Englishmen to ‘take the rough’

Press, 15 January 1988, Page 19

Englishmen to ‘take the rough’

NZPA London England has put the lid on any complaints about umpiring decisions during the coming cricket tour of New Zealand. The tour manager, Peter Lush, said the side would "take the rough with the smooth.” As the team left London’s Heathrow Airport for the 13match tour of New Zealand and Australia, Lush was keen to put the controversy of the blighted Pakistan tour behind him. “As far as I'm concerned the team will take the rough with the smooth and get on with it,” he said. "And we won’t be answering any press questions about whether it was out or anything like that at all.’’ By the time players took the field in Wellington next week, they would be "very well aware what is expected of an England team in terms of its approach and behaviour on the field,” Lush said. "As far as I'm concerned the Pakistan tour is finished and we’re looking forward, not looking back." Most commentators agree the outcome of the New Zealand series and a bicentenary match in Australia will make or break the captain, Mike Gatting, who teeters on five defeats from six series after 18, months at the helm.-* spilt the stocky Englishman appeared untrotfbled by the pressure.

“I’ll always give 100 per cent and if people are not happy with the way that I’m doing the job then I’ll stand down,” he said. Not a man to say more than he needs to, Gatting described the New Zealand side as a team “in fairly good order.” "Obviously that man Hadlee’s still in very fine form with the ball and Martin Crowe with the bat,” he said. “They’ve got some other useful players around. “This Jones seems to have got a few runs and Wright is still in good form with the bat.” Gatting would not be drawn on the prospect of Hadlee becoming England’s nemesis as Abdul Qadir had done in Pakistan. "We’ve got another bowler to contend with and he's just about to become the all-time great unless he has a dodgy series and we bat rather well," he said. “It’ll be nice to tour New Zealand because it's very friendly and the cricket's normally very enjoyable as well.” England’s last tour in 198384 was so friendly it produced allegations of late-night hotel romps, broken windows and dope-smoking. This time, Peter Lush said, the players “know the form.” “We don’t need to speU it out to them and we’re Certainly not expecting any difficulties in that respect at all.”