He was the rock of England’s middle-order during the dark days of the 90s, and now he’s tasked with readying his country’s next generation of young guns for international cricket. Jo Harman met up with Graham Thorpe – the ECB’s lead batting coach – to discuss how he goes about polishing up the nation’s brightest batting talents.
AOC: What’s the thing you concentrate on most when you start working with a batsman?
Graham Thorpe: Generally speaking, at the highest level you get a handful of deliveries that you don’t really see much of anywhere else. One is the 92-95mph delivery that goes past your throat; we’re quite big on trying to get every player at the stage where they have an idea of how to handle that one; they might have an aggressive approach or a defensive approach, but they must have a game plan. Then you’ve got the big spinning ball – in to you or away from you – and also reverse swing.
[Conventional] swing and seam bowling you generally get a lot of in county cricket, so a player should have a good grounding against that, but things like reverse swing, playing against short, fast bowling and the big-spinning delivery are the things you get tested with at the next level up. So my role is trying to talk to the lads and make them aware what that next level is all about.
AOC: And what role does county cricket have in a player’s development?
Thorpe: County cricket will give you a certain amount, but there might not be as much pace bowling as there was 20 years ago so that’s an area that – from a coaching perspective – you have to look at. If they’re not facing that every day in county cricket then when they come into performance programmes and Lions squads you make sure they’re given a good heavy dose of it so you can see how they react, whether they have a competent game against it.
AOC: Are these areas of the game that you’re always learning as a player?
Thorpe: I’d say so. If you look at our England set-up, all our players appear competent enough against the short ball, but we’ve occasionally been exposed – in Johannesburg once and Perth once – on bouncy surfaces and you would say if Ricky Ponting could have produced his perfect pitch for England last winter it might have been a bouncy surface, so it’s an area that we have to pay a great deal of attention to.
As we do in terms of playing against spin on the sub-continent. If you are going to try and be the best side in the world you need to be dominant against the short ball and dominant against the spinning ball. That’s the big area for me – the guys coming through need to work hard at those areas of the game.
AOC: Is the intense media pressure of international cricket another factor in a young player’s development? Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Strauss both recently had their techniques against particular types of bowling scrutinised; does it play on the mind?
Thorpe: Yes, it’s the nature of the beast. On the first tour I went on to the West Indies I got bombarded with short, fast bowling and I remember members of the press focusing very heavily on that. You have to overcome that, and you can only overcome it by dealing with it and coming back and actually performing well.
AOC: You seem to suggest that freedom of expression is important, is that something that’s changed since your days in the England team?
Thorpe: Definitely. The whole set-up within England is totally, totally different. In terms of consistency of selection – something that’s made a major difference – there’s more of a pathway into the England side through the performance programme and the Lions now. It’s very rare now for you to see someone coming from left field, out of county cricket, and all of a sudden playing for England without having gone through the performance programme.
AOC: The consistency of selection must be a good thing; does it make players feel more comfortable?
Thorpe: Absolutely. And it lays out a clear understanding to players within county cricket as well. So there are certain standards on fitness, there will be certain requirements. I suppose we may have learned some lessons from Australia, we may have learned some lessons from South Africans. We’re a fitter group of players now.
AOC: Is there a small part of you that laments the fact you weren’t playing in the era of a successful England team?
Thorpe: No, I was very lucky; the last 30 Test matches I played were under Michael Vaughan, which was a very successful period for us. So no, I don’t think that at all, you have your career and everyone plays at a different time, I feel very humble to be back involved with it in many ways. When I finished playing I went to Australia to coach and I feel very comfortable with what I’m doing now, and it’s great to be working for England.
