Wednesday, January 31, 2024

The Cricketer. December 1973 and January 1974

These days there is cricket everywhere you look. A few days ago here in New Zealand we could watch great finishes to simultaneous test matches overlapping with the finals of the domestic T20s (we are spared coverage of the franchise competitions in South Africa and UAE). 


It was not always thus. The Cricketer for December 1973 has virtually no cricket on which to report. The only account of a match is Alan Gibson’s on the final of the inter-diocesan Church Times Cup (triumph for the Gloucester diocese), though John Edrich files from South Africa on the tour of DH Robins’s [sic] XI of which he was a member. This report is notable for the absence of the word “apartheid”, a triumph of omission as striking as Basil Fawlty’s failure to mention the war, or the sabbatical taken by “sandpaper” during the recent canonisation of David Warner as he ended his test career, 


The magazine struggles to fill its 32 pages, and the grainy photo of Keith Fletcher is well below the usual standard for covers. The contents page contains promise, but this rarely translates into anything memorable. I was naturally  interested in Colin Cowdrey’s piece on Kent’s season, with wins in the 40 and 55-over competitions, but it was no more than an efficient summary that arranged the obvious into a cogent order. 


Much the same applies to Gordon Ross’s look at 11 seasons of the Gillette Cup, in which the first person singular shoulders far too much of the burden. 


There is a note from Australia on the waiting lists for membership at the MCG and the SCG, respectively 55,000 and 15,000 at that time. Those numbers have increased in the intervening half century; more than 200,000 now await their MCG member’s pass. A friend of mine had an application form for Melbourne Cricket Club membership filled in on his behalf as an infant, as so many Victorians do. Years passed. When he was 18 his mother rang him, distraught. She had found the application form, unposted, in a draw. This is the saddest story I know. 


There is poignancy aplenty in this edition. Jack Iverson’s death would feature in David Frith’s chronicling of cricketing suicides, but Frith does not mention cause in his obituary of the ultimate mystery spinner here. Sir Leonard Hutton contributes a coda in which he does not overwhelm Iverson with praise. The key, according to Hutton, was to play Iverson as an off spinner. He says that “most of our batsmen found themselves over-positioned to cope with this type of bowling” so does not appear to have shared this insight with teammates. 


David Frith interviews Colin Milburn, who had returned to county cricket in 1973, four years after the car crash that cost him an eye. The tone is optimistic, but there are enough portents that there would be no happy endings to the story of Milburn’s cricket, or his life. 

 

Back in the Northamptonshire middle order, there were a series of 30s and 40s, but not until the final game of the season did Milburn pass 50 for the first time, scraping an average of 20, which was double what he managed in 1974. He told Frith that batting at No 6 made things difficult and that he did better when opening because the shiny new ball was easier to see. In Perth when interviewed, Milburn hoped that the bright Western Australian light would have the same benefit and had hopes of playing in the Sheffield Shield, a fanciful notion even in a place where he was as much a hero as he was in Northampton.


Milburn was part of the BBC TV commentary team in 1969, when he must have still been in some sort of trauma following the accident, but was not asked back (though he was an occasional summariser on BBC Radio in the late 80s). At the time of the interview he was recently engaged, but that came to nothing. The considerable sum for 1973 of £19,000 from his testimonial was in trust: “on his own admission it would have been ‘chaotic’ to have given him the lump sum”, another sign of future troubles. 


In 1988, when I worked occasionally for Cricketcall (I had turned down the Gloucestershire contract, but that’s another story) one of my colleagues had recently worked with Milburn and reported that he gave the impression of having slept rough. He died in a pub car park in 1990, having inspired a love of cricket in so many so saw him play.


The January edition has tributes to Howard Marshall from EW Swanton and Alan Gibson, following a three-paragraph obituary in December. As Gibson says, had Marshall died in 1938 “there would have been a headline about him on the main page of every newspaper”. Marshall was then one of the BBC’s best-known voices, and was the leading commentator on cricket, rugby and ceremonial occasions. He was the first to give extended ball-by-ball commentary, famously on Verity’s match at Lord’s in 1934. 


Marshall devised the grammar of cricket commentary, and did the same for radio news reporting as the head of the BBC’s war reporting unit. He reported from the Normandy beaches on D-Day. But after the Victory Tests of 1945, and the occasional ceremonial commentary, he gave up broadcasting in favour of a career in commerce. He might have continued for another 25 years. 


Howard Marshall deserves a biography; he is important enough as a broadcaster and led an interesting private life. He left his first wife for the film critic Nerina Shute, who later deserted him with their French maid. 


The January edition is richer in content than its predecessor, and includes a couple of interesting investigations into cricket history. Gerald Brodribb, whose niche was the evolution of six hitting, questions the veracity of what the Guinness Book of Records and Wisden long accepted as the longest hit with a cricket bat, Walter Fellows’ 175-yard smite during practice at the Christ Church Ground in Oxford in 1856. Brodribb looks for evidence that the hit was measured properly and verified, and finds none.


David Frith’s ability to find sad stories in cricket’s past is further illustrated. Here, his subject is Billy Bates of Yorkshire and England. Bates toured Australia with great success. At Melbourne in January 1883 he made 55 at No 9, then took seven wickets in each innings as Australia followed on, taking the first English test hat-trick in the process. His name appears  on the Ashes urn, presented to the England captain, Hon Ivo Bligh, after on the tour. 


Bates’ first four tours of Australia were all successful. It was on the fifth that his life went suddenly wrong. He was hit in the eye in the nets, an injury that ended his career at the top level. There are parallels with Milburn here. The rest of Bates’ life was a struggle. He died at 44. 


On Scorecards, we have often talked about the Rest of the World series in England and Australia in this era. The January edition reminds us of a third, consisting of two matches in Pakistan to raise funds after devastating flooding. The World XI was a mix of English and West Indian players, topped up by a couple of locals. The Caribbean contingent were mostly world-class, or something near it, but has an unexpected opening partnership of Mike Brearley and Harry Pilling. Keeping was Keith Goodwin, then Farokh Engineer’s deputy at Lancashire.  


There were centuries for Brearley, Kallicharran, and Asif Iqbal, and two for Zaheer Abbas, as well as attractive innings from Clive Lloyd, Rohan Kanhai and Colin Cowdrey, though the fact that Cowdrey’s rarely seen leg breaks nabbed two victims suggests that the level of competitiveness waxed and waned. Pakistan won both games.


Sunday, January 21, 2024

Early Adventures in the New Zealand T20

Circumstances have proscribed my cricket watching quite severely so far this season. I missed the first two Plunket Shield matches at the Basin for the best of reasons: we were in Canada with our new grandson (it was also a much better timezone for watching the World Cup). My sporting spectating was restricted to an NHL game between the Ottawa Senators and the Buffalo Sabres, a cacophonous experience that was the precise opposite of first-class cricket at the Basin Reserve.

 

Between Christmas and the New Year I had scheduled two days at the most beautiful ground I know, Pukekura Park, New Plymouth, but Covid caught up with me and my wife at last, so my cricket watching in the 2023/24 season thus far has consisted of three domestic T20 double-headers at the Basin Reserve. 

 

The first of these, just before Christmas, saw comfortable wins by both the men and women over Otago. The highlight of the day was 139 by 21-year-old Wellington opener Tim Robinson, the second highest score in New Zealand T20. Robinson has shown flashes of great promise, but this was the first time it all came together. For strokemaking, it evoked Martin Guptill at his best. Like Guptill in his World Cup quarter-final double hundred, Robinson was dropped before he had scored, but did not let it worry him. With Rachin Ravindra and Mohammad Abbas, Robinson comprises a batting trio that could produce sackloads of runs for Wellington and New Zealand over the next 15 years (and for franchise teams too numerous to mention, I suppose). 

 

On Saturday 13 January, Wellington’s double-header opponents were Central Districts. It was a day that produced more excitement, statistical landmarks and memories than you might reasonably expect in a season, or two—

  • The second-best bowling performance in New Zealand women’s T20 cricket
  • A spectacular opposition collapse, which is always fun
  • A tie
  • The best catch I have ever seen
  • The most expensive over I have ever seen.

 

Wellington Blaze v Central Hinds

 

Despite their dominance of the competition, the Blaze have sometimes fallen short when batting first, usually to be rescued by the bowlers in general and Melie Kerr in particular. Against Central Districts, 82 for two from 15 overs turned into 109 for seven off 20. 

 

Central were cruising at 89 for three with five overs left. Perhaps it was disbelief at being on the brink of overturning the mighty Blaze, or maybe it was simply the sheer quality of Melie Kerr, but they collapsed as if Liz Truss was suddenly in charge: six wickets for nine runs. It might be added that a couple of the decisions looked dubious on the replay (there is no right of referral in domestic games, though umpires can check some things, as they did later with the catch of the century).

 

Kerr took five for 13. It would have been the best ever performance in women’s domestic T20 cricket, had it not been for her five for ten against Canterbury the previous week. She is the leading wicket taker in the competition this season, and, with four fifties, the second best runscorer after Suzie Bates. It could be that the Blaze are over-reliant on her; here she was out for 26. They miss Maddy Green, who has returned to Auckland, and Sophie Devine, who is not playing in this tournament.

 

The ninth wicket fell from the first ball of the 19th over, bowled by Xara Jetly, who celebrated with a double cartwheel. Twelve were needed from 11 balls. In came No 11 Claudia Green, none of whose previous 23 innings in this format had resulted in a double-figure score. 

 

From the first ball she faced, Green was almost caught at backward point, and almost run out as she hurtled half way down the pitch and back again. 

 

At which point Green discovered her inner Wallter Hammond. She danced down the pitch to Jetly’s next delivery, turning it into a half volley and driving it to the cover boundary. Down she came to the next ball, driving sweetly to long on for a single. From the non-striker’s end Green—the same Green who had reacted to the first ball of the over in the manner of Lance Corporal Jones—now called her partner for a sharp single when the keeper fumbled a legside wide as if there was ice in her veins. The transformation in the space of a minute from a player who couldn’t get away from the strike fast enough to one who demanded it was astonishing.

 

Down the pitch she danced again, hitting a full toss to the straight boundary to level the scores.

 

The normal rules that control the cricketing universe, having popped out for a moment, now returned and hurried to wipe up the mess. Green charged again, but this time was bowled and the game was tied. 

 

There was no super over. We don’t like them because of…you know.

 

Wellington Firebirds v Central Stags

  

What is the best catch you have ever seen? If pressed, I have always gone for Alan Ealham to dismiss Nirmal Nanan of Nottinghamshire in the Sunday League at Canterbury in 1973. The Times thought it worth the headline on its summary of the day’s games: Ealham’s catch keeps Kent at the top:

 

Nanan fell to a wonderful catch by Ealham, who ran nearly 20 yards round the long-on boundary to dive and take the ball low down, tumbling over and over.

 

Ealham was stationed near the lime tree and ran towards the sightscreen at the Nackington Road End. I’ll bet that he was also responsible for at least one of the run outs on the Nottinghamshire card that day. 

 

More recent contenders took their catches at the Basin Reserve, which is not surprising, given that is where I have watched the great majority of my cricket for the past 20 years, an era in which fielding standards have reached new heights. There was Kane Williamson’s three grasps to dismiss Angelo Mathews in 2015 that became ESPN’s worldwide play of the day. Trent Boult’s gymnastic removals of Ramdin and Rahane in 2014 and 2015. Also Logan van Beek’s successive pieces of invisible tightrope walking to defy the boundary rope in the 2020 T20 final.

 

Against Central Districts, Troy Johnson pulled off a catch that was better than any of them, the best I have seen. I was in the RA Vance Stand, right above where the catch was taken, a perfect view. In the video you see the full-length dive to take the ball coming down over the shoulder and the contortion necessary to avoid the rope, during which the ball was successfully delivered to Nick Kelly (who is therefore credited with the catch). What you don’t see is where Johnson started from—a few metres inside the circle—how much ground he had to make to reach the ball, and the fast pace at which he was moving towards the boundary rope. From the stand, there appeared to be no chance that he would get there until he did. Neither does it show how strong the wind was, more than enough to introduce an element of randomness into the flight of the ball as it fell. It was magnificent.

 

When Logan van Beek came on for the 17th over, Central Districts required 33 with six wickets left to pass Wellington’s below par 147 for eight. They were ahead, but it was still a contest.

 

No 18th over was needed. All 33 came off van Beek. I am pretty sure that I have not seen as many runs off one over before, the benchmark being 31 from Graham McKenzie’s disastrous 14-ball over in the Sunday League in 1971.

 

Van Beek’s was a mere eight deliveries, starting with a legside wide that went through to the boundary. The first legal delivery was a single to deep square leg, followed by another to deep mid-wicket. Continuing the short-ball strategy, van Beek got a next one wrong and it was called as a high wide. So far there had been eight from the over, with four to bowl.

 

The next was a slower, fuller ball that Doug Bracewell sent bouncing off the toilet block into the traffic around the Basin. In the time it took to bring out a replacement ball the umpires agreed that Wellington had had too many fielders outside the circle, and called no ball. Bracewell duly dispatched the free hit over the sightscreen. Another wait for a ball. 

 

The remaining 12 required were an administrative detail that Bracewell addressed efficiently with two legside sixes. 

 

This was the same Logan van Beek who had hit 30 off Jason Holder in a World Cup qualifier super over a few months ago. As far as I can tell, van Beek is the first to score, and be hit for, 30 or more in an over across first-class, List A and the T20 equivalent. 

 

All this was available free-to-air on TVNZ. New Zealand Cricket finds itself in the enviable position of having pay TV revenue and free-to-air exposure. In 2020 Spark (New Zealand’s leading telecommunications company) bought the rights to cricket in New Zealand for six years. However, the company was unable to obtain sufficient rights across sports, particularly for winter codes, to make its streaming sports service profitable, and pulled the plug in mid June 2023. Its cricket rights were divested to its free-to-air partner TVNZ, though Spark continues to pick up most of the tab. 

 

There is a black lining to this silver cloud. TVNZ could never hope to make a serious bid when the cricket next becomes available, which will leave New Zealand’s Sky TV as the sole bidder, unless there is an unexpected development in our small market. Sky has used this position ruthlessly of late; its recent bid for renewal of the rights to netball (a significant sport in the pay TV market here) was for about half the amount it paid for the current contract. 

 

My third day at the cricket had more disappointment for the men, who collapsed to 27 for six before partially recovering to 102 all out, a total that gave no trouble to bottom-of-the-table Northern Districts. The successive defeats cost Wellington automatic qualification to the final and the hosting rights that go with it. 

 

A seamless unbeaten 73 from Melie Kerr took the women to an easy win. They win the group and go through to the final, which will be played at Eden Park, Auckland, home of the men’s group winners.







 


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