Elgar and Cook vital for Proteas
THE vagaries of touring England are such that teams need a month to prepare just for the first test, let alone a series.
This rings true for opening batsmen, who often face the Dukes ball that does weird things in the hands of skilled practitioners like James Anderson (467 wickets) and Stuart Broad (368), who hardly play in coloured clothing for England.
Stephen Cook (Durham) and Dean Elgar (Somerset) may also find their county stays to be lucrative but with Anderson (Lancashire) and Broad (Nottinghamshire) also campaigning in the first division, early acclimatisation is important.
Former Somerset director of cricket and Highveld Lions coach Dave Nosworthy said South Africa’s test opening pair have timed their moves to perfection, especially since they do not play limited-overs cricket for the national team.
“When I brought Dean across to Somerset for a few matches in 2013 as a replacement for Alviro Petersen, he loved the experience and I think Stephen will also enjoy it, especially exploring their own games on different surfaces. After all, there are different weather conditions and pitch conditions they’ll encounter,” Nosworthy said.
“Taunton is batting friendly and different from what’s expected in Durham in the northeast where you’re fortunate to get in a full day’s play in April.
“Guys often score a lot of runs there and I think Dean will enjoy his time there. The weather in the southeast is far better than in the north. When Dean was at Somerset, he didn’t open the batting but this time he’ll be playing alongside Marcus Trescothick.”
Because of financial problems, Durham were relegated to division two and lost two valuable batsmen in Mark Stoneman and Scott Borthwick to Surrey.
Cook may not come across England’s premier pacemen but there is an opportunity for him to adapt to different conditions.
Having coached Cook at the Lions, Nosworthy said the 33-year-old’s technique may not suffer as much as people think but also realised the foresight of Cricket SA allowing the openers to play in England ahead of the two-and-a-half month tour.
South Africa arrive in England in May ahead of an extended limitedovers leg because of June’s twoweek ICC Champions Trophy with the four-test series starting on July 6 at Lords.
“That’s the hope and it should be one of the reasons they’re going across is to prepare for English conditions and get an understanding of how things operate there and get a feel of what some of their game plans will be,” Nosworthy said.
“If they do happen to come across some of those England test seamers in county matches, it’s only going to be that much better for them.
“The two aren’t involved in the limited-overs stuff and they were going to have downtime before the test series.”