Cricket: England ready for a Caribbean cruise

By former England bowler ANGUS FRASER

After five weeks of rest and relaxation, England's cricketers begin preparing for their tour of the West Indies on Tuesday.

Before leaving for Jamaica on February 25 they will spend three weeks at the National Academy in Loughborough. The practice will be geared towards the conditions they are likely to find in the Caribbean but it is unlikely they will be as fierce as those experienced by Nasser Hussain 14 years ago.

At the end of 1989, Geoffrey Boycott was invited by England captain Graham Gooch to prepare his batsmen for their coming tour of the West Indies. In order to give his young charges an idea of what they were about to encounter, and in the hope they would eventually learn how to play fast bowling, Gooch gave Boycott a free rein.

It was a gesture the opener did not waste. For two months England's top order gathered at Headingley and Boycott ruthlessly put them through their paces. In an attempt to simulate the hostile bowling they were about to face from Malcolm Marshall, Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose, Boycott gathered all the fast bowlers he could from the surrounding area.

Once in the nets, Boycott would work these bowlers into a frenzy. His instructions were blunt and simple: hit the batsman.

At times his desire to test the batsmen became obsessive and there was even a rumour that he was prepared to give a bowler a fiver if he hit a batsman on the head.

To increase the chances of this he allowed the bowlers to run through the crease and bowl from 18 yards. Several were hit but money was never seen to change hands. Hussain, Alec Stewart, Robin Smith, Rob Bailey and Wayne Larkins left each session battered and bruised.

How times have changed. No longer is there a need for such drastic preparation. The production line, which for 20 years generated the most fearsome fast bowlers cricket has seen, has ground to a halt.

The Caribbean is now a place where overseas batsmen look forward to playing.

Evenings can now be spent relaxing with a rum punch. The need to tell your wife how much you love her before going to work has gone.

If the bowling witnessed in the recent test series between South Africa and the West Indies is anything to go by, England's batsman should have a wonderful tour.

Practice time would be better spent facing gentle half-volleys and long hops from a bowling machine. Finding a restaurant in Kingston is now a more dangerous proposition than batting at Sabina Park.

The decline of quality fast bowling in the Caribbean has hurt not only the fans, who still believe the fast bowler is king, but also those who proudly made the West Indies into the best side in the world.

"It has been a real disappointment to watch the way our guys have been performing," Walsh said when I caught up with him in Jamaica. "Our bowling is a real concern. We are not bowling anywhere near as well as we can. The potential is there but there has been a real lack of consistency. The word on the street is that Curtly [Ambrose] and myself should come out of retirement."

We laughed at the prospect. Walsh is enjoying retirement. The body is no longer the lean, mean bowling machine that claimed a record-breaking 519 test scalps.

Our chuckling ended when he looked me in the eye. "No they're serious," he said.

The demise of the West Indies as a major force in cricket coincided with the retirement of Walsh and Ambrose. To those of us watching from the outside, it was expected.

For a number of years this pair had held things together and we all felt it was inevitable that the West Indies Cricket Board would pay the consequences for failing to invest money in decent facilities while their team were at the top.

The arrogance of their players on the field had helped make the West Indies the team they were but the arrogance of the board, who took success for granted and expected the next crop of players to be as good as the last, would prove costly.

Looking at the desperate state of their bowling, it does not appear that they are learning from their mistakes. Since their retirement, the WICB has failed to use the experience of Walsh and Ambrose, who took more than 900 test wickets between them.

"I would like to think I could help the bowlers," Walsh said modestly. "But the WICB have not asked me. I try to help out the Jamaican team whenever I can. They have asked me to work with them.

"Sometimes I coach the bowlers and on other occasions I go along to speak to the team and motivate them. I have asked Curtly the same question and nobody at the WICB has asked him as well.

"To me, it is not your first spell that makes you. As far as I was concerned it is great to try and take wickets in your first spell and if you do, life gets easier. But it is how you come back and bowl your second and third spell that is important.

"This is what test cricket is all about. Coming back to bowl after lunch and tea is a real test of your character. It is the main thing I want to see them do."

For a man whose career stands out as a shining example of what it takes to be a great fast bowler, it is difficult to comprehend this oversight. The current bowling coach, Kenny Benjamin, was a decent bowler but Walsh and Ambrose were in a different league.

In his youth Walsh was a frightening proposition. He was tall, fast and coming at you. He bowled from wide of the crease and angled the ball in. At times it felt impossible to get out of the way of his short ball.

What made him great, though, was his ability to adapt. When the pace went, he became a canny, disciplined medium-fast bowler whose fitness allowed him to bowl prolonged spells in any conditions.

One can sense the form of the West Indian bowlers and his lack of involvement are frustrating him.

"I was speaking to Mikey [Michael Holding] the other day about the tradition we used to have," he said. "We have not always had four great fast bowlers but we have always had one or two that stood out. The younger bowlers used to follow the example set by these.

"At this moment in time, however, we do not have anyone to lead the pack. I don't know whether it is a lack of planning on our part or that we are expecting too much. We need to find out if this lack of consistency is caused by a lack of discipline or bad practice. It could be that this lot just don't have it in them and we need to find a new crop.

"I don't believe this is the case. In Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor I believe we have two bowlers with the ability to go all the way. They could become the leaders we are looking for but it may be a bit too much to ask of them right now. They need more help from the senior players."

This series will be the first since 1985-86 in which English batsmen have not had to worry about Walsh. They will be hoping the intransigence of the WICB continues.