Whatever the personnel when the sides are announced prior to the start of
the second Ashes Test in Adelaide, Australia will start the match as firm
favourites to go two-nil up in the series
Ralph Dellor20-Nov-2002Whatever the personnel when the sides are announced prior to the start of
the second Ashes Test in Adelaide, Australia will start the match as firm
favourites to go two-nil up in the series. England’s plans have been thrown
into disarray by a succession of injuries, while Australia could put their
second eleven on to the field and still be favourites to win. Australia A
could not force a win in Hobart in the tourists’ last match, but they
certainly did nothing to restore England’s confidence.Before dwelling on England’s misfortunes, it should be said that Australia
themselves are not completely free of injury doubts. Jason Gillespie is
still feeling the effects of his calf strain and is being given as long as
possible to recover. If he cannot do so, Brett Lee will come back into the
side.Lee has taken 21 wickets for New South Wales since being dropped from the
side for the first Test in Brisbane and has recaptured the speed that made
him such a fearsome proposition until his recent dip in form. If Gillespie
is fit, Lee might have to wait until Perth before regaining his place as he
has said himself that his replacement, Andy Bichel, has done a perfectly
good job for the side.England would dearly love to have a problem like that of the Australians. At
the start of the tour, captain Nasser Hussain said that his side stood a
chance of regaining the Ashes provided fortune smiled and he could call on a
full complement of fit players. The decimation of the party and their dream
began before they left England. That was when Graham Thorpe dropped out of
the original selection to be replaced by Robert Key.A damaging blow, but at least Key was fit and raring to go. The same could
not be said for the rest of the party. Darren Gough (knee), Michael Vaughan
(knee), Mark Butcher (knee), Andrew Flintoff (hernia), and Simon Jones (rib)
were all travelling with injuries of varying degrees of seriousness to
overcome.Vaughan and Butcher came through without further mishap. Gough never took
the field before returning home to seek further career-saving medical help.
Flintoff has simply failed to get over his hernia operation as expected and
is now said to be out until the fourth Test. There was no problem about
Jones’ rib, but then he suffered that horrendous knee injury on day one at
Brisbane and is out for the rest of the tour and into the foreseeable
future.Add to that casualty list the shoulder scare concerning Marcus Trescothick,
the shin splints suffered by Steve Harmison, and a bout of concussion, the
bruised hip that makes John Crawley doubtful for Adelaide, and the fractured
wrist sustained by Ashley Giles, and it is no wonder that the England
dressing room resembles a casualty clearing station. Of the 16 names
announced by the selectors on 10th September, only six have not featured in
medical bulletins.Hussain has criticised some of the medical advice that was furnished before
the tour started, but coach Duncan Fletcher has been philosophical about it."Medical advice isn’t a perfect science so it’s difficult," he admitted.
"Some of the advice we’ve been given has been pretty close but everybody’s
got to get involved in this and the players have to make sure they carry out
the procedures given to them."In any team you have certain people who look after their own fitness
problems and there are other people who need just a little bit more
guidance."Vaughan was spot on and we realised that Gough was a risk and Flintoff
would be ready about a week before the Test, but it’s not a perfect science
and suddenly he was probably about a week too late."Talking about the situation at the end of the first Test, Fletcher pointed
to the appointment of a specialised medical officer for English cricket as
being a step in the right direction."Once he is appointed that will centralise everything which is very
important. At the moment I believe our physiotherapists are being treated
like doctors and they’re not medical people at all."It will be a huge advantage once that Academy is set up at Loughborough
because we’ll be able to send guys along there while we’re away on tour and
we’ll have one central place where people can take control of the
situation."However, writing in the Sunday Telegraph, former England captain Michael
Atherton was rather more scathing about the current medical back-up."For some time I have felt that the medical side of England’s cricket is
more amateurish than it might be, lagging behind the increasingly
professional set-up as a whole,” Atherton wrote. “Flintoff’s case clearly
illustrates the
point."Atherton then pointed out that Flintoff should not only have missed the
Headingley Test against India to have the operation as soon as possible, but
that he was not given proper rehabilitation advice."After the Headingley Test, Ian MacLennan, a highly regarded groin and
hernia specialist in Manchester, operated on Flintoff. For the first few
days after that he was given some gentle rehabilitation exercises, but there
was little communication between the England and Wales Cricket Board and the
player, who, after the initial exercises, had no idea of the more strict,
day-to-day rehabilitation he should have been undertaking. In the following
fortnight Flintoff saw the ECB medical staff only once, during the last Test
at The Oval, to have his stitches removed."Atherton continues: "At the end of the season, with England off to the
Champions’
Trophy in Sri Lanka, Dean Conway, the England physiotherapist, rang
Lancashire to ask them to take charge of Flintoff’s rehabilitation.
Lancashire were playing at Canterbury and Taunton and Flintoff remained in
Manchester, when his rehabilitation finally got under way. After six days
Flintoff was taken out of Lancashire’s care and instructed to go to
Lilleshall for two-and-a-half weeks. Initially he was told that he was not
to be booked in and he would be expected to drive there and back each day,
although eventually common sense prevailed and a room was found. From this
point until arriving in Perth, Flintoff did not see anybody from the ECB."It is not suggested for a minute that any individual is to blame for this
sorry state of affairs. All concerned have strained every sinew of their
being to do a good job for England, but somewhere along the way the system
has failed and needs attention. Perhaps the appointment of the medical
officer will achieve that, as Fletcher has suggested.That is all history. What matters now is that England manage to restore some
pride and make the most of what they have available. Whatever the result, a
battling performance in which team and individuals do themselves justice
would
go a long way towards bolstering credibility. And a little bit of luck would
not go amiss.As for the Australians, they must be really worried. Consider the dilemma
that is occupying them even once they get the Gillespie situation sorted
out. How do they resolve the problem of getting Martin Love – the man who
averages 451 in two innings against the tourists – into the Test side. No
wonder their selectors have furrowed brows.
