The players should learn from the chastening results and I am confident that under Gatting’s watchful eye as coach we will practise hard on the basics while always looking to modernise.That is for next summer. I am taking it day to day and trying to play as well as I can.”I have no problems with my movement, it’s just a case of re-acquainting myself with the bat, making sure the body shape is right when I am playing the shots and getting the weight transfer right and doing that over and over again until it’s perfect.”In a way this is the re-start to my career because there is no definite place for me in the side to start with, but I have a track record and I’m pretty confident even if I wasn’t scoring runs that I could go out there and score.”Meanwhile, the other England tour party, Adam Hollioake’s boys in Bangladesh, start their bid for the Wills Cup against South Africa today. The Test series against South Africa was physically and mentally draining (though the victory, of course, compensated hugely). Unfortunately, I was already fairly low, suffering regularly from bouts of tonsillitis which ended with a quick removal job.On top of that the season for Middlesex was disappointing. Having received a frantic phone call I had to wait to the last minute to sign some papers before stepping on to the Emirates aircraft.
Touring can be great fun but the travelling can also be gruelling. This trip to Australia totalled nearly 30 hours, allowing us to become acquainted with the transit lounges in Dubai and Singapore. There were moments of light relief not least when an innocent air hostess asked Graham Gooch (the highest Test run-scorer for England) for his autograph thinking he was Mike Gatting (the largest appetite in the northern hemisphere).This is a time for looking forward and I was happy indeed to see the back of the summer.
Moving house can be a fairly stressful experience and my wife and I were expecting to exchange contracts on the day the team were leaving. I have always wanted to experience this tour and I was delighted to be picked. Not that I entirely expected to start the bid to reclaim the greatest prize in the sport by nearly missing the flight at Heathrow. Make no mistake, winning them is the biggest and most exciting challenge for any English player. Success in an Ashes series must be the ultimate high in cricket and to achieve it in Australia would be extremely sweet. I mean I knew they usually tried to pick a young fast bowler but there were several higher up the queue than me In sport funny things happen I’ve got my chance.” Realistically, only a slender one If Tudor plays a Test, Plan A has been thrown on the barbie. “But,” Gilbert adds, “he should come back with a better understanding of what it takes to be an international cricketer and if he stays fit, the sky’s the limit.”.
By the time Tudor was ready again, the season was over and Surrey had fallen at the last. Tudor was resigning himself to a winter in the gym and, if lucky, an A tour to South Africa when the England captain rang.”I didn’t think I had any chance at all,” he said “My injury came just at the wrong time. “We tended to say to him ‘Go and bowl four overs flat out’ and let him get on with it,” said Nad Shaheed. “He’s sometimes a bit too nice, he doesn’t bowl enough bouncers, but if he gets his outswinger going he can be a real handful.”An early burst of wickets – 29 at an average of 25 – augured well for a first full season until a shin injury in the second over of the Championship match against Sussex meant a further stretch on the treatment table. But I hate to see technique rammed down a kid’s throat.” Adam Hollioake, the Surrey captain, adopted much the same philosophy in his handling of Tudor last season. “At the point of delivery he was falling away on to his left side and his rib cage was taking a terrible pounding, so I tried to get him more upright. Tudor’s school in Fulham barely played cricket and though his reputation attracted coaches from Lord’s and The Oval, the real truth is that Tudor succeeded despite rather than because of the system.
Successive coaches at least had the common sense to leave a naturally athletic action well alone.”The only technical adjustments I made with him were to avoid serious injury,” Gilbert said. More influential role models were Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, and before them the quartet of Marshall, Holding, Roberts and Croft.Like Dean Headley, Tudor had a West Indian father who maintained his allegiance to the Caribbean, while quietly admiring the progress of his son in his adopted homeland. For all the good work done in inner city schools, Daryll Tudor can claim much of the credit for warding off the rival attractions of football and basketball. “But it wasn’t until I was driving down here that I thought ‘Hey, this is really happening’. I mean Atherton, Stewart, guys like that, I used to watch them on the television when I was growing up.” Neither would care to be reminded of the age difference When Atherton made his Test debut, Tudor was 12. Tudor sat, self-conscious in his dark blue tracksuit, his family gathered around, wondering how he would fit a few extra items into his suitcase.”It was a thrill every time a letter came through the post with information about dress code or insurance or something,” he said.
There was Alec Stewart, chipper in his England tracksuit, and Mike Atherton, in jeans and baggy sweater; seasoned tourists heading off for a final tilt at the Ashes. “A make or break tour, quite literally”, as Gilbert terms it.As the England team mingled with the briefcased executives amid the potted palms of the Excelsior Hotel near Heathrow last week, Tudor was barely able to contain his wonder. Alex is the same.”Tudor is the only bowler to whom Nad Shaheed, his Surrey colleague, pays the courtesy of attaching a grille to his helmet in the indoor nets. Mark Butcher is another who will testify to Tudor’s ferocity.
