‘Fourth stump good length — shaping/angling away.” So went one of the plans to Dale Steyn from his coaching team. This one was devised for Grant Elliott, the New Zealand batsman, ahead of the first one-day international (ODI) between the two sides at Centurion last week.
This was one of the recommended “Areas to bowl”. A bouncer was a dot-ball option, though Steyn was warned, “Watch out for upper cuts.” At the death the best option was to bowl “Yorkers angling in” or “Wide slower deliveries”.
At the unarguable level of hindsight, the plan worked. South Africa won. Elliott was dismissed cheaply, though not to Steyn, but to a ball that was around good length, and at that imaginary fourth stump.
Only in the intent that the plan was not for public consumption did the plan not work. It was not delivered to Steyn but accidentally to another guest at the hotel who, naturally, because we live in an age where nothing is private, posted it on social media.
This is a deeper debate, but worth touching upon. The existence of such plans leaves the overriding impression not so much that cricketers are over-coached, but that they are over-controlled.
It is unlikely that such plans demand rigorous adherence. Rather, they probably act as broad guidelines within which a bowler operates to each batsman. And they probably are drawn up in consultation with the bowler.
But it is worth asking whether this chips away at the player’s ability to self-analyse, to come up with solutions to the problems he faces on the field by himself, to adapt to circumstance and situation as he — and not a coaching team — sees fit.
Sport is full of stories of athletes and sides who benefit from meticulous coaching and planning. Equally, there are profound stories of those who shun being mollycoddled and instead rely not only on their talent but their abilities to self-evaluate and strategise.
Within a few years, England have been both stories. They won and lost the Ashes not so much on their players’ actions it seemed, but the remote-controlling of their coaches.
Now they have just won the Ashes with their players working out things for themselves on the field.
In this instance, though, the plan is also superfluous.
The coaches seem to be telling Steyn that bowling good length is a good area to bowl in; also, bouncers and slower balls are not a bad variation to attempt; and at the death, try some yorkers.
In other words, they are not really telling him to do anything that any human with even the slightest interest in cricket might tell him to do.
It is stark, raving common sense ODI bowling in which all bases, including the coaching staff’s backside, is covered.
In some places the plan is as oversold, as CVs tend to be, where the writer thinks of as many different ways as possible of saying the same thing: “yorkers angling in”, “yorkers angling in to the feet”, “yorkers angling in middle and leg stump”, for example, are three unimaginative ways of saying one really obvious thing. Now recall the penultimate-ball six Elliott hit off Steyn in the World Cup semi-final.
The plans for that day never made it to the public but Steyn’s was clearly the wrong option, just short of good length, wide and moving wider. According to this plan, however, it could be interpreted as one of the areas to hit against Elliott. As it was at the death, however, a yorker would also have been wise: such a plan cannot lose.
Pakistan has been an anachronism in most eras so they are not always the best example. But Waqar Younis’s point, made a couple of years ago, about the 1990s side in which he was such a force, remains appealing.
“We were never analytical or scientific. Actually in the 90s, we never did analyse anyone. … We had one plan. Go out there, get a wicket.”
The lack of over-complication is alluring. Pakistan, of course, had the bowlers to execute that kind of plan and, admittedly, something more sophisticated must have been at play on the field.
But Waqar’s point was that players worked it out on the field themselves, especially the best ones, a category into which Steyn easily fits.
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