JUST like West Indies is gradually receding into oblivion as a world force, England appears to be
The emerging unit. The recent win against New Zealand, coming as it did on the heels of English heroics in the Caribbean, has given rise to hope of a sustained revival of the game in its mother country.
When Simon Jones was injured during the team’s last tour to Australia, I had said in a column at the time that it would have been nice to see him and Steve Harmisson bowling together for England. And when they finally got to bowl in tandem in the West Indies, it did turn out to be thrilling stuff. James Anderson, who was the blue-eyed boy till not long ago, now appears to be nothing more than a contender for a slot on the team bench. Things are really happening for the English team.
The dream debut by Andrew Strauss in the absence of captain Michael Vaughan needs to be seen in the same context. It is amazing how pieces start falling into the right places once results start coming the team’s way. It really is amazing. Indeed, there is a still a lot of cricket to be played in the series, and predicting outcomes has never been my passion, but the point is that England is definitely on the rise.
The New Zealanders have also added much to their stature in international cricket of late under captain Stephen Fleming. The absence of Shane Bond has surely disrupted their efforts to make a sustained impact, and the impeding retirement of Chris Cairns will have a negative effect as well.
The man who led the English turnaround, as I see it, was Nasser Hussain. He was the one who made the Englishmen believe in themselves even when the results were not so favourable as they are today. His own body language remained positive, at times aggressive, in the field and he made the lads work hard to retain their places.
It was a pity that during his captaincy, even Andrew Caddick and Darren Gough did not get much to bowl together, with one or the other of them finding himself on the physio’s table. Much more favourable results would have come Nasser’s way if he had the luxury of having his two main bowlers at his disposal.
As I write these lines, Nasser is still contemplating retirement. It is never an easy decision for any international player, and Nasser is no exception. But the timing does tell you the kind of character Nasser is. His century in the last innings of the Lords Test was enough to silence his critics, specially because it was not an effort in vain. Nasser chose just the time to talk about impending retirement, making public his desire to leave on a high, even if it means quitting just short of the hundred-Test milestone.
His successor as the English captain, Michael Vaughan, was one of the pivots on which Nasser had fashioned the team’s revival. He was lucky in the sense that Nasser was still around during the transition phase, which was free of any controversies. He also is the beneficiary of a string of fresh, competent faces coming out of the County circuit, something that happened only because the national team started to behave professionally on the international stage under Nasser Hussain. When he finally calls it a day — whenever it happens — Nasser can always look back and take pride in a job well done.
JUST like West Indies is gradually receding into oblivion as a world force, England appears to be
