David Gower’s voice ripples with enthusiasm when discussing England’s approach to their first post-Ashes Test, but one thing still sticks in the craw.
‘Well, it’s the Indian Premier League, basically,’ the former England captain tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘There are restrictions placed on people who take the Indian rupee or rather the US dollar.
‘It’s a phenomenally successful event, growing in popularity by the second, but it will brook no compromise. That’s my problem. And having people on central contracts who are apparently contracted more strongly to the IPL doesn’t sit right with me.’
The specific subject of his frustration is Jacob Bethell, one of Gower’s successors at No 3 in the Test team and whose build-up to facing New Zealand at Lord’s on June 4 could involve flying in from the IPL final with Royal Challengers Bangalore 48 hours earlier.
Offering a variation to the debate on Bethell’s early-season activities, so vociferously contested in public by Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen over recent weeks, the 69-year-old picks up the baton, saying: ‘If Kevin thinks you’re going to learn a lot of stuff sitting in a room with some great players, exchanging ideas and all the rest of it, fine. Get paid accordingly. I have nothing against that. But if you’re basically warming a bench and you’ve got a Test series coming up?
‘The last time I saw Jacob, he was making a brilliant hundred in Sydney and that was one of the absolute highlights of our time in Australia last winter. His future is no doubt incredibly bright in many different ways, but making that No 3 slot work for him for England’s Test team is still, to me, the most important thing for him.
David Gower says Jacob Bethell should return from the IPL to prepare for the Test summer
Gower believes Bethell’s main aim should be nailing down the No 3 slot in Ben Stokes’ team
‘If I were the ECB or him, I’d have tried very hard to come to some sort of negotiated agreement with his franchise to say, “Well, would you mind if he just came home slightly early and prepared himself for the Test match?” That, to me, would be a common-sense compromise.’
Speaking at a Lord’s Taverners event, he continues: ‘I would prefer as an individual, if I was still playing — and certainly as a watcher and commentator on the game — to have a hit because even if you don’t get any runs, you still get into the rhythm of the game.
‘I am familiar with the ability to switch on for something like a Test match, and the modern game inevitably involves a lot of switching: the travel, the locations, the formats. So, it’s not as though it’s something brand new.
‘But people like Ben Stokes, for instance, who has taken very seriously his role as England’s captain, identified his priority, which is being ready for England at all costs.
‘Now, the ECB don’t have the power to necessarily force people to do that, the world being what it is, and it would be slightly old-fashioned, to be honest, but all of us who’ve played even once for England, let alone 100 times, still value what it is to play for your country.’
Aside from the IPL issue — which has also led to Jofra Archer being rested until the second Test at The Oval — Gower approves of the moves England have made since digesting the 4-1 defeat Down Under, including the appointment of an Australian, Marcus North, as the new national selector, saying: ‘You never lose your Australian background, but he’s been in England a long time now, he’s a wise head, knows cricket and I wish him well.’
Changes, while not wholesale, have been significant. ‘It’s a good- looking squad, isn’t it? Eventually, they realised that Zak Crawley wasn’t going to get any better. If, after 64 Test matches, you’re still averaging 31, I don’t know whether it’s stupidity or stubbornness or something in between. But you should be better.
‘You should grow in that role. You should be able to balance the ability to smash the first ball in the Ashes for four, with the knowledge that if you actually hung around for three or four hours, you’d get a lot more runs.
‘All the eggs in one basket is never going to work and I’m very happy that they got the message about looking into county cricket for people who are doing good things. Emilio Gay is a perfect example — he has made a stack of runs, made the headlines, and he’s earned himself a place.
‘The other strand of that same story is that you don’t need a top seven all going hell for leather. Ideally, you’d have five doing that and two who are going to hang around and you can play around that and be sort of pretty confident they’ll hang around, come what may.
‘Then, you’ve got the right sort of balance in your top seven so that you can see through the tight situations, force the pace of the game when you’re on top, and not just collapse in a heap on a bad day.’
Jofra Archer will miss the first Test against New Zealand due to his IPL commitments
Gower felt the decision to drop Zak Crawley was correct and approves of England’s recent moves since their humilating 4-1 Ashes defeat by Australia over the winter
And one final assessment of where England stand in relation to other major nations around the world should serve as a warning that the first international assignment of the summer should not be taken for granted.
‘Last winter, Australia had obvious weaknesses. Yes, they’ve got a couple of world-class players left, but they had obvious weaknesses, both in batting and bowling, and that’s why we were meant to win down there — because if we’d started properly, we should have got the early momentum, and taken advantage.
‘I reckon if New Zealand had gone to Australia instead, New Zealand would have won, because they are that sort of team. They are a collective.
‘It’s their way of playing sport. Players like Kane Williamson are of the highest level, but they’ve always made up for apparent shortages of world-class talent elsewhere in their XIs by playing together as a unit. The team spirit that they engender is outstanding.’
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