Ashes 2013: let us hope Simon Kerrigan's meltdown was down to nerves and not the dreaded yips

But in this instance that luxury was a horrible burden.

Kerrigan probably wanted to bowl more, but at the same time was petrified at what might happen if he did.

And there were another four days of the match, during which Kerrigan will have been questioning himself throughout.

Should he be there? Was he good enough to be there in the first place? Can he recover? What would he be like should he be selected again?

He would not be human were he not asking such questions.

I asked myself the same questions from the moment I received the call-up.

It was a different era, when selectorial doors were mostly revolving, but, having failed, the possibility that you might never play again was very real.

The series was against South Africa with Allan Donald at his swiftest, and captain Alec Stewart was busy organising chest pads for the batsmen. Did I need one? How did I know?

I have to admit that I feared for Kerrigan from the start. I had been at Northampton the previous Saturday when he had played for England Lions against Australia.

Shane Watson had taken him apart. It was as brutal a dismantling of a bowler as I have seen for a long time. T

here were signs of enough revolutions for the ball to turn, but Kerrigan, relying on an action without run up or front arm, in general bowled far too slowly.

So when Kerrigan was selected last Thursday morning, I tweeted the hope that his performance there had not been a fair reflection of his ability.

There followed the rather predictable rounds of abuse from a couple of Lancashire supporters about negativity.

I have since heard that Kerrigan’s natural pace is usually quite quick, that nerves made him bowl more slowly, both at Northampton, where he had been tipped off about possible selection, and in the Test.

But I was certainly not wishing ill upon him.

One should never forget the importance of an international debut, and that is not just the importance to the player himself or herself.

The emotions of those closest to you tell the truest story, in both elation and then disappointment if things do go awry.

And the player can feel guilty if the latter does arise.

For that second innings of my debut, which happened to be on a Saturday afternoon, the players of my club side, Lydney, arranged specially for a television to be at the club.

They watched it for only a few minutes. I still feel guilty about that.

Just imagine how Kerrigan feels.

And imagine further how he must have felt celebrating with the Ashes winners on Sunday night.

The super-sub Gary Pratt would have felt more comfortable in 2005.

The conclusions on Kerrigan have been swift and mostly harsh. But the real question is: did he suffer stage fright or the start of the yips?

Only time will truly tell. The yips among bowlers is usually associated with left-arm spinners such as Kerrigan.

Think Phil Edmonds, Keith Medlycott, Fred Swarbrook, Ravi Shastri and young Michael Davies, the former Northamptonshire spinner.

But right-armers have been afflicted too. Think of Gavin Hamilton, a one-Test wonder.

At Glamorgan I played alongside an off-spinner called Michael Cann, who at one stage did not know which foot to set off on. Unforgivably, I, along with my team-mates, laughed.

No one should laugh at Kerrigan now. And let us sincerely hope he is not another left-arm spinner to add to the yips list.

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Ashes 2013: TV umpires chief Simon Taufel believes officials need more training

Taufel, who stood in 74 Tests before retiring last year aged 41, now works for the International Cricket Council and is in the process of building a training programme for officials across all forms of the game in an attempt to lift the standards of third-umpiring, and to widen the diversity of the elite panel that at the moment includes eight out of 12 umpires from England or Australia.

The third umpire’s decisions have been one of the most controversial aspects of the current Ashes series, beginning with the wrongly overturned lbw decision against Jonathan Trott in the first Test and including a couple of close calls on faint edges behind at Lord’s. Commentators have blamed the third umpires for failing to apply the decision review system properly and Taufel believes more training is required for what has become a pressurised job as technology increasingly influences cricket.

Taufel also reveals how modern umpires working in the glare of television cameras even practise in front of a mirror how to overturn appeals without looking as though they have lost confidence.

“Umpiring in today’s international cricket is a different being to what it was when I started,” Taufel told The Daily Telegraph. “We expect our third umpires to sit behind a TV and think it is going to be 100 per cent right all the time. The results prove us dif­ferently. It is an incredibly chal­lenging role.”

The third umpire spends about 80??per cent of his time watching television images but also has to monitor over-rates, logo infringements and communications between officials and the television broadcaster. Last week in Sri Lanka, Rod Tucker, the Australian umpire, was ill and missed a match between Sri Lanka and South Africa but rather than use the local umpire to fill in as third official, he was instead asked to umpire on the field such is the specialist nature of the TV job and the amount of training required.

“We have 45 people [officials from the elite panel and international list] who can be third umpires. That is a lot of people we need to train with limited resources and time,” Taufel said. “All I have at my disposal is three umpire coaches and myself and the co-operation of host broadcasters. That is a big challenge. It demands the appropriate training and focus of skills to catch up where we are on field.

“No system is perfect. All have drawbacks and positives. There are some fundamental decisions that people who make decisions have to look at.

“People focus on not trying to bring DRS down or to find holes in it. Don’t ask is it right or wrong but ask are we using it in most effective way to serve officials, players and values of the game?”

Taufel, who delivered the Cowdrey Lecture at Lord’s on Tuesday night, is also helping those at the top to cope with having decisions overturned, an umpire’s equivalent to dropping a catch or playing a bad shot. “Years ago you could stand on field say I have called it and done the best I can. Now you see decisions dissected on big screen in front of you, get instant feedback from third umpire.

“Dealing with instant feedback is more of a challenge these days. The better umpires learn to deal with that faster and even work on body language to a point when they will stand in front of a mirror or a colleague and practise having to reverse and change a decision in a way that still looks strong and promotes confidence.”

With only two umpires from the subcontinent on the elite panel, Taufel recognises the need to lift standards around the world and avoid the current situation where only four umpires are able to control 10 Ashes Tests. “We have to try and move away from situation where we have eight umpires from England and Australia. That is reflective of how well Cricket Australia and the ECB structure their domestic system. Ideally you would want to broaden that pool because it [the Ashes] is a high profile series.

“It is pressurised, it is hard work and you would like to think we can balance our appointments a lot more so we are getting a much better spread of workload.”

Taufel pinpointed the importance of integrity in his speech last night and believes players must question whether they are acting in the interests of cricket, a view which questions Stuart Broad’s decision not to walk after edging to slip in the first Ashes Test.

“It is for each player to look at themselves and how they play the game,” said Taufel. “My message to anyone involved in the game is do the right thing and put interests of the game ahead of personal interests. That is the spirit of cricket. Everything we need to do is from the point of view of integrity.

“Respect the opponent, respect the game and its future and make sure everything you do is based on honour and integrity for advancing the game of cricket. If you are doing that above self-interest then that is a good thing.”

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