The Ashes of 2009 will come at some stage to a hinge point or crunch moment—but not, one fancies, at Edgbaston, venue of the Third Test. Rain fell in such copious quantities this morning that one half expected to see an ark bobbing on the horizon. ‘Sunny intervals’ are forecast for Friday; otherwise, the slate-coloured skies are tipped to persist.
Persistence is the order of the day for Australia, and England too. For all the Australian agonies about Mitchell Johnson, he will almost certainly play. The selectors will hope that his bowling is more like his last three overs at North-ants, when he was briefly quick and threatening, than his first pedestrian fifteen, when he was manhandled by second-division county batsmen. While Stuart Clark was the pick of the bowlers in that game, Peter Siddle enjoys his captain’s confidence; Shane Watson didn’t accomplish enough with the ball to sneak past Marcus North.
England have made a solitary forced change, local boy Ian Bell for decidedly non-local boy Kevin Pietersen, which again is an act of perseverance, Bell having been the reserve batsman in the first two Tests after four years of almost uninterrupted international tenure. Harnessing, like Johnson, considerable gifts to a diffident personality, he has never quite fulfilled the hopes harboured for him by Rodney Marsh during his years running England’s cricket academy.
This subtle conservatism in modern selection is an outcome of the long period of Australian dominance in the Ashes, Australia’s success being identified with long-term continuity of composition, and England striving to find a formula to emulate them. It’s actually debatable how much Australian success did owe to continuity; it’s arguable continuity arose from success. But it’s striking how often these days the status quo is favoured, with an airy ‘better-the-devil-you-know’ justification.
What’s seldom considered is how such a routine can contribute to the demoralisation of those excluded. For Clark, in particular, this tour must be becoming a purgatory. Andrew McDonald, who made a fair fist of his first few Tests against South Africa earlier this year, suddenly finds himself waiting for others to be injured. Brett Lee, already injured, must feel like he has donated his body to medical science— while still alive.
Where touring teams are concerned, the situation is compounded by the thinness of non-international cricket. Twenty years ago, Tim May could come to England, not play a Test, and still bowl 288 overs in ten first-class games. This year, Australia having played with XII at Hove and having scheduled a two-day game at Canterbury, there will be exactly seven days of first-class cricket outside the Test matches. Another Rodney Marsh, the footballer, put it well: ‘The manager only has to keep eleven blokes happy—the eleven blokes in the Second XI. The First XI are happy because they are in the First XI.’
At Edgbaston, mind you, the players may not see a great deal more action than the non-players. The Blotters—trucks on absorbent rollers designed to soak up surface water—spent today criss-crossing an outfield full of puddles, a complicated choreography that looked decidedly well rehearsed. Not for Warwickshire County Cricket Club the state-of-the-art drainage systems at Sophia Gardens and Lord’s that allowed for play so soon after quite heavy precipitation. This ground is notorious for draining slowly, and had been drenched for days even before today’s downpour.
Four years ago, Edgbaston was the venue for one of the best Test matches of modern times, its terraces seething with patriotic exhibitionism, their canopies intensifying the noise. The canopies now look useful for other reasons.