What makes a batsman?

By A.C De Silva

There was a discussion about fast bowling the other day. It was time now to sit down and list all the qualities needed to be a class batsman at any level of cricket. The difficult part is displaying these qualities during a match when so much depends on you. A class batsman must have natural ability, confidence in that ability. Self-discipline in his stroke-play, courage, the power of concentration, the brain to listen to advice and apply it when necessary and of course, luck.

Without luck, you're struggling. It's true you make your own luck to a certain extent, but some things happen that you just can't control and years later, you look back and realise to luck was with you, that was certainly the case with Graham Gooch.

Graham Gooch was lucky that his father was crazy on cricket, that he taught Graham the basics of batting at a very early age. He drummed the basics into Graham right from the start - forward when the ball's pitched up, back when it's pitched short.

At the start Graham was holding the bat with the left hand at the top and the right hand at the bottom and playing reasonably straight before he was ten- Graham didn't know any different because of his father's good teaching.

Any good batsman of any age and at any level plays forward most of the time.

Graham Gooch says that there are exceptions and that on occasions the bats of all the text bowlers are crooked, but that has to be a fundamental error from the start. A lot of the old players and coaches talk about playing through the V" (i.e. aiming to play between mid-off and mid-on) and he thinks that's good sense, particularly of the start of one's innings. That disciplines the batsman to play straight, so that any late deviation won't take the edge of a crooked bat.

There are some batsmen who contradicts that theory - Viv Richards is one of them Richard seems to play everything through mid-wicket. The bowlers think, "It I bowl straight at his off-stump, and he misses, the bowler will get an lbw, but Viv Richards doesn't often miss: His good eyesight gets him out of trouble and Graham Gooch says that he (Gooch) is of the opinion that Viv may not be the ideal model for the young batsman.

The best text-book player according to Gooch is Barry Richards, absolutely straight, with a beautiful sense of timing who could be watched all day.

One way to help the batsman to play straight is to keep one's head still. If you're moving around all over the place, you won't be able to judge the line very well. Concentrate on looking at bowler as he runs in, look at his arm then looks at the ball.

Confidence in your own ability is also vital; if you feel awkward and tense while batting, you're not doing yourself justice. If you let things worry you while at the crease, you're doing the bowlers a big favour.

Ian Botham's supreme confidence has to be admired - he'll always - attack the bowling whatever the state of the game, because that's his best way of playing.

David Gower is another, he'll go for the half-volley right from the start-he realises that he will get pinned by the critics if he makes hash of it but reckons that style suits him. Gooch says he is in full agreement with Gower. The public want to see the Gowers, the Richards and the Bothams knocking hell out of the bowlers.

Gooch says many people have asked him about 1975, when Gooch bagged a 'pair' in his Test debut at Edgbaston against Australia. That was just one of those things, but the after effects were important. Gooch was dropped after playing badly in the next Test at Lord's and hardly got a run for Essex for the rest of the season. Gooch says that every time he went to the wicket, he got out. He started to think if he was "good enough to play for England, Why he can't get a run? Gooch's confidence was shattered and it showed in his batting, all sorts of doubts started creping into his mind, and he was getting out to ridiculous strokes and deliveries. That 1975 season taught him one thing - not to lose confidence in his ability even though the results say otherwise.

Believe in yourself

Even if you're an orthodox batsman, Gooch's advice is don't change your style just because the runs have dried up. If you've done consistently well with your own methods stick with them.

It's so easy to get your brain cluttered up with theories. A batsman must swift through all the advice he's given, discard what he thinks is rubbish and then try to put into practice what he believes is sound. But if he thinks he knows it all, he's a fool. Gooch says that the read somewhere that Jack Hobbs said on is retirement that he (Hobbs) was still learning things about batting - that from a man who scored 197 first-class centuries!

Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate. Keep drumming that into yourself and you won't go astray, provided the basics are right. A good batsman must have traces of selfishness in him and he must that trail for the good of his team.

One more thing a good batsman needs - the sense to buy good equipment. There's no point in cutting corners for the sake of a few rupees - you need the best you can get because the hands and legs are available. One dodgy Club Cricket track, a batsman can take a hell of battering and many pick up broken figures just because their gloves aren't solid enough.

Thigh pads are essential at all levels because the deliveries gets up waist high from the fast bowlers even on slow wickets, and if you're still in pain from the previous delivery as the bowler's running in, then you stand a good of chance of being dismissed because your concentration's gone.

In first-class cricket, the helmets are now very popular, and Gooch said that he used to wear one in his batting carer late in life. He got confidence while wearing one. Wearing a helmet gives the batsman confidence - that's very important for a batsman to get going.