Those Who Can, Do. Those Who Can't, Write About It

I thought this was interesting.

I agree with some of what Ryan says - Brearley and Atherton are both fine writers - but I think he might have been better off keeping his powder dry.

While it's easy to understand the professional journalist with a limited playing background being frustrated by the rapid advances of those who could really play the game - especially if they think they can't write - it seems a tad hubristic to set yourself up, as Ryan appears to have done, as some sort of arbiter of journalistic quality and taste.

For a start you leave yourself open to the sort of comment which appears after the article from someone who clearly doesn't think much of Ryan's writing either, and, if you're talking about cricket, I think it's ill-advised to get superior with an ex-Test cricketer. Because, at the end of the day, they've been there and done it (even if they can't describe what they've done very well), while you never did and never will. No matter how much cricket you've watched you're always going to come up short against someone who's played the game at the highest level, even for the briefest period. And many people who follow the game, but who may not be connoisseurs of cricket writing, will set more store by the opinions of someone they've seen play than those of someone they've never heard of but thinks they can write well.

My favourite cricket writers - Alan Ross, David Frith, Gideon Haigh, Scyld Berry, Andrew Miller - don't have a Test cap between them, but I wouldn't dream of dismissing the efforts of many of those who do, especially the superb Ed Smith.

Now, where's my thesaurus?

Problems

After the psychological problems which Marcus Trescothick has been confronting over the last two years it's been sobering indeed to read about the similar issues currently being faced by Shaun Tait and Lou Vincent.

A number of writers (most notably David Frith in his ground-breaking studies of cricket suicides and David Foot in his great book about Harold Gimblett) have considered the fact that cricket appears to attract people who are more prone to illnesses of this sort than other sports. Or does cricket, with its protracted nature, mental and physical intensity and harsh statistical verdicts on its participants, lead people down the road of mental torment to a greater extent than other games?

I'm not sure, but with reference to the ceaseless and often devalued treadmill which modern international cricket has become, I tend towards the latter explanation, certainly as far as Marcus and, to a lesser extent, Vincent, are concerned. It doesn't hold good for Tait, who's never really been given a chance to step on to the treadmill, but then nor do the views of Geoff Boycott, who's seemed very unsympathetic towards him.

As regular readers will know, I have the highest possible regard for Marcus, who I've been watching regularly since he was eighteen. I don't think I've ever seen Vincent play in the flesh, but I know him to be an innovative attacking batsman and an excellent fielder. Shaun Tait I have seen, and my lasting memory of him sees him scrabbling around in the Oval dust as Kevin Pietersen opens up against Brett Lee after lunch on 12th September 2005. For his sake it'd be nice to see him do something better at another time.

Good luck to one and all.