DEREK PRINGLE
How Essex are proving there no skills gap
It is 25 years since Essex sat atop the County Championship table surveying the rest of the field and I reckon that they are enjoying the view. Freshly promoted this season, Ryan ten Doeschate’s team are playing with verve and determination, giving lie to the old saw that there is a skills gap the size of Wales between the first and second divisions.
The season still has a long way to run (another seven matches for most counties), so this piece, from an old Essex player, could be tempting fate. But they appear to have grasped the first rule of survival in Division One – draw by all means but don’t lose, defeat having yet to befall them over their first five matches.
That is the biggest shift in mindset from the times when I played for Essex and the county won five Championships.
Back then a draw got you as many points as a loss (none) and with two bold captains in Keith Fetcher and Graham Gooch, we tended to go all out for the win and hang the consequences, even against our closest rivals.
Today teams have to be more nuanced in their approach, though, with all matches now over four days, there is time for that.
Still, Essex have come close to losing this season, against Lancashire and Middlesex, but have shown admirable resilience, always a good trait for the newly-promoted. That they will not roll over easily helps build team spirit while simultaneously telling the opposition that they are in for a fight.
More important, though, is that they have won when the opportunity has presented itself, as it did against Somerset and Hampshire, two teams used to life among the top dogs.
On both occasions, Essex’s bowling, thought to be a potential weakness when compared to their batting, excelled, though in the case of the Hampshire game it needed two fine hundreds on a sporty pitch, from Alastair Cook and Tom Westley, to apply scoreboard pressure.
Cook’s presence, due to him playing just one format for England these days, has been a boon. England’s Test captain has scarcely played for Essex since making his international debut 11 years ago. But like his mentor Graham Gooch, he feels great affinity for the county and takes enormous pride in performing well for them.
So far, the runs have flowed from his bat – 373 at 62 in the Championship and 503 at 71.8 in the Royal London Cup.
With the Test series against South Africa not starting until July 6, Cook will be available for at least two more Championship games, possibly three providing England don’t have a bonding camp in Borneo or some such place.
He will be keen to make his remaining time count but in many ways his true value has already revealed itself by showing the other Essex players just what it takes to be a top-class performer with some, like Dan Lawrence, already reaping the benefits.
Modern cricket teams are big on strategy and at the start of this season Essex’s plan was to find a way to avoid sliding back down into Division Two, something that had occurred on the two previous occasions they had been promoted.
But at what point do you cast aside those ambitions and reach for something higher, especially now that Essex have shown themselves, as much as anyone, that they have the skill and gumption to cope among the elite?
To stay up, the county certainly went shopping in the off-season, with a view to strengthening their bowling.
The team that was promoted in 2016 lost two stalwarts in Graham Napier and David Masters, due to retirement, so stocks were replenished by signing Pakistan’s Mohammad Amir, two New Zealand pace bowlers in Neil Wagner and Matt Quinn and a South Africa-born spinning all-rounder, Simon Harmer. Quinn and Harmer both play as Kolpaks.
Amir could not start the season due to international commitments, so Wagner has filled in with his unflagging enthusiasm for life and the bouncer.
His ability to rough batsmen up might go when the more cerebral Amir takes over from him at the end of June, but there is little doubt that his aggression at one end has helped Jamie Porter, with his accurate seam and swing, pick wickets up at the other.
Essex have benefitted from unflagging seam bowlers before, most notably John Lever and Neil Foster. Porter, who has so
Amir could not start the season due to international commitments so Wagner has filled in with his unflagging enthusiasm for life and the bouncer
far taken 25 Championship wickets over the five matches, looks like he will join that illustrious line though supporters will hope his fitness is more akin to that of Lever than Foster, who suffered terrible knee trouble.
Although Aaron Beard and Paul Walter await as able reserves, you feel that the main bowlers will need to stay fit if the club are to maintain their threat of actually winning the title.
Overseas players can be something of an unknown quantity when they come into county cricket.
International schedules are so intense now that they are unlikely to arrive fresh and raring to go, so motivation can be a problem.
Amir is a more talented bowler than Wagner, whose enthusiasm has been infectious, but will he be better for Essex?
Their best way to ensure that they get the best out of him is to make sure they are still in the mix when he arrives, a County Championship title still carrying clout even on the most garlanded CV.
Leadership will be important to what happens next, with Ten Doeschate and coach Chris Silverwood crucial to maintaining a high pitch in the team’s performance.
So far, Ten Doeschate has been excellent in rousing the players and getting the best out of them but not so sharp regarding tactics, though those skills are not the game-changers they were when matches were played over three days.
Hopefully, he will improve enough in that regard to nick a couple of close games as the season goes on.
For, as Middlesex showed us last year, six wins is enough to clinch the Championship and Essex, with two wins in the bag, are a third of the way there.