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The Cricket Interview/Adam Hollioake
'There is more to cricket now than just winning
matches'
Adam Hollioake, who had played only five one-day internationals before last night's thriller at Sharjah, has made an impressive debut as captain of England's instant cricket squad.
Hollioake, who had a pre-Sharjah one-day average of 75.50, asked England coach David Lloyd to assist him in answering Anant Gaundalkar's questions.
Excerpts from an exclusive interview:
How do you react to the current trend of selecting separate teams for one-day and Test cricket?
Cricket, especially one-day cricket, has undergone,
several changes. Teams have to adopt new strategies to tackle those changes. For example,
in order to curtail the advantage to batsmen during the first
15 overs of the innings, many teams successfully came up with the idea
of employing spinners with the new ball, like Dipak Patel did during
the 1992 World Cup. There is more to cricket now than just winning
matches, the sides are going all out in one upmanship, to emerge at the top.
The final Test between India and Sri Lanka is a classic example of this.
On the last day of the Test, Rajesh Chauhan, in a
pre-planned strategy, took a reverse start to trap Aravinda
de Silva in the outfield. Such tactics are well within the laws
of the game.
Why has England opted for a different set of players for one-day matches?
We have had to look afresh at one-day cricket. We have
not won the World Cup since its inception; on the
contrary, we finished runners-up as many as three times --
in 1979 in England, in 1987 in India and in 1992 in Australia.
This is sad. To overcome this impasse, the English
cricket management has proposed some guidelines to revamp the
one-day squad. A different set of players for one-day games is a step in that direction. This is a specialised one-day side with a
lot of talented players in it. This is necessary and the order
of the day as England does not play many one-day matches.
If India
plays 100 limited-over games in a particular time span, England
only appears in 25 or 30 matches. In fact, this contest in Sharjah must be England's 2nd or 3rd
attempt, besides the World Cup, to appear in a tournament
in which more than two or three countries are taking part.
For the first time in our long cricket history,
a triangular tournament will be played in England next summer. The one-day game has undergone various changes and England has
to do something to emerge at the top.
What is this Adam versus Mike (Atherton, captain of England's Test side) talk?
Every team has to keep up with the changing
scenario in instant cricket. Australia brought in that change-over recently, bringing in Steve Waugh to lead the side, and dropping regular skipper Mark Taylor and wicket-keeper
Ian Healy. They have even brought back Tom
Moody for the World Series. Even India has adopted
a different policy for these two types of cricket, bringing in
Robin Singh, Vinod Kambli and Saba Karim for the Champions Trophy
in Sharjah. Ajay Jadeja who is struggling to get
a place in the Test side, is your vice-captain.
Further India also sent in Sachin Tendulkar
as an opener in the limited-over games, a move which has clicked
very well. All his one-day hundreds have been scored in the
opener's slot. Australia too promoted Mark Waugh
as an opener in the one-dayers. Finally, Rahul Dravid, who played so
well during the Test series, does not find a place
in your one-day squad.
What about Test cricket? England seems to be struggling all the way!
True to some extent. But we are in
the process of rebuilding the side, and I am sure in a couple of
years you will find a difference in our team. Then you
find results slowly but surely going in England's favour.
Who do you think will win the Champions Trophy?
Pakistan are the hot favourites, then comes India
with its strong batting line-up (The interview was conducted before the England-India tie.) Both countries also have good crowd support here. Of course, that is not the
only factor. I'll put my money on Pakistan simply
because they have all-round strength with complete variety in
the batting and bowling departments. They
have good left-handed opening batsmen, backed up by 3 to 4 quality
middle-order batsmen. In the bowling department, the attack is
the best in the world -- the left-hand, right-hand combination
of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis -- with the magnificent off-spin
and leg-spin attack of Saqlain Mushtaq and Mushtaq Ahmed. And
there is all-rounder Shahid Afridi and a good
wicket-keeper batsman in Moin Khan.
The West Indies, with Brian
Lara not in form and Courtney
Walsh now a spent force, are going downhill.
We are the underdogs, but don't be surprised if we lift the trophy! We have
come here after ten years. This is
a good contest to come back to.
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