Hollioake’s journeymen put England’s one-day side, briefly, on top of world
Richard Edwards looks back to a tournament when our serial one-day flops turned their fortunes around in Sharjah
“I t was probably the most fun I’ve ever had playing cricket – in some ways it was like going on a club tour,” Adam Hollioake tells The Cricket Paper from his home in Brisbane.
England’s former one-day captain is reflecting on a rare one-day success, achieved 20 years ago in a tournament in Sharjah that could, and probably should, have dictated the direction taken by the country’s 50-over side for the decade that followed.
Hollioake’s appointment for the Akai-Singer Trophy in the winter of 1997 represented a departure for England in almost every sense, with the decision to hand the reins to the Surrey man flying in the face of the traditional safety first approach that had come to typify English cricket throughout the Nineties.
The man himself, though, believes his crowning as captain had more to do with necessity rather than any significant change in mindset.
“It was a funny one,” says Hollioake. “People talk about it being a new era but from memory we had had a very long summer against Australia with six Tests and three one-day internationals. It had been a full-on schedule and as soon as Sharjah finished, the boys went out on a four-month tour of the West Indies.
“The Sharjah tournament was really just seen as an excuse to rest key players. We went out there without (Darren) Gough, (Andy) Caddick, (Mike) Atherton and a few others. I think the selectors thought the tournament would give them a chance to look at a few allrounders and basically have a bit of a play around with the side.
“I don’t think they thought it was going to go as well as it did and I don’t think we did either. We went out there thinking we were going to get smashed. Anyone who thought differently was probably lying to themselves.”
Hollioake has a point. England’s bowling attack for the opening match of that tournament involving India, Pakistan and the West Indies, was Dean Headley and Dougie Brown, with Mark Ealham coming on first change.
It was hardly the kind of bowling attack to strike fear into the likes of Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar and Shahid Afridi. It might have had a slightly popgun feel to it but England fired almost from the off, beating India by seven runs in an opening night thriller, thanks mainly to a century from Alec Stewart and an unlikely four wicket haul for the unheralded Matthew Fleming.
Indeed, as the tournament progressed, it was England’s team of relative unknowns who began to look absolute world beaters.
“We barely knew each other so I’m pretty sure no-one else knew anything about us,” jokes Hollioake. “All these guys were successful cricketers in county cricket and they were all smart cricketers, too. They weren’t winging the ball down at 90mph or compiling Test match double centuries but they were experienced county players who knew what to do in certain conditions.”
As the tournament progressed, England’s largely journeymen team, under the inspirational leadership of Hollioake, began to believe. Fleming had been a last-minute addition to the squad after Gough withdrew on the eve of the tournament. His team-mates, though, immediately made the then 33year-old feel at home, serenading him with ‘Consider yourself one of the family’ from Oliver! as the former army sergeant began his first tour of international duty.
After four wickets on his debut, Fleming was already eyeing a place in England’s 1999 World Cup squad.
“The nucleus of the World Cup squad is here,” he said after his decisive contribution to England’s opening win against India. “Some will fall by the wayside but others will come on.”
Another narrow win over the West Indies in the second match of the campaign as good as qualified England for the final. A fifty for Graham Thorpe coupled with the steadying hand of Ealham eventually seeing England home by four wickets.
“People were really trying to work out what we were all about,” says Hollioake. “The teams we were up against in Sharjah just didn’t really know to make of us.You have to remember that there wasn’t the volume of cricket on television back then so not many people had seen Matthew Fleming play, or Mark Ealham play or even myself. They didn’t really have a chance to formulate a plan against us.”
With few journalists following the team’s progress on the ground in the UAE, Hollioake probably enjoyed one of the most pressure-free introductions to the England captaincy in history. And he was having a ball. “They were a great bunch of guys – it was probably some of the most fun cricket I had ever played,” he says. “I had never been on an England tour before, I had only played at home for England so I had no expectations really. I’m a pretty laidback guy so I just turned around and said, ‘okay, let’s just try and play this way’. We just enjoyed it. We just had fun.
“There were no live TV cameras out there and very little media representation. I think I gave most of my post-match press conferences in the corridor outside the changing room. When I captained the side in the West Indies a few months later I would walk in and find about 40 journalists in the room and cameras pointing at me from every angle. Sharjah was just something completely different.”
The major departure from most
I don’t think the selectors thought it was going to go as well as it did and I don’t think we did either. We thought we’d get smashed