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ARTICLE: England scruffy on and off field. (D.Hopps)-12 Mar 1993




The Guardian 12 March 1993 - Scruffy England told to look  lively
David Hopps

 David Hopps, in Colombo, finds Keith Fletcher, the team manager,
more concerned with performances than appearances
 Ramini Fernando's hairdressing salon at the  Taj  Samudra  hotel
had  closed early. Lord's determination to revive English cricket
by rooting out unnecessary facial hair had not put a single rupee
in the coffers.
 The anticipated scramble from England players  keen  to  impress
their masters with an immediate blow-dry, shave and manicure nev-
er materialised.  Instead, most of them headed off to  the  west-
coast  beaches,  abstractedly  scratching their designer stubble,
flicking sand from their flip-flops and  defiantly  baring  their
reddening torsos to the world at large.
 For England's team manager Keith Fletcher, more  concerned  with
rectifying  a  distressing collapse of form and confidence before
tomorrow's Test in Colombo, the TCCB's ''smarten up'' edict  must
have seemed the most fatuous response imaginable.
 If Fletcher had been presented with  a  disposable  razor  after
England's  deflating  defeat in the Khetterama day-night interna-
tional, he would have been more likely to use it to cut  his  own
throat.
 England have been lambasted in turn for the lack of a travelling
doctor,  then  a  chef,  then  a  sports psychologist. Presumably
Lord's are about to respond by flying out a hair stylist.
 ''You can only take so much,'' Fletcher said yesterday. ''A  few
of our players have got to start looking at themselves. You can't
disappoint for ever.''
 For one awful moment it seemed that he, too, had been  converted
to  the  Hardy  Amies Guide To Better Cricket. Fortunately it em-
erged that he was still trying to remedy cricketing faults. It is
a good job that somebody is.
 One player who will return for the Test at the Sinhalese  Sports
Club  is  Phil  Tufnell,  who is eminently capable of swaying the
match in England's favour but who has the uncanny ability, howev-
er  hard  he  tries, to look like Steptoe's grandson. He is not a
man to set new standards of sartorial elegance.
 Michael Atherton's expected installation as an  opening  batsman
(he  even had a net yesterday) will be viewed more favourably. He
has played so little cricket on this tour that his  flannels  are
guaranteed  to  be  spotless.  He  also  has the ability to think
smartly, although the realisation does not seem  to  have  dawned
yet  that  that might make him eminently qualified to be the next
England captain.
 Fletcher is not about to insist that his players  abandon  their
designer  stubble,  which  is  clearly  a  weakness  of promoting
coaches from the A team where half the squad is barely old enough
to shave.
 ''If people want designer stubble, I'm not about to put a curfew
on them,'' he said. ''When I was playing cricket in hot countries
I deliberately never shaved in a morning. If  you  do,  you  open
yourself  up  to a sweat rash and then you really feel uncomfort-
able.''
 But what will be addressed in the written  report  of  the  tour
manager Bob Bennett is the restrictive clothing contract drawn up
with England's sponsors, Tetley Bitter,  and  sanctioned  by  the
board's  marketing  manager  Terry Blake, in conjunction with the
chief executive Alan Smith.
 England's players must wear Tetley  tracksuits  on  match  days,
travelling  days  and at official nets. Fletcher virtually has to
model the thing for life. The only reason there are no Tetley py-
jamas  is  that  no  one wears them any more, though perhaps such
delicate information should not be divulged to the  average  TCCB
committee man. Bennett will press for smarter casual clothing.
 England's third rest day since arriving in Sri Lanka on Saturday
will  also  offend those aching for punishment to be inflicted in
the form of naughty-boy nets, although those who have  complained
long and loud at the Graham Gooch work ethic might be advised not
to carp too much.
 It is less a change in policy, now that the  captain  is  safely
back in England, than a natural response to the hectic schedule.
 What is disturbing  is  England's  shoddy  performances  on  the
field. Fletcher is particularly disturbed about a lack of mobili-
ty which has caused them to  be  outfielded,  especially  in  the
limited-overs  games,  by  both  India and Sri Lanka. That is why
younger batsmen of the quality of Ramprakash, Lathwell and  Moxon
are just as likely to gain selection against the Australians this
summer as the likes of Gower and Lamb.
 What was particularly disturbing during Wednesday night's defeat
was  a  lack  of mental alertness. The argument that centralised,
football-style planning has  robbed  individual  players  of  the
ability  to think for themselves can only be fuelled by such per-
formances.
 ''Players should  be  thinking  cricket  all  the  time  on  the
field,''  said Fletcher. ''On certain occasions, in India and Sri
Lanka, that has not been the case.''
 What are embedded deeply in English cricket culture are the con-
stant  shouts  of  encouragement  and the perpetual rounds of ap-
plause. Like the TCCB's  knee-jerk  reaction  over  standards  of
dress, they are no substitute for thought.
 ENGLAND (probable 12): Stewart (capt),  Atherton,  Smith,  Hick,
Gatting,  Fairbrother,  Lewis, Emburey, Jarvis, Tufnell, Malcolm,
Taylor.
 SRI LANKA (from):  Ranatunga  (capt),  Mahanama,  Hathurusingha,
Gurusinha,  P A de Silva, Tillekeratne, Jayasuriya, A M de Silva,
Muralidaran, Ramanayake,  Liyanage,  Wickremasinghe,  Warnaweera,
Wijesuriya.

 Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)



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