Date-stamped : 14 Jun94 - 18:27 Atherton must keep up the momentum of victory - By Scyld Berry We can be sure that England's cricketers like to win as much as those of any other Test country. What they have recently lacked has been the drive to keep on winning. In the last dozen years England have gone soft whenever they have got the better of op- ponents, as now. Many of cricket's ethics are compatible with the morals of Christianity, which is why the Victorians chose the game as the principal pastime in their public schools. But if you see a beaten opponent in Test cricket, don't play the Good Samar- itan, or even pass by on the other side: go over and keep on kicking him where it hurts, something England have not done since 1978. England were never slow to finish off weaklings when Mike Brearley was captain and Ian Botham his Lord High Executioner. Poor Test sides and countries weakened by Kerry Packer were enthusiastically culled. In 1978, when New Zealand were stronger in every department than they are now except wicketkeeping, Eng- land won all three Tests well inside the distance. Our inability to keep kicking beaten opponents surfaced in the mid-to-late eighties. Perhaps it derived from the softness of county crick- et. It was also the time when England were made to undertake tours so long that players lost their enjoyment of cricket. When they couldn't finish off opponents, they began to take their frustration out on the umpiring. A prime case was in 1986-7, after England had defeated Australia in the opening Test at Bris- bane. In the second at Perth they went one better and were rout- ing a demoralised Australian team - David Boon as opener was go- ing through the horrors - until England dawdled through their second innings. The lifeline was most gratefully seized and the game drawn. England won the series 2-1 when with a bit of nous it could have been 3-0. Allan Border marked that series down as the moment Australia began their revival. England have never had the better of them since. Momentum in a Test series is like the new rugby law on the ball in the maul: use it or lose it. In 1990, when Graham Gooch made his 333 at Lord's, India were defeated by some brilliant cricket. In the next Test at Old Trafford India were still down, but they were given less than the whole of the last day to bat out, and a straightforward caught-and-bowled chance was missed when one of their younger batsmen had scored 10. Sachin Tendulkar went on to score his maiden Test hundred and to save the match. In the third, India maintained their upturn to make England follow on. Mike Atherton, if this nonexistent summer permits him to exhibit it, has sufficient Brearley-esque ambition to keep on crushing New Zealand. And most of his players will want to get their own back on New Zealand, after enduring such ignominies as India's clean-sweep, Sri Lanka's first win over England, the non-contest for the Ashes, the 46 in Trinidad. But in the second Test at Lord's this week it will be interesting to see if Ray Illingworth, and we, can detect a less committed ex- ception or two. No Crowe centuries, no contest: that is what this series is boiling down to. The rest of the tourists' batsmen will suffer if the ball moves around as it has been at this season's grassier Lord's. If Mark Ilott had been playing this weekend, he could have taken over from Devon Malcolm, for a full length and a little movement are enough to expose New Zealand. If Ilott remains unfit, either Paul Taylor or Steve Watkin or Phil Newport would do. (Extracted from a Sunday Telegraph article) Contributed by Vicky (VIGNESWA@*umass.edu)