Cricket: Collingwood at Cover Brings Back Memories of Fine Artists in the Field

Paul Collingwood's move from backward-point to cover evokes memories of great fielders from the past, from Lloyd to Randall, says Mike Selvey.
How much fun is YouTube then? An indispensable belter during those middle overs in one-day internationals, I can tell you. Earlier this week, in no particular order, I've watched The Who performing Won't Get Fooled Again at the Live8 concert, Davy Graham playing Cry Me A River, Neil Young, Pearl Jam, Snow Patrol, Arctic Monkeys and Michael Holding, in his legendary thoroughbred glory, detonating Geoff Boycott's off stump from the Kensington Oval deck. It takes you to who knows where. Alongside the latter was a link into Great Catches, and a further click on that brought me to Matt Sinclair, in his Doctor Death Kiwi Black Caps uniform, plucking from the air a one-handed boundary catch so phenomenal that it made James Kirtley's famous effort at Lord's seem prosaic. A flurry of boundaries from Owais Shah put paid to any more perusal at that point but I dare say further investigation would have produced Paul Collingwood's 2005 gymnastic top-corner backward-point Bristol stunner to get rid of Matthew Hayden that laid down his credentials to be regarded as pre-eminent in that most crucial one-day position. He did not park himself there last Sunday, though, nor on Wednesday. A captain likes to wave his arms around a bit and "communicate" with his bowlers and clearly, although the position doesn't appear to affect Ricky Ponting's control unduly, Collingwood believes he needs to be elsewhere. So he took up residence at cover, thereby turning the clock back to another era where this was centre stage for the true - OK, sometimes only - athlete in any side. I was trying to recall at what stage in the development of one-day cricket the evolution of backward point as the pivotal position superseded that of cover. Personal cumbersome experience tells me that by no means did the best fielder go there 30 years ago - not in our side anyway - and indeed it was often the place to deposit the camel. For me, it wasn't until Jonty Rhodes happened along, together with fielding restrictions and one-day leg-side wides that allowed batsmen to be more expansive outside off stump, that the focus of international fielding changed. In the final fielding analysis, no one speaks glowingly of a great mid-on and it will be those at cover and the slippers who are best remembered, just as it has been in the past. Jack Hobbs, they say, was silky and anticipatory and the Australians Neil Harvey and Norman O'Neill were highly regarded, although I never saw them. I saw Colin Bland, though, and at close quarters, too, for we played in the same team briefly. He was in his mid-30s then with a gammy knee and, to be truthful, he stood at slip, but his reputation still got him through. One day, just to shut up some young pups, he gave a demonstration of collecting and throwing that left mouths agape. And what was it John Arlott called Clive Lloyd when first he appeared on these shores to prowl the covers? Great begoggled supercat, or some such. Once, when in Guyana, we went to the Demerara Cricket Club and heard some sneering at the rustic state of the outfield from those used to billiard-table surfaces, before it was pointed out to the carpers that it was there, with all the lumps and bumps, that Lloyd and Roger Harper, two of the greatest-ever fielders, had learned to watch the ball. County cricket, too, had some wonderful cover fielders in my time. No one before or since has been quite like Derek Randall. Today's fielders are primed to be balanced and still as the ball is struck, something that would have been lost on Randall who, whistling away, jogged from deep cover as the bowler ran in so that by the time the ball reached the batsman he was so close, cutting down the angle, that these days he would require a helmet and shin guards. Instinct and reaction got him through and you can't coach that. Perhaps we are seeing a resurgence of cover point. I hope so. Watching Collingwood standing spring-heeled in front of the bat was aesthetically pleasing, with a license for just a bit more mobility to go alongside the static agility of backward point. There is just more territory to cover with the potential for a spectacular run out sitting alongside that of the supreme reflex catch, and he was in the game so much more it seemed. Cover is in the batsman's face, a visible threat. Take a run if you dare. Think, if you will, the intimidating presence of Andrew Symonds, who is head and shoulders above anyone in that position these days. Actually, in even more agile times now, he might be the best ever.