Border’s dream close

Press, 27 June 1989, Page 29

Border’s dream close

NZPA-AAP London Allan Border believes Australia is ready to “nail” England in the second cricket test at Lord’s today. “Complacent? No way,” Border said. ‘Tve been in this position before and we’re going to try to nail England to the wall.” Border — whose dream of becoming the first Australian captain to regain the Ashes in England since 1934 is looking more likely with each session — is drawing a strict line between confidence and complacency. England resumed today at 58 for three, still requiring 184 runs to make Australia bat again. With the memory of a second innings capitulation in similar circumstances at Headingley still fresh, and their captain patently demoralised, the flag of English

cricket has seldom fluttered so feebly. Three months ago David Gower was hailed as England's saviour when the new chairman of selectors, Ted Dexter, appointed him captain for the entire series — an unprecedented vote of confidence in a modern England captain. On Sunday Gower’s tenure looked so shaky that Mr Dexter was obliged to rebuke him in public at the same time as issuing another vote of confidence — a combination which Mrs Thatcher’s Cabinet Ministers have discovered to be a precursor to a sacking.

The demeanour of the two captains after Sunday’s play told the story as eloquently as the new electronic scoreboard opposite Father Time. Gower knocked a chair over

as he stormed out of a press conference, looking grey with anger and fatigue. Border handled his questions with aplomb, and some hours later was standing happily on the footpath outside the Lord’s Tavern talking “shop” with hordes of pintconsuming compatriates. “We just want to keep going the way we’re going, not get complacent, be positive about our chances and work hard,” he said. Border has taken deliberate steps to distance himself from the opposition, with whom some of his critics believe he has been too chummy in the past. He still has his pals in the England dressing room, but you will not find him putting a consoling arm around David Gower’s shoulder during this series.