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Phil Tufnell

Salamuddin

International Debutant
What's Tuffers up to these days ? Last I heard of him was when he won the Celebrity Survivor contest in Australia ?

Is he coaching in the England Academy ?
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
No, and hopefully he won't be, he'd be a bad influence.
There are plenty of ex-fingerspinners equal in ability who could do a better job on the behaviour-off-the-field front.
It wasn't actually anything to do with the Survivor series - it was an English stupidity called I'm A Celebrity - Get Me Out Of Here.
But he won it and gave cricket a bit of positive publicity, so no complaints. He was doing some commentary on TMS in Sri Lanka and IMO that's a far better place for him than the coaching field.
 

Rik

Cricketer Of The Year
To be fair he was a "gifted" bowler, he often remarked how easily bowling came to him. The best coaches are the players who have to work hard at their games.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Yes, that's very true.
Everyone said that was why Clive Lloyd didn't make a good coach - he just couldn't understand why King and co. were incapable of bowling 6 balls out of 6 on the spot like Marshall, Holding, Garner, Ambrose, Walsh, Bishop and Roberts were.
However, I simply don't think Tufnell had talents Emburey and the like didn't. He is rather overrated by some IMO.
 

Tom Halsey

International Coach
Phil Tufnell had a lot of natural talent, his biggest problem, suprisingly from his public image, was self confidence, according to Ian Botham.
 

Mr Mxyzptlk

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Richard said:
Yes, that's very true.
Everyone said that was why Clive Lloyd didn't make a good coach - he just couldn't understand why King and co. were incapable of bowling 6 balls out of 6 on the spot like Marshall, Holding, Garner, Ambrose, Walsh, Bishop and Roberts were.
Yet King was more than able of bowling 6 balls in the spot. He was a very promising talent who was, unlike many others, translating that into success.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Until he toured England and lost it completely in the Old Trafford Test and turned the Headingley match on it's head by gifting first Hussain and Thorpe, then Vaughan and Hick some runs. McLean was at fault too, but King was most wayward there.
True, though, I always thought he had real potential - better examples would be Black, Stuart, Collins and the like. And now Edwards, Taylor, Best and any other seamer who might be picked.
 

Langeveldt

Soutie
halsey said:
Phil Tufnell had a lot of natural talent, his biggest problem, suprisingly from his public image, was self confidence, according to Ian Botham.
Im reading two books by him, and they seem to ooze with a lack of confidence, even in his non playing days..
 

Rich2001

International Captain
Langeveldt said:
Im reading two books by him, and they seem to ooze with a lack of confidence, even in his non playing days..
Yeah I read that in Mike Atherton's book that Tuffers would just keep coming up to him and asking iam bowling well aren't I all day long.
 

Tom Halsey

International Coach
Rich2001 said:
Yeah I read that in Mike Atherton's book that Tuffers would just keep coming up to him and asking iam bowling well aren't I all day long.
Yeah, that's exactly what he did according to Beefy as well.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Strange...
Interesting, Rich - I've read Opening Up five or six times and I can't remember that comment - could you give me a page-reference?
However, I still don't think constant confidence would have made Tufnell's record any better. He bowled well on some occasions when he had the chance, bowled poorly on some occasions, and, like everyone, got wickets from deliveries that had nothing good about them sometimes.
He was a good fingerspinner but no more - there is no such thing as a fingerspinner who is a threat to good batsmen in all conditions.
 

Tom Halsey

International Coach
I geniunly believed that if he had the confidence, he could have been a world beater. He could spin it, had flight, and was ball-on-a-string accurate too.

And I liked his run up.:P
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
How could he turn it any more than any other fingerspinner?!!!
He didn't have abnormally long fingers or an unusually firm grip, did he?
 

Rich2001

International Captain
Richard said:
Strange...
Interesting, Rich - I've read Opening Up five or six times and I can't remember that comment - could you give me a page-reference?
There is no real refernce ie a couple of pages on the subject but there are just general little bits throughout the book ie this bit.

"Athers...I bowled all right, didn't I? Jesus, I've gone for 170 on a "Bunsen" but I bowled well... didn't I?" (Page 293)

" Despite his outwardly aggressivly attitude and image, Tufnell was low on self-confidence and needed constant reassurance about his cricket and life in general. On the pitch, in the dressing room, and even in the bar, he would constantly sidle up to his team mates to ask, "how's it comin' out? Spinnin' it, iam I?" (Page 130)
 

Mr Mxyzptlk

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Richard said:
Until he toured England and lost it completely in the Old Trafford Test and turned the Headingley match on it's head by gifting first Hussain and Thorpe, then Vaughan and Hick some runs. McLean was at fault too, but King was most wayward there.
Of what I know he was bowling with an injury.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Was it the same injury that turned him from a very good bowler into one basically out of the international running?
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Rich2001 said:
There is no real refernce ie a couple of pages on the subject but there are just general little bits throughout the book ie this bit.

"Athers...I bowled all right, didn't I? Jesus, I've gone for 170 on a "Bunsen" but I bowled well... didn't I?" (Page 293)

" Despite his outwardly aggressivly attitude and image, Tufnell was low on self-confidence and needed constant reassurance about his cricket and life in general. On the pitch, in the dressing room, and even in the bar, he would constantly sidle up to his team mates to ask, "how's it comin' out? Spinnin' it, iam I?" (Page 130)
Quite how I could have forgotten these I really don't know!:duh:
Not exactly a long book!
 

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