6 hours ago
7
Early summer. A Test squad due to be announced. It takes me back to the times I was bowling for a place in the England team.
I was an international cricketer between 2010 and 2017. At the beginning of each of those summers, there was a mix of optimism, hope and determination that I would bowl well enough in Championship cricket to get the call.
Wickets were the currency. James Anderson and Stuart Broad were inked in the side, so Tim Bresnan, Graham Onions, Chris Tremlett, Chris Woakes, myself and a number of others were competing for the other spot.
This bred competition and hunger, because I knew the other guys were trying to do exactly the same thing. Backing up performances and demonstrating the stamina to do it over a number of weeks in the domestic game was another aspect of showing you were hardened for the intensity of international cricket.
In recent years, under Rob Key, Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes, the way England select their teams has changed. I wonder if the feelings of the players hoping to be selected, those feelings I remember so well, have changed too.
There is still the opportunity for a player to prove himself the 'old school' way, even if it does feel like that is becoming a more difficult route into the England team.
Sam Cook has been the outstanding seam bowler in county cricket for the past number of years. At the age of 27, with 318 first-class wickets at an average of 19.77, it seems as though his time has finally come.
After he was asked to rest from Essex's Championship match against Somerset a couple of weeks ago, it would be surprising if he is not in the squad for the Test against Zimbabwe next month.
Even with that overwhelming body of evidence and a stack of wickets behind him, I do feel like it is one performance that has convinced England Cook is finally worth backing.
At the beginning of last summer, when the pitches were flat and the Kookaburra ball was being used in the Championship, bowlers toiled. Cook took 10 wickets for Essex to lead them to victory over Nottinghamshire. It is the sort of display that will catch the eye of the selectors, who will rightly look for more than statistics when it comes to making their judgements.
And that, perhaps, is the difference between what I felt I was going through more than a decade ago and what can earn selection at this moment. Now it is far more exciting.
Yes, Cook has an outstanding record, but he also needed that standout display to give Key and company a nudge. In an attack that only has room for one 'English' style seamer, an injury to Woakes has presented an opportunity. And it might actually be one outstanding performance for other England hopefuls that earns them a call-up.
I see bowlers in the domestic game who have the raw materials to be international players. Sonny Baker and John Turner are two of them, both of Hampshire (although Turner has been on loan at Lancashire), and have been identified by England despite having almost no first-class cricket behind them.
Baker, Turner and others who have the attributes to trouble the best batters will know that one performance, even one spell, might be enough to earn them a call-up. There's precedent for it, too. Stokes first saw off-spinner Shoaib Bashir bowl in a clip on social media, then shared it in his WhatsApp group with Key and McCullum. Not long after, Bashir was in the England squad.
Another difference between my time as an international cricketer and now is England's attitude towards franchise cricket, particularly the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Now there is an acceptance players hold a lot of power and cannot be denied lucrative franchise opportunities. Who can blame the players for this? After all, it can be a short career.
This is in contrast to when I wanted to put my name forward for the 2013 IPL auction. I thought I had a good chance of being picked up. I was bowling quickly, had bowled nicely in a white-ball series in India, getting good players out, and had just had a good T20 World Cup.
At the end of 2012, we were on the famous Test tour of India, when we won 2-1. I had to ask permission from the England and Wales Cricket Board to enter the auction and, within five minutes of submitting my forms, received an email telling me I wasn't allowed but that Andy Flower, the head coach, would explain why.
That evening, I was having room service in the bedroom of Kevin Pietersen (who was the first England player to spot the might of the IPL), along with Eoin Morgan. I was summoned to see Flower and, as I was on the way out of the door, KP told me to tell Flower I was entering the auction whether he liked it or not.
It was a short meeting with Flower. He told me I had to be playing county cricket at the beginning of the following summer in order to back-up performances and be in contention to play Test cricket at the beginning of a double Ashes year. I did as I was told. To me, Test cricket was the pinnacle and I would have done anything to get a spot in that England team.
Times have changed. How exciting it must be to be a player now with the potential to succeed in international cricket.
Every time you walk on to the pitch you feel like you have the opportunity to put your name forward, to be the subject of the next clip in the England management WhatsApp group, with Key and his cohorts thinking 'we can't ignore this, can we?'
