All we can ask is for everyone to put in the work and if we can improve three, four, five per cent, we'll be doing well."Allan Donald recently accused England of being the most aggressive side in international cricket, under Stewart's vociferous influence. The stump mikes in Australia, the cause of a brief disagreement with his old adversary Arjuna Ranatunga at the captain's meeting last week, tended to prove the point. For all Stewart's notion of bygones, feeling between the two captains still runs perilously high. Ranatunga was not amused by Stewart's trenchant criticism of his behaviour in that ill- tempered match in Adelaide when Muttiah Muralitharan was called for throwing and Ranatunga marched his side off the field, delaying the game for 15 minutes."I've put my thoughts in there, so let's get on with the cricket," Stewart says, tapping his book.
"No hard feelings." Come to think of it, that would be a fine motto for our England captain.Captain's Diary - Alec Stewart with Brian Murgatroyd. Collins Willow, pounds 16.99.THE TEAM: THE IMPORTS XIRoger Twose (New Zealand) Born in EnglandGraeme Hick (England) Born in ZimbabweNasser Hussain (England) Born in IndiaAndy Flower (Zimbabwe) Born in South AfricaAdam Hollioake (England) Born in AustraliaDale Benkenstein (South Africa) Born in ZimbabweRobin Singh (India) Born in TrinidadBrendon Julian (Australia) Born in New ZealandSteve Elworthy (South Africa) Born in ZimbabweHenry Olonga (Zimbabwe) Born in ZambiaAsim Butt (Scotland) Born in PakistanWELL I DECLAREJAVED Miandad is the only man to have played in all six previous World Cups and his 33 matches are also comfortably a record. He would have extended his unique sequence had he not resigned as Pakistan's coach three weeks before the tournament. At 17 years, 364 days, Javed is the third youngest player to have appeared in a World Cup match and his 1,083 runs (43.42) make him the leading scorer.. COURTNEY ANDREW WALSH will be 37 in October, an age when fast bowlers start inclining towards a pavilion seat and a pint, yet, as Mark Waugh and several Australian batsmen will testify, there has been no diminution of his powers. He now has 423 Test wickets and is 12 away from becoming No 1, ahead of Kapil Dev of India. He will go on bowling, medium fast to fast to occasionally very fast, for as long, he says, "as I go on taking wickets; when that stops, I'll stop". The stock ball is still potent, the jagged break back that rises viciously towards the most vulnerable parts of the right-hander and has the left- hander frantically snatching his blade away.
Then there is the fast leg cutter, that either straightens into the pads or whips away, the bouncer, used very sparingly, that whistles past the nose, and the yorker, not perhaps quite as devastating as the one delivered by his old mate and comrade in arms, Curtly Ambrose, but still fast and brutal enough to leave purple bruises or explode stumps.Old Gloucestershire players - Courtney spent 14 years with the county until they parted company acrimoniously last December - reckoned that he had four different balls delivered without noticeable change of action or grip. If the pitch gives him some bounce, and the ball is hard and new, a batsman will need first-class protection or bones will break if he is hit on the glove.Ah, batsmen, will be saying, but what has all this to do with the World Cup? Hasn't Courtney himself said: "One-day internationals are for the young people"? Doesn't he hold the record for Test match ducks? Doesn't wear-and-tear in his shoulder mean that he can no longer throw in over- arm? All true, and much the same could be said of Ambrose. The speculation must be that the West Indies' strategy will be to use their two champions sparingly, leaving the bulk of the seam bowling to the young, hungry Merv Dillon, Franklyn Rose, Hendy Bryan and Reon King.Courtney was not sure he would be wanted and for a man who has just bowled 208 overs in four Tests in the 85-plus degree heat of the Caribbean in six weeks he might have fancied a rest. He knows that neither he nor Curtly are natural one-day players, but he had taken 26 Australian wickets, at an average of 20.73, and with that recent record behind him no selectors in the world would have left him out of their side.Courtney, born in 1962, the year of Jamaica's independence, is an intensely patriotic man - it was he who suggested to the West Indies Board that their badge be switched from the right to the left side of the shirt, to signify commitment - and if his country called he would always be there As far as fitness is concerned he has an astonishing record. He played his first Test match in Australia in 1984 and has missed only two, through injury, in playing 114 since.
Only Kapil Dev, who played 131 Tests, has bowled more Test match overs, and in 1998, his last summer in county cricket, he took 106 wickets for Gloucestershire.Some of his performances, under stress of injury, will surely be mentioned one day when physiotherapists start writing books. Dennis Waight, West Indies' physio for a quarter-century, still shakes his head in amazement at Courtney's feats. Like all fast bowlers, Courtney puts intense pressure on knees and hamstrings. During last winter's calamitous tour of South Africa, when West Indies lost 5-0 and sent the Caribbean into shock and mourning, he was under treatment for tendinitis. He had to have constant attention to a knee, was in nagging pain yet still managed to bowl 46 overs in the First Test and 47.3 in the Second, taking 14 wickets for a badly beaten team.He had learned to live with the knee by the Third Test but in chasing a ball on the outfield pulled a hamstring. He missed the Fourth Test but still pulled himself together to play in the Fifth, and bowled 25 overs in the first innings to take 6 for 84 before his knee collapsed again in the second.
