A progress report from the ICC High performance manager
Bob Woolmer on the months trials and tribulations
Home advantage is normally enough to win a Test series, at least it used to be, is there a new trend developing? New Zealand's excellent win in the West Indies, England's win in Sri Lanka last year, South Africa's win in India and of course Australia's wins wherever they go. Sides I believe are doing far more homework when they travel.
Travelling has always been seen as a problem, Professor Noakes who toured with the South African side to the 1996 World Cup, wrote that he felt that being away from home for anything over a four week period reduced the levels of concentration and desire of a team. There would be a number of reasons, which I would rather he expounded than I.
Long gone are the four month tours that were common place in the 70's and of course the 7-month tours of the 50's and 60's. One of the reasons of course is that shorter tours are the vogue, three Test match series rather than five have shortened tours and led to teams being able to perform better away from home. Greater attention to detail to diets, communication with home and of things to do while you are away have all contributed to better `away from home' performances.
Sri Lanka's performance in England is therefore a disappointment, with Muttiah Muralitharran not really fit plus touring at the beginning of the season, when the pitches are notoriously suited to seam bowling would have conspired against Sri Lanka winning. England of course played pretty well, even so their demise in the one-day game was both unexpected and surprising and would suggest that their tactics were awry. Most sides have identified players to bat through to have a go and to finish games, the Sri Lankans, looking from the outside they did not seem to have a planned strategy.
Their team is also evolving and changing and by the time that the 2003 World Cup games come around it will be interesting to see how many of the 1999 members remain in the 2003 side! The same can be said for most teams of course as they approach next year's world cup. For me, Australia, South Africa and Pakistan are my favourites for the world cup, but watch out for India, there batting will always be a factor, but I have been impressed by some of their young bowlers to Ashish Nehra looks a very good prospect. As I study many of the other teams so I am hoping that the teams in my High Performance programme are working hard at their preparation. Canada is shortly due to take on West Indies `A' and the MCC have sent a side out to Holland. Kenya is playing lots of cricket and Namibia is in the gym and about to start working outside soon.
Holland has taken Bobby Simpson on board for a month to assist Emerson Trottman as they prepare for the ICC Trophy in Sri Lanka. Kenya are also busy preparing for the same trophy and England's counties will lose their one-day players for the tournament which starts before the English season finishes. Such are the pressures of International cricket that it eats into all the seasons around the globe.
Namibia have lost Eric Simons, who is now in charge of the New South African side, they in turn have now decided that quota systems are no longer necessary. The side can now be picked on merit because there are so many young promising players of colour now coming through their enviable development system. This a wonderful development for cricket in South Africa and the UCB must be applauded for its vision. Having lost Eric, Namibia are in the process of finding a replacement to assist and this should be announced soon.
The next part of the High Performance programme is the lead into the World Cup and I shall be on my travels again visiting all the countries and working with the players in each team along with the local coaches and other local specialists. Every day I watch a one-day game I am amazed how the standard of fielding is improving, plus the general level of fitness. South Africa will be a tough venue, a lot of the outfields are quite heavy and tire the legs! Fitness will be vital during the World Cup, as there is a lot of cricket and lots of travelling, both of which test the energy levels.
Due to England's rather inclement weather the Nat West one-day series has had a couple of 32 over games and how exciting they were!
These games have highlighted how exciting short form cricket can be and interestingly England have adopted a new 20 over a side competition next year and it will be interesting to see how this takes off, I have a feeling they will be very successful. Pre -Season training next season will no doubt involve a few of these games so that tactics and ideas can be formulated for the new competition. The game changes again and will test coaches and Captain's ingenuity Imagine planning these games, 5 pinch hitters in every 4 overs? Will spinners play? 4 overs a bowler? How do we get the player's eye in before they go out to the middle? These and many other questions will kick start a whole new way of preparation! The coaches will have to be on their toes! Indeed as that competition grows so will techniques and the change back to the 50 over game will test players thinking and indeed when the players migrate to the four-day game so will it test even further technique and thinking.
This is the fascination of this wonderful game and is why we all love it and I want it to flourish!
© ICC
