Buck's Blog: Fielding x-factors
Fri, 12 February 2010
Another x-factor in cricket (after my last blog on Lady Luck) is fielding... Many of the greats of the game have also been the best fielders of their era. Ricky Ponting has just been named by Cricinfo as Player of the Decade - and he's probably the fielder of the decade too. By all accounts, Don Bradman was the best outfielder of his decade in the 30s. The '90s probably belonged to Mark Waugh, his close catching perhaps edging him ahead of Jonty Rhodes. In the 80s I'm told, Viv Richards, Ian Botham & Allan Border were leaders of the pack, while in the 70s, the Windies' Clive Lloyd and England's Derek Randall were as good as any. Two out and out greats in the 60s were Bobby Simpson & Zimbabwe's Colin Bland, according to many the best slip field and cover fielders (respectively) ever. The famous Australian trio of the 50s, Alan Davidson, Richie Benaud & Norm O'Neill were all stunning fieldsmen allegedly - as was a school coach of mine, England's Tony Lock. In the '40s Keith Miller & Neil Harvey were legendary fieldsmen despite being complete opposites in build - Miller, tall, gangly, a great slipper and excellent in the outfield - while Harvey had the build of a rover, was a sublime cover field who could catch anything in slips. Both Miller and Harvey were Victorians, before heading north after reaching their prime. Paul Sheahan was a sensational cover-field I'm told, and Dean Jones was also top-drawer. No one can doubt the talent of the past, but there's certainly no shortage of good fielders in our Victorian team today. Cameron White is a superb slipper as his one-day & Twenty20 performances are showing, and while Mike Hussey is perhaps second only to Ponting in the Test team, there's some doubt he's any better than brother David who can be quite spectacular anywhere in the field as shown by his superb catch over his shoulder - with hands pointing upwards - on Wednesday. Somehow the best fieldsmen seem to always find the ball, especially in terms of the number of catches they take. On the other hand it's perhaps because they are always on the alert for a mere sniff of a chance - so that they take catches - where others only see the chance flash past to the fence. Ponting & Waugh are the best I've seen in that regard. One interesting stat I've come across is the ratio of catches taken per 1st class match - and it's interesting to see that those who field in slips early and later in the outfield, average around one catch per match. Cricinfo tells me that Ponting, Border, Benaud, Davidson, Richards and Botham all averaged near around one per match. The Hussey brothers actually do better than that, which says something about them. The specialist outfielders - Rhodes, Bland, Sheahan, Harvey, O'Neill, Lloyd naturally don't do so well - they average around 2 catches for every 3 matches. What we don't know is how many run-outs they create and the runs they save - each of which was gold for their captains. The specialist close-fielders certainly get the most - Waugh, Simpson and Lock got approx 1.5 catches per match - Simpson's 383 catches from 257 matches being a standout. Yet it can be so easy to drop a catch - as my teammate Dave Hussey showed earlier this summer - there are times when the ball hits your hands in just the wrong spot. Some people are absolute naturals when it comes to classic catches - but perfect practice helps too no matter who you are - as Shippy likes to remind us. Holding them last year was a key to our winning the Shield final; and it's certainly something we're working on again with the hope of claiming back-to-back titles.
Chris Rogers
