8.10.07

After Fletcher

It was both pleasing and interesting to see Ryan Sidebottom and Graeme Swann playing their parts in England's latest victory over Sri Lanka. Both are players who played a single game for England - Sidebottom a Test, Swann a one-day international - in the early years of Duncan Fletcher's stewardship of the England side. Neither impressed, both were forgotten. Swann said recently that he never spoke to Fletcher again after his tour to South Africa, but, in 2007, both have come back to the side to show how much they've developed in the intervening years and, perhaps, how much England were missing for all that time.

Leaving the intervening South African adventure to one side, there have been enough signs in the home series with India and this one that England, under Peter Moores, are at least putting themselves in a position from which they can improve the most dismal ODI record of the major nations. It seems highly likely that Sidebottom and Swann will be part of that, and Stuart Broad, of the neophyte's freshness and the veteran's mentality, is certain to do so.

Indeed, with Broad, whose straight bat and cool temperament should ensure he'll make plenty of runs at international level to go with the wickets which are a given, it's simply a matter of when he gets into the Test side. Once he's there he'll be there for ever (or it'll sure seem like it).

5 comments:

Stuart said...

It will be very interesting to see how the young English guys develop under Peter Moores. All coaches seem to have certain favourites, but Fletcher seemed far more guilty of this sin than most others.

Brian Carpenter said...

Dead right, Stuart. Fletcher had his good points and was very important to England but he had a definite and very unwelcome tendency to rate certain players far too highly and abandon others without giving them a proper chance. Early signs are that Moores is a lot more open-minded.

Anonymous said...

Have to agree. Fletcher's favourites undoubtless lost him some credibility. I think the wicketkeeper position was one that Fletcher had his critics on. That particular debate, however, might still rage with Mustard now in the mix though I think Prior deserves continued support....until they pick Craig Kieswetter!

Brian Carpenter said...

I'm sure that Prior will go to SL for the Tests. He was struggling at the end of the summer but is very much a Peter Moores pick and is probably capable of batting better than any of the other contenders. If he fails to make runs and struggles with the gloves there then his place may come under threat, although I'm not sure who from. Jones is completely out of the picture now, and, although I'm a Chris Read fan I can't see him ever making serious runs at Test level. I suppose the very unlucky Foster could come back into it and I think Mustard did enough to at least stay in consideration for the ODI side. As for Craig, I think he'll turn out to be an excellent keeper-batsman - I think I'm right in saying that he's still not quite 20, which makes him a very good prospect indeed.

Anonymous said...

ah yes, hopefully craig continues developing and makes a name for himself in Div 1. I see he's attending academy training. To divert off-topic briefly, what do you make of Langer's decision to play in India? I've put it on my blog after a bit of furore on grockles...oh, and reciprocal link on for you...

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