In this week’s Prime Numbers, Richard H Thomas recalls cricketing folklore with the aid of the number 73, including a Kiwi centurion and one of the finest allrounders ever to play the game.
Born In The Wrong Century
Albert Trott, possible ancestor of England’s Jonathan, was born in 1873. If it had been 1973, perhaps he would be contemplating retirement and fending off offers from the media keen to enlist the services of the world’s premier allrounder. The Botham/Sobers of his day, he played Tests for both sides of the Ashes divide and is alone in clearing the pavilion at Lord’s. In his 1907 benefit match for Middlesex, he took four wickets in four balls and then a hat-trick later in the same innings, recognising afterwards that he had literally “bowled himself into the poorhouse”. “He had a heart of gold,” wrote Pelham Warner, “and was as simple as a child. He was one of those people who compel attention.” If he had been born in this era he would most likely have been a millionaire but as it was he was left destitute in Willesden. After a short stint as an umpire he wrote his will on the back of a laundry ticket, left savings of £4 and a wardrobe to his landlady and shot himself.
The Milestone Man
Christopher Martin-Jenkins called Glenn Turner “the most professional cricketer ever produced by New Zealand”. He more than held his own in Test cricket with a none-too-shabby Test return of 2,991 runs at 44 and nobody much liked bowling to him during 15 years spent opening up for Worcestershire. For many though, he slipped below the radar – surprising, considering only one other batsman since the war has made 1,000 runs before the end of May. He managed it for the 1973 touring New Zealanders (the tourists tended to squeeze in a few more games in those days). His relationship with cricket administrators has generally been an unhappy one, exemplified by a recent row following the appointment of former Australia lawn bowls official Kim Littlejohn as the Black Caps’ national selection manager. “We are probably better off without each other,” he said of a national set-up not requiring the services of one of only four non-English players to have scored a century of centuries.
A Comprehensive Beating
They were a few bad days for English cricket. In 1973, West Indies came to Lord’s needing only a draw to take the Wisden Trophy. A filled-to-bursting crowd witnessed centuries by Garry Sobers (his last in Tests), Rohan Kanhai (also his last) and Bernard Julien, who struck his first Test ton. The hapless bowling quintet of Geoff Arnold, Bob Willis, Tony Greig, Derek Underwood and Ray Illingworth all chalked up unwanted centuries of their own, as the tourists piled up 652-8. On Saturday afternoon, a bomb warning necessitated clearing the ground and amid shambolic scenes the crowd spilled on to the ground. Dickie Bird sat on the covers – “I knew there was no bomb under there,” he wrote. There wasn’t one anywhere as it transpired, and upon resumption only Keith Fletcher with 68 and 86* shone as England succumbed by an innings and 226. “We were outbatted, outbowled and outfielded,” mused skipper Raymond Illingworth, who was promptly fired after the game.
Long Name, Even Longer Career
Thank goodness they called him Venkat. Otherwise during 57 Tests as player and 73 as umpire, Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan may have been known by lily-livered commentators as the “Indian offspinner with floppy hair”. After 156 Test scalps, 1,360 career wickets and stellar service for Derbyshire, he went on to become one of the world’s most respected umpires. Captain of India in two World Cups and umpire in another three, he was the first to play and then umpire in 50 Tests, and was presented with a sculpture of himself giving that familiar bent-at-the-elbow verdict. As the ICC noted, it was an appropriate tribute “to recognise his outstanding work in cricket as a player and administrator”.
Warning Signs
It’s no shock that cricket faces challenging issues surrounding format and finance – Andrew Strauss recently suggested that contemporary preferences for smash-and-grab formats contribute to empty stands at Tests, and that we are “sowing the seeds of our downfall”. In 2010, The Telegraph got a peep at Deloitte’s 73-page report on cricket’s finances and unsurprisingly, it made for grim reading. The paper reported an over-reliance on broadcast money and a flawed process of bidding to host Tests was identified as potentially leading to the game being “mired in debt for decades”. Profits from Tests are insufficient to cover overheads and the report concludes with a slight understatement “there are significant issues and risks to address.”
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