Paul Nixon column – Don’t quit the game Sid, you’d make a top coach

Ryan Sidebottom will hang up his spikes at the end of the year, having had a wonderful career in both county and international cricket.

I never played in the same side as ‘Sid’ but I would have loved to have kept to him. We had some great battles over the years, with Ryan coming down the hill at Yorkshire and firing in those swinging Yorkers.

He yorked me at Canterbury once and nearly broke my toe!

His batting has kicked on in the last few years of his career, too, and that just shows how much hard work he puts in, even when the muscles are tired and you might just want to focus on what you know.

He’s a great solid pro who’s been a brilliant servant to county cricket. Sid is a fiery redhead who wanted to bowl a few maidens and then he would be in for the kill.

He’s a quality bowler who could have played a lot more for England if it wasn’t for injuries.

England have never really replaced that left-arm swing bowler. It’s a bit strange because that helps spinners and it’s never easy to face quality left-arm bowling.

When you look at Ryan’s stats, 22 Tests taking 79 wickets at an average of 28 is good. That included a brilliant hat-trick against New Zealand, too. In first-class cricket he has averaged under 24, and taken almost 750 wickets so far – it’s top drawer.

He’s always looked like he’s had a plan. He would see how much it was swinging early on, then if it wasn’t swinging that much he had the skills and technique to put pressure on with dots, dots, dots.

Then, all of a sudden, he would attack you for a couple of overs but he could control it with ease.

Sid’s economy rate is 2.77 and that’s brilliant as well. It’s because he loves bowling dots and building the pressure. He very rarely gives batsmen that release ball that they can easily put away and that helps him take wickets as well as his partner, bowling up the other end.

He played on some flat wickets at Trent Bridge for Nottinghamshire, too, so keeping that economy rate down is brilliant.

Even when you look at his List A economy of 4.47 and ODI at 4.88 it’s remarkable. As an opening bowler taking the new ball and coming back at the death, it takes great skill. Of course he was a star for England in the successful 2010 World T20, he just had so many skills.

Sid mixed his pace well and you never felt you could line him up. He is deceptively tall, too, you wouldn’t think of him as a 6ft 4in bowler, but he is and that means you’re not expecting the bounce that he gets. He didn’t bowl many bouncers but his good length always had you worrying as a batsman.

That’s why he would have been a dream to keep to. He gets the good carry and hangs it out there so you know, as a keeper, you’re always in the game.

County cricket will miss him. He’s had his injury problems, but when he plays, it’s all that matters to him. Every wicket is a big one, whether it’s in county cricket or the World Cup final.

He loves being in the battle. He’s from a sporty family with his dad Arnie having played football for Manchester United and cricket for England. He’ll want to go out on a high this year. He was Toby Roland-Jones’ hat-trick victim at Lord’s as Middlesex beat Yorkshire in the County Championship thriller in September and won’t want to see a repeat this time round.

Life, and sport in particular, has an amazing way of bringing things back for you so don’t be surprised if he takes the final wicket in 2017 to win Yorkshire the Championship again. It would certainly be a fitting way to bow out in his 40th year.

I retired a year or two later but as an opening bowler to play until he is 40 is an outstanding effort.

He has faced a lot of adversity and there would have been many rehab sessions but he’s always been determined to get back on the field.

It’s testimony to his drive and love for the game to keep going. He knows he has to miss T20 and pick his moments. At that age you have to be so specific with what you do and he’s done it, the proof is in the pudding.

County cricket salutes him but I don’t expect this to be the last we see of Sidebottom. He has got great knowledge and would make a great coach. He gets a bit of white line fever – you see him red face, veins popping and two fists in the air celebrating but he’s so quiet off the pitch.

He has experience in all formats of the game, though, and it will be interesting to see what his future holds.

This piece originally featured in The Cricket Paper, February 24 2017

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