The Times - UK (2022-06-08)

60 Wednesday June 8 2022 | the times

SportCricket

ALAMY

49.57

Root’s Test average is the

best by an England player

for more than 50 years —

since Ken Barrington

(average 58.67) played

his last Test

in 1968

I

t is difficult to exaggerate the

quality of Joe Root’s match-

winning second innings at Lord’s.

It was magnificent in its

technical excellence, its skill and

its management of pressure and the

various situations presented to him.

In short, it was a perfect example of

how to play a Test-match innings, a

demonstration of the basics being

applied at the highest level and

therefore an innings that should be

watched by every aspiring young

batter in the country.

It was a reminder that T20 should

not dominate the early stages of a

batter’s progress and learning. At

present the age-group pathway

is littered with days when

counties play two T20s

against each other, under

the false assumption that it

will give more players a

chance. It does not

necessarily do that, and it

then does not teach the

players the fundamentals

of a longer game. The way a

13-year-old plays T20 will be

very different from how he or

she plays it at 18 anyway, after

they have matured in physical

and cricketing terms.

It was interesting to hear

Kevin Pietersen talking on Sky

Sports during the Test about

how he is emphasising to his

young son the importance of a

solid defence. All the great

players have been able to

defend first. I may have

mentioned before a story about

Sir Vivian Richards. When we

different player and character from

his predecessor, but playing the ball

late is something Stokes, 31, is always

searching to do more often and more

proficiently (as are Crawley and

Bairstow). Root is sublime at this,

forever dabbing to third man, and

only in Australia, with their bouncier

pitches, has he really encountered

problems with it. Root can manoeuvre

the ball around, whereas Stokes, with

his hard wrists, struggles to do so,

thus his frequent charges down the

pitch to seamers.

ben foakes

Foakes will have learnt so much from

that match-winning partnership with

Root. New Zealand attacked him, and

defended when Root was facing,

which helped Foakes, 29, who may be

less effective if he has to bat with the

tail. It was a fine alliance, especially

under initially trying circumstances.

can access the leg side, even if his

favoured areas are on the off side.

jonny bairstow

We should probably give Bairstow, 32,

some leeway for his second innings

because his positivity was actively

encouraged by the management, and

his character and modus operandi are

very different from Root’s. But to get

out to what would have been Kyle

Jamieson’s last ball of his spell was

sloppy thinking. Root would have

understood that scenario much better.

Root’s judgment of length is usually

superb, and Bairstow, like Crawley,

must recognise the dangers of driving

good-length balls, as he did to

Jamieson. Root’s game is so low risk,

thereby always allowing him to exude

a calm exterior.

ben stokes

Again, the new captain is a very

Root brilliance

has different

lesson for each

England player

were playing together at Glamorgan,

one evening after a game at

Chesterfield against Derbyshire he

asked me to throw him some balls. He

defended every single one of them.

He said that he needed to get that in

order first before he started thinking

about scoring runs.

Indeed, when Pietersen made his

Test debut, against Australia at Lord’s

in 2005, it was his defence —

particularly when Glenn McGrath

was causing havoc by nipping balls

back down the slope — that stood

out. Pietersen showed the way for his

colleagues, just as Root has done so

for his team-mates with this innings.

There is much that all the batsmen in

this England team can learn from

their former captain and the manner

in which he played at the weekend.

zak crawley

One of my favourite phrases I use to

the young batters I coach is that I

want them to “play the innings of the

day, not the shot of the day”. Too

many young players want to do the

latter, and Crawley, 24,

falls into that category

too. In his first-innings

43 he probably played a

number of drives that

might have been in

contention for shots of the

match, but ultimately his

innings was not one that

influenced the match.

Technically, his hips still

align with mid-wicket in his

set-up, which means that

he is susceptible to coming

across the line of the ball.

Look at Root’s stance; his

hips are always aligned to

where the bowler is

coming from.

alex lees

Root has been known to

tinker, but his prolific run-

gathering in recent times has

been attributed to a more

simplified approach. Lees, 29,

must recognise this. His

constant changing of guard is

confusing him rather than the bowler.

He played much better in the second

innings when he freed up the off side

by taking a more traditional guard,

but we need to discover where his

strengths are. Bowlers need to know

there are areas they cannot stray to,

for fear of being punished.

ollie pope

The margin between looking busy

and appearing frantic is small. Root

looks busy; too often Pope appears

frantic. Pope, 24, can surely learn

much from a chat with Root about

this.

Another thing they could discuss is

balance. Root has always battled with

what is called “a heavy head” —

indeed as a teenager a growth spurt

led to him being dismissed leg-before

time and time again — but he has

found a way of being balanced and

still at the point of delivery, so that he

Root, flicking to mid-wicket for his century, is balanced and still at the point of delivery so that he can access the leg side

The top order can get

better by watching how

a master constructs his

innings in heat of battle,

writes Steve James

Crawley is susceptible to

playing across the line

Yorkshire are preparing to pay six

former employees a total of about

£1.5 million in compensation after

admitting that the unfair dismissal

cases brought by the sacked staff mem-

bers were “well founded”.

Sixteen employees — including

Andrew Gale, the head coach — were

sacked without severance pay at the

end of last year in response to the public

outcry over Yorkshire’s handling of

claims of institutional racism by Azeem

Rafiq, a former Yorkshire bowler.

Six of the 16 began legal proceedings

Yorkshire set to pay six sacked employees £1.5m in compensation

against the county claiming that the

club had not followed due process in

their dismissals and were offered settle-

ments as low as £2,000 after a prelimi-

nary hearing at the beginning of last

month.

However, after a further hearing two

weeks ago, the county, in a consent

judgment published yesterday, agreed

that the legal action brought against

them had merit and will now offer the

six players large five-figure sums that

the six former employees are expected

to accept.

In the county’s most recent set of

published accounts, they had set aside

£1.9 million as an “exceptional item” for

“various costs associated with the

racism allegations”. This amount would

cover the £1.5 million to the six former

staff members, legal costs, payouts

already given to Rafiq and the former

chief executive Mark Arthur.

As well as Gale, the claimants

included the former second XI coach

Ian Dews, the former academy director

Richard Damms, the former bowling

coach Richard Pyrah and strength and

conditioning staff members Ian Fisher

and Peter Sim.

Lord Patel of Bradford, the Yorkshire

chairman, said when the county’s latest

accounts were published that the finan-

cial impact of the racism allegations

would have a “significant impact on the

club’s financial position” and that it

would be necessary to complete a “re-

financing exercise” which would prob-

ably be in the form of additional loans.

The county were already in a precari-

ous financial situation after most of

their leading sponsors withdrew in the

fallout of the scandal last year. While

the club have been saved from the brink

of collapse by being able to keep this

year’s Test match against New Zealand,

the county already have debts of about

£17 million to various creditors and

these wrongful dismissal payouts are a

further hit.

There is a continuing investigation

by the ECB into the allegations made

against Yorkshire and a number of indi-

viduals associated with the county that

is expected to conclude shortly.

The outcome of that inquiry is likely

to result in charges being brought both

against Yorkshire and former players

and staff at the county. If the club are

found guilty of bringing the game into

disrepute, they could face a hefty fine

and there is growing concern that

might jeopardise their financial

viability.

Elizabeth Ammon