From the 'who'd have thought we'd live so long' archives...
This came out THIRTY YEARS AGO.
Go on, have a pogo round your room - you know you want to...
And what's it got to do with cricket? Well, very little to be honest - apart from providing an opportunity to shoehorn in this quote that's been in my 'drafts' box for months: -
"Cricket makes no sense to me. I find it beautiful to watch and I like that they break for tea. That is very cool, but I don't understand. My friends from The Clash tried to explain it years and years ago, but I didn't understand what they were talking about."
Jim Jarmusch
Friday, March 16, 2007
Monday, March 12, 2007
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Even Better than the Real Thing?
Harrowdrive has a nice piece on a fairly recent phenomenon that irritates the hell out of me - the idea that 'so and so' is ready to be picked for the Test/ODI side because he's been performing well in the nets.
The contrast between net sessions & playing in the middle are immense. Both have their purpose, but to say that someones net form can justify them being picked for the full side is total nonsense.
Understandably teams have issues with tour schedules that limit the number of warm up games before Test Matches start - but there are simple solutions to the lack of competitive play. Why not arrange your own games 'off schedule' against local club sides, or at least get games for a couple of players you feel might need some match conditioning.
Or even, as Greg Chappell suggests in the link, sort out your own scenarios out in the middle.
The contrast between net sessions & playing in the middle are immense. Both have their purpose, but to say that someones net form can justify them being picked for the full side is total nonsense.
Understandably teams have issues with tour schedules that limit the number of warm up games before Test Matches start - but there are simple solutions to the lack of competitive play. Why not arrange your own games 'off schedule' against local club sides, or at least get games for a couple of players you feel might need some match conditioning.
Or even, as Greg Chappell suggests in the link, sort out your own scenarios out in the middle.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
The Balcony Scene
During a drinks interval at a test in the 80's, the TV camera panned round to the England balcony where the players were going about their business as their batsmen did battle out in the middle. Ian Botham was sitting down utterly engrossed in a magazine. The camera focussed on him for some time. In the commentary box Richie Benaud wondered aloud what Beefy was reading - the colour summariser suggested 'The Cricketer'. Someone watching TV inside the changing room obviously told Beefy was on camera. He then held up his magazine to reveal a Playboy centrespread! Silence on air for the next five minutes - hysterical laughter in every living room in the country.
The current England changing room balcony scene is slightly less adventurous. No one is openly reading pornography - although Ian Bell does tend to disappear suddenly without warning quite a lot. KP and Freddie are normally standing at the back in skimpy T shirts that wouldn't look out of place in Old Compton Street, comparing muscles and 'tats. Ed Joyce usually has his headphones on - you'd like to think Undertones, Stiff Little Fingers or Van Morrison, but suspect Val Doonican and Ronan Keating. Andrew Strauss is putting on his kneepads in order to persaude anyone who needs persauding to let him open in the next game, Matty Hoggard is walking an imaginery dog around - and so on.
At one end of the balcony sits an impassive figure. What's Duncan Fletcher doing? Well, to quote Edwin Starr -"absolutely nothing" (say it again!) He's staring, unblinking at what's going on out in the field behind an effective mask of total and utter inscruitibility, which suggests that he must be a fantastic poker player. His lack of movement make the legendary Egyptian sphinx look animated in the extreme.
I'll admit that other international coaches also tend to sit pretty still and concentrate entirely on the game - after all, it's what they're paid to do, but they all betray some flicker of life every now and again. Bob Woolmer, for example, occasionally lets his eyes wander down to the laptop screen in front of him where he's surreptitiously watching downloaded episodes of Beavis & Butthead, whilst John Buchanan is 'lying with his eyes whilst his hands are busy working overtime' out of camera vision - in Buchanan's case they're sticking pins in the voodoo doll of Shane Warne in his lap. Fletcher is in a different league though - it's almost eerie.
Then it suddenly dawned on me - maybe what we're witnessing is something darker. Maybe there's a 'Weekend at Bernies' situation going on here. Maybe Fletcher actually died a couple of weeks ago - spontaneous combustion, a freak gardening accident, choking on vomit - who knows? The England squad then took fright at the possibility of a messy investigation by plod, and ever since they've been carrying him round from ground to ground, propping him in his usual seat on the balcony and hoping for the best.
If it's true, then there's a good chance that they could get away with it. The only time Fletcher appears in public, apart from on the balcony, is at press conferences where his performances tend to be at the narcoleptic end of the scale anyway. Freddie is a man of many skills, so surely ventriloquism isn't beyond him. A quick nudge on Fletcher's shoulder anytime the coach is asked a question, followed by Freddie muttering something in a South African accent about keeping focussed.... It's foolproof!
The current England changing room balcony scene is slightly less adventurous. No one is openly reading pornography - although Ian Bell does tend to disappear suddenly without warning quite a lot. KP and Freddie are normally standing at the back in skimpy T shirts that wouldn't look out of place in Old Compton Street, comparing muscles and 'tats. Ed Joyce usually has his headphones on - you'd like to think Undertones, Stiff Little Fingers or Van Morrison, but suspect Val Doonican and Ronan Keating. Andrew Strauss is putting on his kneepads in order to persaude anyone who needs persauding to let him open in the next game, Matty Hoggard is walking an imaginery dog around - and so on.
At one end of the balcony sits an impassive figure. What's Duncan Fletcher doing? Well, to quote Edwin Starr -"absolutely nothing" (say it again!) He's staring, unblinking at what's going on out in the field behind an effective mask of total and utter inscruitibility, which suggests that he must be a fantastic poker player. His lack of movement make the legendary Egyptian sphinx look animated in the extreme.
I'll admit that other international coaches also tend to sit pretty still and concentrate entirely on the game - after all, it's what they're paid to do, but they all betray some flicker of life every now and again. Bob Woolmer, for example, occasionally lets his eyes wander down to the laptop screen in front of him where he's surreptitiously watching downloaded episodes of Beavis & Butthead, whilst John Buchanan is 'lying with his eyes whilst his hands are busy working overtime' out of camera vision - in Buchanan's case they're sticking pins in the voodoo doll of Shane Warne in his lap. Fletcher is in a different league though - it's almost eerie.
Then it suddenly dawned on me - maybe what we're witnessing is something darker. Maybe there's a 'Weekend at Bernies' situation going on here. Maybe Fletcher actually died a couple of weeks ago - spontaneous combustion, a freak gardening accident, choking on vomit - who knows? The England squad then took fright at the possibility of a messy investigation by plod, and ever since they've been carrying him round from ground to ground, propping him in his usual seat on the balcony and hoping for the best.
If it's true, then there's a good chance that they could get away with it. The only time Fletcher appears in public, apart from on the balcony, is at press conferences where his performances tend to be at the narcoleptic end of the scale anyway. Freddie is a man of many skills, so surely ventriloquism isn't beyond him. A quick nudge on Fletcher's shoulder anytime the coach is asked a question, followed by Freddie muttering something in a South African accent about keeping focussed.... It's foolproof!
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Career Opportunities
Nari Contractor
Farouk Engineer
Mark Butcher
Bert 'Dainty' Ironmonger
Peter Loader
Bernard Constable
Des Hoare....
Farouk Engineer
Mark Butcher
Bert 'Dainty' Ironmonger
Peter Loader
Bernard Constable
Des Hoare....
Monday, March 05, 2007
I'm so Bored with the USA
Thought I'd link to this article if only as an excuse to shoehorn a Clash reference onto the site!
Actually, I seem to recall some talk a few years ago that a couple of games in this World Cup were going to be played in Florida.
My recollection is that the USACA were very bullish about the whole idea, though 'bullish' is something of a default position when it comes to US spokemen for most things. There was talk of 20/30,000 attendances, purpose built stadiums and so on.
Anyone else remember this?
Actually, I seem to recall some talk a few years ago that a couple of games in this World Cup were going to be played in Florida.
My recollection is that the USACA were very bullish about the whole idea, though 'bullish' is something of a default position when it comes to US spokemen for most things. There was talk of 20/30,000 attendances, purpose built stadiums and so on.
Anyone else remember this?
Saturday, March 03, 2007
England's Dreaming
(Second in a series of articles about previous World Cups. This one takes us back to 1979)
England have appeared in three World Cup finals – 1979, 1987 & 1992. On the face of it, the stats suggest that they could have won two of these - 1987, where they were by the far the better side on paper, but played appallingly, and in 1992 against Pakistan, where they peaked too soon and were playing against a team seemingly inspired by higher forces.
The West Indies final of 1979, however, is often written off as a stuffing by a rampant team, and certainly the bald statistics of the result – a 90 plus run margin, would bear out this judgment. But a revisionist view of history suggests that had it not been for an appalling selection error before the game, and some perverse tactics during it, England could very easily have pulled off an unlikely victory against the reigning champions.
Four years on from 1975, and there had still only been 60 ODI games played by the time the second World Cup started, and after eight years. In contrast, there have been more than 60 ODIs played since the start of this year!
England were in a group with Canada, Australia & Pakistan. Canada were polished off in around the same length of time it takes to sing the 'Lumberjack Song', Australia were beaten quite easily, so the final game against Pakistan at Headingley was, therefore, only really crucial in terms of deciding semi final match ups. (West Indies and New Zealand qualifying from the other group)
However, it was events at Headingley that became critical in England's decision making from that point - and could be said to have a bearing on the ultimate destination of the World Cup.
In cloudy conditions, and on a very slow pitch, England only managed 165-9. In response, Mike Hendrick tore out the Pakistan top order and England looked set to win easily. Asif Iqbal hung around though, and looked as though he was going to see Pakistan home, at which point Brearley took off Phil Edmonds (who was getting no help from the pitch) and turned to Geoff Boycott's very occasional medium paced seamers. Boycott, turned his cap round, trundled in and took two wickets ending with figures of 5-1-14-2. England won by 14 runs.
Prompted by Boycott’s success, England then left out Edmonds for the side to play New Zealand in the semi final and went in with just four front line bowlers, relying on Boycott, Graham Gooch and Wayne Larkins to bowl the extra 12 overs. Again the gamble paid off as Boycott bowled nine over for 24 and took the wicket of Geoff Howarth. England squeaked through again, this time by nine runs.
On the morning of the final Bob Willis declared himself unfit.
(Quick digression here – we at TRSM have said some pretty scabrous things about Willis’s performance in the Sky box, but we take our hat off to probably the bravest person ever to play for England. Wilis's knees were so shot - even by 1979, that he often had to go out and run for an hour or so, simply to get loose enough to be able to bowl. At times just running in to bowl was an extraordinary achievement - so to lead the England attack and pick up 300 plus wickets is quite simply remarkable.)
With Willis absent the England side matched that for the semi final - Edmonds returned and it was four front line bowlers again.
Boycott’s success with the ball had blinded the selectors. The ploy of ‘fiddling’ an allocation of overs might work on helpful pitches against Pakistan tail enders or the cautious New Zealanders, but as any Catholic priest will tell you, ‘fiddling’ can get you into big trouble, and there’s a big difference between bowling to Asif Masood on a green top and a rampant IVA Richards. Surely the selectors should have taken into account that Lords would be a near perfect batting track – and that there weren’t really any gaps in the West Indies line up where the overs could be slipped in.
As it was, 4 wickets were down for less than 100 - one more wicket then and England would have been well on top. But Brearley had to take the pressure off where a fifth bowler would have kept it on. Richards (138*) and Collis King (86 off 66 balls) went bananas for twenty overs and the combined analysis of Boycott, Gooch and Larkins was 12-0-86-0. England were left chasing 290 rather than a potential 260.
All the main bowlers went for 4 or less an over. Someone like John Lever would surely have done a similar job - or even Geoff Miller, who’d appeared in the earlier games, and who would have also brought his memorable 'porn-star moustache' to the party – a huge bonus! If strengthening the batting was the issue, well Miller was no slouch with the willow wand, and the England line up already contained Ian Botham - plus Old and Edmonds who knew one end of the bat from the other - effectively batting down to Bob Taylor at number nine.
Let’s leave aside the fact that Brearley/ Boycott as an opening pair was hardly likely to have the West Indies bowlers quaking in their boots. Without getting all Darwinian on you, with Joyce/Vaughan looking the likely first choice pairing for the upcoming World Cup (Coincidently another Middlesex/Yorkshire pairing!) you start to wonder just how far English tactical thinking has evolved over the past twenty five years - if anything it seems to be regressing.
By tea - England were 79-0 off 25 overs. A bit slow - but probably par for the course against Holding, Garner, Croft and Roberts. The required rate a manageable 6 an over. At that stage the thinking surely had to be to get some stroke players out there as soon as possible after tea. Bear in mind that the West Indies had their own ‘5th bowler’ issues, and Richard and King were going to have to bowl 12 overs themselves. Far better they have to go up against Gooch, Randall, Gower, Botham and Larkins than the openers, and far better to give them enough time to settle in – surely?
Cue the second brain-fart of the day.
In the immediate after tea period Richards and King restricted England to 50 runs off 13 overs as the watchful opening pair made no effort whatsoever to open up and go over the top. I suppose you wouldn’t expect the stubborn Boycott to fall on his sword (‘Get meself out? Booger off skipper – I’ve only been in thirty overs!’) But you’d imagine that Brearley the master-tactician, lauded in most circles because he beat a Packer-whacked Australian team 5-1 in 1978/79 and then rode Botham to victory in the 1981 hurdles, would have had an idea of what was required – wouldn’t you?
I find it extraordinary that more hasn't been made of this. Brearley and Boycott took no risks whatsoever. It reached farcical proportions when Clive Lloyd deliberately dropped Boycott. Brearley was finally out at 129 in the 38th over – the rate was up to 7.3, which against Garner, Holding and Co was a next to impossible target.
Even more frustratingly, Graham Gooch then showed what might have been by walloping 32 off 28 balls. He and the ebullient Randall added 48 quickly, but from 183-2 with 12 overs left Joel Garner came back on, the whole edifice collapsed like Jeffrey Archer's legal defence, and it was Finals 2 West Indies 2.
England have appeared in three World Cup finals – 1979, 1987 & 1992. On the face of it, the stats suggest that they could have won two of these - 1987, where they were by the far the better side on paper, but played appallingly, and in 1992 against Pakistan, where they peaked too soon and were playing against a team seemingly inspired by higher forces.
The West Indies final of 1979, however, is often written off as a stuffing by a rampant team, and certainly the bald statistics of the result – a 90 plus run margin, would bear out this judgment. But a revisionist view of history suggests that had it not been for an appalling selection error before the game, and some perverse tactics during it, England could very easily have pulled off an unlikely victory against the reigning champions.
Four years on from 1975, and there had still only been 60 ODI games played by the time the second World Cup started, and after eight years. In contrast, there have been more than 60 ODIs played since the start of this year!
England were in a group with Canada, Australia & Pakistan. Canada were polished off in around the same length of time it takes to sing the 'Lumberjack Song', Australia were beaten quite easily, so the final game against Pakistan at Headingley was, therefore, only really crucial in terms of deciding semi final match ups. (West Indies and New Zealand qualifying from the other group)
However, it was events at Headingley that became critical in England's decision making from that point - and could be said to have a bearing on the ultimate destination of the World Cup.
In cloudy conditions, and on a very slow pitch, England only managed 165-9. In response, Mike Hendrick tore out the Pakistan top order and England looked set to win easily. Asif Iqbal hung around though, and looked as though he was going to see Pakistan home, at which point Brearley took off Phil Edmonds (who was getting no help from the pitch) and turned to Geoff Boycott's very occasional medium paced seamers. Boycott, turned his cap round, trundled in and took two wickets ending with figures of 5-1-14-2. England won by 14 runs.
Prompted by Boycott’s success, England then left out Edmonds for the side to play New Zealand in the semi final and went in with just four front line bowlers, relying on Boycott, Graham Gooch and Wayne Larkins to bowl the extra 12 overs. Again the gamble paid off as Boycott bowled nine over for 24 and took the wicket of Geoff Howarth. England squeaked through again, this time by nine runs.
On the morning of the final Bob Willis declared himself unfit.
(Quick digression here – we at TRSM have said some pretty scabrous things about Willis’s performance in the Sky box, but we take our hat off to probably the bravest person ever to play for England. Wilis's knees were so shot - even by 1979, that he often had to go out and run for an hour or so, simply to get loose enough to be able to bowl. At times just running in to bowl was an extraordinary achievement - so to lead the England attack and pick up 300 plus wickets is quite simply remarkable.)
With Willis absent the England side matched that for the semi final - Edmonds returned and it was four front line bowlers again.
Boycott’s success with the ball had blinded the selectors. The ploy of ‘fiddling’ an allocation of overs might work on helpful pitches against Pakistan tail enders or the cautious New Zealanders, but as any Catholic priest will tell you, ‘fiddling’ can get you into big trouble, and there’s a big difference between bowling to Asif Masood on a green top and a rampant IVA Richards. Surely the selectors should have taken into account that Lords would be a near perfect batting track – and that there weren’t really any gaps in the West Indies line up where the overs could be slipped in.
As it was, 4 wickets were down for less than 100 - one more wicket then and England would have been well on top. But Brearley had to take the pressure off where a fifth bowler would have kept it on. Richards (138*) and Collis King (86 off 66 balls) went bananas for twenty overs and the combined analysis of Boycott, Gooch and Larkins was 12-0-86-0. England were left chasing 290 rather than a potential 260.
All the main bowlers went for 4 or less an over. Someone like John Lever would surely have done a similar job - or even Geoff Miller, who’d appeared in the earlier games, and who would have also brought his memorable 'porn-star moustache' to the party – a huge bonus! If strengthening the batting was the issue, well Miller was no slouch with the willow wand, and the England line up already contained Ian Botham - plus Old and Edmonds who knew one end of the bat from the other - effectively batting down to Bob Taylor at number nine.
Let’s leave aside the fact that Brearley/ Boycott as an opening pair was hardly likely to have the West Indies bowlers quaking in their boots. Without getting all Darwinian on you, with Joyce/Vaughan looking the likely first choice pairing for the upcoming World Cup (Coincidently another Middlesex/Yorkshire pairing!) you start to wonder just how far English tactical thinking has evolved over the past twenty five years - if anything it seems to be regressing.
By tea - England were 79-0 off 25 overs. A bit slow - but probably par for the course against Holding, Garner, Croft and Roberts. The required rate a manageable 6 an over. At that stage the thinking surely had to be to get some stroke players out there as soon as possible after tea. Bear in mind that the West Indies had their own ‘5th bowler’ issues, and Richard and King were going to have to bowl 12 overs themselves. Far better they have to go up against Gooch, Randall, Gower, Botham and Larkins than the openers, and far better to give them enough time to settle in – surely?
Cue the second brain-fart of the day.
In the immediate after tea period Richards and King restricted England to 50 runs off 13 overs as the watchful opening pair made no effort whatsoever to open up and go over the top. I suppose you wouldn’t expect the stubborn Boycott to fall on his sword (‘Get meself out? Booger off skipper – I’ve only been in thirty overs!’) But you’d imagine that Brearley the master-tactician, lauded in most circles because he beat a Packer-whacked Australian team 5-1 in 1978/79 and then rode Botham to victory in the 1981 hurdles, would have had an idea of what was required – wouldn’t you?
I find it extraordinary that more hasn't been made of this. Brearley and Boycott took no risks whatsoever. It reached farcical proportions when Clive Lloyd deliberately dropped Boycott. Brearley was finally out at 129 in the 38th over – the rate was up to 7.3, which against Garner, Holding and Co was a next to impossible target.
Even more frustratingly, Graham Gooch then showed what might have been by walloping 32 off 28 balls. He and the ebullient Randall added 48 quickly, but from 183-2 with 12 overs left Joel Garner came back on, the whole edifice collapsed like Jeffrey Archer's legal defence, and it was Finals 2 West Indies 2.
Looking through Gary Gilmour's Eyes
With World Cup fever gripping the nation (?!) here's the first in a series of articles looking at previous World Cup competitions - not particular pattern or formula, sometimes it'll be a high level overview, and sometimes I'll pick on some particular issue and give it a flogging. I've no idea how far we'll get with this. Let's face it, during England's recent World Cup escapades (1999 comes to mind) I've started to lose the will to live, so committing ideas to paper/WP may prove rather a traumatic experience.
First stop is 1975.
Here's a statistic that I found stunning when I first looked it up - there had only been 18 One Day Internationals before the start of the 1975 World Cup. Of those, England had appeared in over two thirds. The West Indies, Pakistan and India had appeared in only a handful of games between them. For comparison, the most recent 18 ODIs all took place in the last THREE WEEKS!
So when the teams were gathering for the inaugaral World Cup, there was very little 'form' for bookmakers to study. The West Indies were probably favourites, if only because the one-day format suited their style of cricket and the fact that a lot of their side had excelled in English domestic one day cricket. Pakistan were also fancied as they could put this fearsome line-up out - Majid Khan, Sadiq, Zaheer, Mushtaq, Asif Iqbal, Wasim Raja, Javed Miandad, Imran, Wasim Bari, Asif Masood, Safraz Nawaz. Obviously it wasn't to be for Pakistan this time, but it's worth noting that two of that side had their day in the sun no less that seventeen years later! England had a pretty solid side, and the Australians looked strong - fresh from giving England a good shoeing earlier in the year thanks to that stunning Aussie wench - Lillian Thompson.
England and New Zealand got to the semi finals in rather sedate fashion from a group that also featured India and 'East Africa'. Who they? Well, to my mind, 'East Africa' is Kenya, and possibly Uganda - both of which were happliy independent by 1975, so I'm not sure why we had to suffer the empire throwback of a name which conjours up echos of tea plantations and 'White Mischief' - presumably designed to keep the MCC 'dribblers' happy and make them think it was still 1923. Their wicketkeeper was a guy named Hamish Macleod (tartan has always been big business in Mombassa) and their skipper was Donald Pringle - Derek's old man - obviously Kenyan through and through...
Anyway, England made short work of India, thanks to Sunil Gavaskar not realising it was a one-day game, saw off NZ thanks to a Keith Fletcher ton, and then spent a happy early evening sipping pink gins and playing canasta with the 'Happy Valley' set after they'd polished them off by about 700 runs at around half past three.
The best games were all in the other group - the 'Group of Death' if you will, where West Indies, Pakistan and Australia fought for the two semi-final places alongside Sri Lanka, still then only an associate member.
Dennis Lillee inspired Australia to victory over Pakistan, who then had West Indies eight down with 80 still required to win, and contrived to lose by one wicket in an extraordinary finish.
The scenes at The Oval for the West Indies v Australia match up were extraordinary. West Indies fans were scaling the walls, throwing their ticket stubs back to friends waiting outside and smuggling themselves into the ground in delivery vans to see their heroes. One estimate was that there were 40,000 shoehorned into the ground - double the official attendance. Alvin Kallicharran single handedly destroyed the Australian attack in thrilling fashion to ensure West Indies topped the group and thus got a fairly easy passge through to the final via victory over the Kiwis.
The other noteworthy event in this group was the performance of Sri Lanka against Australia - which was a huge step on their way to attaining full status - the famous 'would you like to press charges?' comment after Jeff Thompson had hospitalised Gehan Mendis with a yorker came here.
The other semi final was England vs Australia at Headingley. Rumour has it that it was so cloudy that those in the top ten rows of the Western Terrace had to wear oxygen masks. Gary Gilmour produced a classic left arm seamers spell to reduce England to 52-8. 3 caught behind, 2 LBW and 1 bowled by the 'nip-backer' - he ended with 6-14. Denness & the tail took the score to 93.
The England bowling line up was none too shabby for the conditions and Snow, Arnold and Old had the Aussies 39-6. But ultimately there weren't enough runs to play with, Gilmour rode his luck with the bat to finish with 28 not out and the Aussies went through.
Thousands of words have been written about the final so there's little point rehashing it with a blow by blow account. Suffice to say that I was glued to the television for the whole length of it. (nine hours plus) Clive Lloyd played one of the defining one day innings, Australia confidently chased a seemingly insurmountable target only to shoot themselves in the foot with run-outs - not once or twice but FIVE times. It ended past eight o'clock - with another run out as Lillian Thompson got her knickers in a twist going for a short single!
First stop is 1975.
Here's a statistic that I found stunning when I first looked it up - there had only been 18 One Day Internationals before the start of the 1975 World Cup. Of those, England had appeared in over two thirds. The West Indies, Pakistan and India had appeared in only a handful of games between them. For comparison, the most recent 18 ODIs all took place in the last THREE WEEKS!
So when the teams were gathering for the inaugaral World Cup, there was very little 'form' for bookmakers to study. The West Indies were probably favourites, if only because the one-day format suited their style of cricket and the fact that a lot of their side had excelled in English domestic one day cricket. Pakistan were also fancied as they could put this fearsome line-up out - Majid Khan, Sadiq, Zaheer, Mushtaq, Asif Iqbal, Wasim Raja, Javed Miandad, Imran, Wasim Bari, Asif Masood, Safraz Nawaz. Obviously it wasn't to be for Pakistan this time, but it's worth noting that two of that side had their day in the sun no less that seventeen years later! England had a pretty solid side, and the Australians looked strong - fresh from giving England a good shoeing earlier in the year thanks to that stunning Aussie wench - Lillian Thompson.
England and New Zealand got to the semi finals in rather sedate fashion from a group that also featured India and 'East Africa'. Who they? Well, to my mind, 'East Africa' is Kenya, and possibly Uganda - both of which were happliy independent by 1975, so I'm not sure why we had to suffer the empire throwback of a name which conjours up echos of tea plantations and 'White Mischief' - presumably designed to keep the MCC 'dribblers' happy and make them think it was still 1923. Their wicketkeeper was a guy named Hamish Macleod (tartan has always been big business in Mombassa) and their skipper was Donald Pringle - Derek's old man - obviously Kenyan through and through...
Anyway, England made short work of India, thanks to Sunil Gavaskar not realising it was a one-day game, saw off NZ thanks to a Keith Fletcher ton, and then spent a happy early evening sipping pink gins and playing canasta with the 'Happy Valley' set after they'd polished them off by about 700 runs at around half past three.
The best games were all in the other group - the 'Group of Death' if you will, where West Indies, Pakistan and Australia fought for the two semi-final places alongside Sri Lanka, still then only an associate member.
Dennis Lillee inspired Australia to victory over Pakistan, who then had West Indies eight down with 80 still required to win, and contrived to lose by one wicket in an extraordinary finish.
The scenes at The Oval for the West Indies v Australia match up were extraordinary. West Indies fans were scaling the walls, throwing their ticket stubs back to friends waiting outside and smuggling themselves into the ground in delivery vans to see their heroes. One estimate was that there were 40,000 shoehorned into the ground - double the official attendance. Alvin Kallicharran single handedly destroyed the Australian attack in thrilling fashion to ensure West Indies topped the group and thus got a fairly easy passge through to the final via victory over the Kiwis.
The other noteworthy event in this group was the performance of Sri Lanka against Australia - which was a huge step on their way to attaining full status - the famous 'would you like to press charges?' comment after Jeff Thompson had hospitalised Gehan Mendis with a yorker came here.
The other semi final was England vs Australia at Headingley. Rumour has it that it was so cloudy that those in the top ten rows of the Western Terrace had to wear oxygen masks. Gary Gilmour produced a classic left arm seamers spell to reduce England to 52-8. 3 caught behind, 2 LBW and 1 bowled by the 'nip-backer' - he ended with 6-14. Denness & the tail took the score to 93.
The England bowling line up was none too shabby for the conditions and Snow, Arnold and Old had the Aussies 39-6. But ultimately there weren't enough runs to play with, Gilmour rode his luck with the bat to finish with 28 not out and the Aussies went through.
Thousands of words have been written about the final so there's little point rehashing it with a blow by blow account. Suffice to say that I was glued to the television for the whole length of it. (nine hours plus) Clive Lloyd played one of the defining one day innings, Australia confidently chased a seemingly insurmountable target only to shoot themselves in the foot with run-outs - not once or twice but FIVE times. It ended past eight o'clock - with another run out as Lillian Thompson got her knickers in a twist going for a short single!
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Stiff Little Fingers
I've heard of suffering for your art but Jacob Oram is close to taking it to an entirely new level entirely.
What's not clear is whether he's planning to perform the 'operation' himself...
There was once an American Baseball pitcher called Mordechi 'Three Fingers' Brown - but that particular moniker was derived through an accident with some farming equipment rather than any descent into the realms of self-harm.
Middlesex and England spinner Fred Titmus lost some toes on his right foot, but again that was due to an accident, rather than disappearing to his hotel room with a bottle of brandy and a meat cleaver, which is what Oram seems to be implying.
What's not clear is whether he's planning to perform the 'operation' himself...
There was once an American Baseball pitcher called Mordechi 'Three Fingers' Brown - but that particular moniker was derived through an accident with some farming equipment rather than any descent into the realms of self-harm.
Middlesex and England spinner Fred Titmus lost some toes on his right foot, but again that was due to an accident, rather than disappearing to his hotel room with a bottle of brandy and a meat cleaver, which is what Oram seems to be implying.
The Needle & the Damage Done
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The odds on Pakistan just lengthened rapidly.
It's a shame really. As I've said before, any big tournament like a Cricket World Cup needs its share of big characters to fill the stage - and they don't come much bigger than the Rawlpindi Express.
The odds on Pakistan just lengthened rapidly.
It's a shame really. As I've said before, any big tournament like a Cricket World Cup needs its share of big characters to fill the stage - and they don't come much bigger than the Rawlpindi Express.
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