'A joy to watch'. 'Nicest
cover drive in the business'. 'Shot'. 'As easy on the eye as Gower'.
'Flaky in the head'. 'I wish Bell would stay in because on his day he is
arguably the best'. 'Sherminator'. 'Grow a pair you woofter'.
Those sayings alongside pick your own adjective
(lucky dip) for the last word are exhaustedly flaunted around our annoyingly
gifted number 3 batsman, or does he want to be 4 or 5? At 33, 7000 plus test
runs and over 100 caps for England he still plays as if he is playing his
debut, wonderful or shockingly abominable. Michael Vaughan mentioned that he
has never known anyone who goes from "having such confidence to none at
all so quickly".
Bell reminds me of an English sports car,
something that needs constant repairs but on its day, bloody class. The exerts
of cricket are so pronounced within Bell's mercurial cricketing brain, its
about as obvious as seeing the quintessentially English '290*' Alastair Cook
experimenting with a reverse hit. With Bell you see the gracefulness that this
ancient sport permits yet you also envisage the harsh individual side that is
ever more notable for him in the modern game.
Dayle Hadlee " Ian
Bell was the best 16 year old I have ever seen".
If I refer again to Michael Vaughan who after
seeing Bell gain his first 50 at Old Trafford during the Ashes 2005, said,
"It was great to see Ian Bell get his 50, it will do wonders for his
confidence". I am probably stirring here but I'm mid - flow and I could
not give a tuppenny do dar, did Vaughan even then, sense Bell's
fragility?
To briefly mention Kevin Pietersen (he who must
not be named), only briefly. I'm expecting Andrew Strauss and his KP SWAT team
to kick down my door in any minute after mentioning 'you know who'. However, since
KP left the team Bell has struggled, check the stats yourself. KP would bat 4
and be the box office player, Bell would then come in and more than likely play
at ease under no pressure, as KP was the dominant player. Bell is now the
oldest player in the team and I don't think he likes that responsibility of
being the key batter and experienced head. Before he had Strauss, KP and Prior,
now he's the oldest and must score runs. You can criticise this next comment
but I feel there is some truth within it. I know KP was good for Bell, he
understood his motives and Bell was not a threat to his status. KP enjoyed supporting the struggling players, predominantly because he loved the one to ones and could speak in the favoured ECB language '#just hit it'.
In the Ashes 2005 series,
which by the way is hardly ever mentioned, a young Australian was beginning his
career as number 5 much like Ian Bell, it was Michael Clarke.
Being an international sports player means you’re
the best of the best, whatever role/position you occupy you have been selected
to fulfil that task. Everything gets over analysed then analysed again, its not
as if Journalists love being haters when they write a piece, people won't read
anything if it’s all Rose, Champagne and Lords. The players are that good the
naked eye has to search for weak links, Bell is therefore a Cricket Journalists dream. When
in lovely form he is so pleasing on the eye, the Journalist licks their lips
with the graceful adjectives he/she can place alongside his graceful shots.
When the man is struggling, words are as sour as his confidence and indecisive
shots. He is English cricket in its purest. 'Thou must not sledge, 'Thou must
abide by the coaching manual' and 'Thou is too nice for his own darn good'.
The English cricket public need the man to grow a pair and go out and unleash a filthy cover drive to that tattooed up Australian fast bowler
or the cleanest of straight drives to their underfed hobbit so called spin bowler.
I hope his last few years to his career are
completed strongly because I would hate to see him suffer when he retires
and thinking to himself alone after a few glasses of milk (it would not surprise
me with Bell) that 'why did I not just relax more and play the shots with all
that ability I had?' As Andrew Flintoff said "It's only when you get
to the end of your career that you know the sport".
All frustrations aside, there is not a batter around who can play as beautifully as the boy in a man's body, Ian Bell.
