Unerve me, swerve me, it's Merv!

Merv Hughes,

The name just had to be uttered and batsmen trembled but having watched The Saturday Story on Sky I have to say he was one of the main reasons why Australia showed so much dominance for so many years. Aggressive hard working and very talented. My kind of fast bowler!

When Australia return home at the end of this Ashes series and all the dissecting of the reasons why they didn't do better I, as a passionate Englishman, will say one thing 'The Spirit of Merv'

I am all for modern sports science. Had they had it when I was playing I probably would have had a long career because the injury that I picked up to both ankles would have been spotted and dealt with. It's no longer a case of injection, ice, crutches, play, bowl 20 overs, injection, ice and crutches, which is what I was basically doing when I was trying to break into County Cricket. Now cricketers are treated as professionals who should be looked after rather than a few old boys out for a nice little game. I remember watching Mark Benson in preseason down at St Lawrence at Canterbury. There was me bowling away as fast as I could at Chris Cowdrey in the nets (mainly because my girlfriend fancied him) whilst Benson was riding a bicycle around and doing stretching exercises. About the only people not amused at that was Alan Ealham, the coach, his son Mark and a young lad, me. It was the start of my journey into coaching and it was a lesson learned about the body as well as the mind.

So what has this to do with Merv?

Well apart from being fit and training hard on technical skill there is one simple thing you can not teach to a fast bowler easily - natural aggression or how to get under someone's skin without them realising how you do it!

Controlled aggression is the secret of winning the contest between bat and ball. And I say controlled because at the end of the day raw aggression dissipates energy. It is the focussing of that energy that makes the difference. Psychology is the key therefor and this is why Merv was so good. He got under a batsman's skin he got into places with his attitude as much as his ability.

Sky asked the question would Merv do as well in today's game? I think he would have done better. He certainly wouldn't have allowed the Australian team to give up and fold. He would have probably terrified the bejesus out of the batsmen still in the pavilion even though it was not politically correct. And that was what Australia were missing true street fighters who you would want in your foxhole with you. Someone who you could rely on no matter what. That's what England have developed over the past few years, a sheer belief that they will win, that was the Australian way for so many years. That was the Merv way!

Nothing new ever really gets invented in modern sport it just gets repackaged or rebadged.

I bet Australia wish they could repackage Merv right now!

 

He would give a batsman a XXXX wouldn't he?

Darkness looms as Ashes embers burn bright

Oh dear what a disaster BAD LIGHT STOPS PLAY

Poor Michael Clarke, Pup was apoplectic. Well you can't really blame him can you? After all if ever a deck of cards were stacked against you now seems to be the time don't you think? The DRS isn't working or rather the third umpire seems blind, the crowd love a pantomime villain and David Warner uses up a review in the first innings and then low and behold Pup runs out Steve Smith. Then the final insult when the umpires take them off for bad light. Not that I think it matters too much having looked at tomorrow's weather forecast but you can see the clear frustration.

However I think that this may all light up the next few moths for ironically all that is going wrong now may just be pointing the way for Australia to find their way out of the darkness. So England beware those Ashes may get too hot to handle. What was that old phrase about not poking a sleeping tiger with a stick?

Or should I say don't throw a punch at a Root?

I know, bad taste, but I have to say I am warming to David Warner. If there is one thing that you could be sure of the great Australian Teams is that they fought with a passion for the Baggy Green Cap and that is something that has been little in evidence in the last few years. In David Warner they may just have found another of those rough tough Australian characters who will give everything for those from down under. And that is a good thing for cricket or particularly Test Cricket.

The Ashes after all is the premier test competition but unfortunately that status in it's own right means that other countries have not had the same look in. How many other test series are 5 test series? Most other countries would prefer to have 15 one day internationals and 10 20/20 games to replace the 25 days that a 5 Tests series brings us. And therefore the Ashes must survive if Test Cricket is to survive.

We need pantomime villains, no doubt Broad will get the same reception as Warner did here when England play in Sydney but that is good for the game. At the end of the day there is nothing malicious about it or rather there shouldn't be.

Darkness may be looming but for the sake of cricket the Ashes embers must glow bright 

Walk like an Australian

Ok there is going to be a load of hyperbole and nonsense written about Stuart Broad tomorrow but this commentator says stop and think.

The batsman has the absolute right to wait to be given out. Over the years I have seen and played with hundreds of Australians who would never have walked. And in the modern game why should they? After all the German keeper didn't run up to Frank Lampard and say oh by the way old boy I've  told the ref that that was a goal.  And why should he?

This is professional sport and the clue is in the name. It's about money as well as sportsmanship. I wrote about Dhoni's wonderful gesture  a while back on this blog and I stand by those comments. Stuart Broad was wrong in spirit as much as he was right in law. Each of us make our own decisions in sport but ultimately these things will balance out. After all there weren't loads of Aussies queuing up to reprieve Trott last evening!

If the fate of The Ashes rest on this one incident then sport will have lost but I seriously doubt that they will. Ultimately sport will win out in the end after all if this kind of thing happens regularly well....

It's just not cricket my boy

He's really Gel!

Ok so that's a real poor pun but the reason young master Agar hung around so much today is because everything feeds off Agar Gel. So the whole positive outlook of this obviously delightful young man enthused through this fine old test series and suddenly the Ashes are alive. Thank goodness for that because I was seriously doubting either side knew how to do anything after yesterday's debacle.

One thing's for certain:

This thing is about to explode so cricket lovers be ready to hang on for a wild ride!

Jerusalem

Two years ago I wrote this piece in a blog it was the day before Andy Murray played Rafa in the Wimbledon Semi Final

Now I will admit that when I first saw Andy Murray I was not his biggest fan. Why? well he wasn't Timbo was he? However as I have watched him grow he has shown his true nature a steely determination and a strength of character that few people have. The challenge is he is up against a mammoth of a task today when he takes on Rafa, the man every father would like their daughter to marry. But in reality the truth is that both these two young men are good decent people who have triumphed to reach the top of their chosen profession. If Andy wins today the whole nation will get a boost, if Rafa wins today then people will not jeer nor curse because we love him too. Today tennis will win, and that is what sport is about, for tomorrow Andy and Rafa will play play station together again for they are friends that have rivalry in a thing that they love. Yet they know at the end of the day it is just a game.

And two years on after winning first the Olympic Gold and then the US Open Andy Murray stands at the top of his game and on top of the world as the Wimbledon Champion.

Much has been said about the influence of losing to Roger Federer in last years final, much has been said about hiring Ivan Lendl as his coach but I think he just decided that he had had enough and this was his time.

I was fortunate enough to take my son to the final weekend of the Olympic Games in London. Wow that was fantastic. He saw and hopefully was inspired by the British Gold, Silver and Bronze he saw, first at Eton Dorney followed by the final Sunday in Greenwich Park. Yet this last year has been totally inspiring with sport.

Started by Le Wiggo in La Tour followed by a young Scotsman getting to a Wimbledon final the Olympic Games were yet to come.

Our cyclists, athletes, gymnasts, boxers, rowers, canoeists, equestrians, swimmers, divers, shooters, sailors and of course tennis players in the Olympics gave a wonderful warm feeling to the soul of any sports fan then our Paralympians went and did it all over again in the Paralympics.

Then step forward a young Scotsman to temporarily banish the pain of that last Grand Slam Final by winning in the cauldron of New York to make history.

If this wasn't enough England went off to India and beat the Indians in their own back yard at cricket how great was that? Even if they did take the gloss off things by blowing the Champions Trophy final.

And now two years on from my lead article here and one year on from that last Wimbledon final, step forward the young Scottish lad, with a fire in the belly as strong as any wee dram and a strength in his heart like greater than any lion, to make dreams come true.

But before he could do that there was one final twist as down under in the green and gold's back yard men in red were demolishing the Aussies to give us a first Lions series win in 16 years. A side flourishing with Welsh grit and Irish flair The limelight had gone for a brief second from the Scots, but nothing would dim the fires.

And so a new champion stands tall today as a moment arrived that many of us sports fans had wished for so very often..... A Wimbledon winner from these green and pleasant lands. Stand tall Andy Murray you deserve it. As I watched the look in my young son's eyes as he watched the match I could see the passion starting to rise. You have inspired him, as has every sportsman and woman who has triumphed this year.

Now as I settle down for the next big moment that will start tomorrow morning at Trent Bridge I hope that what I saw in my son's eyes was every bit as strong as the passion I have had for sport and that it will drive him on. And if not then there is always Chris Froome and his quest for yellow in Paris. Will the South African English, the Zimbabwean English and the English English get in on this Great British Act?

And then of course there is a little matter of a World Cup next year.


Sport teaches us so many great and noble things. The inspiration of the competitiveness is so wonderful to watch, the rivalries so keen and strong. But as a young boy grows into a young man and a girl into a woman remember this.

It's always about fun and not about those dark satanic mills!

Enjoy your lives, live long and heartily and remember let Jerusalem ring out for the future generations.

My sport, my love, my sadness

Much has been written in the press today about the sad and premature death of Tom Maynard. There will be much hand wrangling and much finger pointing that will occur over the next few weeks, months maybe years by the ECB and the PCA, and no doubt there will be many knee jerk reactions.

However you shall not find this commentator pointing fingers or dishing out blame for the loss of one so young is always so tragic.

When I played my beloved sport there was a notorious drink culture based around it. Most local clubs only survived because of the takings from the bar. That's probably still as true today as it was then the bar generates the profits. At Leeds in August 1977 there were two noticeable things about the first day of the Ashes Test that as a teenager I noticed. Firstly the love and passion of the Yorkshire crowd as they wooed the local Demi-God on to his 100th hundred and secondly how the Western Terrace was more stacked with beer than with people.

Even when I was trying to break into county cricket with Kent we stayed in digs and spent the night in the local hostelries of Canterbury. We all know of some of the greats love for the wine, the beer and well anything that anyone's offering. It is almost ritualistic in my beloved sport as it is ritualistic in society as a whole.

And so when the booze is not enough so cometh the drugs. Was drug taking rife in the world of cricket? Well only as it was rife in the world at large. There is no difference between the world of sport and the world in general except perhaps the celebrity status attached to it.

People drink, people take drugs that's the hard truth.

Are people bad for doing this? No they simply do it.

What are we to do about it?

Well that's a little like asking the tide to turn back. I have been working in alcohol and drugs education for the best part of 30 years now. I work with ordinary people who have ordinary lives and yes I have worked with the rich and famous too however drink and drugs are not discriminatory. They don't care who you are or what you do, they have no feelings like me and you! Poetic? Maybe, yet that's the challenge, beating the romantic notions about alcohol and drugs that have been driven into us since we left Neanderthal behind.

Educate our youngsters, educate our seniors, educate everyone and do it now. Not from a perspective of how bad you are for taking these substances but a truthful and real education about the substances that led to the tragic death of a young man so loved by his family and friends.