Joe Root’s love for the game, not for what it brings, is quite a gift after a year of much turmoil within English cricket. Somehow, in this swirl of ill will, he has triumphed
David Hopps18-May-2015Such has been the stressful state of English cricket during the past 12 months that it is fortunate England’s player of the year has turned out to be the man with the indestructible smile. It can safely be assumed that Joe Root cracked a grin when he collected the award for the first time in the Long Room at Lord’s. Well, as they say, if you didn’t laugh you would cry.What a year it has been for Root. And how unfair that he has played so brilliantly, and displayed such inner strength, such zeal to succeed, such adaptability in quickening his game, during a year when English cricket has been so ridiculously self-destructive, variously encouraging among its followers prejudice, anger, rejection and paranoia. “It would have been good, a lot nicer, to win it in a year where we have done really well,” he conceded before painting the future in optimistic hues, talking of a young side that hopefully “put things together”.While these self-perpetuating arguments have raged, Root has scored 1,135 Test runs at an average of 94.58, quite a year. When the world is full of self-promotion, he has chosen discretion, spiced up on the field with a sledge or two because, as is the modern way, he is not shy of putting his quick wit to use. He should be careful to draw a sensible line.When talk turns in England cricket to superstars, he should be first on the list. Over the past year, nobody comes close. He has also hit three ODI hundreds and become the first Yorkshire batsman ever to make a one-day hundred for England at Headingley. In India he would already have the converted falling at his feet. At Headingley the older ‘uns nodded in appreciation and stopped sitting on their hands. The pride, though, from young and old alike, was apparent.Peter Moores, replaced as England coach barely a week ago, would have liked to watch Root collect that award – and with good reason. “I think my game has improved drastically really and a lot of credit for that has to go to Peter Moores,” Root said. It was the start of a fulsome tribute to the man who had insisted that he was improving a young England team.”Over the past year he has definitely got the best out of me along with the rest of the coaching department. I think when I came back from Australia I realized that a lot of the time out there I was trying to work on things I wasn’t too good at and putting all my energy into that rather than spending more time strengthening the stuff I am good at.”Obviously I could still try to tweak things I can improve on, but I just needed to make sure I did more of what I could do well so I didn’t lose those. Peter saw that. And I simplified things as well, it was a combination of things I needed to change.”I think I was so desperate to do well that I ended up hindering myself. It was a change of approach I made there and I want to keep on improving and developing. He was good to work with, a brilliant coach, he knew how to get the best out of me personally and I really hope he goes on to do other great jobs within the game.”Those thanks came in a pooled phone interview before his award. He is a better interviewee off the TV screens, where he tends to sound like a rapid response unit. It felt like Root was determined to get his point over; ensuring credit was given where it was due. It was a nice tribute from a man who could easily have decided to back the winners. He is made of independent stuff.Root’s is an exceptional record and, the statistics aside, everything he has done has come with an endless reminder that cricket is to be enjoyed. As Martin Crowe has passionately observed, in a that could perhaps only be made by a good man who knows his time is short, “the hate that abounds in the game is extraordinary”.Root, more than anybody, as he goes about the business of trying to win cricket matches, brings hope that these dog days will eventually pass. He is so absorbed in the game, so taken by its complexities, so obviously happy to be playing it, that he reminds us that cricket’s prime purpose is to produce a worthwhile and enjoyable summer pastime that allows those most blessed to summon great deeds to raise our spirits and gladden our hearts.Joe Root on…
Kevin Pietersen
“There’s no point answering to be honest because the decision has been made already. As a player you have responsibility to be 100 per cent professional. I think it’s quite irrelevant if you don’t mind me saying so because there is nothing we can do about it. Andrew Strauss is employed to make these decisions and as players all we can do is concentrate on putting in strong performances and winning games of cricket.”
Jason Gillespie
“I would love to work with him again, I think he is brilliant to work with. At Yorkshire he has been fantastic in my development, If he did get it I’m sure he would do a very good job at the highest level too. I don’t know if he would want it, you’d have to ask him. I’ve been to Headingley a few times for training sessions but I’m sure he is sick to death of people asking him about it so I tried to avoid talking about that. He is going to have to decide with his family and people close around him and I really hope he makes a decision he is comfortable with going forward and I am sure he will do.”
Root’s love for the game, not for what it brings, is quite a gift after a year in which diligent, caring coaches have not just been sacked but rubbished; chief executives hurried out of office; superstars (or one at any rate) cold-shouldered; the England managing director who so misjudged the mood hurriedly moved on; the man who replaced him – Andrew Strauss – faced calls for his resignation from the outer after only 48 hours in the job, some achievement that; the England captain patronised the ECB chairman before he had even officially begun the job; and that very chairman, who had ambitiously proclaimed that his appointment would bring a clean slate, fat chance of that, typecast – by the Old Etonian commentator Henry Blofeld on Twitter no less – as a no-nonsense Yorkshireman who spoke only nonsense: the final, damnable proof that English cricket has become the surrealist of black comedies.Somehow, in this swirl of ill will, Root has triumphed. Since he was dropped for the final Test of the Ashes whitewash in 2013-14, he has stood alongside the world’s finest batsmen, expertly choosing the time to defend and the time to attack, preferring calculation above flamboyance, advancing and broadening his game, pushing himself in a seemingly insatiable appetite to score runs for England.His recent elevation to the vice captaincy – a message he received from Andrew Strauss while driving up the M1 only a day before it was officially announced – has identified him more strongly than ever as the heir apparent to Alastair Cook. His advice can help to sharpen Cook’s tactical acumen. Even at 24 he will dare to give it. He will not be easily bought off, he will measure his praise as he sees fit, remain loyal and within reason tell things as he sees them. Such expectations…”I was delighted,” he said of Strauss’ phone call, “so I accepted straight away and I am looking forward to the first few games working with Cooky. I don’t think it will change much, just a bit more responsibility on my part and if Cooky wants to come up to me for ideas I will make sure I have something to help him out.”I’m just really looking forward to getting out there on Thursday and the most important thing is to get some runs. I think that’s it going forward: looking after all the stuff I have done previously and keep kicking on in that department.”Joe Root, Ashes captain, could happen, though. The question was posed gently, as it tends to be to vice captains: that they are only “a broken finger” away from taking the job from Cook for real. Australians – and for that matter some English dissidents – prefer to say “only a sacking away”.”That would be devastating to be honest,” Root said. “He has hit some very good form lately and he would be a massive loss to the dressing room so I definitely don’t want that to happen. It is something I will think about if it ever does. It’s something I really would not like. If that opportunity unfortunately came about I would make sure I was ready to go and make sure I had everything in place to make a good start.”He guesses, reluctantly, that as captain he would be “aggressive, relaxed and think on my feet.” Just like Michael Vaughan, in fact, a mentor, and the man who skippered England during the 2005 Ashes triumph that in cricket circles is every bit as revered as the 1966 World Cup is for England football fans.He nipped in for the last two matches to lead Yorkshire to the Championship last season while Andrew Gale was suspended and it was testimony to the respect in which he is held that even though he had been away all season he seemed the perfect stand-in. He prefers to talk down his captaincy skills by telling the story when he looked bound to skipper Yorkshire to victory at Lord’s only for Middlesex to chase down 400-plus.”I did get the nickname ‘craptain’ at the end of the year from the Yorkshire dressing room, a bit of banter which I thought was quite funny but that game isn’t something that’s going to faze me. There are 11 guys out there and you can’t control everything. Of course I was hugely disappointed to be in charge that day but it was a good learning experience and hopefully it won’t happen too many times again if I am captain.”And now he must prepare at Lord’s on Thursday for New Zealand, the country who beat England so comprehensively in the World Cup that they never recovered; the country, too, where on a previous Test tour Root broke the boredom by buying a ukulele on a whim and with that crooked grin in place became England cricket’s George Formby.Smiling in the face of adversity has been the staple of self-help books, dodgy poetry, and bereavement counsellors. It has supposedly helped to win wars: it certainly helped to make a star out of Formby, who though long since dead could still claim to be England’s most famous ukulele player until Root decided to have a strum.Since then the lines about the boyish looks have dried up, the respect has become absolute. Formby, who did not bother with the gym sessions, raised a nations spirits when he sang this little ditty in Root should give a rendition sometime. It might get some other smiling along. Heaven knows, it is time that they did.