England's top six... now or then?

Something that has been festering in the back of my mind for a while, and that has been exacerbated by our flimsiness in the Ashes, is the question of just how much better our top six are now than they were a decade ago? Call it rose-tinted specs, but I can't help thinking that a top-six including Atherton, Hussain, Thorpe, Stewart plus any two from: Butcher, Hick, Ramprakash, Crawley etc, would be a match for the current side. Granted- Hick, Ramps and Crawley never really did it for England, but all, at one stage or another, looked like they could have gone on to be the real deal. Under Fletcher that may have been different, but that is digressing.
The point I am making, is that our current top-order are flattered horribly by their averages. In this i am not narrowing the argument to games against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, as at the present moment all the bowling attacks around the world are significantly weaker than they were in the 90s. Mike Atherton for example was made to work particularly hard for his runs, opening the batting against attacks such as Pollock and Donald of South Africa, Ambrose and Walsh from the Windies, Waqar and Wasim from Pak, McGrath and Gillespie from Oz, Vaas from SL and Srinath and Prasad from India, not to mention Cairns and Nash from NZ. To these add Kumble, Warne and Murali.
Looking around the World now, where are the quality pace bowlers? McGrath is all but gone, Lee is inconsistent, Shoaib and Bond never fit, Harmison gutless, Malinga, Jerome Taylor, Edwards and Steyn quick but raw. Sreesanth looks promising, while Pollock, Vaas, Stuart Clark and Hoggard perform with consistent success at a lesser pace. Ntini's excellence only serves to emphasise just how few fast bowlers there are in their prime today. As a result, runs must surely be considered cheaper now, even if there is more quality spin to contend with. How that top-order of a decade ago would fare now we'll never know, but it is worth considering that Strauss and co may not be quite the force we thought, and questioning whether we would have felt comfortable with Flintoff batting at six against any of the above attacks? This argument could run and run, the statistics have not even been touched here,but for the good of the game let us hope that the missing pacemen reappear soon.

Calm down Nasser....

Mike Atherton's interview with Steve Harmison after the close of the third day's play at Sydney has thrown up some interesting reactions..... Harmison's apathetic responses to some probing questions from Athers were obviously extremely disappointing, if, sadly, unsurprising. The difference in the style of reactions to this from two former England captains- Athers himself, and Nasser Hussain, has been particularly interesting. Hussain commentates as he captained: full of passion. "Ask the coach? Steve, how long have you been around? Ask yourself mate," he bellowed at the camera, eyes bulging, forehead gleaming. What he said was true, no doubt. It made for good television too, but still left one feeling slightly uneasy. The frenetic manner in which he voiced his thoughts, as though he were still central to the action, betrays how difficult he has found it to give himself a distance from the game that is obviously still his life. Athers, on the other hand, has broadened his perspective, writing a book on gambling among other projects, and this separation from the game has clearly benefitted his writing. His response to Harmison's words came a few days later in the Sunday Telegraph, and were delivered with a cool, considered, clinical touch which gave them far more clout than Hussain's tirade. Atherton is a Cambridge graduate and a good writer, but if Hussain is to prove himself worth listening to, he must learn some of the detachment that has become a hallmark of his former team-mate. If not, he will end up like another former England captain, Ian Botham. Botham's eagerness to offer up sensational opinions on just about everything illustrates how great players do not always make great analysts, and explains why people stopped paying attention to him a long time ago.