Bat and ball / Andrew Hughes / 28 July 2008 /

Andrew Hughes on the most important position in the field.

Things have changed somewhat since the days when diving was considered unseemly and a chap preferred to keep his whites clean rather than risk a grass stain in pursuit of the ball. These days, players seem to spend as much time on fielding drills as honing their batting or bowling skills and even duffers like Monty Panesar are expected to reach a certain standard with their out cricket.

But whilst the overall standard of fielding has improved immensely over the years, for a long time in cricket's history, the most important fielding position remained the same. Whilst veteran or immobile batsmen tended to end up in the slips, the genuinely athletic invariably found themselves stationed in the covers, to cut off those orthodox offside drives. Jack Hobbs was, by all accounts, an elegant operator in that area. Over the years, the likes of Neil Harvey, Colin Bland, the young Clive Lloyd, Derek Randall and David Gower made the position their own. Bland in particular brought the art of cover fielding to a new level with his ability to pick up and hurl the stumps down in one movement.

But with the advent of one-day cricket, there has been a gradual change in the pecking order of fielding positions. The stringent calling of leg-stump wides and the introduction of fielding restrictions have given batsmen the room and the incentive to be bolder in playing cross-batted shots outside off stump. As a result, the best fielder is no longer certain to be placed in the covers. Point and more specifically, backward point is now the most fashionable and most important position.

The job of the backward point fielder is ideally to catch but certainly block, parry or get some part of their body in the way of fiercely hit square of the wicket shots, which invariably take around half a second to travel from bat to fielder. Whereas cover fielding could be anticipatory, offering the opportunity to prowl, to narrow down the batsman's angles and sniff run-outs, backward point is all about reaction. Jonty Rhodes, possibly the best fielder of the modern era, was highly skilled in both cover and backward point regions and, like Colin Bland, he was an intensive practiser. But the key attributes he exhibited when fielding at backward point were those of a goalkeeper in football: fast reactions and athletic agility.

There are number of great exponents of the art of backward point fielding around at the moment. Herschelle Gibbs, though in the twilight, if not the midnight of his international career, has been a worthy successor to Jonty Rhodes in that position. AB De Villiers is another South African who can fill that role when required.

For Pakistan there is Imran Nazir, not a regular in the international team, but an excellent and agile backward point, who's claim to fame is to be the first Pakistani fielder to perform a cartwheel whilst intercepting a fiercely struck shot. And of course, there is England's own Paul Collingwood, a genuine specialist at backward point. Just take a look at this catch to dismiss Matthew Hayden or this stunner to end the innings of Devon Smith.

Collingwood has paid the price for a long run of poor form with the bat, but England need not worry. They have a pretty good replacement in Alistair Cook. He showed in New Zealand that he has the fast reactions to thrive at backward point. Not known for his fielding when he came into the team, he has worked hard on it. Just watch these crackers he took in New Zealand.

But it will take more than some fancy fielding to get England back into the current series with South Africa. After the frustration of Lords' and the debacle of Headingley, England are as high as [4.4] to win the Third Test at Edgbaston. South Africa are in the driving seat and are [2.54] favourites to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in Birmingham. The draw is available at [2.58].

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