Andrew Strauss's New-ball Spin Ploy Was a Waste of Swing

Cricketers are always encouraged to think outside the box, or whatever the vogue management-speak is, but last week at Lord's Andrew Strauss, the England captain, went so far beyond its borders that he required a different postcode. The decision to open the bowling with Graeme Swann was perceived variously in the media centre. To some Strauss was innovative, forward thinking. To others, bowlers mostly but by no means exclusively, he was a twat.

None, though, could say they were anything other than surprised, not least the West Indies openers but none more so than the bowler himself, who, genuine enthusiast that he is, lapped it up and for years to come will regale anyone within earshot of the time he took the new ball for England on a Lord's green-top in early May.It was such a lark it might have been instigated by Joe Gargery.

Strauss's rationale was clear enough, if a little simplistic: Devon Smith, West Indies' left-handed opener, had got out a few times to Swann in the Caribbean and did not appear to play him very well. Ergo, it would be a good wheeze if Swann should bowl to him. There was an added element, which was to try to goad Chris Gayle into taking up the challenge of the sort of new-ball field – long-on, long-off, deep midwicket, deep square-leg – not seen since Matthew Hoggard took the second one against Nathan Astle in Christchurch seven years ago with three slips and everyone else on the fence.

But there was flawed thinking here too, which in the effort to be clever-clogs different, ignored the fundamental point that in 30 Tests Smith has made one century and has an average of 25. Given that 20 of those games have been played on Caribbean pitches, that marks him down, in my view, as a mediocre Test batsman. A lot of bowlers have pierced his defence at no great cost.

To any pace bowler, but in particular one who has the capacity to swing it, the new ball is sacrosanct. It is to be treated with reverence. The closest cricket comes to a quasi-religious ceremony is when the second new ball is unwrapped by the umpire and held aloft, like a sacrament. But it really is important. On hard, grassless pitches abroad, it offers respite of a few overs in which to offer a fresh challenge before it loses shine and hardness. It bounces more, comes on to the bat faster (and often leaves it even more violently),and gives the modicum of movement that lends hope to footsore bowlers. As such it should not be treated in such a cavalier manner as it was by Strauss and the England think-tank that came up with the idea.

Experience tells me that you do not muck about like this. For a number of years it was my good fortune to open the bowling for Middlesex with Wayne Daniel. I relied on movement, he on more virile, less complicated methods. For a while there was an insistence, as if these things should be based on miles per hour and nothing else, that he rumbled in from the Pavilion end to bowl the first over. Finally, though, representations persuaded that it was of little use to me if the second over was bowled with a ball that looked as if it has been hit six times with a sledgehammer so randomly was it banged into the turf.

To the swing bowler the first over is vital, for the movement obtained is not a function of variable airflow, as comes later when the ball is polished selectively on one side, but of the seam acting as a rudder. It might go for only a couple of balls, until the lacquer gets cracked and peels away, but sometimes that is enough. It should not be wasted. Hoggard was expert for England, taking numerous wickets in that first over.

But then, think further about the effect Swann's call-up would have had on Jimmy Anderson. This is a young man who in the course of the year has bowled his way not just back into the side but to being the leader of the attack. At the close of the England innings he would have prepared himself to launch that attack. Instead the ball went to Stuart Broad.

At first we wondered whether the hefty blow to the head Anderson had received from Fidel Edwards while batting was a factor. He was out on the field, however. So why was Broad given first crack? Then, at the end of the over, we saw Anderson sloping dolefully over towards mid-on.

It was a bit of a slap in the face. The tactic did not work. Swann got his man later, of course, but then so did Graham Onions, magnificently, in the second innings (and cheaper too). Nothing was gained, something may have been lost and little was proved.