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In & Out: In defence of backdoor attacks

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Stuart Longbottom
Stuart Longbottom

During last year’s Fifa World Cup in Brazil, there was much talk about how, based on the general style of play showcased at the tournament, football had evolved from being a game of tactical defending and midfield play to one of all-out attack.

This, I suspect, largely had something to do with the tournament’s high goal count and the fact that we had seen defending champions and midfield masters Spain humiliated by a first-round exit.

If we follow this logic and view of World Cup tournaments as showcases for the state of sports, we can infer from the recent cricket World Cup that the rise of a new breed of ferociously fast bowlers and bombastic batsmen is a sign that the gentleman’s game has also shifted to being more focused on all-out attack.

But I’m generally loath to agree with such inferences, as sports – especially those played at World Cup tournaments – are about defence as much as they are about attack.

And often it’s precisely the latter that could take the shape of the former, or the former that draws the best of the latter (which is probably why, as much as we witnessed a scoring frenzy, we got to see some of the most spectacular goalkeeping at last year’s Fifa World Cup).

It seems no other coach in the world, across sporting codes, understands this better than Chelsea’s José Mourinho, who’s just about to get his hands on another Barclays Premier League title.

The self-proclaimed Special One’s approach to attacking and defending, and using the two in tandem to meet his own twisted ends, has won him more than just a share of the spoils – it’s earned him a reputation fit for characters we encounter only in fiction.

Mourinho’s preferred style is to wear down the opposition, crushing them in a wave of consistency.

Because “not losing”, as Mourinho would say, is the only thing that matters.

Cricket is usually a game of much broader margins than football, but the same brutal philosophy applies.

Whether it involves consistently asking questions at the opposition’s back door via Mourinho-esque mind games or avant-garde stroke making from the likes of AB de Villiers, playing not to lose at all costs has never before been a more vicious affair.

Therefore, describing a style of play as either attacking or defensive is rather obsolete.

Sportspeople in general, and cricketers specifically, are conditioned to read the game well enough to be attacking, defensive and a combination of the two, as and when required to do so.

Add to this that professional sportspeople are almost contractually obliged by their various franchises to be entertaining and we get a sense of why we’re seeing more bouncers and yorkers flying at heads and toes, more balls being hit out of the park and more fielders testing their limits – and the laws of gravity – to take impossible catches.

All of this in the quest for finer margins of error and bigger pay cheques.

To throw in another sport as an example, as well as to tie this column in with what went down (or indeed stayed up) in Vegas last night, it would be apt to quote fictional political mastermind Frank Underwood, whose attitude not only accurately articulates the state of sport, but encapsulates what the likes of Mourinho are probably always thinking: “Any pugilist worth his salt knows when someone’s on the ropes.

“That’s when you throw a combination to the gut and a left hook to the jaw.”

@Longbottom_69 is an armchair cricket critic.His anxiety attacks are as explosive as they are defensive

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