India, West Indies and the ‘other’ 1983 – Part 2

When India finally made their way back to New Delhi for a World Cup victory reception with prime minister Indira Gandhi on 5 July 1983, adrenalin must have masked the fatigue felt by Kapil Dev’s squad. Having first attended a felicitation ceremony in Mumbai a week earlier on 28 June, the team were feted as no other Indian athletes had been before. Ahead of them, though, was a grueling schedule. A Pakistan team led by Zaheer Abbass would arrive for three Tests and three limited overs encounters in early September, while Clive Lloyd’s West Indies would follow shortly after. The breeze block-sized third edition of the Benson and Hedges Cricket Year, which covered 1983/84, was quick to note:

“It took India fourteen years to play her first nine Test matches. In three and a half months at the end of 1983 she engaged in the same number.  It took India four years and a World Cup tournament to play her first eight one-day internationals, the same number she played between September and December 1983. Such has been the growth of international cricket in the past decade.”

In the three Test series with Pakistan that September honours were even, with neither side able to notch a victory on surfaces seemingly designed to suit the prodigious batting talents of both teams. India did however manage to continue the kind of ODI form which had won them the World Cup months earlier when they brushed their neighbours aside for a 3-0 series clean sweep.  No-one in Indian cricket was fooling themselves that this was a challenge comparable to that which they would face in the latter half of the home season, though.

Without the injured Imran Khan, the Pakistani attack did not possess the same potency it had the season before, nor did it carry the same threat to life and limb which that season’s other tourists would represent. Although West Indies were touring minus the injured Joel Garner, reinforcements came in the form of Wayne Daniel and Winston Davis, so that the formidable trio of Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, and Malcolm Marshall still had the back-up to form an irresistible pace battery.  

On 13 October 1983 the Jammu and Kashmir city of Srinagar hosted the first limited overs meeting between the new world champions and West Indies since the World Cup final less than four months earlier. For West Indies Roberts, Holding and Marshall were joined by the Leeward Islands fast-medium bowler Eldine Baptiste and Guyanese off-spinner and fielder extraordinaire Roger Harper, along with a batting line-up consisting of the usual suspects.  Bundled out for 176 in the 42^nd over of their innings, India’s players were given the bird by the home crowd for their dismal batting performance, while they fared no better with the ball as Greenidge and Haynes cruised to 108-0 in reply when bad light curtailed the game, and the tourists were declared winners on account of a superior scoring rate.

The first Test at Kanpur began just eight days after the opening ODI and would serve as a kind of template for West Indian Test victories over the next two years. The tourists lost Andy Roberts to a back strain during net practice and Clive Lloyd opted to bat on winning the toss.  Wobbling at 157-5, Greenidge and Dujon steadied the ship to add 152. Following Dujon’s dismissal for 81, Malcolm Marshall made a Test best 92, while Greenidge ran up his own highest score of 194. In reply the Indian collapse was stunning as the first six wickets fell for 49.

Although some brave hitting from Madan Lal and Roger Binny saved face, the home side were dismissed for 207 by Marshall, Holding, Winston Davis and Eldine Baptiste. Another meek offering in the follow-on meant India crumbled to 164 all out, having recovered from a position of 43-5.  The hero of the previous year, and man of the match in the World Cup final, Mohinder Amarnath, had also suffered a pair. West Indies had won the match by an innings and 83 runs with Malcom Marshall named man of the match for his first innings 92 and his match bowling figures of 8-66.

Little that Marshall did had as much effect on Indian morale as his delivery to Gavaskar early in the Indian second innings which was delivered with such speed and ferocity that it knocked the bat out of the great opener’s hands. Although his teammates were clearly shaken, the 34-year-old used the incident as a way of introducing a very different mode of operation than that for which he was famed at the top of the order. The results of Sunil Gavaskar’s tactical and technical volte face were to become thrillingly apparent in the second Test in New Delhi.

India batted first in New Delhi, with Gaekwad opening with Gavaskar on a placid surface. Although Gaekwad fell with the score on 28, Vengsarkar joined Gavaskar in a stand of 178 for the second wicket. Utilising his full array of strokes – some of which were thought to be extinct – Gavaskar carved into the West Indian attack in thrilling fashion, hitting 15 fours and 2 sixes, including hook shots off Marshall very early in the piece. Such was his mastery that his half-century came up in just 37 balls, while his overall scoring rate was 94.53, a rate of knots which was other-worldly at the time, especially for an opening bat.  It was an audacious way to equal Sir Donald Bradman’s record of twenty-nine Test centuries, coming in his ninety-fifth Test. India eventually finished on 464, with Vengsarkar making a Test best 159, while poor Amarnath failed again, albeit having managed to eke out a single on this occasion.    

In reply West Indies made 384 with skipper Lloyd’s 103 and Logie’s 63 being the best efforts after Richards had earlier threatened to tear the Indian attack apart with a six and eight fours in his 67.  In India’s second innings the West Indies pace quartet turned the screws so that India could only muster 233, with Amarnath again failing, this time for his third duck in four innings.  Chasing an improbable 314 to win West Indies ran out of time and finished on 120-2. Despite Gavaskar’s first innings pyrotechnics it was Vengsarkar who came away with the man of the match award, having added a solid 63 in the second knock to his first innings century.

Having narrowly edged the third limited overs international in Baroda, West Indies travelled to Ahmedabad for the third Test match, where India were without the injured Vengsarkar and the unfit and badly out of sorts Amarnath.  In their place a Test debut was given to Navjot Singh Sidhu while Kapil Dev elected to bowl on a wicket that appeared conducive to seam.  West Indies were thankful once more to captain Lloyd for his 68, while Dujon once again commanded respect with 98.

Closing their innings on 281, West Indies took to the field as Gaekwad and his senior partner Gavaskar opened the Indian first innings.  Once again eschewing attrition in favour of outright aggression, Gavaskar took the attack to the Windies bowlers with another calculated assault. In an opening stand of 127 Gaekwad was first out for 39, clean bowled by Holding. Gavaskar departed shortly afterwards following a 120-ball innings of 90 and the Indian innings collapsed to 241 all out on a pitch which was becoming increasingly unpredictable.

West Indies second innings was notable for a Herculean effort of endurance from Kapil Dev who exploited a wearing pitch to take 9-83 in the total of 201.  The Indian captain had bowled unchanged throughout the innings and no West Indian top order bat had topped 33 until Michael Holding unleashed one of his late order specials to smash 58 batting at number 9. Needing 282 to win India were aways up against it and so it proved as only a brave last wicket stand of 40 between Syed Kirmani and Maninder Sigh took the hosts past 100. Two-nil up after three Tests, West Indies simply looked on a different level to any other outfit playing international cricket, with the World Cup in the English summer now receding into memory alarmingly quickly.

The Fourth Test in Mumbai was drawn, with India welcoming the returning Ashok Malhotra and off-spinner Shivlal Yadav. Their first innings 463 was largely due to a rapid even hundred from Vengsarkar, a solid 48 from Gaekwad, who aided Vengarkar in a 133 second wicket partnership, and half-centuries from Shastri and Binny. In the West Indies reply, a Richards hundred was buttressed by the dependable contributions of Lloyd once more, and the increasingly integral Dujon, who made 84. In their second knock Kapil’s team declared at 173-5 on a deteriorating pitch, leaving Windies to chase 244 in just over two and a half hours. Losing the top four for just 68, Lloyd instructed his men to shut up shop and the innings eventually finished on 104-4.

Having been soundly thumped by eight wickets in the 3^rd ODI in Indore, and then by 104 runs in the fourth game in Jamshedpur, where Richards and Greenidge hit thirty fours and eight sixes between them, India moved on to Kolkata for the fifth Test. Andy Roberts returned at last, while Mohinder Amarnath was recalled yet again by the Indian selectors.

India won the toss, elected to bat and found themselves in immediate trouble as they slid to 63-6.   Brave hitting by Binny (44), Kapil Dev (69) and Syed Kirmani (49) dug them out of a hole, and they eventually scrambled to 241 all out.  West Indies’ response was not immediately any better and they slid to 88-5 when Malcolm Marshall joined Clive Lloyd, whose leadership with the bat on this tour scaled new heights, even for this most redoubtable of figures.  Time and again he had led his team out of a top order collapse and this innings was once of his finest.  

When Marshall was dismissed for 54, and Harper and Holding were sent back shortly afterwards, the returning Roberts joined his captain in a ninth wicket stand of 161.  Lloyd was still undefeated on 161 when the last wicket fell at 377, giving his team a first innings lead of 136. With a rest day to follow India hoped to negotiate the remaining passage of play on the third afternoon unscathed. It was a forlorn hope as Marshall and Holding bowled with a discomforting intensity that those who witnessed it have not forgotten.  Writing in 2013, Indian cricket writer Samir Chopra recalled that Kolkata afternoon:

“This time the destroyer was Michael Holding. First to go was Gaekwad, cleaned up comprehensively. India 14 for 1. Gavaskar, sensing trouble, had been playing his strokes, perhaps hoping to replicate his heroics in Delhi, where he had belted a dramatic century off the same attack in the second Test. This time, though, he was out ingloriously, slashing at a wide one and caught behind (and earning himself the unjust jeering of those who thought he had been unduly reckless.) India 29 for 2.

Almost immediately Vengsarkar was trapped leg-before by Marshall. India 29 for 3. But it was the fourth wicket that finally completed that day’s gloom. Amarnath had walked out on the back of a string of scores that read 0, 0, 0, 1, 0. A few balls later, he had his fifth duck of the series. To this day, I have not seen a more spectacular instance of a batsman being bowled: both his off and middle stump were sent flying – the off-stump cartwheeling toward slips, the middle toward the keeper.

By now, I was used to West Indian fast bowlers dominating Indian batsmen. But this dismissal, this contemptuous removal of a man who had stood up to their might again and again, was the last straw. The sense of threat in the air was palpable; the West Indians looked and felt merciless. The light was poor, rounding out the doom and despondency that now infected Indian spirits. The game was up”

The game was indeed up for India as they were cleaned up for 90 all out, losing by an innings and 46 runs. Just as the crowd had grown increasingly short-tempered with the home side’s performance in the preceding ODI in Jamshedpur, they had almost reached boiling point in this Test match. As Gavaskar swished his way to 20 in the doomed second innings in Kolkata, his dismissal to a catch behind off Holding was greeted with undisguised contempt and hostility by the crowd.

The final ODI in Gauhati was another stroll for the visitors, who chased down the required 178 to win by six wickets.  Kirmani captained India in the absence of Kapil and Gavaskar, while Richards led West Indies. In the final Test in Chennai which followed rain managed to wash out the opening day and have a significant say in the other four.  Batting first, the entire West Indies top order got a start although only Dujon, with 62, passed the thirties. Bowled out for 313 West Indies then set to work on the Indian batting line-up.

The Indian board had acceded to Gavaskar’s request to drop down the order, although he must have been less than impressed to still be walking out – at number four – with the score on 0.   Over ten and a half hours of batting later, however, he walked back, undefeated, on 236, having achieved his highest Test score and what was at that time the highest Test score made by an Indian. Kapil Dev’s side had justly drawn this final Test, although with innings victories in Kanpur, Ahmedabad and Kolkata, Clive Lloyd’s men achieved a magnificent 3-0 series win.

It had been a grueling series for the home team. Being blown apart in Tests and in the limited overs series was surely not the way the romantics would have scripted the honeymoon season which followed world cup triumph just months earlier. They had, however, run up against incredible opposition in the form of Clive Lloyd’s team. If West Indies occasionally had holes in their batting, then someone would always come along to plug the gaps and dig them out of trouble. In 1983/84 that someone was the captain himself, Clive Lloyd, who struck 496 at 82.66 in this series. Dujon, too, had come of age and had finished the series with 367 at 52.42, while Greenidge was flourishing into the all-round opening bat he had always promised to become. In this series the great Barbados opener had contributed 411 runs at 51.37, with his best yet to come.

With the ball the fast-learning Malcolm Marshall was now unequivocally the spearhead, having taken 33 wickets at 18.81 during the Test series. Additionally, that miracle of biomechanics, the Michael Holding bowling action, seemed not to suffer at all from the reduced propulsion of a short run-up as he still bowled with express pace to take 30 wickets at 22.10. The only possible dimming of the light on the West Indian horizon was the retirement of Andy Roberts, although even there the resting Joel Garner would be back for the West Indian home summer in early 1984.

For India, their bowling had been shown to be almost totally reliant on Kapil Dev. Rising to that challenge, he had taken 29 wickets at 18.51, although no other Indian bowler took more than 12 wickets in the series, and that was the slow-left arm of Ravi Shastri. India’s decline since the World Cup was embodied by Mohinder Amarnath, and no player’s collapse in form had been so precipitous. In six Test innings he scored just a single run and was even briefly renamed “Amarnought”.  However, tough nut that he was, he would come again.

In this series, Gavaskar and Vengsarkar justly took the batting plaudits for the home team. Notching 505 runs at 50.50 the great opener had resurrected the youthful dasher in himself to work in tandem with the technical behemoth, although it was the dasher who would come more often to the fore in the remaining years of Sunil Gavaskar’s career.

If the Indian crowds expressed their annoyance and frustration with their heroes out on the field in this series, it was of course a direct consequence of their totemic achievement in the English summer of 1983.  Watching on two years earlier in 1981/82 as England toured India, Scyld Berry had observed “Was there a groundswell turning in favour of watching and playing the game which would come to alter the existing shape of the cricket map? While Australia was the most progressive Test-playing country, West Indies the strongest, and England still leading in the game’s administration, was India soon to rival them?”  

As a cricketing giant in India had stirred, and as the financial locus of the game would inexorably begin its pivot eastward, the 1983 World Cup had whetted the appetite of the Indian cricket public. For, as Ranveer Singh’s Kapil Dev would famously say in 83, the film about India’s world cup triumph, “Like people says, taste the success once…tongue wants more”

from Cricket Web https://ift.tt/pkSXnrh

Wisden – A Reassuringly Stable Presence in an Uncertain World

Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack has gone trad this year, moving away from recent shifts to covering the environment, racism and women in the game.

There are old-school obits (Shane Warne), anniversary tributes (David Frith on SF Barnes on the 150^th anniversary of his birth – Barnes’ not Frith’s – the veteran writer is a mere 85) plus tales about the war and retiring players. This year’s Wisden is also rumoured to feature an article on Wisden collecting – in a case of Wisden eating itself. And on the cover? Wisden “could not look beyond” England captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum. 

The 161^st Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack is published on 20 April. Sales are expected to be around 30,000, which is remarkable for a book where all the statistics are already available online.  

Some 22 years ago, I reported for Cricinfo on McCullum whacking 123 off 141 balls for NZ U-19s v SA U-19, a prototype Bazball. At the time, I was also writing a bit for a rival Wisden website, with editor Tim de Lisle asking me not to do too much of ‘that Cricinfo stats stuff’ in the reports. Meanwhile, in what’s now called a side hustle, I was teaching cycle proficiency, including to Ben Stokes, a radge redhead on a BMX, hooning round the lanes of outer Christchurch. 

These days, Stokes has honed his hooning and Baz has tuned his innovative win-at-all-costs brand Bazball, while Wisden (which shortly after Baz’s signpost innings bought Cricinfo) stays as popular as ever, despite attempting to move with the times, which potentially alienates it customer base of ageing cricket fans. 

So, as cricket changes rapidly, does the cricket fan change? The cult of Wisden has another acolyte. How to Be a Cricket Fan, A Life in 50 Artefacts from WG to Wisden is a new book (written by me), published by Pitch on 13 February. 

Wisden co-editor High Chevallier said my book should get included in the reviews section in 2024 – Wisden, as an annual, finds it difficult to be current. 

However, the many recent books about Wisden show that the cult is alive and well among those who have driven prices for early editions into the thousands of pounds. What Wisden Means to Me (2013) by Bill Furmedge includes dozens of tales on the titular topic. One at random: “In 1994, while on holiday with my family in York, I bought an 1875 Wisden paperback for £15 from a local bookshop. Six months later my wife left me. Yes, 1994 was a good year.”  

The Wisdener Manual suggests 1875 is worth at least £22,000, and as much as £42,500, judged by prices advertised from 2008-14 on 12 Wisden websites and also (Amazon-owned second-hand book site) Abebooks and Biblio, plus traditional catalogues and prices achieved at auctions, including eBay. This is up from £17,500-£21,500 in 2000. 

For years in the 70s/80s my Dad (who is the subject of my new book, which I’m claiming as the first biography of a cricket fan) sought an 1882 but there were none available through the dealers that advertised in the almanack – EK Brown, John McKenzie and co. It’s all different now. 

My Dad paid £85 for a good 1882 some 40 years ago. Maybe £500 now?  Auction site Wisden.org‘s Chris Ridler says: “The record sale was £2,240 at auction in 2008 , we have all the significant (and many not) prices on wisdens.org site but it is worth around £800 if a nice paperback (if a rebind without covers maybe £300).” 

My Dad’s Wisdens were sold when he died and I’ve only collected about 70 since, so 1882 is a long way off – and would only go on the shelf unread – the data within it is pretty obscure now and there are not really any features to read. Almanacks from when middle-aged cricket fans came of age are the most popular now for collectors, as they bring back happy memories, Wisden sellers tell me.

I asked a random bunch of associates what Wisden meant to them. One has a collection from the year of his birth (1973). He gets the new ones when they come out for half price (£28.50) by pre-ordering. He thinks the features get better every year, though he claims to not remember Cricket and Gardening, an article from Wisden’s 2018’s environment section, probably because he’s trying to annoy the author (me). One collector I know has random almanacks bought for him as birthday presents over the years. Another has his Dad’s collection going back to the 1930s and feels he has to add to it annually. Having an 1864 first edition is beyond most people. The 112-page almanack (up to £38,750) isn’t much fun to read, especially as you feel you need to wear gloves to even touch it.

Sellers tell me the vast majority buying older Wisdens are buying out of habit. Their latest ones may go on the shelf sealed, but they love the continuity. Surveys suggest three-quarters of articles remain unread.

During the pandemic a lot of people new to the market, or returning to Wisden, bought the yellow jacketed book, as well as getting hooked on collecting back issues. One dealer tells me: “The market had never been more buoyant. They want that link with tradition, habit. They want to read articles about the past, so the 1960s and 70s are very popular.” There’s plenty of social history in those years, for instance EM Wellings’ snobbish reports on public school cricket and how schoolboys’ uncouth long hair had led to a decline in fielding standards.

Chris Ridler sums up on Wisden’s enduring popularity: “Many buy to collect it but plenty buy it to read it, it is a great gift for cricket fans and looks great on the shelf. New collectors appear regularly but alas older ones do pass away from time to time. Fifteen years ago, people said Wisden were dead thanks to the internet but it is still in existence and I am sure if we win the Ashes this year 2023 will sell out. People (not I) say it is a bit too political these days, but that is the only downside I have heard.” 

Matthew Appleby is author of How to Be a Cricket Fan: A Life In Fifty Artefacts from WG to Wisden (Pitch Publishing 13 February 2023) https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1801504229/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i3

from Cricket Web https://ift.tt/5oTAwLv

Almost But Not Quite – The Story of Reg Simpson

When he died in 2013 Reg Simpson was the senior England Test cricketer, a title that had passed to him three years earlier on the death of Sir Alec Bedser. In his day he was considered one of the most stylish batsmen in the game, and played for England in 27 Tests. He is noted for one of the great innings in Ashes contests, at the MCG in February 1951, and there were three other Test centuries but, overall, Simpson’s returns at the highest level were relatively modest and, in the opinion of many contemporaries, did not truly reflect his ability.

An opening batsman despite his aggressive nature, Simpson’s reputation was as a peerless player of pace bowling. He was largely a back foot player, contrary to the views of most coaches at the time, but something he learnt when playing against the likes of Harold Larwood and Bill Voce in benefit matches in the late 1930s. On the other hand, certainly early in his career, his technique against spin bowlers was less than perfect, although in time he learned to watch the ball in the air rather than as it left the bowler’s hand and lost much of his uncertainty. He also suffered more than most from never being given the confidence boost of a long run in the England side, and he had the misfortune to emerge at the same time as Cyril Washbrook and Len Hutton forged their famous opening partnership. Simpson also struggled to play his natural game in Tests, never forgetting an incident when, against South Africa in 1951 he hit off spinner Athol Rowan over the top on his way to a century and was, he felt, admonished by his batting partner, future skipper Hutton reminding him he was playing in a Test match.  

Unusually for a man who went on to achieve Test honours Simpson was born into a family that had no background or particular interest in the game, so he was largely self taught. Successful at school Simpson’s first job was as a cadet with the Nottingham City Police Force, who had a side he graced with distinction in the Nottingham and Derby Border League. Simpson was an excellent all-round sportsman who was to play Rugby Union at county level, and his mobility made him a fine fielder in the covers. No more than an occasional off spinner with the ball Simpson is nonetheless one of the few to have opened both the batting and the bowling at Test level. In 1951 with the first Test against New Zealand drifting towards an inevitable draw he shared the new ball with Washbrook in the New Zealand second innings and took two wickets for four runs in his four overs. 

As a result of the Second World War Simpson did not make his First Class debut until he was 24, and all of his first six matches were played in India where, as an RAF Flight Lieutenant he was posted to fly for Transport Command. There were as many as six half centuries in Simpson’s ten innings, but he was unable to go on and convert any of them.

The reputation forged in wartime cricket meant that, as soon as he was demobilised in July 1946, Simpson was invited to play for Nottinghamshire. The committee wanted him to play for the first team immediately. When Simpson himself expressed some concern at that, on grounds of being hopelessly out of practice, he was parachuted in to bat at three in the second innings of a second eleven game and, 42 brisk runs later, took his place against Somerset the following day. He scored 29 in his only innings, so a reasonable return. After that however his next ten innings brought just 82 runs, and his confidence was low.

At the end of July Warwickshire visited Trent Bridge, and finally Simpson made the breakthrough. He got a few runs before lunch, and was then told by teammate Joe Hardstaff to get his head down. Simpson took the advice and was eventually ninth out for 201. He had arrived, and whilst he did not score another century that summer there were a couple more decent innings to show that the double century was no fluke. His ambition to become a commercial airline pilot went on hold, as things turned out permanently.

Having established that he was good enough to play at First Class level Simpson wanted to play as an amateur and initially in order to do that was employed by the club as Assistant Secretary, a means by which several amateurs were able to play full time cricket. Simpson also had ambitions outside the game, so the Assistant Secretary job lasted only until he was able to secure employment with the famous local bat makers, Gunn and Moore. The position was no sinecure however as Simpson stayed with the company for the whole of his working life and there he certainly got right to the top, eventually being appointed managing director.

In his first full season in 1947 Simpson did well and in 1948 innings of 74 and 70 for Notts against Don Bradman’s Invincibles, including both of Keith Miller and Ray Lindwall, made many sit up and take notice. Selected for the first Test ten days later Simpson was left out on the morning of the match. His form for the rest of 1948 was a little patchy but, as the selectors became increasingly desperate as the defeats went on there were many who were surprised that such a fine player of quick bowling was not given another chance. In the event he was not picked again until the final Test at the Oval, when he was once again made twelfth man. Consolation came with a place in the party to visit South Africa that winter.

There was a Test debut for Simpson in South Africa, but scores of 5 and 0 were not enough to keep him in the side and that was the only one of the five Tests he was selected for. The following English summer was the real breakthrough however as Simpson scored 2,525 runs at 63.12. This was the summer when Notts decided to break up their long established opening partnership of Walter Keeton and Charlie Harris and Simpson stepped up into what most considered his natural position. At one point in the summer he and Keeton made four consecutive century partnerships, and Simpson was recalled to the England side for the third and fourth Tests against New Zealand.

The ‘forty niners’ were a strong side, particularly in batting, and all four of the three day Test matches were drawn. In the third Test, batting at five, Simpson scored 103 the second fifty coming, as England tried to force the pace, in less than half an hour. In the absence of Washbrook in the final Test he went in first with Hutton, and contributed 68 to an opening partnership of 147 in two and a half hours, so showing a degree of restraint.

With no England tour in 1949/50 Simpson was the man in possession when West Indies visited in 1950 and he appeared in three of the four Tests, missing the second with injury. In the third at Trent Bridge he made his one major score, 94, in a 212 run opening partnership with Washbrook. A few runs later he was run out going for a sharp single in an attempt to prevent the new batsman Gilbert Parkhouse from having to face Sonny Ramadhin and, according to John Arlott, had well earned a century, although Arlott also observed that he had batted with less freedom than he did for Notts.

Outside the Tests Simpson had a fine summer finishing second in the averages and, with 2,576, was the leading run scorer in the country. He recorded the highest score of his career to that date, an unbeaten 243 against Worcestershire, and another double century as well as six more singles as he averaged more than 85 in the Championship. Confirmation of his inclusion in the 1950/51 Ashes squad must have been one of the easier decisions made by that year’s selectors. 

With the exception of Hutton, who in averaging 88.83 for the series was absolutely magnificent, the England batting in 1950/51 proved lamentably weak. Washbrook and Denis Compton had dreadful series and initially Simpson struggled as much as his teammates against the pace attack of Lindwall, Miller and Bill Johnston, all still near their peaks, and the mystery spinner Jack Iverson. Wisden described him as becoming hesitant and uncertain. There were signs however, as the series went on, that that confidence was returning. There was an innings of 49 in the third Test, one of 61 in the fourth and then, with England 4-0 down and looking very sorry for themselves, Simpson was the inspiration behind an unexpected victory in the final Test, England’s first over Australia since 1938. 

The Australians won the toss and chose to bat at the MCG where, thanks to the medium pace of Alec Bedser and skipper Freddie Brown, England were able to dismiss them for 217 early on the third morning (the whole of the second day having been lost to rain). In reply England lost Washbrook at 40 but after that Simpson and Hutton batted calmly through to the tea interval at which point they were 160-1 with Simpson on 49. He had batted well but his caution was demonstrated by the fact he had hit only three boundaries.

After tea Simpson duly got to fifty, but at 171 Hutton was dismissed. By the end of the day England had, by just a single run, taken the lead but had lost six wickets in total. Simpson had had a difficult few overs after Hutton’s dismissal, and although he got over that he could not do anything to raise the scoring rate and added just three to his score in the last 57 minutes of the day. He was unbeaten on 80 at the close.

On the fourth morning Simpson seemed no more able to force the pace than he had the previous evening and when the ninth wicket fell England were just 29 runs in front, nowhere near enough with Iverson bowling at them in the fourth innings. At this point Simpson was joined by off spinner Roy Tattersall, most definitely a tailender. Having added just a dozen runs to his overnight score it seemed unlikely Simpson would even reach his century.

Realising he now had no choice Simpson started to attack the bowling and in a famous partnership he and Tattersall added 74 before Miller finally got one through Tattersall’s defences and bowled him for 10. By then Simpson had moved his own score on to 156 and the lead of 103 turned out to be plenty and England ran out winners by eight wickets.

It is worth quoting the former Australian opening batsman turned respected journalist Jack Fingleton at some length. In his account of the 1950/51 series, and Fingleton had also been in England in 1948, he wrote; Simpson was an enigma. Australians who had seen him in action in England in 1948, and against our best fast bowling, thought the English selectors should have played him in all five tests. He played in none.

As I saw him over this tour, Simpson had only one weakness and that was himself. He lacked confidence in the strangest possible manner. Without reservation, I would place Simpson among the greatest stroke makers I have seen in cricket. No batsman today has more strokes than Simpson, no batsmen can better him in footwork yet, for innings after innings, Simpson anchored his feet in the crease and made ordinary slow bowlers look like monsters. Fingleton closed with the observation that; the trouble with Simpson is that he is a much better batsmen than he thinks he is.

In 1951 Simpson took over the Notts captaincy, a job he did for the next decade. The squad wasn’t the strongest, and it had to play half its matches on the lifeless wicket at Trent Bridge. In those ten summers six saw the county in the bottom three places and only three times did they reach the top ten, with a best of fifth in 1954. Despite the  problems he encountered Simpson was certainly an advocate of brighter cricket. In that first season with the captaincy he became so irritated by the slow progress of a match against Glamorgan that he brought himself on to bowl an over of lobs at his opposite number, Wilf Wooller. A robust character himself Wooller did not appreciate the move and, after taking two runs from the first delivery, pointedly blocked the other five, mopping his brow after each delivery. So Simpson’s gesture made little difference to the funereal pace of the game, but it did at least prompt his County committee to announce that they would be taking steps to speed up the pitches at Trent Bridge.

England’s visitors in 1951 were the South Africans and Simpson made good use of his benign home pitch in making 137 in the first innings of the first Test. After that and his innings at the MCG the previous winter scores in the next two Tests of 26, 11 and 4*, both of which, unlike the first Test, were won, were not sufficient for him to be retained for the remaining two Tests.

In 1952 Simpson played in the first two Tests against India, and scored a half century in each of his innings, but the selectors were in the mood to experiment against weak opposition and the Reverend David Sheppard was preferred to him for the remaining two Tests. Simpson was back in 1953 for the Ashes but, in a series where few scored heavily, he did not get more than 31 in an innings and missed two of the Tests. Outside the Tests however he did very well and scored 2,505 runs in all cricket. He went on to do well on a return to India with a Commonwealth XI, but he had not done enough to get a place with the England party that toured the Caribbean in early 1954.

The summer of 1954 was not a good one overall for Simpson, but he got a place in the England side that faced Pakistan and, had he not missed one match injured, would probably have bee selected for all four Tests. His century in the second Test was enough to earn him another chance in Australia as part of Hutton’s powerful 1954/55 combination. Simpson turned 35 during the tour which, successful though it was for England, turned out to be his personal swansong in Test cricket.

The first Test of the series gave no hint of what was to come as Hutton, on winning the toss, made the disastrous decision to ask Australia to bat. The 601-8 they amassed was enough for a victory by an innings 154. Opening with Hutton Simpson scored 2 and 9 and did not play in the rest of a series dominated by the bowling of Frank Tyson. It must have been frustrating in the extreme for him to watch Trevor Bailey, Bill Edrich and Tom Graveney, none of them regular openers, tried in turn as Hutton’s opening partner. He did get his place back in New Zealand, contributing 21 and 23 to two comfortable wins.

With Len Hutton retiring from Test cricket in 1955 there were two vacancies at the top of the England order so Simpson must have hoped his Test career would continue. Unfortunately for him however he did not have a particularly good summer, and was not therefore one of the six openers who were at various times tried. Only Graveney, not an opener by upbringing or inclination, made very many runs, so the same problem loomed for the visit of the Australians in 1956.

It must be that the selectors still had Simpson in mind in 1956 as they invited him to lead the MCC side that played against the Australians at Lord’s early in the tour. There was certainly no ageism amongst the selectors that summer as the later recalls to the colours of Compton and Washbrook demonstrated, but Simpson managed only 13 for the MCC and whilst no other openers came to the fore the selectors, not for the only time, persuaded Colin Cowdrey to leave the middle order as a result of which he and Peter Richardson were able to do enough to secure the opening partnership for the series. It was a great shame that Simpson could not maintain for the rest of the summer the form he showed in the first match of the season when he rolled back the years to dominate a Notts innings of 278 with 150 from a Northamptonshire attack that included Frank Tyson.

For the rest of his career there was to only be county cricket to inspire Simpson. He enjoyed a good summer in 1959, scoring 2,000 runs for the last time, but that apart the closing years of the 1950s saw, not unnaturally for a man in his late thirties, a dip in his effectiveness and he handed over the reins of captaincy for the 1961 summer to John Clay. Although in the dozen games Simpson played under Clay he scored his runs at not far short of 30 the new skipper could do nothing to lift the county’s fortunes and they finished last again.

In 1962 there was a slight improvement in Notts’ fortunes as under the leadership of bowling all-rounder Andrew Corran they moved up a couple of places in the table. Again Simpson was an occasional luxury and this time one that enjoyed an Indian summer, topping not only the Notts batting averages but those of the whole country with 867 runs at 54.18. In the circumstances he could hardly be blamed for turning out occasionally in 1963 but that proved a mistake as his average fell to less than 20 and there was not even a single half century to go out with, although at least, under their fourth captain in four years, wicketkeeper Geoff Millman, Notts rose to ninth in the Championship. It would not be too long before they were a power in the land once more and Simpson did play his part in that rise, spending 35 years on a committee which, amongst other things, brought the likes of Garry Sobers, Richard Hadlee and Clive Rice to the club.

At a less rarefied level Simpson continued to play the game in addition to running Gunn and Moore, and well into his sixties was turning out for The Forty Club and the Lord’s Tavernor’s. Outside the game he continued to work with the RAF Auxilliary Force helping to train young pilots. Perhaps in his life Reg Simpson took on just a little too much as he was married as many as three times. He had two daughters by his first marriage, which ended in divorce. His second wife died of cancer and then when he married for a third time that marriage too ended in divorce, although despite those setbacks he enjoyed good health for more than nine decades. 

from Cricket Web https://ift.tt/nBWKmu4

The Global Popularity and Culture of Cricket

As one of the oldest sports still currently played in the world, cricket’s popularity is still going strong. A look at the biggest international stage like the Cricket World Cup shows that the collision of cultures in the game keeps it healthy.

Major rivalries in the sport add extra spice, like India vs Pakistan and arguably the most famous of all, the brilliant Ashes rivalry between England and Australia. Cricket is still massively popular with a strong fanbase. That includes people who like to bet on the game. Studying stats and odds on analytical sites that offer objective info and reviews of bookmakers and are available in multiple countries, including Sweden and Croatia makes it all highly accessible.

Even though cricket has spread across the globe, it is still only played at the highest level in smaller regional areas when you look at the global picture. How did the sport become popular where it is?

Where It All Started

The game is credited with being started in England in the late 16th century. This is an interesting cornerstone of the journey of cricket and its ensuing popularity. It was in the 18th century that cricket became fully established in the country and the game just took off from there.

Where the sport largely ended up, was due to the colonisation acts around the world by the English. It is at the very highest level, a very Commonwealth-oriented sport when you consider other powerhouse nations of the game like Australia, South Africa and India.

Along with the assigned Test Nations, the ICC came up with the idea of Affiliate Member status in the mid-80s. For countries that lacked history and grassroots infrastructure in the game compared to the Test nations, it was designed to give a tiered-level competition to emerging nations like Argentina, the USA, Turkey and the Philippines.

There are more than 90 Affiliate Members, so growth, however slow, is happening within cricket.

Current Cricket Test Nations

England

Australia

South Africa

New Zealand

West Indies

India

Pakistan

Sri Lanka

Bangladesh

Ireland

Afghanistan

Zimbabwe

Two Sides of the Commonwealth Coin

The importance of rivalries can’t be understated in the growth of international cricket. Clashes between England, Australia and South Africa have been there since the Imperial Cricket Conference was founded in 1909. So there are long histories and to this day, Test contests between them are big highlights.

The steady and slow addition of Commonwealth countries, like New Zealand, West Indies India and Pakistan pushed things along. But while the sport, controlled by the ICC, was allowed to flourish within the Commonwealth, its control did also stunt global development.

The ICC was not really pushing to promote and support non-Commonwealth nations to further broaden the popularity of the sport. So that lack of support in the foundations of the game is why we get the current setup today. There are only 10 test nations.

In comparison to something like the FIFA World Cup in football, where pretty much every country on the planet gets a shot at participating, cricket remains more on the exclusive side. Especially from a European perspective.

The European football scene is arguably the biggest in the world. But cricket failed from the outset to really embrace this region of the world. How interesting it would be today if there was something like a Cricket European Championship tournament!

Format Changes

As with any sport, there have been modern developments within cricket to evolve and importantly attract new support. Cricket would crumble without people flooding into grounds like Lords and the MCC to watch contests.

The Test Match format is still the pinnacle of the sport, while the One Day Internationals played the main supporting role. But the game has developed further still with the likes of the Twenty20 and The Hundred formats coming onto the scene.

The arrival of Twenty20 in the 2000s shook up the sport. Narrowing the game down to just 20 Overs per side, took the game away from the slow, methodical format that it has historically been known for. It encouraged a new style of playing, consistent, heavy slogging for the boundaries.

The Twenty20 format was the backbone of a new wave of support in cricket, notably in England, India and Australia with the Blast, IPL and Big Bash leagues respectively. Each of the leagues has its own identity and flair. It eventually led to the Twenty20 World Cup for international teams.

The Hundred, developed in England, is the newest format of the game, another limited-over competition involving both men’s and women’s teams has introduced a new branch to the game. Still in its relative infancy, it hasn’t expanded around the world yet.

Current Popularity

The popularity of cricket remains strong currently. Naturally, major events like the ICC Twenty20 World Cup, the Cricket World Cup and the Ashes are always going to draw bigger crowds and more television coverage than something like England’s County Championship.

But there is great variety in the game which is very important to the game staying relevant in the modern age. Playing conditions play a major part in the varying playing styles and culture of international teams.

Also, the more that cricket expands inclusivity with the growth of formats like youth, visually impaired and women’s games, is another great advertisement for the future of global cricket.

from Cricket Web https://ift.tt/C3K6oqa