Oz teen’s advice on Clarke’s flawed technique ‘right on the money’: Jones
By ANIFriday, January 21, 2011
MELBOURNE - The Australian teenager who advised Michael Clarke against “pushing at the ball” in order to find batting form is right on the money, according to former batman Dean Jones.
Seventeen-year-old Daniel Brew had gatecrashed a Hobart press conference on Thursday, and asked Clarke what he planned to do to rectify failings in his technique.
Clarke initially laughed, then said: “What do you think I should do?”
Undaunted by Clarke’s invitation to continue the conversation, Daniel had told him that he should “not reach for it so much.”
Jones said that the teenager was right and has got some fair points.
“Clarke had diver’s boots on - in other words, his feet aren’t moving anywhere. If your head moves to the ball, then your feet will follow . . . Your feet don’t go first, your head does,” WA Today quoted Jones, as saying.
Jones further said that instead of speaking to former cricketers Michael Slater and Ian Healy to turn around a wretched run of bad form, Clarke needed “to get all the rubbish between the ears out and play each ball on its merits”.
“That’s all the kid’s talking about when you look at it. It’s MCC coaching-manual stuff. The game hasn’t changed in 150 years,” Jones said.
“I don’t know if Michael’s not trusting Justin (Langer, Australia’s batting coach), but he needs to go back to his old coach Neil Dacosta and work on the simple parts of the game,” he added.
Clarke, who averaged a miserable 21 in the Ashes series, was booed by the Melbourne Cricket Ground crowd during his innings of 36 off 57 balls in the first ODI against England last Sunday. (ANI)
