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
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