Quote: sally cinnamon "Ah those names bring back memories...
Kim Barnett - wasn't he the guy who used to shuffle around the crease while the bowler was running in, then take a step back to leg before playing his shot....not quite sure he had a watertight technique for Test cricket!
David Capel - possibly the first of the "new Ian Bothams"...to be followed by Chris Lewis, Dermot Reeve and Dominic Cork
Tim Curtis - decent county pro but not top class. Reminds me of Martyn Moxon who also played in that series.
Alan Igglesden - actually he was a good bowler IMO, him and Newport could swing it. Newport was similar to Martin Bicknell in that he wasn't that quick. Igglesden was a bit faster, I reckon he could have been like Jimmy Anderson today. Unfortunately he was injured a lot.
John Stephenson - I cannot believe he played Test cricket, always thought he was rank average even at county level.
On the plus side a few players did emerge out of the gloom that summer - Robin Smith, Jack Russell and Angus Fraser, all of whom were good Test players. In fact I remember the tour to the W Indies which followed, when we were supposed to get smashed 5-0 by the W Indies in their glory days, as being one which was quite successful for us and we took it to them. For the next few years under Graham Gooch we were quite good, we got to the World Cup Final in Australia.'"
Fair assessment of those players, Sally......Though you didn't mention the debut of a certain FEC amongst your emerging future stars!!
What was startling back then, was how fickle and how amateur the whole selection process was....Players were picked and discarded at a whim. Many a promising career was ruined by poor selection policy.
I often think how successful somebody like Neil Fairbrother could have been at Test level if they had only been around today when, at last, we seem to pick the side in a well thought out manner??.....Fairbrother was similar to somebody like Bell or Collingwood, in that he undoubtedly had talent but needed nurturing correctly and not just expected to produce from day one. Instead, I seem to remember him being selected for his debut against a formidable Pakistan attack, being sent in to bat in gloomy conditions, with about 2 overs left of the day, getting an almost predictable duck and then being dropped on the back of it!!
I'm not saying he would have been a world beater, but for any player, what sort of message are they getting when something like that happens??.....Its quite funny that some people today complain of players getting too long of a stay in the side, but its no coincidence that since we have more consistancy in our selection, so our results have dramatically improved since the days of 20 odd players being used in a series!!
