn't have much to go on in judging Cowan, but I had come across him in a different guise before, even if I had never seen him bat until Christmas Night. He has a regular column on ESPNCricinfo, which is always intelligently written (better than this shite anyway), making profound arguments for and against the game we all love and generally raising the standard of writing amongst current players well above that of Graeme Swann. You can see the intelligence in the way he bats. I have played with "intelligent cricketers" in the past and they can be infuriating characters, the limits of their ability forcing them to develop new theories which never can quite come off but which, in more talented hands, would take that player a long way. Cowan clearly has the ability to go with the nous. He knows the game inside and out and therefore has the potential to be a dangerous customer for opening bowlers around the world.

So the argument may be an unconventional one, but believe me, Ed Cowan can go a long way in Test cricket, even as he starts out at the ripe old age of 29!

From Devon,

RM

Turning a Corner

After failing to qualify for the World T20 in the Caribbean and the 50-over World Cup in the subcontinent, it appeared as though Scottish cricket had reached its' lowest ebb. Which when you consider the lack of real highs over the years, is saying an awful lot about the state the game had got itself into north of the border. And yet there is still a demand for cricket in a country where rugby dominates the minds of the middle class and football that of everyone else. I was up north this weekend, and the number of (currently frozen) cricket grounds I passed was certainly disproportionate to the size of the population. And there are signs that things are improving.

Cricket Scotland made a number of significant announcements this week, which will ensure the exposure of the game in this country to a wider audience. Every couple of years, England pop up to Edinburgh to hand out a hiding to the Scotland side in an ODI. However, 2012 will be the first occasion that Sky Sports will televise this event. It probably won't look pretty, and in all likelihood will probably rain, but it is at least a chance to showcase some of the talent that we have hiding up here. Add this to the news that England will play a tour match in Dubai next month against an XI made up of Associate players, and you see the chances that are being given to elevate the stature of the likes of Kyle Coetzer and Majid Haq, the Scottish contingent in that squad. Incidentally, Somerset's great new hope George Dockrell, Murali Kartik's replacement in the spin department, will also feature, with Warwickshire's William Porterfield skippering the side in the 3-day warm-up before the Pakistan series.

Our young players are also being afforded opportunities to learn their trade abroad. 3 Scottish lads have been chosen by the ICC European Academy to spend part of the winter in Pune, India, learning the skills required to succeed on the subcontinent, much like the England Lions, led by James Taylor, will attempt to do in Bangladesh in the New Year. One of my teammates for the university has just broken into the Scotland squad and is taking a year out to play grade cricket in Australia, where I gather he is doing rather well.

All of this points towards a group of players moving slowly but surely towards a greater level of professionalism. As a cricketing nation, we have fallen behind other associates such as Ireland, Afghanistan and the Netherlands in recent times, but with a group of young players being afforded great opportunities and players being given a higher profile, there is now little to get in the way of the Scottish side moving forward. After the ICC reneged on its' attempt to bar Associates from the 2015 World Cup, qualification for that tournament needs to be a long-term aim, and to get there with the majority of the side as professional cricketers.

From a snowy Crieff,
RM

Sri Lankans left Phil-oundering

Apologies for the terrible pun first and foremost. This isn't the start of a series where I review every single day of Test match cricket around the world. It's just that today's play gives me an opportunity to declare another of my cricketing biases and how today's play was relevant to it.

Having grown up in the cricketing backwater of Devon, I have followed Somerset CCC in English domestic cricket for a good number of years now. I was pretty disappointed when Murali Kartik left the club at the end of this summer, having guided us to numerous runners-up positions over the past couple of seasons as an overseas player. As a left-arm spinner, his replacement Roelof van der Merwe simply will not fill the void in first-class cricket, although he does have plenty to offer with the bat. However, VDM isn't available until June, so Brian Rose and Andy Hurry have spent the winter looking for an overseas player for April and May. They appear to have found their man in South African seamer Vernon Philander.

As I predicted yesterday, the Centurion pitch was a green top, with the Saffer seamers extracting plenty of movement to skittle the tourists for just 180, aided in part by some woeful stroke play. Philander was the pick of the bowlers with 5-53, although he can feel that at least two of these were slightly fortunate - Angelo Mathews played a booming and loose drive in the search for quick runs with the tail in, and Kaushal Silva got the faintest of gloves down the leg-side first ball, with only the DRS giving any indication that he was actually out. However, the dismissals of Tharanga Paranavitana (I won't be doing any analytical pieces on him for the sake of my fingers) and Thilan Samaraweera (likewise) showed what Somerset will be gaining in April. Both moved away from the right-hander in the air before nipping back, cleaning up Paranavitana (a leftie) through the gate, and getting another faint nick off Samaraweera's edge through to Mark Boucher. Moreover, this was Philander's 3rd 5-wicket haul in as many games since his debut against the Aussies in that ridiculous wicketfest in Cape Town.

In early season conditions, Philander can reasonably expect to find plenty of green tops both at and away from Taunton. With a seam attack that largely flattered to deceive in last year's Championship, Philander will be a key in getting us off to a flier, in the hope that youngsters such as Adam Dibble and Lewis Gregory can carry on where he leaves off when VDM arrives in June. The best part of all of this is that I texted my brother yesterday when the news of his signing broke, saying what a good acquisition he is (he can bat a bit as well), and to watch out for him in the Centurion Test match! I love it when I'm right!

From Edinburgh,

RM

Attack of the Quickmen

Test cricket is not dead. As far as I, and most cricket fans in this country, are concerned, you can keep your IPL, Big Bash League and (ahem) Stanford Super Series, for the longest form of the game will always be the best. However, that is not to say that Test cricket is not going, has not gone and will not go through times of transition and therefore difficulty. The ebb and flow of the game as a whole mirrors that of an individual Test match. However, I am going to bold enough to say that we are just on the cusp of a period of "flow". The main reason? The re-emergence of the seam bowler as a threat all over the world, in all conditions

There are various explanations for this outlandish statement. I will endeavor to step you through each of them in the hope (if not expectation) that some of you may agree with me:

1) The best teams are built around their pace attacks. Quite simply tell me the reasons why England and South Africa are ranked Nos 1 and 2 by the ICC. What do opposition fear the most when facing these teams on their own patch? Is it the thought of being ground down to death by Jonathan Trott or Graeme Smith? Fine players though they are, no. It is the threat of a trio of quick bowlers who between them possess the ability to swing the ball both ways, reverse it in the later stages of an innings, top 90mph regularly and take your head off with a surprise bouncer. In England, you have Anderson, Broad and Bresnan, South Africa currently favour Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander. But should any of the frontliers lose form or break down under the rigours of the ludicrous Future Tours Programme, there is plenty of reserve in both countries - Chris Tremlett, Steve Finn and Graham Onions would be good enough to play Test cricket anywhere else, and Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Rusty Theron will surely make better use of international opportunities in the future. Should England succeed this winter, they will have proven themselves on the subcontinent, the last frontier for their world domination

2) So many emerging young players are genuine quicks. Think of the more meaningful performances in recent Tests. Both Junaid Khan of Pakistan and Pat Cummins of Australia took 5fers on debut. Doug Bracewell drove the Kiwis to a rare victory against their Antipodean rivals last week in only his 3rd Test, in a series where James Pattinson showed that not all of his family are total donkeys. India have finally unearthed a couple of gems in Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron - guys who can swing the ball quickly, rather than just whanging it down on a length on a dead pitch, thus making their side a force to be reckoned with in the future outside the subcontinent in years to come (the Aussies had better watch out for Yadav in the upcoming series). Finn is only 22 and already has 50 test scalps to his name. When these guys hit their peak in five years time or so, batsmen had better tightened up their techniques, or the trend of low scores we have seen recently will only become more common. Which brings me nicely on to...

3) Twenty20 has changed the temperament of batsmen. Admittedly this argument would have held more water had David Warner, a product of the shortest form, not produced a magnificent rearguard innings in defeat in the Hobart Test this week. But this was the exception, not the rule. Witness the Aussies collapsing to 21-9 in Cape Town. Some of the shots the Indians played in England this summer. Bangladesh. Nothing specific, just everything about Bangladesh's batting. Players like Rahul Dravid, Shiv Chanderpaul and Jonathan Trott are becoming rarer and rarer these days. Because of the riches that can be garnered from slogging during a 120 ball innings, many batsmen have lost the defensive technique, patience and in the case of Chris Gayle, the will, to build an innings, play yourself in and take few unnecessary risks. Yes, it may not be as entertaining but it can be the difference between 250 and 400 on a flat deck. You couple this with bowlers who have increasingly had to study video footage of their opposition in order to get their dues on unrewarding pitches in recent years and you can understand why teams are struggling to post imposing scores in whites. Case in point Phil "Caught Guptill Bowled Martin" Hughes. Angle it across him outside off stump and he'll nick off. Watch the videos and you'll see how far he pushes away from his body.

4) Pitches are getting spicy. In countries where Test matches are king, curators have tended to leave some grass on to make the game a more even contest between bat and ball. Trent Bridge has been a fine example of this over the years, but now Australia and South Africa are following suit. Both the Gabba and Bellerive Oval nipped around on every day of the series with New Zealand as wickets tended to fall early, only for the batsmen to consolidate later in the day. I'm also told that tomorrow's pitch in Centurion promises to cause the floundering Sri Lankan top order to have a restless night tonight! These kind of pitches are what we want to see - a match in which neither bat nor ball is automatically dominant, but it is the team who scores the runs when the ball is hooping round corners or the team who takes wickets when things are flattening out who will come out on top. Fun though it is, there is no real joy in seeing Virender Sehwag plunder another quick ton on a road at Bangalore. Nor is it truly joyful to see Murali take 8-32 on a pitch spinning square on the first morning in Galle. Give us a pitch where there is something for everyone throughout the five days!

5) Times change. Back to the ebb and flow hypothesis. I read in the Guardian yesterday of an innings by West Indian opener Roy Fredericks, who hooked and pulled his way to a better than a run a ball 169 at the fearsome WACA in 1975. This innings was all the more remarkable given the Aussie pace bowling lineup of Lillee, Thomson, Gilmour and Walker at the time. This was just a time when pace bowlers were the biggest threat to the opposition in the Test match arena. Ditto the Windies of the 1980s - Marshall, Roberts, Garner, Holding, followed by Ambrose and Walsh. In between times, there have been batsmen who have been the leading lights, or blonde legspinners. Could it just be that the era of the paceman is beginning once again?

From Edinburgh,

RM

Welcome to Over the Sightscreen

After much deliberation, I decided I could no longer keep abreast of every sport sufficiently to produce articles of a quality that I was happy with regularly enough to keep Beyond the Cliche going. So that little adventure of the past 18 months is over.

However, I did enjoy being my forays into amateur sports journalism, and this blog allows me to keep that up in an area that I will remain dedicated to anyway. Regular readers of BtC (there must have been some of you out there, you just never bothered to subscribe!) will know of my love of cricket and so I decided to focus in on that area with Over the Sightscreen.

As well as dropping in short pieces on stories that have amused or annoyed me, I will aim to put together one "quality" article once a week, to keep people abreast of goings on in the cricketing world, only delivered in my less than conventional (and occasionally less than PC) manner. I really would appreciate it if you would take some time to read things, comment and generate a bit of debate. It really would make my life a bit more interesting for one thing. One rule: if you are reading this from the subcontinent, I could do without the "India is amazing, Michael Vaughan is a wanker" kind of comments. Please try and back up what you have to say with a bit of evidence and thoughtful writing. This isn't YouTube.

In terms of my own cricketing background (so that you are aware of my own biases), I am a more prolific-than-I-deserve left-arm spinner who occasionally gets lucky and scores some streaky runs and I catch more than I drop (just about). My University 2nd XI captaincy record at home is excellent, but shocking abroad!

Finally, owing to the rush hour traffic, I spent my bus journey home today thinking of possible names for this blog. Amongst those discarded were: Silly Point, Backward Point, Top of Off, From the Pavilion End, Beyond the Boundary and The Breaks Are Off. Oh hang on, I actually don't think that last one was me (thankfully I have no responsibility for that aberration of a title!). If you feel I have missed a trick or should change to something else, drop me a line.

Which leaves me to sign off in the style of nuggety former Aussie opener Justin Langer:

From Edinburgh,

RM