Athers: 'He's at that stage of his career where he has to decide what he wants from the game. Players get married, kids come along, travelling's different, priorities change and you have to ask yourself what kind of player you want to be remembered as, how much the game means to you, how many runs you want to score.'
Boycott: 'He's a big man, six feet four, and his height means he can get much closer to the pitch of the ball than most players. But he's only taking half a stride. His bat's two and a half feet in front of his pad, he's walking towards the ball, his front leg's stiff and his whole right side is getting turned around. He just needs to play straight'.
No prizes for guessing which one of these men played in the era of the sports psychologist...
'He's a great lad, I like him a lot and I like his batting,' concluded Boycs. 'But he won't listen to anybody. He just says, that's the way I play, take it or leave it'.
Remind you of anyone, does he Geoffrey?
NB: Not that the great Yorkshireman is blind to the new age.
Hi
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They both seem right to me. I think the problem is that for a man with his undoubted talent he has not scored nearly enough runs. He needs to lead England's batting, not just contribute. When you see guys like Collingwood - with only a fraction of his talent - putting in the hard yards, it is always going to make people question his committment
ReplyDeletePramukh, will do.
ReplyDeleteVillage, yeah on reflection you're right. He needs to get that little bit of extra back somehow...
He has gone to somewhere where he is hated to try and find form -- that must be difficult. Vaughan was saying on TMS that everywhere he goes he is booed and shouted at - maybe its getting to him.
ReplyDeleteAs TVC says above - they're both right. This is a problem with reality in general.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see Atherton and Hussain gradually becoming the pundits one step removed from the current players, and Gower and Botham now two steps removed. Vaughan and Fletcher were on TMS - they're no brighter or more perceptive than the old boys but being so recent they can give a unique insight into how contemporary players and management operate and think.
Please, please no commentators who really love themselves should be commenting on any form of cricket. Atherton has been bad enough but I predict that Vaughan will be a disaster.
ReplyDelete