"Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage"

So sayeth Confucius, and as with many of his sayings, it's both plainly, unarguably true, and at the same time something of a personal challenge to one's self.*

I mentioned a few posts back an end of season conversation with a senior player at the club, where my grumbles about not, in my view, getting a fair crack of the whip were wisely redirected into a conversation about where I need to improve next year and what aspects of my bowling are good and bad. With the start of pre-season approaching I'm starting to revisit this conversation so I'm properly focused on what I need to do.

The chicken and egg situation I have found myself in is that because I have often been given only very short spells in which to perform, I have gone all-out to achieve all I want to achieve in that short space of time. By attacking too much in search of quick wickets I have bowled expensively, at least in terms of economy rate. By having a poor economy rate I have put myself in the position where I only get short spells. Because I have only been given short spell in which to perform... You see where this goes, don't you? I can moan until I'm fully convinced I'm the most persecuted man since the Christians where thrown to the lions, but it doesn't get me a bowl, I don't gain experience, and my bowling doesn't progress.

So, my number one, chief goal for 2014 must be to do everything I can to remove all barriers to the captain having confidence in my bowling. I could have just said "I need to bowl more economically", but I think that economy rate is just a superficial indication of a deeper truth.

Leg-spin in 2013

That last post about Scott Borthwick has led me to do some further digging around on Statsguru, to find out how the World's Test leg-spinners got on in 2013. There was 9 to 12 of them depending on whether you count players like Tendulkar who bowl both leg-spin and off-spin, and what exactly you classify Mendis as bowling (finger spin if you ask me), with just three specialist wrist spinners, plus Steve Smith who is now clearly a batsman rather than bowler. So, how did they do?

I.S. Sodhi, NZ, 21
5 Tests, 11 wickets at 51.45, Economy rate 3.62, Strike rate 85.36
Best innings: 18.5 - 3 - 59 - 3 vs Bangladesh at Dhaka

A leg-spinner from New Zealand? Well it has happened before, Grimmett was born a Kiwi after all. Ish Sodhi was in fact born in Ludhiana in northern India and moved to New Zealand aged 9, and owes much of his success to a fluke. After Imran Tahir was named in the South African team to face New Zealand in 2012, Sodhi was employed to give the Black Caps some practise against leg-spin, and so impressed was Daniel Vettori by what he encountered in the nets that he intervened to give Sodhi's career a nudge. After a single season of First Class cricket Sodhi was picked for New Zealand 'A', then went into his first Test Match having not even turned 21.
Sodhi took six wickets in the two match series in Bangladesh and a further five in three matches at home against the West Indies, no performance particularly standing out as either brilliant or awful. He's undoubtedly raw and would appear to be merely keeping Vettori's seat warm for the time being, but the veteran rates Sodhi highly and adding some useful lower-order runs into the mix so far New Zealand seem willing to give him the patience every leg-spinner craves.

A.G. Cremer, Zim, 27
4 Tests, 9 wickets at 43.11, Economy rate 3.79, Strike rate 68.22
Best innings: 5.2 - 1 - 4 - 4 vs Bangladesh at Harare

Graeme Cremer made his Test debut as long ago as 2005 but with all the troubles in Zimbabwe 2013 was their first reasonably full Test programme since then.
Cremer didn't make the best of starts in the two match series in the West Indies, being rather expensive and only taking two wickets. His one highlight was a notable all-round performance at home against Bangladesh, a career-best 4 for 4 and some useful runs with the bat helping Zimbabwe to the win, but in his next match he again struggled and was dropped, with off-spinner Prosper Utseya preferred for the home series against Pakistan.

Imran Tahir, SA, 34
2 Tests, 10 wickets at 24.60, Economy rate 3.13, Strike rate 47.20
Best innings: 13 - 3 - 32 - 5 vs Pakistan at Dubai

The grizzled old journeyman pro on the list, Tahir's return to International cricket came late in 2013 following his battering at the hands of Australia the year before. His bowling seemed to have improved in his year out and he finally produced a spell worthy of his talents, taking his maiden Test five-for in his first innings back to decimate Pakistan.
However he took a step backwards in his next Test against India, conceding too many runs and taking just two tail-enders' wickets, and was dropped for the following match. It will be interesting to see when, and indeed whether, Tahir plays for South Africa again, but it's never going to be easy to maintain a place in the World's best team, even for a player of Tahir's skill and experience.

SPD Smith, Aus, 24
12 Tests, 6 wickets at 37.83, Economy rate 4.37, Strike rate 52.00
Best innings: 6 - 1 - 18 - 3 vs England at Lord's

Smith's days being touted as Australia's next #1 spinner are long gone, but at least now that his ever-improving batting is getting him a game we can occasionally enjoy his bowling on a part-time basis.
When called upon he did pretty much what you'd hope for from a non-specialist bowler - kept it reasonably tight, gave the batsmen something different to think about and snaffled the odd wicket here and there. His six over spell at Lord's produced his best ever Test bowling figures, taking the wickets of Bell, Bairstow and Prior in a manner that felt potentially match-turning before Australia stuffed up their own first innings. (Seems an age ago now...)
He's still astonishingly young, but it remains to be seen whether he will have the time or inclination to develop to his full potential as a bowler when his 2013 batting has brought him two centuries and an average of 37.42.

In conclusion

it's been a bit of a grim year, just three leggies picked for their bowling, of whom one is woefully inexperienced while the other two are currently surplus to requirements. The only one on this list guaranteed a place in 2014 is Steve Smith, while Borthwick's Sydney fluke may not see him in the teams to face Sri Lanka and India if others state a strong case early in the County Championship season. Well it's always darkest before the dawn* as they say, maybe the next great leg-spinner is only round the corner...

*it is, in fact, darkest exactly midway between dusk and dawn, but leg-spin often involves the triumph of optimism over vulgar things like facts.

REJOICE!

Rejoice indeed, for not only is that whole, horrible series now over, there's a new kid in town. Scott Borthwick has done the impossible. He has grown up bowling leg-spin in England and despite this has actually managed to bowl it in a Test for England. That does not happen every day. Over the last few decades it has hardly happened at all. Monday 11th December 2000 can now be stricken from the record books as the last time a leg-break bowler turned his arm over in Test cricket for England, Ian Salisbury bowling 3 wicketless overs on the final day of that famous Karachi Test after enduring a pretty awful tour.

The English leg-spinner really has become the Himalayan Snow Leopard of Test cricket, rarely seen and seemingly extinct until a small colony is miraculously unearthed every now and then. An Englishman undoubtedly invented the leg-break, since it is pretty much as old as cricket itself, albeit that it started as an underarm delivery. An English underarm bowler - George Simpson-Hayward - should probably take the credit for having invented the flipper action, and of course it was Bernard Bosanquet who introduced the world to the Googly, still often named as the Bosey in Australia in his honour. There were no end of English leg-spinners in the inter-war years such as Titch Freeman, Doug Wright and Eric Hollies, the latter two continuing after the war, but since then the number of leg-spinners playing for England has dwindled dramatically. 

Winter fever

It's getting to that time of year where the season gone and the season to come are equidistant, both seeming to be a long way away. It's right about now that my winter fever starts to bite, and so it was a couple of days ago I found myself practising shots and dusting off the Neville Cardus. I also picked up a second-hand copy of John Arlott's "Rothmans Jubilee History of Cricket 1890-1965", which I'd seen in the market a few times but never before quite felt the urge to purchase.

There's a bitter-sweet quality to reading Cardus in winter. I'm reminded of everything I love about cricket while at the same time painfully aware of its absence. One would have thought my thirst would be somewhat quenched by having the opportunity to bowl a few balls at the juniors over November, but that's never the way with this kind of infatuation.

An acrimonious weekend

The season is over and, as is now traditional, it's about time I updated my blog after rather a long break. So, we need to talk about Saturday, because it was a classic of its type.

I was rather non-plussed at having not bowled the previous week at Onneley & Maer, so further to that I was, shall we say, just a tad peeved to receive the following text on Tuesday:

“Hi m8 sorry 2 say haven't picked u this Saturday, we needed a keeper as Harper couldn't play so had 2 swap u, hope u can still cum down n support us with it bein last game”

So if Matt Prior broke a finger and had to miss a game, Swanny would also have to miss out? Hmm, I don't quite see how that immediately follows. Dropping me from the last game of the year is annoying enough without feeding me what is patently a cock-and-bull story of an explanation. I don't know what the real reason was, and I don't really care. There's a basic lack of candour about that message that I can't help but find pretty insulting.

Guess what turned up in my phone a few hours later?

“Sorry lads just 2 let u no this Saturday game has been CANCELLED, Oakamoor can't get a team, please still cum down to the club 4 sum drinks 2 celebrate a gd season”

Played 18, won 2, drawn 1, lost 15. Presumably “gd” does not, as you would initially assume, represent a somewhat superfluous shortening of “good”, but instead stands for “gigantically disappointing” or some similar combination. It must do, after all, if that's good, what would be bad? Anyway, a couple of days later he's asking if I'm available as a friendly match had been arranged with a team called Enville and someone had dropped out since Tuesday. 

Washed out. Twice.

Well it's fair to say this weekend was a bit of a waste of time. In essence, I drove a very long way to and from two opposite far-flung corners of Staffordshire to spend two afternoons watching wet grass stay wet.

Moddershall first. Our motley bunch slowly assembled at the pavilion under unpromising skies, apart from Pete who was going straight there, and Andy who was late due to some minor domestic crisis. The first two cars set off while I awaited Andy, and we got to the ground at about half one, while Dan and Sam, who had got a bit lost, arrived about 15 minutes later. Never having been to Moddershall CC before I found it a lovely ground, two grass squares, a good clubhouse, a small pavilion for the second square and most important, a very nice cup of tea. The drizzle through which we'd driven on the way wasn't in evidence at the ground itself, but while the outfield seemed fine there were parts of the square and run-ups that had had just a little too much overnight rain to render them playable at the appointed hour. A half-hour delay was decided upon, so we waited.

Taking the helm

Chigsy's ill so tomorrow I'll be skippering the 4ths. It'll be the 4th match I've captained, assuming the weather isn't as advertised, and so far I have the rather unfortunate record of played three, lost three. To be fair, one was a tour game, and in another I only had 8 players to play with and we did surprisingly well. It's 1:30am as once again I can't sleep. I'm not sure I'm cut out for this captaincy lark as every time I do it I find myself endlessly agonising over what decisions I'm going to make.

My biggest headache tonight is batsmen as, to be perfectly frank, we haven't really got any. I don't know where they've all gone, but we've been batting-light all season and tomorrow I'm in charge of 11 players none of whom have ever scored a 50. I do have a couple who can hit a ball, but that's not batting. They're like a prizefighter who packs a mighty punch but who simply can't box. If I open with them, I risk us getting off on entirely the wrong foot, and if I don't open with them, then with who? One thing I have decided is that I won't be batting at 11 this time, as it gives me no chance to meaningfully influence the innings.

Overs remaining

Our first home fixture of the season on Saturday saw an all too familiar tale. The formula so far this season has been to win the toss, bat first, lose nine wickets before the drinks break, creep just beyond 100 and then wonder why the team batting second aren't chasing the game too much. Only three of our partnerships made it to 20, and none got to 30. To be honest I'm pretty fed up with our batsmen giving their wickets away so cheaply. Maybe they've been watching too much IPL and are labouring under the impression that all innings only last 20 overs nowadays.

As for my own cameo, I came in with 25.3 overs left and the score on 89 for 9. "We must stop meeting like this" I said to Jamie, as for the third time in three matches we prepared to see to what extent the last wicket stand could rectify matters. Jamie was keen to stay on strike and I was happy enough to let him, so I saw out my first three balls without any real trouble. Jamie was batting pretty well and hit a few boundaries, I meanwhile was taking wild swipes at anything pitched safely outside off (and missing) and solidly defending the few balls that threatened the stumps.