London, September 04: Former captain Michael Atherton has questioned the “silly warm-up games” that teams engage in, after Joe Denly became the latest victim of a playful game of football between England’s ODI unit.
Denly hurt his knee on Thursday as a clumsy tackle from team-mate Owais Shah ruled the Kent star out of the first ODI of the seven-match series against Australia on Friday.
“I have yet to hear any former cricketer complain of missing warm-ups just before a match. Deep down everyone knows that they are an utter waste of time. And, as Joe Denly found to his cost before practice, they can be dangerous and costly, too,” Atherton wrote in his column for The Times.
“Denly is the latest in a line of England cricketers who have had their places put in jeopardy by colleagues dreaming of a life in the Premier League.
“Football itself is not the issue – although plenty wonder why cricketers prepare for a day’s work playing with their feet and not their hands – nor is preparation or practice, two essential ingredients of success.
“What irritates players of a certain vintage is the ridiculous warm-up routines that have gained universal currency and are nothing more than an exercise in job justification for the ever-growing backroom staff.
“Next time you are at a first-class game, check out the playing area before the start of play. More cones than the M1. These have been assiduously placed by a jobsworth and, once the pretty pattern is complete, players are forced to go through a variety of silly games.
“Over the past few years I have watched wheelbarrow racing, ‘the ministry of funny walks’ racing, as well as football, tag rugby, volleyball and American football.”
The English team have taken to playing football so that the normal warm-up routine can be made more competitive and fun, but it has led to various injuries.
James Anderson injured his ankle in a kick-about on the third evening of the Wellington Test against New Zealand in March 2008 and Matt Prior suffered a back spasm playing football as he warmed up on the first morning of this summer’s fourth Ashes Test at Headingley.
Captain Andrew Strauss said: “The reason we have played football previously is that we have to warm-up for 200 days a year, the players enjoy it and it is a good way of getting the blood flowing.
“We have always felt that if we don’t have tackling involved the risk of anyone getting injured is very slight.
“You have got to warm up and you have got find a way of getting people going. You have to make a judgment on the actual risks involved rather than what people might perceive the risks to be.
“There is some value in having a game (as part of the warm-up) because a bit of competition gets people going when a lot of the time you you are stiff and sore and tired in the mornings.
“We are all competitive human beings. That is why we have got to this level and that is why it is good to have competition.
“But also it is slightly dangerous because things can go a bit far. What happened today is very frustrating and something we have clearly got to look at.
“Hopefully it is nothing that will rule him out long term.”
—–Agencies