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Is the National Performance Centre hindering England’s fast bowlers? Is the National Performance Centre hindering England’s fast bowlers?
(about 1 hour later)
ENGLAND’S BEWILDERED GENERATIONENGLAND’S BEWILDERED GENERATION
The first was Keaton Jennings, caught at square leg. The second, Mark Stoneman, caught at slip. Then Michael Richardson, bowled, Calum MacLeod, lbw, and Paul Collingwood, bowled again. These last two done in successive balls. In the next over, Phil Mustard and Scott Borthwick, both caught at slip. Soon after, John Hastings, another lbw. And then Chris Rushworth, the last to fall, caught by the ’keeper. Nine in the innings, for 34 runs and from 73 balls. The best figures in the County Championship since Ottis Gibson took all 10 for Durham against Hampshire in 2007.The first was Keaton Jennings, caught at square leg. The second, Mark Stoneman, caught at slip. Then Michael Richardson, bowled, Calum MacLeod, lbw, and Paul Collingwood, bowled again. These last two done in successive balls. In the next over, Phil Mustard and Scott Borthwick, both caught at slip. Soon after, John Hastings, another lbw. And then Chris Rushworth, the last to fall, caught by the ’keeper. Nine in the innings, for 34 runs and from 73 balls. The best figures in the County Championship since Ottis Gibson took all 10 for Durham against Hampshire in 2007.
Related: James Harris casts off the ECB’s shackles to destroy Durham with 9-34Related: James Harris casts off the ECB’s shackles to destroy Durham with 9-34
When it was all over, the bowler, James Harris, let fly, his target now not the opposition’s batsmen, but his own coaches. “The coaches at Loughborough tried to remodel my action to generate extra pace,” Harris said. “We went searching for a lot of things, we changed a lot of things, and we probably found the half a yard we needed, but it was to the detriment of skill and moving it around. I don’t care if you bowl 100mph, if you don’t move it around you’re probably not going to be too successful.”When it was all over, the bowler, James Harris, let fly, his target now not the opposition’s batsmen, but his own coaches. “The coaches at Loughborough tried to remodel my action to generate extra pace,” Harris said. “We went searching for a lot of things, we changed a lot of things, and we probably found the half a yard we needed, but it was to the detriment of skill and moving it around. I don’t care if you bowl 100mph, if you don’t move it around you’re probably not going to be too successful.”
It was an intriguing post-match press conference and one, unlike so many others, worth reprising. I wasn’t there to hear it. Those who were say that Harris’s strong words were softly spoken, that he was quick and keen to stress the coaches had only been trying to help. But still, set down on the page, they seem damning.It was an intriguing post-match press conference and one, unlike so many others, worth reprising. I wasn’t there to hear it. Those who were say that Harris’s strong words were softly spoken, that he was quick and keen to stress the coaches had only been trying to help. But still, set down on the page, they seem damning.
“It was feeling horrible, the changes, the Brett Lee-style different load-up that we tried to do to be faster, it really wasn’t working for me. I tried to be better, it didn’t work, simple as that. I had to bite the bullet and go back to what I knew and what made me successful in the first place.” There were, Harris said, “a lot of cold dark hours in Finchley indoor school. My body was feeling pretty poor, my action was feeling pretty poor, I’d lost my wrist through parts of last year and there were times when I wasn’t holding it down the seam.”“It was feeling horrible, the changes, the Brett Lee-style different load-up that we tried to do to be faster, it really wasn’t working for me. I tried to be better, it didn’t work, simple as that. I had to bite the bullet and go back to what I knew and what made me successful in the first place.” There were, Harris said, “a lot of cold dark hours in Finchley indoor school. My body was feeling pretty poor, my action was feeling pretty poor, I’d lost my wrist through parts of last year and there were times when I wasn’t holding it down the seam.”
This, of course, is the same James Harris who made his second XI debut for Glamorgan when he was 14, his first-class debut for them when he was 16, and who took 12 wickets in a match, including seven in an innings, against Gloucestershire when he was 17. The same James Harris who had to weigh up offers from 11 different counties when he chose to leave Glamorgan for Middlesex at the end of 2012. The same James Harris you will have heard very little about in the last two years, much of which seems to have been spent remodelling his action, then breaking that model back down so he could get back to doing what it was that made him so successful in the first place.This, of course, is the same James Harris who made his second XI debut for Glamorgan when he was 14, his first-class debut for them when he was 16, and who took 12 wickets in a match, including seven in an innings, against Gloucestershire when he was 17. The same James Harris who had to weigh up offers from 11 different counties when he chose to leave Glamorgan for Middlesex at the end of 2012. The same James Harris you will have heard very little about in the last two years, much of which seems to have been spent remodelling his action, then breaking that model back down so he could get back to doing what it was that made him so successful in the first place.
If Harris’s was a unique story, those quotes would just be a footnote to his career. But it rather seems to be part of a pattern. For a start there was the man bowling at the other end that day, Steven Finn, who played Lock to Harris’ Laker, and took the one wicket that stopped his partner getting all 10. “Coaches only ever want to help you out,” Finn said recently, “No coach in the world has bad intentions.” But they sometimes have bad effects. Finn switched to a longer run while he was on tour with England in New Zealand. It worked, in a way. At least, it helped him take a lot of cheap wickets. But it also “made everything tense, and made me force trying to bowl quick”. The switch, he said, was “what cocked me up really”. If Harris’s was a unique story, those quotes would just be a footnote to his career. But it rather seems to be part of a pattern. For a start there was the man bowling at the other end that day, Steven Finn, who played Lock to Harris’ Laker, and took the one wicket that stopped his partner getting all 10. “Coaches only ever want to help you out,” Finn said recently, “No coach in the world has bad intentions.” But they sometimes have bad effects. Finn switched to a shorter run while he was on tour with England in New Zealand. It worked, in a way. At least, it helped him take a lot of cheap wickets. But it also “made everything tense, and made me force trying to bowl quick”. The switch, he said, was “what cocked me up really”.
Finn said that he finally felt he was back to something like his brilliant best. Hard to judge whether he is right on the basis of his form so far in the championship, where he has taken 17 wickets at 31, next to Harris’s 31 at 21.Finn said that he finally felt he was back to something like his brilliant best. Hard to judge whether he is right on the basis of his form so far in the championship, where he has taken 17 wickets at 31, next to Harris’s 31 at 21.
Then there is Liam Plunkett, a little further on in his career. Harris’s story is one that, as Craig Stoddart pointed out in the Northern Echo, Durham fans will be all too familiar with, “having suffered years of frustration with Liam Plunkett prior to his rehabilitation with Yorkshire”. At Yorkshire, Plunkett was told “don’t think, just bowl”. Before that, he had been confused by the bewildering array of advice he was being given. “Different coaches told me different things,” he said. “Each day I would turn up and try to do something different. I’d work on my front arm one day and my back leg the next so that if I performed well I didn’t know where it came from. I’d just go back to training not sure what I was doing.”Then there is Liam Plunkett, a little further on in his career. Harris’s story is one that, as Craig Stoddart pointed out in the Northern Echo, Durham fans will be all too familiar with, “having suffered years of frustration with Liam Plunkett prior to his rehabilitation with Yorkshire”. At Yorkshire, Plunkett was told “don’t think, just bowl”. Before that, he had been confused by the bewildering array of advice he was being given. “Different coaches told me different things,” he said. “Each day I would turn up and try to do something different. I’d work on my front arm one day and my back leg the next so that if I performed well I didn’t know where it came from. I’d just go back to training not sure what I was doing.”
The consensus is that England don’t have enough quick bowlers, that their attack has become over-reliant on James Anderson and Stuart Broad. Odd thing is, turn back three years, to 2012, and they seemed almost to have a surfeit of them. Along with the four already mentioned (Anderson, Broad, Finn, Plunkett), there were Tim Bresnan, Chris Tremlett, and Graham Onions, all now in their early-30s, and yet all seemingly blunted by age and injury. Add to that the younger crop. Ajmal Shahzad, who bowled so superbly well for England in the World Cup in Chittagong in 2011. Jade Dernbach, hailed, then, for his imagination and skill, rather than ridiculed for his profligacy. Stuart Meaker, reckoned to be the quickest of the lot. And Chris Woakes, the only one to kick on, but currently out injured.The consensus is that England don’t have enough quick bowlers, that their attack has become over-reliant on James Anderson and Stuart Broad. Odd thing is, turn back three years, to 2012, and they seemed almost to have a surfeit of them. Along with the four already mentioned (Anderson, Broad, Finn, Plunkett), there were Tim Bresnan, Chris Tremlett, and Graham Onions, all now in their early-30s, and yet all seemingly blunted by age and injury. Add to that the younger crop. Ajmal Shahzad, who bowled so superbly well for England in the World Cup in Chittagong in 2011. Jade Dernbach, hailed, then, for his imagination and skill, rather than ridiculed for his profligacy. Stuart Meaker, reckoned to be the quickest of the lot. And Chris Woakes, the only one to kick on, but currently out injured.
Eleven men, then, all England internationals in 2012, and only three of them made the World Cup squad earlier this year, and only two of them are in the Test squad now. There are a host of reasons why. Shahzad’s career stalled while he switched counties, Dernbach just could not cut it, Meaker has suffered a couple of severe injuries. Such is the lot of the fast bowler. All three hope they will get another shot for England. But, when there have been so many failures, it is worth asking too whether the system is working as it should do. Especially when three of England’s best prospects are on the record as saying that they’ve been hindered by the coaching they have been given. At some point this summer, Andrew Strauss may want to make a stop at Loughborough to take a close look at what is going on at the National Cricket Performance Centre.Eleven men, then, all England internationals in 2012, and only three of them made the World Cup squad earlier this year, and only two of them are in the Test squad now. There are a host of reasons why. Shahzad’s career stalled while he switched counties, Dernbach just could not cut it, Meaker has suffered a couple of severe injuries. Such is the lot of the fast bowler. All three hope they will get another shot for England. But, when there have been so many failures, it is worth asking too whether the system is working as it should do. Especially when three of England’s best prospects are on the record as saying that they’ve been hindered by the coaching they have been given. At some point this summer, Andrew Strauss may want to make a stop at Loughborough to take a close look at what is going on at the National Cricket Performance Centre.
There, England’s team of biomechanists busy themselves studying the science of the game. And fascinating stuff it is too, if you can cut through the morass of academic language. If they talk anything like they write, little wonder Plunkett couldn’t tell his in-swinger from his elbow:There, England’s team of biomechanists busy themselves studying the science of the game. And fascinating stuff it is too, if you can cut through the morass of academic language. If they talk anything like they write, little wonder Plunkett couldn’t tell his in-swinger from his elbow:
“The 74% of variation in release speed explained by the four-parameter regression equation suggests the key aspects of technique have been identified for a group of elite fast bowlers. In particular, the fastest bowlers have a quicker run-up, maintain a straighter knee throughout the front foot contact phase, have larger amounts of upper trunk flexion up to ball release and appear to delay the onset of arm circumduction.”“The 74% of variation in release speed explained by the four-parameter regression equation suggests the key aspects of technique have been identified for a group of elite fast bowlers. In particular, the fastest bowlers have a quicker run-up, maintain a straighter knee throughout the front foot contact phase, have larger amounts of upper trunk flexion up to ball release and appear to delay the onset of arm circumduction.”
Or, the four things a fast bowler needs are a quick run-up, a straight front leg, a bent back, and a late bowling arm. After an hour reading through that and more like it, I turned back to another coaching manual, Don Bradman’s study of the Art of Cricket, rather than the science of it:Or, the four things a fast bowler needs are a quick run-up, a straight front leg, a bent back, and a late bowling arm. After an hour reading through that and more like it, I turned back to another coaching manual, Don Bradman’s study of the Art of Cricket, rather than the science of it:
“I very strongly believe in coaching, provided it is carried out intelligently. Some coaches try to alter a player’s basic natural gifts, which is quite wrong unless there is some glaring fault certain to bring disaster … It is a mistake to fog a boy’s mind with a multiplicity of complicated instructions, which means he forgets the much more important and simple basic principles.”“I very strongly believe in coaching, provided it is carried out intelligently. Some coaches try to alter a player’s basic natural gifts, which is quite wrong unless there is some glaring fault certain to bring disaster … It is a mistake to fog a boy’s mind with a multiplicity of complicated instructions, which means he forgets the much more important and simple basic principles.”
There is more. “The proteges should also think and be sure they don’t slavishly accept everything as being correct just because someone tells them so. In the final analysis, the best teacher is yourself.”There is more. “The proteges should also think and be sure they don’t slavishly accept everything as being correct just because someone tells them so. In the final analysis, the best teacher is yourself.”
Echoes here of more recent remarks. As Plunkett put it: “I think you learn when you’re older to filter stuff. If it’s good advice you can keep it and take it with you but if it’s not you can say no thanks.” And here’s Finn: “It’s up to the player to filter [advice]. And that’s part of the skill of being a good player, knowing what is relevant and what is irrelevant.”Echoes here of more recent remarks. As Plunkett put it: “I think you learn when you’re older to filter stuff. If it’s good advice you can keep it and take it with you but if it’s not you can say no thanks.” And here’s Finn: “It’s up to the player to filter [advice]. And that’s part of the skill of being a good player, knowing what is relevant and what is irrelevant.”
Seems that these days, along with a yorker and a bouncer, a healthy scepticism may be an essential part of a fast bowler’s armoury.Seems that these days, along with a yorker and a bouncer, a healthy scepticism may be an essential part of a fast bowler’s armoury.
• This is an extract taken from the Spin, the Guardian’s weekly cricket email. To subscribe, just visit this page, find ‘The Spin’ and follow the instructions.• This is an extract taken from the Spin, the Guardian’s weekly cricket email. To subscribe, just visit this page, find ‘The Spin’ and follow the instructions.