What he said The cricket …


five Tests in India a year ago. There was much argument about which should and should not have been given – far more subjective than usual owing to the absence of TV replays. But it might have suggested to the most paranoid England players that the umpires do want to judge them fairly. Unfortunately, as became clear next day,


Bruised: Phil Edmonds enjoys a rare quiet moment


that fairness is unlikely to extend to any interpretation at all of Law 42 on intimidation. England went in after an hour’s play on the third day 148 behind. By the third over both openers had gone for nought; Gower failed for the seventh successive time and Lamb, welcomed by the most extraordinary cannonade of bouncers by Patterson, was this time unable to withstand them. The only serious question left was whether England could somehow drag the match into a fourth day. There was still Willey, whose bluff and improvised off-side counter-attacking gave him 71, almost as many as England’s other batsmen put together and the highest individual score of the match, and there was a short pyrotechnic display from Botham. But the alchemy never seems to work for long against this opposition. Maybe one day, perhaps even this series,


Battered: Mike Gatting, post bouncer-barrage It was an illusion, but Saturday’s play did


provide a quiet intermezzo between the two days of fortissimo fast bowling. Gomes nudged in his customary fashion; there were some pleasant shots from Best, whose strokeplay looks like turning out in the best West Indian tradition (though his running commentary for the benefit of the close fielders is probably unique) and later Dujon; Richards, batting at No.7 on some strange captain’s whim, threatened momentarily to seize the match, then was lbw to Ellison without offering. That was one of five wickets for Ellison, who


troubled the batsmen by the unfashionable expedient of bowling a full length with some cunning; it was also one of six lbws in the innings, equalling the Test record* and doubling the total England were given in the


Gatting’s England retain the Ashes in Australia. Gower scores heavily (see p14)


mber january 1987 february march


Botham will find a way of winning a Test against West Indies; possibly on a favourable pitch England’s spinners might have enough craft to bowl the opposition out twice; if West Indies have a couple of off-days, with the wind in the right direction, a full moon and Halley’s Comet in favourable conjunction with Gemini, then anything is conceivable. But the overwhelming message from Sabina


Park is that, however much England might have improved, West Indies Fast Bowlers Still Rule OK. I am not certain it really is OK; but unless someone can impose a uniform standard to distinguish between fair and unfair bowling, nothing is going to change.


*The record is now seven, by Zimbabwe against England in 2003, during the maiden Chester-le-Street Test, and by New Zealand against Australia, in Christchurch in 2005


FromWisden Cricket Monthly, April 1986. Matthew Engel was, at the time, cricket correspondent of The Guardian. He went on to edit Wisden and now writes for the Financial Times on sport and politics


“I reached 98 against Middlesex, countering, I hoped, allegations that I bat for England and field for Leicester.” On early accusations about his suspiciously poor county form, in 1979


“For my own part, I can admit to a certain lack of enthusiasm towards the two- mile run.” On pre-season training, in 1980


“Graham Gooch’s consuming passion seems to be moving and decorating house” On Gooch’s lifestyle, in 1981


“Apparently one of the London newspapers ran a cartoon of a blond- haired fellow dressed in whites, holding a bottle of champagne and trying to read the instructions on how to open it. As most of my friends will already know, I have been keenly practising that art for some time on the off-chance that we might win a Test match.” On England’s first win in 14 Tests, at Delhi on Gower’s successful 1984-85 tour


“Gooch was horribly intransigent at times … It is either an irony or a triumph for his character, depending on your point of view, that a cricketer who was banned for three years by his country [for undertaking a rebel tour of South Africa] has now become a national figurehead.” On Gooch’s management style, in 1992


and the après cricket …


“Adelaide was not all disaster. Take, for instance, the rest day … ” On the 1982-83 Adelaide Test


“It was one of the friendliest tours I have been on thus far … ” On the 1983-84 ‘sex, drugs and rock and roll’ tour of New Zealand. Gower later admitted tour officials had been surreptitiously offered a hash cake during the trip


“It was a sobering thought to imagine how many top-class cricketers were gathered in one spot. It needed to be, as after cocktails with HRH and wine with the roast beef at Lord’s we went straight out into the nets.” On the opening of the 1979 World Cup


“Lubo’s house claret, which burns the throat only during the first glass.” On highlights of England’s 1979-80 tour of Australia


“A call to the AA, I reckoned, was not high on the list of probabilities … ” On sinking a hire car on a (mainly) frozen lake, during a 1991 night out with Allan Lamb in St Moritz


april


}Another winter’s cricket does not inspire the enthusiasm it should~– DG on missing a winter’s touring. Elsewhere the great ’87 storm hits England may


june july august september october november december


Gatting and umpire Shakoor Rana clash during England’s tour of Pakistan


january 1988 19


february


mar


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