The latest journey takes in two sharp-tongued Africans, some northern hospitality and a spot of twilight shenanigans.
Graeme Smith
… would surely be high on your list if you were asked to choose someone to bat for your life, confounding bowlers with caustic comments and earthy truisms. Bowl at the South African skipper’s legs at your peril and if you upset him, you can be sure it’s coming back at you with interest. Ali Bacher knew South Africa had found a gem as far back as 2003, suggesting that “a sporting hero has been born…. this is a guy who you know will climb Everest for South Africa”. You’re unlikely to find Smith sharing a cosy pint with rival skippers, or Kevin Pietersen for that matter, but it is with the bat that Smith makes his biggest statements. Almost 8,000 Test runs at an average of a touch under 50 make him one of the most productive openers around, as well as being the most combative. He made his Test debut on March 8, 2002, the 52nd birthday of…
Phil Edmonds
… who was a talented, obstinate offspinner who earned 51 Test caps in the 70s and 80s. If you look up “contrary” in the dictionary, you will find the definition “opposite in nature, direction or meaning” but it could just as well read “Philippe Henri Edmonds of Cambridge University, Middlesex and England”. According to Christopher Martin–Jenkins, he could have been captain of his county and adopted country but for his “abrasive and argumentative nature”, possibly referring to stunts like reading the Daily Telegraph while fielding at square leg during a dull passage of play in a Test against India. A Zimbabwe-born spinner with a fast bowler’s head, he bowled bouncers, hit lustily and was among the most alert and cerebral players of his era. CMJ also notes that his last England tours were “wittily chronicled by his wife Frances”. Ian Botham and David Gower may beg to differ here though – according to Mrs. Edmonds, Botham was “in no way inhibited by a capacity to over-intellectualise” and her judgment of Gower was that “it’s difficult being more laid back without actually being comatose”. Indian cricket writer Suresh Menon mused that Frances may have cost her husband some friendships but also noted, “We must remember he was perfectly capable of pissing people off on his own and didn’t need any help”. Six years to the day that Edmonds took 5-28 on Test debut against Australia at Headingley, the aforementioned Botham blasted Dennis Lillee et al for an 86-ball ton at…
Old Trafford
… is Lancashire’s home ground and has been guaranteed an Ashes Test in either 2013 or 2015, but the weather has been perhaps an unfair preoccupation in cricketing discussions about the city of Manchester. Such concerns stretch back years with Sir Home Gordon – the 12th Baronet Gordon of Embo, Sutherland – reporting in 1939 that “the vicissitudes of the Manchester climate have rendered several pilgrimages null and void so far as play is concerned”. Presumably, this means he went along a few times and it hammered down on each occasion. Fairer Mancunian memories include Victor Trumper’s hundred before lunch in 1902, Jim Laker’s 19 wickets in 1956, Viv Richards’ 189 not out in 1984, and a 17-year-old Sachin Tendulkar scoring his first Test ton in 1990. Not everyone had fun there though; the Don never got past 30 in three Tests there, citing the light as a problem. It wasn’t much brighter at the denouement of a famous Gillette Cup semi-final match in 1971, when Lancashire stormed to victory due to some twilight heroics from…
David Hughes
… the former Lancashire allrounder. The cup clash had started sedately enough with Gloucestershire posting a steady if unspectacular 229-6, no doubt hoping Mike Procter could follow his 65 with a hatful of wickets. David Lloyd and Barry Wood got Lancashire off to a cautious start and cameos from Harry Pilling, Clive Lloyd and “Flat” Jack Simmons kept them in touch. The problem was those 60-over matches used to last forever, and a rain break meant that when David Hughes marched to the wicket at 8.45pm, Lancashire still needed 25 off five overs. Cats were being put outside, curlers were in, cocoa was being supped but Procter, it must be said, wasn’t exactly racing through his overs. Hughes ignored all that though, smashing hapless offspinner John Mortimore for 24 in an over to leave home skipper Jackie Bond to take the winning run off what Brian Viner described as “a scowling Procter,” adding that “…at least, we had to assume he was scowling. We couldn’t quite make out his face on our black and white telly”. Exactly seven years to the day later, a fellow was born in Palmerston North by the name of…
Jacob Oram
… whose record over 33 Tests indicates a high-quality allrounder, but injury prevented him from reaching the heights of which he was capable. His batting probably edged his bowling but it was as a bowler in the 2011 World Cup that he made arguably his biggest mark on international cricket. He had already shown wholehearted commitment to previous Kiwi campaigns – after breaking a finger in 2007 he suggested cutting it off, vowing that “… if that’s the last resort, I’ll do that, there’s no way I’m missing this.” – and four years later he took a stunning catch to dismiss Jacques Kallis to start the rot against the Proteas in the quarter-final at Mirpur. Defending a relatively modest 221, Daniel Vettori had opened up with two spinners but it was Oram’s 4-39 that ripped a hole in South Africa’s innings and led to a Black Caps victory. “There’s no words to describe how I feel. We just have to take it on the chin. It’s been a very disappointing evening”. So mused the losing skipper… Graeme Smith!
Words: Richard H Thomas
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