Cricket
Border incident
Peter Phillips
The present Australian team is not well known to English fans. Border, Alderman, Boon, Lawson and Steve Waugh are famil- iar to us from Test and county cricket, but substantially more than half of the Austra- lian touring party have never played in England. This may betray a lack of experi- ence amongst their players, but no one is qualified to say more than that. How indeed will Dean Jones, once his cheek is healed, cope with English conditions? Will he be another Doug Walters? Those in- terested in any hard-fought series must hope not, but the case remains unproven that a man who can score 216 against a West Indies attack that included Marshall and Ambrose at Adelaide will make a comparable score against the type of bowl- ing perpetrated by Dilley and Emburey at Edgbaston. Jones has everything to play for here, as does the completely unknown pace bowler Greg Campbell, who has so far played in just 12 first-class games. Ian Healy, the second-choice wicket-keeper, is in much the same league, with 25 games behind him. It is hard for the pundits to give odds on such a team, which in other circumstances has shown itself to be per- fectly competent; but I hope that Steve Waugh and Tim Moody will justify the good press they have received. I strongly suspect that the opening batsmen Mike Veletta and Mark Taylor will do nothing significant.
It will be interesting to see whether the England selectors diversify much between the one-day and the Test teams. Trying to win the series of one-day internationals has become rather unchic since the West Indies lost all three last year and then went on to do what they did in the Tests. No one cares now that England won those one-day games. Altogether it would be an excellent omen for England to lose all three this year, and it would certainly set the right kind of mood for Ted to stick to the same core of players throughout the whole sum- mer. But that core must be capable of winning the Test matches.
The positions in the team that are still up for grabs include the opener to go in alongside Gooch, the all-rounder or even two, and the wicket-keeper. Botham sug- gests himself for all these posts, except possibly the wicket-keeper, and he has advanced his claims very creditably so far this season. His recent 5 for 53 against Lancashire in a four-day match was exactly what his supporters wanted to see. As an opening batsman he has not always come out on top (he scored 0 in that position against Lancashire in a Sunday match); but his selection would at least put paid to the possibility of the ill-mannered Broad, or the toiling Pringle, or preferably both. The idea that Keith Medlycott of Surrey should play as an all-rounder is patently absurd. As for pace bowlers, Dilley and Foster are foregone conclusions if they are fit and the difference between Fraser, Small and New- port seems academic. My team would be: Gooch, Barnett, Gatting, Gower, Robin Smith, Botham, Russell, Emburey (I sup- pose), Fraser, Foster and Dilley.
Alan Border may have been nicknamed `Mr Grumpy', but he has not lost a sense of propriety. On striking a cricket ball into the crowd at Arundel the other day, he was dismayed to see it land on the nose of a female spectator. Two balls later he man- aged to get himself out and hurried over to see that she was not too badly hurt. In fact her nose was broken. One does not expect him to do the same at Lords, but he has set a moving precedent for good behaviour.
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