Knocked back by youth opportunity

County focus; Stephen Brenkley believes Leicestershire have had to introduce too many new players

COUNTIES that consistently fail to gain the attention of the England selectors are usually declared to be unfashionable. On those grounds, Leicestershire are slightly less popular than water bosses and winkle- picker shoes.

It is four years since one of their cricketers played for England. But Chris Lewis, like David Gower and Phillip DeFreitas before him, left for another county. The present players have fewer England caps between them than the staff of any other county: one belongs to James Whitaker. Given England's propensity for team changes this is quite remarkable.

It also puts into some perspective the county's slide from being runners- up in the Championship last season (a spectacular over-achievement) to the more familiar territory of mid-table this summer (disappointing, perhaps, but unsurprising). Like Warwickshire, whom they pursued most of the way in 1994, they appeared to be much greater than the sum of their parts. Unlike Warwickshire they have been unable to repeat the trick this season. Their one-day form has also been relentlessly moderate.

"It's the old story, I know, but it's the injuries," said their England man, Whitaker. "We haven't just had lots, we've had them to key players. We've lost our main strike bowler and top-order batsmen and instead of introducing young players gradually, we've had to bring in maybe too many at once."

If he was right in mentioning the hoariness of the story, the excuse has validity. David Millns, their fast bowler and leading wicket-taker last summer, has been out since mid-June; Hansie Cronje, the overseas player, and Whitaker himself have both missed several matches. Only four men have played in all Championship games (two of them being the oldest men on the books, the captain Nigel Briers and the all-rounder Gordon Parsons).

But there have been inadequate performances, too, as Whitaker conceded. Players who have occasionally shown that they had the mettle and talent to be the best at the top level have not done so consistently (Ben Smith, Vince Wells, Paul Nixon are three this season). "It is a case of getting them to believe in themselves," Whitaker said, "of convincing them that they are capable and making sure they are ready to go out and do it."

These are the words of someone who is likely to be a captain some day, indeed someone who may have already become a captain as he says he has received in the past "some interesting offers". He is now seemingly content to wait to inherit the leadership at Grace Road. While this might depend on Briers's intentions, it seems certain hints have been dropped. He is wise enough to be hopeful rather than expectant.

"It is something I really want to do and think I could do. I have made no secret of that," he said. "People who manage other people should learn to listen to those people and handle them accordingly. By sitting and talking to players it might be possible to help them go out and give that extra few per cent."

Clearly a man of firm leadership ideas, Whitaker is, of course, perhaps the prime example of a Leicestershire player who has not achieved what was predicted for him in the game. There have intermittently been stylish runs since his England cap, awarded on the 1986-87 Australian tour, but no sustained peak of form. He has made too few hundreds and too many nineties but believes he is now playing with more freedom again.

The figures seem to demonstrate as much. In what has been, admittedly, a batsman's summer, he averages above 40, has scored three centuries and, having failed to reach 1,000 runs in any of the previous three seasons, was on course for around 1,200 when an ankle injury kept him out for four matches.

If Leicestershire are some way from being the cannon fodder of old, they are equally not the major county they had threatened to become. Now they need an England player or two, which may bring a trophy or two. But the selectors are not yet beating a path to Grace Road.