Chris Martin averaged just 2.36 in Test cricket. He ended up with 110 more Test wickets than runs. But are the likes of Chris Martin a thing of the past? Has technology and other aspects of the game meant that these types of player are no more? Here guest blogger Rob Johnston finds out...
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Tuffers...a genuine tail ender |
The plight of the tailender, particularly in the 1970s and
80s when the world was crawling with fearsome quick bowlers, has always been
one that elicits sympathy: the bowlers, bat in hand, facing a ball and a task
that they are sorely incapable of conquering. Whilst batsman make the art
of batting look easy with their rock solid techniques, quick reactions and fast
hands, for tailenders it can seem painfully tough.
How do we decide who is a genuine tailender? Certainly an average below double figures is
a start, as well as a lack of any notable score in Test matches. We should also look at their techniques: one
that involves moving to square leg away from the ball suggests a player not too
keen on batting and likely to be none too successful.
The times when England would assemble a lower order
containing Phil Tufnell, Angus Fraser and Devon Malcolm - none of whom averaged
more than eight in Tests - are long gone but the batting exploits of these
players are arguably more well-known among supporters than those of many front
line batsmen. The entertainment of seeing
them thrashing around nowhere close to the ball they were trying to hit was a guilty
pleasure.
If you have a moment, search for a YouTube video of Tufnell
facing Shane Warne in the 1990s. Warne
bowls around the wicket to Tufnell, pitching the ball outside leg stump. Tufnell tries to kick away four balls, ends
up on his backside once, and kicks a full toss to short leg without any attempt
to use a bat. It is wondrous stuff.
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Mbangwa...a genuine ferret |
That is part of the appeal of cricket in essence, a mixture
of different players with different skills to offer, combining to make a team,
producing entertaining and in some cases farcical moments. Tailenders
provide an element of fun whether they are at the crease for a long time, a
good time or a short time. The lack of
genuine tailenders in Test cricket means a more homogenised game but perhaps a
less vibrant one.
As to who could be considered the most genuine of the
genuine tailenders, Tufnell would be high on any list, but from further afield,
Zimbabwe’s Pommie Mbangwa and New Zealand’s Chris Martin are statistically the
worst tailenders to have played ten Test matches or more. Mbangwa
averaged 2.00 from 25 Test innings but it is Martin who has the greater claim
to the title. From 71 Test matches, and 104 innings, Martin averaged just
2.36 with a highest score of 12 not out. Martin has 110 more Test wickets
than runs.
Usually a tailender who plays the length of time that Martin
did would have an innings where they swatted their way to a quick 30 but it
never came for the New Zealander. It did however come for Malcolm, when
he made his highest Test score of 29 against Australia in 1995, including two
sixes off Shane Warne. The late Ritchie Benaud couldn’t hide his
astonishment as Malcolm drove a ball through mid-off for four during that
innings when he remarked during commentary: ‘Well, that is something Devon
Malcolm will remember all his life.’
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Martin in familiar pose |
We warm to tailenders because of their often hapless
failures, but also because of these occasional successes. Who would
forget Monty Panesar, with a Test average of 4.88 from 50 Test matches, batting
to save the Cardiff Test in the 2009 Ashes, helping England go on to win that
series? Truly memorable because it was truly unexpected.
These surprising successes are in decline as the tailender has
become an endangered species in Test teams, a trend seen for the last 20 years
or so. Last year, numbers eight to
eleven in Test match batting orders averaged 17.85 each and there were
significant contributions from tailenders in the recent Ashes series.
The advent of professionalism, more short form cricket and
greater rewards for players has meant that where once a tailender such as
Tufnell was tolerated, now all lower order players must work at their batting
and improve. A quickfire ten or fifteen
can be the difference between winning a T20 game or losing it, between a huge
paycheck or a much smaller one.
For England in the early 2000s, Duncan Fletcher demanded
that the England team he coached should deliver lower order runs. He paired tailenders with top order batsman
at practise to help them develop. Ashley
Giles was a pillar of the Fletcher era who scored important runs at number eight
and was often picked ahead of other spinners because of his ability with the
bat.
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Devon Malcolm |
As much as lower order runs are important to a team’s
success, they are now more than ever also important to a cricketer’s personal
career. In these days of T20 riches and lashings of international cricket,
players have to be multi-dimensional to get contracts and to get a game. If they want to get an IPL gig, they had
better be able to belt the ball out of the ground on a semi-regular basis. Career advancement is helped by knowing which
end of the willow to hold.
Another reason for the improvement in lower order batsmen is
the absence of express pace bowlers, a talent more widespread in the 1970s and
1980s. Facing the West Indies fearsome
attack of Michael Holding, Malcom Marshall, Andy Roberts and Joel Garner wasn’t
much fun for proper batsmen let alone tailenders so it’s no wonder they did not
get in line and cover their stumps. Tailenders
feel less able to protect themselves against real pace so there is a fear
factor of injury, of being out of their depth.
With slower bowlers, that fear subsides and more runs are scored.
The lack of express pace, together with better equipment
offering greater protection and slower, flatter pitches, has made the task of batting
easier throughout the world; the benchmark for a top player now being an
average of 50 rather than 40 evidences this trend. As a result batting has got
easier for all players, tailenders included.
You need this video in your life! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_NsFh-Z4aE
ReplyDeleteMore seriously, I think the key issue is better protection, which means the danger of serious injury is dramatically reduced (as does the lack of Holding, Marshall, Garner, Thomson and others).
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