By Scyld Berry
IN England's calendar no game can rival the Sir Robert Menzies Memorial match at the MCG. The ground's capacity has been 101,000 since the construction of the Great Southern Stand and, as usual for this occasion, more than 100,000 of the seats were empty, leaving the tiers and terraces to the chirrup of sparrows. Melbourne is said to be capable of four seasons in a day, but it was cool, grey spring throughout. The funeral itself must have been a brighter occasion.
Nonetheless it was for England a satisfying day which returned their tour to a more confident course. Alec Stewart set the example by making his first hundred of the tour, his second since he became England captain, and this on a slow yet bouncy pitch which neatly resembled Adelaide. By the end of his innings Stewart was powering along in fifth gear, although even that was not fast enough for him to beat a throw from square-leg when he called himself for a silly second run.
The two other stalwarts of England's batting, Mike Atherton and, more briefly Graham Thorpe, found their touch as well, before getting themselves out through fancying the Victorian bowling rather too much. During his 44 minutes Thorpe hooked and off-drove two boundaries to remind England of what they had missed in Perth, followed by a net afterwards without discomfort.
Like Compton's knee, however, and Atherton's back, Thorpe's will be a constant concern for some time to come. On Wednesday in Perth, for the first time in his life, he met a specialist who understood his back condition - not related to the cyst he had removed in July - and prescribed the exercises necessary to strengthen his lower back and abdominal muscles. This will take time to have effect, but at least he now knows where he stands, however uncomfortably.
England's opponents, it must be conceded, were as raw as uncooked carrots. Not only did their captain Shane Warne keep himself hidden but seven regulars were also rested, leaving the field to debutant Brads and unrazored Shawns. Warne's replacement as captain was Brad Hodge, now the most senior player at 23.
Still, England were 33 for two after being sent in against a lively new-ball attack, and if the tour was not in crisis, it was still an important juncture. A good game here, and England can go to Adelaide still clinging to the fact that they have only been beaten once on tour. Another low total, and the self-belief might have dried up along with the runs, taking the tour to the verge of freefall.
John Crawley went in first in place of Mark Butcher, but is now eighth out of the eight batsmen in England's pecking order, a slow-wicket anti-legspin specialist who might be worth a go in Sydney. Butcher could have done with a game, but somebody had to be left out.
Nasser Hussain recorded his third failure in a row, after going through his first eight innings in Australia without knowing the word. Like the rest of England's batsmen he was keen to play forward again after Perth, but this time had an inside edge on to his pad for short-leg to catch. This made a maiden first-class wicket for Ashley Gilbert, a jovial giant and reforming reprobate with a haircut like that which most people used to be given before going to Australia.
The turn-round was engineered first by Atherton, who does not always dig deep in mid-series practice games, but was hungry on this occasion with a tour average of 15 to rectify. He ran impish singles, hooked at most bouncers, upper-cut another, and it took a diving low catch by gully to punish a cracking square-drive.
``It was nice to score a hundred,'' said Stewart. ``My problem has been getting out in the first 15 or 20 minutes,'' he added, slightly more illuminatingly. It helped that he did not have to start against spin, and by the time the off-spinner John Davison came on he had scored 19 and was too well set for much of a close field.
Stewart's only previous hundred as England's wicketkeeper/captain/dogsbody had been in the Old Trafford Test. His relief at making another was translated into some sumptuous driving, before he kept a few runs in the bag for Adelaide.
After his trial by third degree in the Perth Test, Mark Ramprakash deserved a rest more than Butcher but he still battled away for another 198 minutes, never quite in the right position to drive off the front foot.
Stewart said he had ``no idea'' about England's composition for the third Test; and whatever it is, it will be rather square-peg-and-round-holey. But the least unsatisfactory solution must be seven batsmen and four seamers: the fourth being Dean Headley, Dominic Cork or Angus Fraser, who, in retrospect, should have played instead of Cork at Perth.
Graeme Hick hit like a million dollars against the second new ball. During the final 17-minute passage of play, after drizzle, he hooked a six with little more than a swivel. By then the MCG was as empty as the Melbourne Club in the final chapter of On The Beach, only the end of the world was not at hand. That will come if England lose in three days in Adelaide.
Day 2: Stewart and Headley take their chances
By Christopher Martin-Jenkins
THE more that tours and Test series are contracted, the more people are inclined to say that matches like the present one between Victoria and England at the MCG are surplus to the requirements of the age.
It is sad that anyone should think so and the players certainly would not agree. Those on the fringe of the Test side need such games to press their claims and to justify their travelling expenses; those in the team need the rest and recuperation.
They are right, too. Cricket tours simply cannot consist only of big matches and potential money-spinners if young players are to learn and established ones are not to burn themselves out. Not only has this match for the Menzies Trophy been relatively well attended but some young Victorians have had their first experience of first-class cricket and more than one English performance has been encouraging with the Adelaide Test in mind.
Alec Stewart's commanding century, only his second in 48 first-class innings this year and his first of a tour which had hitherto yielded four ducks and only one fifty, was the most significant performance, of course, but Dean Headley yesterday bowled with markedly more penetration than Angus Fraser on a pitch of fairly easy pace and England's fielding was sharp.
Since dropped catches at Brisbane and Perth are largely responsible for their being one down in the Test series with three to play, this was good news, although it is whether the catches stick when the stakes are really high that counts. England's coach, David Lloyd, was sensitive enough about the matter to walk up to the media area yesterday and seek out Dean Jones, Australian Test cricketer turned television pundit, in order to assure him that England's fielding routines lack nothing by comparison with Australia's.
Jones had been critical, probably unfairly, but in view of the hot water Lloyd found himself in after his argument with Geoff Boycott outside a broadcasting box last August over comments about Muttiah Muralitharan's bowling action - for which he was subsequently severely reprimanded - he would have been wiser to wait until England have outfielded Australia in a Test match.
Graham Gooch, as manager, was subsequently obliged yesterday to repeat comments already made by both himself and Lloyd to the effect that the slip catchers practise assiduously almost daily. Thorpe, Atherton, Hussain, Hick and Butcher, specialists in this crucial area, are all good catchers: inner confidence is the real reason the Australians have upstaged them and that is something which comes from being part of a winning team.
Stewart took a catch off the outside edge in Headley's incisive new-ball spell yesterday and Graham Thorpe held a fine catch low to his right at first slip. Soon afterwards Headley hit the single stump he had to aim at from mid-on to run out Jason Arnberger, the most experienced of the young Victorian batsmen. Had another swift pick-up and throw from Headley in the same position not hopped straight over the stumps when Peter Roach was stranded, the partnership of 90 which rescued the home team from a perilous 87 for five would have been terminated in its infancy.
As it was, Roach, a right-handed wicketkeeper-batsman, stayed to play some fine shots and the left-handed Shawn Craig battled with much determination after Robert Croft had claimed Jason Bakker from a drive struck low in the air to mid-on. There was some turn for Croft but in a long spell from the Southern End he came close to a wicket only once more when Stewart almost brought off a deft stumping with a back flick from a rebound off Craig's pads.
Stewart's innings had been the centrepiece of the first day and, of course, it was a timely performance. He came in after John Crawley had edged a ball wide of his off-stump and Nasser Hussain had been caught at short-leg off the towering Ashley Gilbert. At 6ft 10in and with size 16 feet, he looks like Angus Fraser on stilts and he naturally gets bounce but the action is open and less fluent and his pace unexceptional.
Stewart hit 14 fours and it would be marvellous if it were to prove the start of one of his purple sequences. It was helpful too that Michael Atherton looked equally assured before falling to a fine gully catch, driving at Matthew Inness, who is 20, left-arm and bustling. Thorpe played with no apparent discomfort from his back before driving at a ball turning away from well outside his off-stump.
Mark Ramprakash, however, is rapidly becoming the Ken Barrington of his era. For 256 minutes he played yet another correct and patient innings, sharing hundred partnerships with Stewart and Graeme Hick who, despite coming in against the second new ball, looked every bit as confident and dominating as he had been in the second innings at Perth.
They had added 48 more runs with some elan yesterday morning when in the space of three overs Ramprakash was caught off his outside edge, playing forward to a ball which left him late, Ben Hollioake was lbw flicking to leg and Hick was also given out, playing forward to a ball bowled from a wide angle, having hit seven fours and a six. Hollioake had some revenge later when he removed Victoria's captain and best batsman with an inswinger of full length to which he padded up, but he was too often hit for runs to leg after that and so, most unusually, was Fraser.
Not everyone is in form, therefore, by any means but Mark Butcher's strained groin muscle is now the only fitness worry England have and he had a long net yesterday with Lancashire's promising young leg-spinner, Chris Schofield, who is playing for a Melbourne club. Schofield will travel to Adelaide with the team tomorrow evening to prepare them for the return of Stuart MacGill. No similar invitation was issued to Ian Salisbury when he appeared in Perth earlier in the tour, which suggests that the management have transferred their dreams of finding a successful Test wrist spinner to the 20-year-old from Rochdale.
Day 3: Struggling England braced for loss of injured Thorpe
By Christopher Martin-Jenkins
THE bad news outweighed some good for England yesterday. Graham Thorpe, the best batsman in the team, batted for 40 minutes to make one not out on the third afternoon of the match against Victoria before retiring hurt with the back injury which now threatens to put a premature end to his tour.
At the very least he seems certain to be ruled out of the Adelaide Test this weekend. The England manager, Graham Gooch, said after Thorpe had returned early to the team's hotel complaining once again of back spasms and stiffness: ``He had to play in this game to prove his fitness for the Test. What's happened this evening has obviously got to put him in doubt. But we're not going to rush into anything. We'll wait for 24 hours to see how he settles down.''
Wayne Morton, the England physiotherapist, put an optimistic slant on this latest setback, saying that Thorpe's rehabilitation after surgery last summer had probably gone better than expected. ``Mercurial back pain like this is frustrating for Graham, for me and for The Management. The problem when he's batting is that he can't shift his weight from the front or the back foot.''
Things were shaping so well for Thorpe a month ago. He averages 87 on the tour and 49 in Test cricket against Australia, but by the time that the touring team return to Melbourne for the Boxing Day Test the chances seem to be that he will be watching on television from his home in Surrey. With only three Tests left and Graeme Hick now acclimatised and in good form the verdict may be that Thorpe should go home sooner rather than later for another rest and further advice from an orthopaedic specialist in England.
The disc trouble which flared in Barbados in March turned out to be a cyst on a joint, which was removed in July after Thorpe had broken down again during the third Test of England's series against South Africa. He missed the Perth Test last week because of what was stated to be unrelated back pain and he can not now be risked in the third Test, starting in Adelaide on Friday.
The worst case scenario goes further than this. It is not Thorpe's participation in just the remainder of the Ashes series which is in doubt, but in the minimum of 10 one-day internationals which follow too, which England are hoping to use as part of the long build-up to the World Cup.
There was positive news from the MCG on the third day of England's match against Victoria, not just because a lead of 280 promised an interesting final day with a minimum of 67 overs remaining. Dean Headley's five for 58 was only the second five-wicket analysis for England on a tour which reaches its pivotal match this week. He bowled very well, too, although three more no-balls yesterday, making a total of nine, will not have pleased the bowling coach, Bob Cottam, who had apparently more or less cured a recurring problem in Headley's career.
Headley's rhythm and nip off a good, hard but not especially quick pitch were in contrast to Angus Fraser's vain attempt to find anything like his best form. Despite some turn for Robert Croft, it took England an hour to part Victoria's sixth-wicket pair. They had taken their partnership to 130 before Headley had Peter Roach caught at cover in his second over with the new ball.
The left-handed Shawn Craig stayed to play the longest innings of his life and was threatening to make the slowest hundred by a Victorian against a touring side when he ran out of partners in the 10th over after lunch. He had kept his head down for 6.25 hours.
England bowled with little distinction, but Headley and Croft were the exceptions and both can expect to be back in the 12 for the Adelaide Test, with Dominic Cork and John Crawley making way. Crawley showed signs that he had regained his fluency towards the end of his 164-minute innings, but there was sufficient playing and missing outside the off stump to suggest that Hick will now be preferred if England decide to revert to five bowlers at Adelaide.
Hick took a brilliant low left-handed catch at second slip to earn Headley his fifth wicket and hit three fours from his 10 balls before the close as England pressed the accelerator in advance of a declaration. Mark Ramprakash and Alec Stewart played with no less freedom, but Mike Atherton will have to do some serious thinking after falling to a top-edged hook once more, and Nasser Hussain was the victim of his own tendency to misjudge a run.
It was Victoria who dropped catches in the field yesterday and it would be a disappointment if England could not bowl them out a second time today before flying to Adelaide.
As expected, Australia have recalled Stuart MacGill for the third Test. He has taken the place of Michael Kasprowicz in an otherwise unchanged 12.
AUSTRALIA (3rd Test, Adelaide, Friday): *M A Taylor, S R Waugh, M J Slater, J L Langer, M E Waugh, R T Ponting, -I A Healy, S C G MacGill, D W Fleming, G D McGrath, J N Gillespie, C R Miller.
Day 3: Thorpe absence serious blow for England's hopes
By Christopher Martin-Jenkins in Melbourne
SEVENTEEN England players flew to Adelaide to prepare for the third Test last night, but the best batsman was not among them. A disconsolate Graham Thorpe flew home from Melbourne to London, his second early return from an England tour in nine months, like the first, made necessary because of persistent recurrence of pain in his lower back.
England batsman Graham Thorpe at a news conference at the Melbourne Cricket Ground His last match for England for the foreseeable future ended in a draw, but the cricket held its interest throughout a shortened final day as Victoria's weakened team did their best to respond to a properly challenging overnight declaration.
Lest there was not sufficient interest in the cricket itself (there was) Mark Ramprakash added spice to the last few overs by engaging in an unnecessary verbal duel with the towering Victorian fast-medium bowler, Ashley Gilbert. As one England official said, it was a case of ``handbags at dawn''.
Alec Stewart made a good declaration, asking Victoria to make 281 in 67 overs, but England hardly deserved to win because their bowling on an essentially true and easy-paced pitch was largely disappointing and their overrate deplorably sluggish even on a day when it was in their interests to bowl as many overs as possible.
In the final analysis no one, not even Dean Headley with match figures of seven for 112, bowled sufficiently well to demand a place in the Test team on Friday, though he and Robert Croft will be in the running when the tour selectors meet tomorrow.
Angus Fraser, sadly, has probably bowled himself out of contention, although he would have been the favourite before this game if anyone is to replace Dominic Cork. The big fellow looks as if he has lost some hope and faith.
It was noticeable how, whenever he was hit for four, which was often usual, his next ball was quicker and more menacing. It is unthinkable that he was not trying his hardest all the time because he does that by nature, but the flesh on this occasion seamed weaker than the spirit.
Headley, by contrast, managed an early wicket again with the new ball, the catch off Jason Arnberger's outside edge being deftly taken not by Alec Stewart, who was having a run-about in the field nursing a minor bruise on his once notoriously vulnerable right index finger, but by Warren Hegg, who had been given special dispensation by the Victorian captain Brad Hodge to keep wicket as a substitute for Thorpe. He later supported Robert Croft with a catch standing up and a proficient off-side stumping, but the statisticians will include none of these dismissals among his first-class victims on the grounds that he was not a member of the original team. Food for debate?
Ben Hollioake picked up his second wicket of the tour when he took over from Fraser at the Southern End, this time with the help of another good, low catch at second slip by Graeme Hick, who looks to me like a man on the verge of an Indian summer.
Hick did not, however, bowl and Ramprakash, the second of the three would-be off-spinners in the side, was lightly enough worked by Stewart to suggest that Robert Croft is still more likely to play on Friday than not.
Croft is bowling tidily, but so innocuously at the moment that he would hardly ring an alarm signal in Abergavenny's dressing-room, let alone Australia's.
Croft had his fair share of punishment, and Headley too, in an enterprising third-wicket partnership between Hodge and Graeme Vimpani, a strong right-hander, like Hodge of shortish stature, who hits the ball very hard.
Fraser, however, punished Vimpani for swinging across a straight ball and once Hodge had edged a cut at a ball not quite short enough the task of chasing a steadily rising rate of runs per over proved narrowly beyond the ability of a willing but inexperienced lower middle order.
Peter Roach and Shawn Craig, however, both showed the benefits of their success in the first innings and did their future prospects no harm. The same is probably not true of Gilbert, 6ft 10in, who made a comical sight when approached by Ramprakash for elucidation on what he had just said in reaction to a bouncer from Headley.
Their brief, but all too obvious hostile discussion, was a legacy of the previous day when Gilbert had made a stupidly provocative remark after dismissing a batsman in a different class to himself.
There was inevitable speculation that the remark might have been racist, but lofty disdain is the best reaction at such times, even if Ramprakash could hardly be lofty in the shadow of this particular giant.
Stewart, who intervened to cool Ramprakash down and smooth things over with the nearest umpire Terry Prue, assured an inquisitive press that the incident was already forgotten and spoke with greater feeling about the loss of Thorpe.
It was, he said, a huge disappointment, echoing the words earlier in the day by Graham Gooch, the tour manager, that a ``quality player'' was on his way home. Stewart added: ``It's a big blow but for the good of himself and England he has to get his back right.''
Thorpe will no doubt make it his objective to be fit for the announcement of England's World Cup party, but the final 15 have to be nominated by March 31 and, with so many games due before then, others will have probably have claimed his place before he gets any chance to proved that his back has truly recovered after his operation last July.
A return to Test cricket against New Zealand next season is therefore his more realistic goal.
Gooch said: ``It's very disappointing to lose a player of this quality. He has a tremendous record against Australia and he is a left-hander in the middle order - and tactically that is to our advantage. But we had to make a decision because it can be unsettling to the other players.''