As the Ashes move on to the short form of the game and South Africa clinch a great series win against India cricket boards seem in the impossible position of deciding how to get the best out of their more senior players in a packed schedule.
The England team have been roundly criticised for a lack of consistency but the majority are young and part of building process. However, the Indian management have started to question their big name players who simply are not doing the business. We saw Damien Martyn, after the 3rd Ashes test, take the decision to retire. Martyn was lauded for taking this step and it begs the question of whether senior players are given too much time to find lost form and make the contributions that they did in the past.
England’s central contracts are a prime example of this current situation. How do you get the best results from your senior players? Do you contract your players for the year giving them the peace of mind and security to get on with their game? Or do you rely on the desire and determination of those players to want to succeed in a more cut throat set up. It certainly can be argued that the more senior England players like Harmison and Trescothic have not benefited from the central contract system.
Certainly the likes of Sri Lanka have made interesting moves in this department. The re-call of veteran batsman Sanath Jayasuriya has proved a success, but he was scoring domestic runs. There will be fans of Surrey who would suggest that England could well have done with Mark Ramprakash this summer as he finished the domestic season with an average of over 100.
How many games should those big name players be given in order to produce runs, wickets or stumpings? Has it become more important to have well known players on the team sheet rather than players in form?
The England team have been roundly criticised for a lack of consistency but the majority are young and part of building process. However, the Indian management have started to question their big name players who simply are not doing the business. We saw Damien Martyn, after the 3rd Ashes test, take the decision to retire. Martyn was lauded for taking this step and it begs the question of whether senior players are given too much time to find lost form and make the contributions that they did in the past.
England’s central contracts are a prime example of this current situation. How do you get the best results from your senior players? Do you contract your players for the year giving them the peace of mind and security to get on with their game? Or do you rely on the desire and determination of those players to want to succeed in a more cut throat set up. It certainly can be argued that the more senior England players like Harmison and Trescothic have not benefited from the central contract system.
Certainly the likes of Sri Lanka have made interesting moves in this department. The re-call of veteran batsman Sanath Jayasuriya has proved a success, but he was scoring domestic runs. There will be fans of Surrey who would suggest that England could well have done with Mark Ramprakash this summer as he finished the domestic season with an average of over 100.
How many games should those big name players be given in order to produce runs, wickets or stumpings? Has it become more important to have well known players on the team sheet rather than players in form?
1 comment:
Thanks for writing this.
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