James Anderson may not have been at Edgbaston yesterday, but his name still remained the subject of debate. So much so that Andy Flower took the rare, if not unprecedented step of convening the media to explain why the leader of the attack is being rested for the third Investec Test match against West Indies beginning tomorrow.
Like a diligent but slightly nervous undergraduate at a tutorial, the team director spoke from notes — nearly two sides of A4 written in block capitals — and outlined five points in logical progression. With an introduction and a conclusion (he even used the phrase “so to conclude”) it resembled an essay plan that defied critics to say “could do better”.
The fundamental, most evocative point was his second. “The days of us either playing our players until they wear down significantly, or snap physically or mentally; those days are over,” Flower said. “In the past we tended to play the fast bowlers until they either bowled so poorly we had to leave them out, or they broke down. That does not make sense. We think it is our responsibility to manage things better.”
England achieved their goal of the winning the series by taking a 2-0 lead at Trent Bridge. Anderson would be playing through niggles here were that not the case.
Flower said that he was not demeaning the immediate game, but that priority has shifted to the next Test series, versus South Africa, and the one-day matches against West Indies beginning a week on Saturday.
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Drawing comparisons across sport with a sequence of rhetorical questions he tried to show how the career of Anderson, spectating reluctantly, will be lengthened by this non-selection. “Would you enter your prize horse in every race through the year? Would you play your most valuable pitcher in every single game in a baseball season? Does [Wayne] Rooney play every game for Manchester United? Does [Brian] O’Driscoll play every game for Leinster?”
Flower recalled the 2010-11 Ashes in Australia to stress the value of a large pool of fast bowlers. “It was not the same attack we used through the series,” he said.
“Over the next couple of years the schedule is incredibly heavy, so it is not only going to be Anderson, [Stuart] Broad and [Tim] Bresnan who will be our bowlers. It would be crazy and naive to think so.”
At least one of Steven Finn and Graham Onions is sure to play tomorrow. Both will feature if Broad is also rested. Flower described them as being fine bowlers in their own right whose presence would not devalue the game. “We are making decisions that make us stronger in the medium to long term,” Flower said.
Colin Povey, the Warwickshire chief executive, believes that resting players has minimal impact at the ticket office.
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Even so, total sales of 52,000 across the first four days are down from 66,000 for the previous West Indies visit in 2004 and leave Warwickshire at least £300,000 short of budget.
Povey hopes that money will be recouped by a one-day international against Australia and a Twenty20 international against South Africa later this season.
West Indies have recalled Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard for the three-match 50-over series, Gayle finally resolving the dispute that had left him out of the frame since the World Cup last year.