A YEAR is a long time in politics, but an even longer time in Test cricket. Let's take a little journey down memory lane, shall we? It's February 15, 2022, and England have just received an absolute mauling at the hands of Australia in the Ashes. Chris Silverwood has been relieved of his duties as coach. Joe Root, despite having scored the most runs ever in a calendar year by an Englishman, looks jaded and despondent as England captain. The team are preparing to fly to the West Indies, to play a series they don't want to play, and one that they will eventually lose. Sir Andrew Strauss has been brought in to figure out how, exactly, England are so bad and what on earth can be done about it.
In their excellent book, Hitting Against the Spin, data analysts Ben Jones and Nathan Leamon refer to a phenomenon known as the 'tethered cat'. The phrase originates from an old proverb and essentially makes the case that simply because something has been done a certain way for a long time, does not necessarily mean that it is the best way to do that certain thing. In the aftermath of that Ashes battering and the frankly miserable run of results that preceded it, the usual traditionalists erupted out of their armchairs and bemoaned the rise of T20, The Hundred and colourful clothing in general as the root cause of England's ineptitude. What we needed, they said, was a return to tradition, to formality. Fewer ramps and scoops and switch hitting, and more blocking, grit and patience. Orthodoxy would save us, they said. Don't just tether the cat, shorten the leash.
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