Section:GDN 1N PaGe:43 Edition Date:190730 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 29/7/2019 20:18 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Tuesday 30 July 2019 The Guardian •
43by the fact th e Ashes start here.
They love the facilities (not least the
football pitch on the Colts Ground)
and conditions have tended to suit
their strengths.
What sets Edgbaston apart is the
volume. As Graeme Swann once
remarked: “It’s the closest you get
as a cricketer to knowing what it’s
like to be a professional footballer.”
While limited-overs games can
descend into mass karaoke – the
World Cup matches transcended
this, not least the cacophonous
group game between Pakistan and
New Zealand – Test cricket requires
none of the gimmickry.
The bars are plentiful but
home-side inspiration is the only
real ingredient required, such as
Jimmy Anderson’s series-changing
spell in 2015 or Graham Onions
taking two in two balls during the
draw in 2009.
Writing in the Guardian four
years ago, Jason Gillespie said the
atmosphere for day one of the 1997
Ashes Test “ was like no other cricket
I had experienced ” when Australia
were 118 all out before lunch.
But Bell, still on the mend from a
torn ligament in his foot and hoping
to resume his county season soon,
fancies Edgbaston to have been
at its loudest o n the Saturday of
the 2005 Ashes Test , specifi cally
Andrew Flintoff ’s famous over to
Ricky Ponting which he observed
from short-leg.
Bell said: “I don’t know if it’s
because I was new to the side but I
just couldn’t believe the noise. But
even when the game is in a quiet
period, there’s always something
going on in the Eric Hollies Stand.
It’s probably the only ground in
the world where you’ll look into
the crowd and suddenly spot
Spider-Man climbing a pillar.”
The Eric Hollies Stand, named
after the leg-spinner whose
googly denied Don Bradman a
three-fi gure Test average, will once
again be a factor; rebuilt in 2003,
its collection of fancy-dressed
revellers and amateur comedians
are always ready either to pounce
on Australian misfortune or perhaps
attempt to induce it.F
or Dennis Amiss,
another Warwickshire
great who sampled the
Gabba’s white heat in
1974-75 when Dennis
Lillee and Jeff Thomson
delivered one of their most
hostile spells, the Hollies is about
gamesmanship and banter rather
than anything more sinister.
“It’s always been a partisan crowd
but they participate more than ever
now – if they spot an opportunity
to have a pop, they take it,” Amiss
said. “My favourite example was
seeing an Australian fi elder walking
backwards towards the boundary
rope and suddenly the Hollies
started to ‘Beep, Beep, Beep’ like he
was a lorry reversing.”
While the atmosphere will likely
be in a similar vein this week – loud,
pro-England and with some words
for the visitors – boos for David
Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron
Bancroft (if selected) are pretty
much a given too, even if some
16 months have passed since the
sandpaper scandal.
Whatever Joe Root says on the
subject during the pre-match press
conference tomorrow – and Eoin
Morgan’s roundabout instructions
during the World Cup were
essentially “let ’em have it” – it is
likely coming once more.
Bell said: “They’ll cop it but I don’t
think it will aff ect them. Warner
and Smith are world-class players,
not just because of technique
but through their temperament.
I worked with their coach, Justin
Langer, at Perth Scorchers and he
creates strong team environments,
one where they will go out there
knowing they have the full backing
of their teammates too.”
Amiss said: “They booed them in
the World Cup semi-fi nal and it will
probably happen again. But I believe
it will be banter, not nastiness. And
don’t forget the Aussies are tough
people. They could well be spurred
on rather than put off .” The pair are
probably right but that will not stop
Edgbaston from trying.Search for ‘best bloke’
to replace Bayliss is
under way, Giles says
Chris Stocks
EdgbastonTrevor Bayliss will step
down following the
Ashes, Ashley Giles saysAshley Giles, England’s director of
cricket, said he has held informal talks
with possible candidates to take over
from Trevor Bayliss as head coach at
the end of the summer.
Bayliss, who has held the post for
four years , will leave at the conclusion
in September of the forthcoming
Ashes series. Whatever happens
against Australia, with the fi rst Test
starting at Edgbaston on Thursday,
the 56-year-old will leave a World Cup
winner following England’s success in
that tournament earlier this month.
Giles has refused to start an
offi cial recruitment process until the
autumn to avoid speculation over
the Australian’s successor distracting
the team during a huge home summer.
However, he has conceded he is
sounding out potential candidates
on an informal basis. “I can say I’ve
had some conversations with people
but very relaxed conversations over a
coff ee or over the phone,” Giles said.
“I’m naturally going to be feeling
people out a little bit on the position
but nothing formal, nothing public
and that process will continue for me
to get to know some of these people.”
Chris Silverwood, one of Bayliss’s
current assistants, has been mentioned
as a possible contender for the top
job after he led Essex to the County
Championship title in 2017.
Pressed on whether his preference
would be for an English coach to
succeed Bayliss, Giles said: “Certainly
we want someone who will do all three
formats and then we need to manage
the workloads of those coaches very
carefully. It’d be nice to have an
English coach but we’ve got to get
the best bloke.”
For Giles the successful candidate
will have to buy into the team culture
that has been cultivated by the Test
captain, Joe Root, and Eoin Morgan,his white-ball equivalent. They have
looked to change the culture since
the Ben Stokes street brawl in Bristol
in September 2017 , as well as the fol-
lowing winter’s Ashes tour that saw
several off -fi eld incidents, leading
Andrew Strauss, Giles’s predecessor,
to introduc e a midnight curfew.
“We need someone who can fi t with
the culture that is really developing
well in the team,” he said. “These guys
are still going to make mistakes and we
know during this series something’s
going to come out. There’s going to
be an incident I’m sure at some point
on the fi eld that’s not going to be
particularly pretty. That’s the Ashes.“Having a coach who fi ts with what
we’re trying to do in the dressing room
and is still his own man is a fi ne balance
to strike but it’s important.”
Giles is hopeful the right candidate
will be in place for the tour of South
Africa that starts in December but a
caretaker coach is likely to be in place
for the tour of New Zealand that begins
in late October. There is no chance of
that caretaker being Bayliss. “No, I
think Trev’s done and I mean that in
the nicest possible way,” Giles said.
“He’s set himself a goal of getting to
the end of this Ashes and then letting
someone else take over. Hopefully he
can hand over on the back of a great
summer and winning the World Cup
and Ashes would be unprecedented.”
With the New Zealand tour, which
comprises fi ve Twenty20 games and
two Tests, not counting towards the
new World Test Championship, which
was launched at Edgbaston yester-
day , England are likely to rest a raft of
leading players for that six-week trip.
Giles said: “We’ve got a lot of cricket
this winter and we need to be careful
with some of the workloads. We’ll take
a look at that after the Ashes.”
The future of Morgan, England’s
World Cup-winning captain who will
be 36 when the 2023 tournament starts
in India , is also on the agenda for Giles.
“I’ve not talked to him yet,” he said.
“I want to give him some time. We’ll
have a chat at some point but he’s
still probably got to come back down
to earth, do some thinking and then
we’ll get together. I think we need to
have that conversation but he’s shown
himself to be a fantastic leader of this
team and [at 32] he’s not that old.”What is it?
A n international league for Test
cricket launched by the ICC. Teams
accrue points from each Test that
count towards a league table.Who will play in it?
The top nine Test nations –
Australia, Bangladesh, England,
India, New Zealand, Pakistan,
South Africa, Sri Lanka and West
Indies.When does it start?
The fi rst Ashes Test on Thursdaywill start a two-year cycle during
which each nation will play six
series, three home and three away.How does the points system work?
A total of 120 points are available
for each series. Points on off er are
adjusted for the length of the series.
A win in a two-Test series is worth 60
points but 24 in a fi ve-Test series.How is the winner decided?
At the end of two years the top two
will play in a fi ve-day fi nal at Lord’s
in June 2021. Sonny CohenGuide to the World Test Championship
England’s
bastionWhen England last lost a Test
match at Edgbaston – to South
Africa who won by fi ve wicketsEngland’s Test record at
Edgbaston since Australia’s 2001
victory
Played 14 Won 10 Drawn 3 Lost 12002 v Sri Lanka
England win by an innings and
111 runs
2003 v South Africa^ Draw
2004 v West Indies
England win by 256 runs
2005 v Australia
England win by two runs
2006 v Sri Lanka
England win by six wickets
2008 v South Africa
South Africa win by fi ve wickets
2009 v Australia Draw
2010 v Pakistan
England win by nine wickets
2011 v India
England win by an innings and
242 runs
2012 v West Indies Draw
2015 v Australia
England win by eight wickets
2016 v Pakistan
England win by 141 runs
2017 v West Indies
England win by an innings and
209 runs
2018 v India
England win by 31 runs2008
problem that has led him to miss four
weeks of cricket.
It leaves the uncapped Jofra Archer
as the fi nal fi tness query. The fast
bowler is to be assessed at Edgbas-
ton today following the side strain
he battled through during England’s
victorious World Cup campaign.
Archer played a T20 Blast match
for Sussex last Friday but his ability
to get through 20 overs in a day of Test
cricket so soon will dictate whether he
is handed a Test debut at Edgbaston
or held back until the second Test at
Lord’s which starts on 14 August.In contrast to the top order there is
at least healthy competition for seam
bowling places. Chris Woakes, though
in the middle of a heavy summer work-
load, returned a career-best six for 17
against Ireland and knows Edgbaston
better than anyone.
Broad also took seven wickets
across two innings in that match and
Olly Stone’s pace impressed on debut,
while Sam Curran has the ability to
swing the ball from a left-arm angle
and off er additional batting depth
down the order.
A further change brings Ben Stokes
back as the vice-captain – the position
he held in 2017 before the infamous
Bristol incident at the end of the sum-
mer saw him removed from the role
and stood down from that winter’s
Ashes series.
Speaking on a visit to his former
club, Cockermouth CC in Cumbria,
the 28-year-old said: “I love having
that responsibility and it is somethingI thoroughly enjoy doing. I take pride
in being vice-captain. Being part of
that think- tank is pretty cool. I am very
good friends with Joe and will do as
much as I can to help him not just as a
captain but as a player as well.
“I think it would have been just
as exciting anyway. Playing in an
Ashes series is always special and
they don’t come around that often.
But being named vice-captain again
was very good words to hear when I
got the call.”Ben Stokes
On being named vice-captain‘I love having the
responsibility –
being part of that
think-tank is cool’
Continued from back pageAnderson and
Archer add to
England options
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