NEIL MANTHORP: Sometimes things can be done differently

On Thursday last week, in England’s County Championship, Worcestershire were asked to follow on against a beleaguered Yorkshire at their charming, Cathedral bedecked home ground at New Road.

Yorkshire had posted 407 on the back of 135 from the splendidly named Finlay Bean (who will almost certainly open the batting for England in the years to come) to give themselves a decent chance of a much-needed victory and move away from the bottom of Division Two.

Worcestershire were then bundled out for 242 to concede a chastening deficit of 165 and were thus asked to have another go. So out strolled the openers, Adam Finch and Ben Gibbon, to have another crack. Just 10 minutes after they’d left the field of play for the change of innings.

Earlier in the day Worcestershire had slumped to 179/9 when No 10, Finch, was joined by No 11, Gibbon. The ball had turned soft and Yorkshire’s attack, preparing for the follow-on innings, took their collective foot off the accelerator assuming the last wicket would fall quickly.

But the last two batters lasted over a session, almost 36 overs, facing 128 and 103 deliveries respectively, until Finch was eventually dismissed for a stoic 24 leaving Gibbon unbeaten on 41. Worcestershire captain and regular opener, Jake Libby, surmised that the last two faces the toiling Yorky bowlers would want to see when they returned to the field belonged to his tail-enders. So he instructed them to keep their pads on and sent them out to open.

They survived another 75 balls between them, both scoring 15, before Libby came out to bat to ensure the draw. Casual observers and followers of the game might, understandably, call this piece of captaincy an overt example of common sense, but that is a commodity often in short supply in cricket. Just a couple of weeks ago the umpires called for lunch with two runs required in another county game.

There are many hundreds of examples of unusual thinking in the history of the game but they serve only to prove the status quo — which is that history, convention and tradition continue to dictate the majority of first-class matches. It is that element of Test cricket which so annoys the English Test captain, Ben Stokes, and which contributed so much to the rise of “Bazball”.

There is a famous precedent for Libby’s decision in Worcester, but that it is still spoken about today, 86 years later, is evidence of how much things have stayed the same.

In the pivotal New Year Ashes Test at the MCG in 1937, when there were no pitch covers, both Australia and England struggled mightily on a heavily rain-affected surface eking out scores of 200 and 76 respectively in the first innings. But then the weather started to clear and a hot sun appeared — but Australian captain Don Bradman needed time for conditions to change.

So he bought some by sending his own 10 and 11 out to open the innings. Notorious bunnies Bill O’Reilly and Chuck Fleetwood-Smith both made ducks. The Don sent out a couple more of the bowlers before finally appearing at No 7 whereupon he scored 270, still the highest score by a No 7, on a suitably dry and flat surface. The integrity of this obvious but rare example of common sense was questioned at the time, by Englishmen. Australia scored 564 in their second innings and won the match by 365 runs.

Batting orders change all the time, always have done, but at some point the question of “respecting the game” is raised. Recently county champions Surrey sent out a seasoned old bowler to open the batting when just 10 runs were required to win in the fourth innings on the basis that he had never scored the winning runs in a first-class match. He duly did so and, inevitably, there were a few “crusties” who suggested it was disrespectful to the opposition, or the game, or both. What nonsense.

T20 cricket, naturally, has speeded up innovative thinking but the danger of the speed at which 20-over cricket is evolving is that the longer forms could be left behind and still prone to the judgment of acceptability which prevailed many decades ago. Which is not say that the core values of hard work and respect, bedrocks for successful teams, cannot exist alongside a willingness to be creative and do some things differently.

About 15 years ago I suggested that Heino Kuhn could be good enough to play Test cricket as a wicketkeeper/leg-spinner, especially in subcontinental conditions. The suggestion was scoffed away. That just didn’t happen. Kuhn had been keen to continue developing both skills alongside his batting but was told, emphatically, to pick one and stick to it. Perhaps the doubters were right. But there’s nothing wrong with asking the questions.