A New Dawn Has Come For England... but Some Things Never Change.

The sun has set over another summer of international cricket in England, its last rays now occasionally shining down upon the tail end of a more frequently rain interrupted domestic season.  Its been a summer of high stakes and unscripted failure but now the players; those special few accustomed to the wealth of central contracts and those more used to toiling in the leagues, must be looking towards the future and what repercussions the changes that have commanded headlines during the season will bring to effect in the coming months.

 

Michael Vaughn has tearfully thrown in the towel on his captaincy after his England side failed to build on a hard fought win against a sub-standard New Zealand when faced with the mightier challenge of Graeme Smith’s South Africans.  He returns with the tricky charge of improving his dwindling batting average with Yorkshire, a ‘big’ county, historically considered to be an immovable stalwart of the first division now facing the formerly impossible prospect of relegation along with already-doomed Surrey. Paul Collingwood exits the England one-day captaincy with less ceremony but more hope of retaining his place in both squads.

 

Meanwhile other individuals, teams and even forms of the game are clearly in the ascendancy.  Nottinghamshire, Somerset and Durham are vying for the championship top spot, pushing the traditionally dominant counties aside while, following the success of the Indian Premier League, twenty20 cricket seems to be seriously threatening the more established forms of the game for primacy. Fueled by millions of dollars of investment from Indian and Texan multi-millionaires alike, who see the prospect of profit in the immediate popularity of the game, cricket followers can now look forward to the prospect of a cricket champions’ league featuring domestic champions from around the world and, with greater trepidation, to the ECB’s big payoff- and supposed alternative to IPL contracts for England players- The Stanford Super Series.

 

Kevin Pietersen was, predictably, the name on everybody’s lips after he was handed the England captaincy and set out bloody-mindedly beating the triumphant South Africans into despondency. Firstly with a resounding consolation win in the final test at The Oval then a sound thrashing in the one-day series. Had it not been for the washout in Wales, England would probably have whitewashed the series 5-0 and climbed to an unlikely 2^nd place in the one-day rankings (as it stands, they have to make do with third).  His captaincy has a style at once determined and touchy feely, strong yet soft. His team, for the meantime at least, appears to have inherited his own irrepressible, confident professionalism and something of his natural flair. 

 

What the England team under Kevin Pietersen also now bears is a mixture of fresh faces; both new and old.  Who would have predicted at the start of the summer that Steve Harmison would be running into bowl, and bowl well, as a member of the one day team? His re-emergence from ODI retirement, following a successful re-introduction to the test squad in the final test again South Africa has been as surprising as Andrew Flintoff’s return has been exhilarating. The sight of the England’s 2005 Ashes heroes playing with their tails up, bowling with real pace and malice is undeniably uplifting and one few truly expected to see again. Their rehabilitations, from injury in Flintoff’s case, from a seemingly irreversible loss of quality and confidence on the part of Harmison, have been genuinely remarkable.  That they have been so well timed with Pietersen’s rise to power brings what may well be real, lasting momentum to the team and fans may be forgiven for allowing themselves to dream about lifting the little urn again this time next year.

 

There is a clutch of fringe players in the England set up who are likely to be allowing themselves to dream not only that it can happen, but that they might have a hand in it.  Stuart Broad’s development goes on seemingly unhindered; his wicket-taking ability backed up by eight South African scalps in the one day series, his powers with the bat apparently growing with each match.  Owis Shah, the long time fringe player, followed up impressive scores in domestic short-forms with an opportunity to bat at no.3 for the national one-day team. If he lives up to his obvious potential he may well be pushing for a regular test place next September.  Add to the mix Ravi Bopara, who has resembled a run machine all domestic season, and a wide-eyed but seemingly level-headed prospect in all-rounder Samit Patel, both of whom may be threatening for a place in the test side in a year’s time (even sooner in the case of Bopara) and it becomes clear that while the future may be bright for Pietersen’s England, there could be some casualties along the way.

 

There are of course only eleven places on a cricket pitch and the returning Flintoff and Harmison, combined with the up-and-coming faces from the ODI team and counties, will be putting established players under pressure. The first victim of the winter tour to India is set to be Tim Ambrose, who’s inability to repeat his match-saving performances in New Zealand this summer will cost him his place to a re-energised Matt Prior.  Andrew Strauss will continue to feel the pressure, while it is fair to say the Ryan Sidebottom will no longer be considered the spearhead of the bowling attack and may find it difficult to secure a place with Anderson swinging it with control while Flintoff and Harmison inject some long-missing pace into the attack. 

 

Paul Collingwood’s gritty 135 at Edgebaston ought to be enough for him to keep his place in the first test in India but he will have to prove his reputation as a canny player of spin and get some heavy totals to fend off the younger all-rounders eager to poach his spot.  On the subject of spin, Monty Panesar ought to be feeling some pressure to make use of spin-friendly Indian pitches in the tests as an increasing number of critical eyes focus on his performances and his inability to bat or field. Graeme Swann waits in the wings after playing well for Nottinghamshire all season.

 

One feature of English cricket, however, is that certain thing never change.  A fair number of next year’s hyped-up twenty20 matches will be rained off; Geoff Boycott will continue to belligerently chunter on about whatever subject (cricket related or otherwise) enters into his head, and certain quality players will be forever denied a second chance.  Robert Key has had a wonderful season, amassing impressive totals on an almost weekly basis and captaining Kent to the twenty20 final against Middlesex and one better in the Pro40 second division.  Yet even his level-headed leadership of the England Lions (That’s England A) have not earned him a position of serious contention for a place in a national squad batting line-up which, despite failing to perform to its proper extent all summer long, actually changes very little.  A quality player now in his prime, Robert Key may suffer the indignity of becoming his generation’s Mark Ramprakash: a world-class batsman who never got a second chance at international level, almost certainly to the national team’s detriment.