Cricket: England still lack leadership

If England win this inaugural First Test against Zimbabwe, as now seems likely, the public verdict from the loquacious and ever-optimistic England management will be that with the odd exception everything went to plan, and the first major obstacle of the tour has been successfully negotiated.

Certainly, there have been several good points. Nasser Hussain and John Crawley organised the excellent fightback when the batting was on the point of being seriously disorganised by Paul Strang's leg-spin.

Both scored admirable hundreds and even if they never completely dominated an attack which, apart from Strang, was distinctly mediocre, they brought an authority to the batting which no one else managed.

But first came that little Welsh battler, Robert Croft. His bowling in Zimbabwe's first innings pulled things back after some atrocious seam bowling. Croft can never have bowled much better. He attacked the batsman all the time as he went through his excellent repertoire. He found a little turn even on the first day when he teased with his clever variations of flight and pace and caused all the batsmen problems with the ball which goes on with the arm. Then in the second innings, when the pitch was more worn, he bowled beautifully, especially to the left-handers who had the ball turning away out of the rough.

By batting on as long as England did, they effectively condemned Zimbabwe to batting out the last innings of the match on a wearing pitch. When they won the toss and batted Zimbabwe must have thought they had committed England to the final innings. Poor support bowling was the reason they did not. Although it looked as if Hussain and Crawley were going too slowly on the fourth morning, one must give credit to the management for reading the pitch correctly, although it could have been just that they had a piece of luck.

The batsmen's object on the fourth day was clearly to occupy the crease for as long as possible in the hope that the spinners would take advantage of the pitch on the last day and a half.

All this must not be allowed to draw a curtain over England's bowling on the first morning and then again on the second. Darren Gough and Alan Mullally showed little or no control and wasted both new balls while Chris Silverwood was nervous and bowled too short, although by the end he had recovered and still looks an excellent prospect.

If and when victory comes it will be a great relief to England, who have played some most unconvincing cricket in Zimbabwe and hardly deserve to win.

This may have been the first major obstacle of the winter but even if it has been successfully cleared, it has done nothing whatever to ensure that the side will face Australia with any greater confidence next summer.

I wish Mike Atherton was a more convincing and forthright captain with the inspiration to bring the best out of his players, which he has consistently failed to do since first captaining England 36 Test matches ago. He has the support of his team, but he shows all too little imagination.

It is interesting that for the first time since he took over there are now some alternatives for the job. Hussain and Nick Knight are both contenders as Adam Hollioake must soon be after his triumph with the A side in Australia. Until someone else takes over with a new, more direct style of captaincy which changes the direction of the side, England's cricket will continue to be involved more with damage limitation than the headlong pursuit of victory.