Strauss, to be part of a daily calamity where the only consolation was his not having to defend it.
Strauss's batting was slightly dispirited throughout that misbegotten sojourn, even a little disoriented. He perished hooking twice in Brisbane, which smacked of someone trying to make a point before it was quite clear in their own mind. Thereafter, he seemed almost astrologically cursed by poor decisions, and his average shrivelled to less than 25.
Memory of those travails has stuck. In a review of the English batting published in last week's Sydney Morning Herald, Stuart Clark, four years ago Australia's leading bowler, was dismissive of Strauss, rating him the least effective of the team's top seven. 'He hooks up,' said Clark, undoubtedly casting his mind back to the Gabba, 'and when playing forward his front foot goes straight down the wicket rather than to the line of the ball.'
Yet that method can't be said to have served Strauss badly. At his best, he is one of those players the sages routinely describe as 'well organised', as though batting was something to be learned from the MCC Coaching Filofax, and averages calculated by reference to the Dewey Decimal System. What it essentially means is that a cricketer has rationalised his game to within familiar and manageable limits, which in Strauss's case is verifiably true. He moves early then holds still, letting the ball come; he concentrates on scoring square of the wicket and off the pads; his strike rate hardly deviates from between the mid-40s and low-50s.
His organisation, in fact, is broader than technical. His economics degree at Durham University might have been a 2:1, but Strauss credits it with his unusual self-directedness: 'Having to revise for exams on my own enabled me to work on cricket without someone standing over me.' On the recommendation of his Australian-born ECB Academy coach Rod Marsh, he has for nearly a decade kept a detailed cricket diary. On meeting Alan Chambers five years ago, he was powerfully impressed by one of the polar explorer's aphorisms: 'Never put your body in a place your mind hasn't been first.'
So where his opposite number Ricky Ponting stakes the crease out briskly and busily, as though he can't wait to sort the bowling out and collar the contest, Strauss usually looks like a man settled into a comfortable routine, wearing the calm mask between deliveries of someone waiting in a queue â once again, a very English characteristic. You could arrive at a ground and not be sure whether Strauss had just taken guard or been batting a couple of sessions; you could meet him afterwards, it is said, and not be clear if he'd made a hundred or nought. Interestingly, in diary extracts published in his Testing Times (2009), he emerged as disarmingly susceptible to doubt, particularly during the eighteen months he went without an international hundred. But watching him from afar, you would not guess it; like one of those animals capable of controlling their heart rate and respiration, he appears to move only when he has to, and always with an end in mind.
As for that residual antipodeanism, Strauss should probably embrace it. Australians are fond of claiming success, and distancing themselves from failure. The story is told of the great racehorse Phar Lap, trained in Australia but foaled in New Zealand, that newspaper posters were prepared before its first American start covering both eventualities: 'Australian horse wins' and 'New Zealand horse loses'. The better Strauss does, the likelier the media is to stress his Aussie links; it will be in failure that he becomes just another lousy Pom.
11 NOVEMBER 2010
AUSTRALIA'S CAPTAINCY
Men in a Muddle
Australian cricket is sibilant with whispers. A newspaper article last week spoke darkly of the dissatisfaction of comrades with Michael Clarke and a push to promote Marcus North as a successor to Ricky Ponting, with Michael Hussey reportedly agitated at comments of Clarke's about the preference
Strauss's batting was slightly dispirited throughout that misbegotten sojourn, even a little disoriented. He perished hooking twice in Brisbane, which smacked of someone trying to make a point before it was quite clear in their own mind. Thereafter, he seemed almost astrologically cursed by poor decisions, and his average shrivelled to less than 25.
Memory of those travails has stuck. In a review of the English batting published in last week's Sydney Morning Herald, Stuart Clark, four years ago Australia's leading bowler, was dismissive of Strauss, rating him the least effective of the team's top seven. 'He hooks up,' said Clark, undoubtedly casting his mind back to the Gabba, 'and when playing forward his front foot goes straight down the wicket rather than to the line of the ball.'
Yet that method can't be said to have served Strauss badly. At his best, he is one of those players the sages routinely describe as 'well organised', as though batting was something to be learned from the MCC Coaching Filofax, and averages calculated by reference to the Dewey Decimal System. What it essentially means is that a cricketer has rationalised his game to within familiar and manageable limits, which in Strauss's case is verifiably true. He moves early then holds still, letting the ball come; he concentrates on scoring square of the wicket and off the pads; his strike rate hardly deviates from between the mid-40s and low-50s.
His organisation, in fact, is broader than technical. His economics degree at Durham University might have been a 2:1, but Strauss credits it with his unusual self-directedness: 'Having to revise for exams on my own enabled me to work on cricket without someone standing over me.' On the recommendation of his Australian-born ECB Academy coach Rod Marsh, he has for nearly a decade kept a detailed cricket diary. On meeting Alan Chambers five years ago, he was powerfully impressed by one of the polar explorer's aphorisms: 'Never put your body in a place your mind hasn't been first.'
So where his opposite number Ricky Ponting stakes the crease out briskly and busily, as though he can't wait to sort the bowling out and collar the contest, Strauss usually looks like a man settled into a comfortable routine, wearing the calm mask between deliveries of someone waiting in a queue â once again, a very English characteristic. You could arrive at a ground and not be sure whether Strauss had just taken guard or been batting a couple of sessions; you could meet him afterwards, it is said, and not be clear if he'd made a hundred or nought. Interestingly, in diary extracts published in his Testing Times (2009), he emerged as disarmingly susceptible to doubt, particularly during the eighteen months he went without an international hundred. But watching him from afar, you would not guess it; like one of those animals capable of controlling their heart rate and respiration, he appears to move only when he has to, and always with an end in mind.
As for that residual antipodeanism, Strauss should probably embrace it. Australians are fond of claiming success, and distancing themselves from failure. The story is told of the great racehorse Phar Lap, trained in Australia but foaled in New Zealand, that newspaper posters were prepared before its first American start covering both eventualities: 'Australian horse wins' and 'New Zealand horse loses'. The better Strauss does, the likelier the media is to stress his Aussie links; it will be in failure that he becomes just another lousy Pom.
11 NOVEMBER 2010
AUSTRALIA'S CAPTAINCY
Men in a Muddle
Australian cricket is sibilant with whispers. A newspaper article last week spoke darkly of the dissatisfaction of comrades with Michael Clarke and a push to promote Marcus North as a successor to Ricky Ponting, with Michael Hussey reportedly agitated at comments of Clarke's about the preference
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