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• Anyone following the recent series of England under 19 v Australia may well have concluded that
  (a.) England had as many quality players as the opposition - indeed one biassed on-looker felt that if a combined team of 11 players had been selected from the series then 7 of the players would have come from the English squad
• b) There were several matches during which England were in a very strong position but failed to hammer home their superiority.
• An analysis of the scoring revealed that England scored more 4s and 6s but Australia scored FAR more singles.
• During the recent World Cup final a correspondent in the Telegraph made the point that at least two of the Australian batsmen had taken up the mantle previously carried by Mark Waugh which enabled the score to keep ticking along THROUGH HIS ABILITY TO SCORE SINGLES.
• It seems that English youngsters are not really able to recognise scoring opportunities in each over. They tend to score off 2 balls per over whereas the Australian players are scoring off at least 3 balls per over.
• It has also been hinted at that Australian young cricketers are very willing to go out to bat to win the game whereas it has been suggested that the English player may prefer a colleague to do it.
• One ploy to encourage English youngsters is to allocate an extra run if at least 3 scoring shots are made in the over.
• I understand that the idea is being given serious consideration by some of our English coaches.
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