For Whom The Bell Tolls



England cricketers don’t retire quietly. Of the last five long-term test captains (Strauss, Hussain, Vaughan, Stewart & Atherton) only Alec Stewart does not regularly occupy a commentary box. If you throw in Boycott, Botham & Tony Greig, then the captains from well over a quarter of England’s 953 tests are represented in the commentary box.

Despite lacking the platform of the commentary box, Graeme Swann has managed to keep his voice echoing around public consciousness. His passionate, patriotic, opinionated and eloquent reflections on English cricket distinguish his viewpoints from the lifeless opinions that plague so many sports. His talent matched his mouth too. He is undoubtedly England’s best spinner of the last 30 years, & I believe a case could be made that he is our greatest ever spin bowler.

In a recent column, Swann indicated that England should revamp the top of their 50 over line-up. “Cook, Bell and Ballance are not players who will win you a World Cup” said Swann. He claimed that such players were not dynamic enough. England should “let in the young players who want to smash it everywhere”.

The focus of Swann’s criticism was Cook, whose selection is rather handcuffed by his appointment as captain. However, I was surprised to hear that Ian Bell came under criticism given his performance as an ODI opener. Having dotted around various positions in his early career, England installed Bell as opener at the start of 2012, the position he has occupied permanently for two & a half years. During that time, Bell has played 35 innings, scoring over 1,500 runs at an average of just under 47. His strike-rate during that time has been 82.2.

Let’s put those numbers as an opener into context. The gold standard of ODI openers is Chris Gayle. He is known for his destructive, dynamic & eye-popping innings. Gayle’s strike rate in ODI cricket is 84.0, fewer than two runs better than Bell. However, Gayle has done this at an average of 37.33, nearly ten runs less than Bell per innings. This means that, on average, Ian Bell scores more runs as an opener than Chris Gayle & at virtually the same pace. Australia’s answer to Chris Gayle is David Warner, a brutal left handed opener. However, Warner’s strike rate mirrors Bell’s at 82.4, while Bell’s average dwarfs Warner’s 31.39 by more than 15 runs.

How do those stats stack up against in a historical context? How many players have more runs, a higher average & a greater strike rate than Bell’s opening stats? Answer: seven (Amla, Dhoni, Kohli, de Villiers, George Bailey, Mike Hussey, Zaheer Abbas & Viv Richards). How many of those magnificent seven have produced those runs as an opener? Zero. (n.b. although Amla, while currently being employed as a middle order batsman, where he also debuted, has played almost all of his other ODI's as opener. See comments section for details).

In other words, Ian Bell’s ODI stats since being installed as an opener in 2012 are completely unprecedented in the history of cricket. No ODI opener has ever matched the runs, average & strike-rate of England’s Ian Ronald Bell.

Am I really suggesting that Ian Bell is the greatest ODI opener in history? Plainly no. Yet the clamber to oust Bell from England's ODI side is founded more in perception than reality. 

Comments

  1. Mark Webb30 August 2014 at 14:26

    Since posting, an eagle-eyed reader noted an amendment worth addressing. Murray Knight (@mjknight8) pointed out that Amla has scored a percentage of his runs as an opener. I had realized that this was the case, yet in my initial research I had discovered that Amla began as an middle order ODI player on debut, and is currently batting at number four. However, on further research, Amla has played almost all of his other ODI innings as an opener. So although he qualifies for my generic statement on a technicality by virtue of his current place in the middle order, the point should still be made that in Amla's time as an opener, he has accrued 4,500 runs at an average of 55 and a strike rate of 90.

    Of course, I was not suggesting that Ian Bell is greater than any of the players mentioned above. Not at all. My desire was to redress a media narrative that Bell scores slower than other ODI openers and should be ousted. However, Amla's stats by themselves deserve every plaudit available (wherever they decide to play him).

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