In Part One, which can be found here if you somehow might have missed it, I discussed with Nick the key challenges that our batsmen of this generation and the next are facing when it comes to playing for England at Test level. We also discussed how the level of coaching has somewhat diminished across the board as well as the need for younger players to broaden their horizons.
In this Second part, I wanted to dive a little deeper into Nick’s own career as an England Test batsman, the challenges that came on and off the pitch as well as some reflections on his own career.
Sean: You had a pretty classical technique, did the guys at Loughborough try and tweak it? God only knows what they would have done to Steve Smith if they’d seen his technique as a kid?
Nick: “Not hugely. I mean they try to question you in terms of whether you get a bit better here or there, but they didn’t do too much with me. I think when I came in, I had come up the hard way through county cricket; I had scored loads of runs at county level and was an older and more established player. I had played on the England A tour and for the Under 19s too during my career, so no one really tweaked my technique too much.”
Sean: I have been a big critic of the pitches at county level, which encourages teams to play slow wicket to wicket bowlers, what are your thoughts having had a long career?
Nick: “Absolutely, I think the pitches are by and large substandard these days, with even Lord’s being one of them because it’s so dry and slow. When I was a kid you arrived at a game at Lord’s licking your lips – not just because it’s at Lord’s but also because you’re playing on prime surface – almost a work of art really. At times there are club wickets I’d genuinely rather go and bat on these days. It can appear patchy and it’s dry underneath, and all because they’ve got these underwater drainage systems beneath that suck the life out of a pitch, meaning they have to patch it up with extra grass to try and make it Test Match worthy. It’s not an excuse, but I really struggled with motivation the last two or three years I played there. I’d be fielding at backward point and the first ball of the game would drop in front of the wicketkeeper and I can remember thinking that this is going to be a very long four days. The ball didn’t come on to the bat, and it doesn’t make for exciting cricket. My game was all about timing the ball, so I always wanted some pace in the pitch so it came on to the bat. Slow pitches like that make it tedious and dull.
“Obviously that doesn’t affect some other players – a Ben Stokes can just hit the ball out of the ground, but it wasn’t my game and it didn’t suit me. It also leads back to the point I was making about the lack of fast bowling in our game – why bother when pitches are like that? Now we are facing the Australians who have some real pace and our top order is struggling because they don’t face it in county cricket much. The reality is that these pitches encourage medium pacers and it doesn’t help anyone prepare to face bowling of the level and speed of Pat Cummins or Mitchell Starc. It really isn’t complicated – in county cricket you just don’t see those types of bowlers because you’re facing a trundler who bowls 73 miles an hour on a wet green dog of a pitch. In the end it affected my enthusiasm, especially in the early part of the season, because it was just so boring – medium pacer after medium pacer. I did a job as a professional and I had the extra motivation that I wanted to play for England, so I worked it out, but it’s always leave, block, leave, block when trying to get in on those pitches. Even then, no matter how hard you focus, you’ve got someone like Darren Stevens, all due respect to him, ambling in and bowling wicket to wicket. In those conditions he can make you look silly, and that’s county cricket. But then players go to Australia or South Africa where the ball is whistling past their ears and it’s no wonder our players struggle. I was lucky, that’s what I grew up with.”
Sean: If you don’t mind me asking, I was pretty shocked when you were dropped from the England set up in 2013. Do you think that’s because you weren’t an attacking opener?
Nick: “Yes, I’ll admit it’s a real sore point for me because I don’t think I should ever have been dropped. Was it my approach to batting? Perhaps, however I felt that I had forged a good partnership with Cook both statistically and in person and there really wasn’t a need to change things; however it shows how fickle and tough sport can be at the highest level. In my final game at Headingley [against New Zealand 2013] I hurt my rib and couldn’t field on the last day which was originally diagnosed as a hairline fracture but eventually diagnosed as heavy bruising, but still meant I was unable to take the field. There was some scepticism from England’s management team at the time about the injury as they were under a lot of pressure and I knew I was under pressure from certain quarters. It was pretty tough to take as I was an opening batsman who had forged his identity through facing some of the fastest bowlers in the world and seemed to excel in some of the toughest conditions. Naturally, I wanted to contribute in the field so that we won the game and it was incredibly frustrating not to be able to do so. I know Andy wasn’t in a great space at the time and I gave the management an opportunity to look elsewhere by not playing my best at the time. Whether that contributed to being dropped from the Ashes series, I simply don’t know. I do know that I wasn’t given a chance to play again for England under him as head coach.
“Things like that are hard sure, but I have to hold my hands up, had I played really well then I wouldn’t be saying this. I also really don’t think it was the pace that I batted though, more to do with the fact that the England management team felt Cook, Trott and myself were a bit samey. But I’ll say it again, that in my experience that you need three opening batsmen with proper techniques to be successful in England at Test level. I’m of the strong opinion that in this Test series, if England had three top players who could get through the new ball, that middle order would be scoring a hell of a lot more runs than they have been recently, irrespective of what happened on Sunday. The top order need to survive the new ball, if they can last for an hour and a half then they’ve gone a long way to doing their job – and they can go on to a decent score and the middle order have half a chance of succeeding. But it’s not fashionable to approach it that way, and as a result they can’t do it, they don’t want to do it and their techniques aren’t potentially up to it. Full stop.”
Sean: That must have a terrible blow, was that your biggest regret in the international arena?
Nick: “Yes, I would swap everything to have been able to play in the Ashes against the 2015 Australians because if there was ever a time that I could have excelled, that was it. It wasn’t against Sri Lanka and similar teams like that, it was against the fastest bowlers. I truly think that’s where I could have offered a point of difference. I wasn’t the kind of player who would have stood out from the crowd against medium pacers but against for example, Mitchell Johnson, I believe my technique and experience against facing the quickest bowlers in the world in similar conditions would have meant that I had a better chance of succeeding than most; however I never got the chance to prove it and that’s a big regret as I do feel I was a better player than my Test average reflects.”
Sean: I remember Ricky Ponting at the time being shocked that you had been left out of the Ashes team after your performance at Worcester against the touring side.
Nick: “Yes, I played well in that game and they were all running in at 90 miles an hour too. I couldn’t have felt more at ease with my batting than I was against them, it’s when I felt at my most confident and I just wanted that chance at the top level as I’m a different player against the fastest and best. I came alive against Dale Steyn in the game at Durban and felt completely comfortable because that’s what I grew up with and that was my main talent. But the problem was that I felt my card had been marked the first time around as someone who was too intense and didn’t bat with enough aggression. I remember a game at Uxbridge in 2014 for Somerset against Middlesex and I got 98 and 88 not out and played out of my skin saving a game against a strong Middlesex team featuring Steven Finn and Toby Roland-Jones who were all bowling really well. And I remember John Inverarity, who was the chairman of Australian selectors at the time and a fabulous cricketing individual telling my mentor that although I’d played very well, I still wouldn’t be selected, because the England selectors just didn’t want players who played like me.”
Sean: Did you feel that you were treated somewhat unfairly by the media?
Nick: “Yes at times I did. I felt I had to fight harder and harder as my career went on, because I didn’t feel there was a wave of backing for the way I played and the qualities I had – it wasn’t sexy enough for them. Of course there were some good players coming through as well, one by the name of Joe Root, who didn’t turn out all that bad! Given what was written in the press, I felt I had to bang my own drum to get any recognition at all but it also gave me a greater source of hunger for much of my career to prove them wrong. At the time I started to wonder if I was losing it, but looking back now, and given what’s going on with the England batting currently, I realise I wasn’t losing it at all, it’s just my style of batting supposedly didn’t fit with what England wanted retrospectively. I am still deeply disappointed how the likes of Michael Vaughan and those others in the media who would pontificate about how Compton was batting too slowly, portrayed me back then. Joe Root scored 12 off 80 balls the other day but nothing negative was said about him – just the opposite. Now they bemoan the inability of the top order to occupy the crease, but it’s not what they were saying at the time when they were more interested in who could clear the boundary rope. So why was that? They are supposed to know the game after all; Yes, it would have been easier for me if my batting average had been higher so I could have put those murmurings to bed, but I still felt that I was being singled out a bit at times when as a player all you want to be left to do what you’ve done before and will do again. The difference of course is that in international cricket it’s about time and there isn’t a lot of it due to the unique pressures you face in the international arena. I’ve read that it was maybe how I came across in interviews, but personally I don’t think that was the case, I just felt I was focused and professional and that I gave it my all every time I went to the crease. Perhaps it was the Compton name that made me a target, but whatever it was, I could just never understand why I was always in the firing line.”
Sean: Perhaps people saw you as a bit of an easy target? There was the whole Nick Compton doesn’t fit in, which baffled me.
Nick: “I know, and that hurt me because I’m pretty sure I’m a decent bloke and got on well with the players in the dressing room. Sure I was a defensive batsman but then so was Jonathan Trott and so was Alastair Cook. I felt it was unfair and to be honest I didn’t really understand where it came from. I know that they didn’t like the fact that Kevin Pietersen was a big mate of mine, but I also made sure that I didn’t take sides in the fall out [Pietersen being dropped from the England side] and that was entirely deliberate. I think all of the boys saw I gave 100% percent whether out on the field or in the nets, during the game or in practice. If I had to answer back to the media, it was perhaps that I’m my own person, an individual, and maybe a little more outward looking than some of the rest of the guys in the team. I have a huge passion for photography, I absolutely loved exploring new places when we were on tour and I’d go and do things that perhaps the other members of the team weren’t as interested in, visiting art galleries in New Zealand for example. Most of the guys preferred to stay in the hotel and play on the PlayStation, which is fine, but that wasn’t me – I didn’t want to stay in the hotel playing on a games console when there are other things to do and new experiences to have. Does that mean I didn’t fit in? No, It was a ridiculous agenda, with no foundation to it. It’s not like they mentioned that I was really good mates with Alastair Cook, that was ignored. So, yes, it really upset me because it was my one shot and my career they were playing with.”
Sean: Did you get any support from any of the former pros in the commentary box?
Nick: “Absolutely not. Never. Michael Vaughan has never met me in my life, Nasser Hussain has never met me in my life and I still find it strange that they made no effort to do so. If I had their history as captain or top order player for England I’d be keen to talk to a new player and suggest a coffee and a chat about what’s involved – pass on my experiences or be there for advice if it was wanted. That would have made a huge difference to me, and I’m certain it would make a huge difference to those in that position now. These are former players we grew up watching. If having done so and then afterwards they then wrote a less than favourable article about me, then that’s fine, it’s their job, but the point is they never bothered to meet me or find out about me. They then still wrote certain things about me that were blatantly untrue. I knew the emergence of Joe Root and the calls to get him in the England side meant that I was a bit of a target, and obviously Michael Vaughan’s affiliation with Root added to that, so it felt like I was always in the firing line.”
“I’m very passionate about the way people are treated, and of course I was hurt by all the criticism I received; but I want to stand up for myself and talk about it because I believe in what I say and don’t see that as a negative thing at all. I want to help not hinder young players, especially those coming through into the England set up, so perhaps they might be able to learn from what I went through.”
The last question I was going to ask, was whether you’d take up a role on the selection panel if offered as I believe you’re uniquely qualified?
“I am actually on the selection panel. I’m only a scout at the moment and I have been tasked with scouting some young players and reporting back. Unfortunately, I don’t get any say on who is picked and who isn’t picked, that’s purely down to Ed Smith and his senior team. Perhaps one day.”
Sean: Once again, thank you for your time and your thoughts Nick; it’s been a real pleasure to have the opportunity to speak to you about your thoughts on cricket in such depth.
Nick is an ex professional cricketer who played for England, Middlesex and Somerset during his career. Nick can be followed on Twitter via his account @thecompdog. Nick is also a passionate photographer and his collections can be found here: https://nickcomptonphotography.com.
As always, it would be great to hear your comments on the above article below.
Being Outside Cricket 
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Fantastic read and wish Nick Compton all the best
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Thanks Spencer, appreciate it 👍🏼
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Echo this, fantastic read and definitely all the best to Compton.
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To use an expression which seems to be in vogue, that takes some serious bollocks to be so open and direct. Well done and thanks to both interviewee and interviewer.
I’m so fucking angry right now, though…
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Cheers Rooto. I was incredibly angry how Nick was portrayed, especially as it’s so obviously untrue.
Still a case of when your cards been marked by the powers that be, then irrespective of talent, then that’s you gone.
Very sad really.
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Great interview, Sean–thank you.
Andy Flower really was an odious bully, wasn’t he? If there’s one person who shouldn’t have anything whatsoever to do with England cricket…..
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Workplace harassment? Discrimination? Is there anywhere a positive view of Flower?
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Yes. Unfortunately it’s inside the ECB.
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And six years later he’s still there, apparently presiding over the Lions with one of his succession of job titles that are so nebulous as to mean nothing yet allow him to control everything.
And the job which brought you such wonderful ideas as James Vince, Test Cricketer, and Liam Dawson, Test Cricketer.
It absolutely beggars belief.
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Clare Connor & Flower basically have the ECB wrapped around their little fingers…
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It was the main reason I was very glad that Connor didn’t go for the men’s job in the end.
Generally I think it’s totally unfair (and often sexist) to judge someone’s suitablility for a job based on their partner, but operating shadily from behind the scenes as someone without a job title of any note whilst appearing to control most of the operation seems to have been Flower’s MO for a while now. The thought of Connor playing Boris Johnson to Flower’s Dominic Cummings was just too much for me.
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Great work politicising a non political subject. Really. Bravo.
God forbid that there be some aspect of life where we can avoid politics.
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Come along MIAB, you know there is.
It is said by those in the know that, for a five year period, daily comma-strewn reports were issued from somewhere in the vicinity of Flower’s colon.
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“Is there anywhere a positive view of Flower?”
I’m positive he’s a bit of a prick.
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He almost, but in reality didn’t, apologise for his hard line leading up to and including 2013/14 as per his views in ‘The Edge’, but watching it for the second time, it was incredible how many players he destroyed, and no one in amangement gave a sh!t at the time…
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On a less serious note, that picture of Cook and Compton together… Wow! It would make a supertanker on autopilot turn.
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So, I’ve just read both parts and what comes out really strongly is that Andy Flower’s “hard man” attitude probably lost England 2 or 3 talents. We suspected as much, but always useful to have it confirmed…
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Plus ca change…
“For it seems increasingly odd that **** remains surplus to requirements by England. He has scored seven first-class centuries in the last 12 months, all of them as an opener, and has many of the old-fashioned skills required for the role. He is patient, he is disciplined and, most of all, he does the job on a regular basis. One hopes he has not missed out due to his aesthetics. He is not a batsman who is especially pleasing on the eye. But nor was Alastair Cook or Gary Kirsten or Graeme Smith. And how England would dearly love a player of such class right now. All of which leaves you wondering if the selectors are not being a little stubborn.”
From an article published….two hours ago.
If the face fits…
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Sadly true…
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Can I guess? I haven’t followed teams not called Northants especially closely, though.
Is it Chris Dent?
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It’s not Rob Newton Rooto…:-)
Good shout but it’s more obvious than that.
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Dom Sibley from an article by George Dobell on Cricinfo?
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Bingo!
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First comment in a long time – great read, some really interesting stuff in there. Well done on getting the interview.
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Thank you HM. Good too see you back btw..
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On an unrelated subject….uneven career statistics watch part 2
Chris Woakes in England: 18 Tests, 69 wickets, ave 22.78, strike rate 43.6
Chris Woakes outside England (5 different countries): 12 Tests, 18 wickets, ave 61.77, strike rate 120.4
Maybe Joe Root’s doing some planning-ahead captaincy!
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Talking about sensible red-ball batting, what have your boys been drinking tonight Sean…?!
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Just checked the Blast table and interested to note that there are five non-Test-ground counties in the Blast QFs.
In the south group hosts for the Hundred finished in the bottom three places (and one second from bottom in the north group).
Tom Harrison eat yer heart* out (*–or, more likely, wallet).
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They. Don’t. Care.
You are irrelevant. FFS.
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Unbelievable Jeff 🤣
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Brilliant couple of posts. I warmed to Compton reading what he said (not that I ever had a problem with him). I’ve mentioned before that I gave up newspapers years ago, because of the tripe they print/invent. Wouldn’t mind if they disappeared altogether
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On the Flower Broken rib career ending incident. It is interesting to me note that one of the main themes in KP’s book is his high tolerance for pain and how belittled he was for trying to seek treatment and time off for his knee problems. It is also interesting to note that Rashid’s major ‘mental weakness’ was refusing to bowl with a cut on his spinning finger. Also of course, Matt Prior, James Anderson and no end of terrible injuries being ignored and played through. There is a pattern here I feel.
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Two absorbing posts, with Compton making interesting and insightful comments. Thanks to Sean for his well scripted questions. I had a problem with Compton in that he seemed to freeze in the middle of an innings. It was probably me rather than Compton! 🙂
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Splendid from both of you. Made me cross reading some parts, but there’s an incredible magnanimity from Compton which (although it may be a product of time and water under the bridge) makes him all the more admirable.
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Agreed. From speaking with him, he not only has a fantastic cricket brain but is a really humble guy.
Far more magnanimous than I would have been if I’d gone through the same situation.
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I really enjoyed the interview. More importantly, I love his photo’s – they are superb (nothing beats B&W).
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Yeah they are rather good!
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Good interviews, well done Sean and well done Nick Compton for being so honest, and remarkably forgiving.
That ‘face doesn’t fit’ thing is so depressing because it is often so arbitrary.
In a different industry, but one where free-lancers’ livelihoods similarly depend on getting ‘picked’, I’ve seen it happen so many times. I’ve been on the receiving end, too, and it doesn’t help that I can guess exactly why.
I’ve sat in meetings and watched mediocre executives run down a list of talented people and dismiss them one by one.
And the thing is, it’s not about the candidates – it’s about what ‘s going on in the room.
Who wants to seem expert.
Who wants to agree with the last speaker.
Who’s afraid to show enthusiasm and then be cut down with a “Oh, do you really think he’s up to it?”
Sooo much easier to say no than to put your head above the parapet and stand up for somebody you once thought was impressive. Never mind, let it go, they’ll be lucky next time. Perhaps.
But then the received wisdom from that meeting spreads to the next meeting, which will involve at least some of the same people. And that person you once thought was a rare talent is now, for no reason that anyone can define, not what’s wanted.
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Thanks Zeph, completely agree with you on the face doesn’t fit thing. It’s pretty prevalent everywhere these days but it’s especially prevalent at the ECB…
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See, this is exactly why I ask for zeph’s thoughts on things.
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This contagion and conventionalisation of views is typical of committees, everywhere, and irrespective of subject matter. It is the natural result of normal group dynamics. What is also regrettably very natural is the way that experts everywhere (and in every field) post-rationalise the available information to fit with what they prefer to think (some well-tried and trusted “gestalt” that may have no predictive power at all). This is so much an ingrained feature of human thinking that it is inevitable it applies to selecting batsmen. The conclusion is to put more weight on the facts, and collect more facts (and measure more types of fact) to minimise the role of “face-fitting”. (There is an interesting chapter about this in basketball in a newish book by Michael “Moneyball” Lewis).
In the case of Compton, the selectors strove long and hard not to select him, despite a Niagara of runs and an obviously sound technique and mindset. Selecting him was driven by the existence of a gap in the side, not by embracing the factual basis for picking him. HIs face continued not to fit, and every opportunity was taken to emphasise this. When one or two on-field performances inevitably fitted the negative template, it was treated as validation of the original negative feelings.
Despite his own reading of (and contributions to) the Moneyball genre of sports literature, Ed Smith’s selections are so eccentric that it is hard to believe they have any factual basis whatever. Not only has he not dropped Roy and not selected Sibley, but Burns was selected at least one series too late, despite voluminous stats, largely because he did not “look right”, and I wouldn’t bet a ton of money that when he eventually goes the way of Compton it will not be for some similar post-fitted reason.
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I want to thank you again, Sean, for an incredible couple of articles. There have been a couple of times I’ve wanted to write an article here about my own experiences when I was a decent cricketer back in the early 80s and how I felt I was shafted because I wasn’t from a public school, but don’t think there’s a need for that now. We now see how someone more much more talented got shafted himself and had to deal with a management team that didn’t care. I experienced it on a much smaller scale, but to see the same thing happen to someone who actually got through all that nonsense only to have the crap thrown at him again is so sad to see.
Thank you so much for all the time you spent doing this, and a special thank you to Nick Compton for being so open and talking to all of us here on the blog. If Nick is reading the comments, I was a fan and enjoyed watching you open and fight for England. I wish you the best for your future and am so glad you remain involved in cricket.
Tom
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Great read as ever Sean, keeping that bar high.
I always felt sorry for whoever opened with Cook as his style of batting tended to put pressure on his partner to bat quicker than him. Not to mention when he went through his own barren spells everyone else in the team seemed to get the blame.
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Brief aside: bit disappointed with Derbyshire 2nds. They usually play left arm 90+mph better than that.
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Yes, but they don’t face test quality left arm 90+mph very often. I reckon they can only score off the 90+mph from county left armers.
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And county 90mph merchants are usually taller. If anything, Derby IIs we’re playing for too much bounce.
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So are we all agreed that Sean has to ring Nick for a column, type it up and post it every week?
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Yep.
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Perhaps @thecompdog could set the Q’s for the next Ashes Panel?
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Yes!!!
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Yes, what?
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Yes, Sean now has to work full-time as Nick Compton’s stenographer for weekly columns here. It’s the will of the people!
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