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Journalism of Courage
England8217;s cricket revival, which recently won them the Laureus Award for Comeback of the Year, has a lot to do with Allan Border and Mark Taylor. Not the former Australian captains themselves, but the manner in which they similarly revived their country8217;s fortunes, one reviving it and the other consolidating.
Nasser Hussain was England8217;s Border. He took over the reins from Alec Stewart amid the shambles of the 1999 World Cup, inheriting a bunch of players marked by their laid-back attitude and lack of ambition. He turned them into hard, fighting professionals 8212; typified by Andrew Flintoff and Michael Vaughan 8212; who played for each other and played to win.
The 8216;great dictator8217;, as Darren Gough called him, had attitude and was emotional but got the best out of his meagre resources.
Though he started with series defeats against New Zealand and South Africa, Hussain8217;s real success showed on the sub-continent. But for one Test loss at Mohali in 2001-02, Hussain8217;s England would have beaten Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India in their own backyards.
It8217;s easy to say that he had the talent 8212; Vaughan, Flintoff and Marcus Trescothick were blossoming together 8212; but he succeeded in the tougher job too: Beating into their psyche a hatred of losing. Pommie-bashing, he decided, had to first stop in its own dressing room. If Border was complemented by coach Bobby Simpson, Hussain had Duncan Fletcher, who came up with the concept of a 8216;team bubble8217;, in which everyone belonged. Fletcher pushed for the contracts system, which allowed players to remain fresh, injury-free and, most importantly, financially secure.
They were helped by the retirement, at roughly the same time, of Alec Stewart, Mark Butcher, Graham Thorpe and Craig White; that gave them the chance to blood young players such as Hoggard, Simon Jones and Harmison 8212; the crux of today8217;s attack.
And Hussain learnt the Aussie art of gamesmanship. In his last Test, he introduced South Africa8217;s Graeme Smith, captaining in his first Test, as Greg Smith. He ignored the criticism that followed when Ashley Giles bowled a leg-stump line to Sachin Tendulkar.
When he retired, Derek Pringle summed up his contributions thus: 8216;8216;When England8217;s team either side of the millennium is judged by historians, they may well use terms such as 8216;Before Nasser8217; and 8216;After Nasser8217; to explain the rigour the side developed under him. There can be no greater compliment.8217;8217;
England won 17 and lost 15 Tests under Hussain. They had won six and lost 11 in the 27 matches that immediately preceded Hussain8217;s reign.
When Hussain left, he said the team needed fresh ideas to rise to the next level. Simply put, he called for a Mark Taylor to take over.
Michael Vaughan got the captaincy mid-series against South Africa, and started with a loss. With their best bowlers injured, England fought back twice to square that series against South Africa. An easy Bangladesh tour was followed by a tough one at Sri Lanka, which, although they lost, surfaced their appetite for a scrap.
The trinity of Harmison, Jones, and Hoggard first surfaced when they teamed up to annihilate West Indies home and away 8212; and then beat South Africa too for good measure.
Vaughan played the Taylor role to perfection; in the first few matches against Australia this summer he didn8217;t allow his players to get overawed by reputations. They played tough on the field, the Jones-Hayden spat being just one example.
England have shown in the last two years that getting them down is not enough, it takes a lot to keep them down. This year8217;s Ashes won8217;t be settled after just three Tests.
But there8217;s one major difference between Vaughan8217;s team and Taylor8217;s team: When the Australians dethroned the West Indies in the mid-1990s, they were gifted with an opposition in freefall. England don8217;t have that luxury yet 8212; but they could after this summer.
