The Shorter Wisden 2013 (2 page)
Read The Shorter Wisden 2013 Online
Authors: John Wisden,Co
At Bloomsbury, my thanks go to Charlotte Atyeo and Richard Charkin for trusting us to get on with the job. Peter Bather processed proofs with his customary good humour, and Stephen Cubitt and
Mike Hatt typeset as diligently as ever. Thanks, too, to Philip Bailey for his painstaking statistical work, and to Lee Clayton and Les Snowdon on the
Daily Mail
sports desk for allowing
me once more to sink so many hours into
Wisden
. Natasha Fletcher was a constant source of support.
Among this year’s pages are reflections of the future and the past. For the first time,
Wisden
is publishing the best article received from a reader – a competition we hope
will become a tradition. We are confident the much-missed Christopher Martin-Jenkins would have approved, and are honoured to be able to run one of CMJ’s final pieces, his appreciation of
Jacques Kallis, at last a Cricketer of the Year. One institution on another: it felt about right for the 150th.
LAWRENCE BOOTH
Earlsfield, March 2013
Which of W. G. Grace’s feats was the most resounding? And which aspect of Twenty20’s gold rush best captured its impact on the modern game? These were the kinds of
questions to which
Wisden
hoped to find a convincing answer when it chose the ten most seminal moments in the years spanning the Almanack’s 150 editions. The list that emerged
contains some that will come as a surprise: among readers who entered our competition to guess the ten, no one managed more than six. But then consensus would have spoiled the fun.
We stipulated that a moment could not be an era – though an era could be sparked by a moment, which we interpreted loosely, to avoid the reduction of everything
ad absurdum
and so
awarding pride of place to the Big Bang. So West Indies’ 15-year reign didn’t count, but the series which triggered it – their thrashing by Australia in 1975-76 – did. And
we made a plea for “lasting resonance”. Don Bradman’s duck in his final Test innings in 1948 felt like a one-off shock; Bodyline, a tactic designed to tame him, reached beyond the
skeleton of statistics and deep into cricket’s bone marrow. Few entrants were brave enough to omit it.
Otherwise, the
Wisden
team were guided by judgment and a little gut instinct. Who changed batting for ever: Grace in 1871 or Bradman in 1930? We went for Grace, who – as
Ranjitsinhji explained – invented an entire methodology, of which Bradman would become the most ruthless exemplar. Was the first Gillette Cup in 1963 more significant for one-day cricket than
India’s 1983 World Cup win? We thought so, but only just.
Or did this clash with the choice of the Indian Premier League’s first auction, in 2008, ahead of Twenty20’s appearance on the county scene in 2003? We deferred to impact: in 1963,
part of an otherwise forgettable decade for cricket, the Gillette Cup stood out; but the gates to Twenty20 mega-wealth opened widest at the IPL auctions, rather than five years earlier around the
shires.
After Bodyline, readers’ most common picks were Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket, the Oval Test of 1882 that spawned the sport’s greatest and oldest rivalry (though it seems
Wisden
did not refer to the “Ashes” until the late 1920s), the Basil D’Oliveira affair, and the exposure as a cheat of Hansie Cronje. Many others failed to make the cut,
though no individual wore more hats than Sachin Tendulkar (Old Trafford 1990, the first double-century in one-day internationals, 100 hundreds, and so on). In fact, Tendulkar does feature –
as the victim of the first TV run-out – but, for our purposes, individuals were secondary to moments, not vice versa.
The three readers who came closest to matching our choice in the competition trailed in
Wisden 2012
were Annette Rabaiotti from London, Richard Kemp from Leeds, and
Peter Handford from Western Australia. They each win a £100 voucher to spend on sports books published by Bloomsbury. Twenty-five runners-up each receive a copy of the
Fire in
Babylon
DVD.
THE TEN MOMENTS
W. G. Grace (1871)
The Oval (1882)
Bodyline (1932-33)
The Gillette Cup (1963)
Basil D’Oliveira (1968)
Australia 5 West Indies 1 (1975-76)
World Series Cricket (1977-78)
Technology’s entrance (1992-93)
Hansie Cronje (2000)
The IPL auction (2008)
1871: W. G. Grace rewrites the record books
At first, bowlers held the upper hand in first-class cricket, helped by rough, almost unprepared pitches. Then came WG. He had hinted at exceptional talent, but in 1871, the
year he turned 23, Grace reshaped the game. No one had previously made 2,000 runs in a season. Now he made 2,739, a record that stood for 25 years. The next-best was Harry Jupp’s 1,068, and
of the 17 first-class centuries that year, WG made ten. Batting was never quite the same again.
Grace buried the quaint notion that scoring on the leg side was ungentlemanly. He batted in a way we would recognise today: usually a decisive movement forward or back, bat close to pad,
although he was also a master of what Ranjitsinhji called a “half-cock stroke”, which we would probably term playing from the crease. In his
Jubilee Book of Cricket
, Ranji
wrote: “He revolutionised cricket, turning it from an accomplishment into a science... He turned the old one-stringed instrument into a many-chorded lyre, a wand... Until his time, a man was
either a back player like Carpenter or a forward player like Pilch, a hitter like E. H. Budd or a sticker like Harry Jupp. But W. G. Grace was each and all at once.” S
TEVEN
L
YNCH
From
Wisden 1872:
MCC and Ground v Surrey at Lord’s
In cold dry weather this match was played out in two days, MCC and G the winners by an innings and 23 runs. There was some superb batting by both Mr W. Grace and Jupp; in fact, it is the
opinion of many that the 181 by Mr Grace and the 85 by Jupp in this match are their most skilful and perfect displays of batting on London grounds in 1871. Mr Grace was first man in at 12.10;
when the score was 164 for four wickets Mr Grace had made exactly 100 runs; when he had made 123 he gave a hot – a very hot – chance to short square leg, but he gave no other
chance; he was much hurt by a ball bowled by Skinner when he had made 180, and at 181 Southerton bowled him, he being fifth man out with the score at 280. Mr Grace’s
“timing” and “placing” the ball in this innings was truly wonderful cricket; he appeared to hit “all round” just where he chose to, and placing a field for
his hit was as useless as were the bowler’s efforts to bowl to him. Mr Grace’s hits included a great on-drive past the pavilion for six, four fives (all big drives), and 11
fours.
1882: The Ashes are born
The history of England v Australia, the mother of all Test series, was first distilled into a minuscule urn-shaped vessel, then pressure-cooked to create a hyper-contest for the
21st century. But time and distance cannot diminish the role played in the creation myth by a single game. The Oval 1882 was a microcosm of the tension that has never left the Ashes.
Australia’s indomitability was summed up by their first-day recovery from 30 for six and Fred Spofforth’s demonic bowling – inspired, legend has it, by W. G. Grace’s
caddish run-out of Sammy Jones. More than 2,000 Tests have taken place since, but Australia’s seven-run victory remains in the top ten tightest wins.
The paroxysms of the umbrella-gnawing spectator resonate with fans on all sides of all sporting divides, as does the
Sporting Times’s
mock obituary shortly afterwards, the first
truly memorable example of English cricket’s gallows humour. England had lost to Australia before, but only ever while out of sight, out of mind, on the other side of the globe. This was an
awakening in every sense. A rivalry that, according to the newspaper, was dead as soon as it began would attain a life of its own. A
NDREW
M
ILLER
From
Wisden 1883:
the run-out of Jones in Australia’s second innings, leaving them 114 for seven and with their overall lead 76
...
Jones was run out in a way which gave great dissatisfaction to Murdoch and other Australians. Murdoch played a ball to leg, for which Lyttelton ran. The ball was returned,
and Jones having completed the first run, and thinking wrongly, but very naturally, that the ball was dead, went out of his ground. Grace put his wicket down, and the umpire gave him out.
Several of the team spoke angrily of Grace’s action, but the compiler was informed that, after the excitement had cooled down, a prominent member of the Australian eleven admitted that
he should have done the same thing had he been in Grace’s place. There was a good deal of truth in what a gentleman in the pavilion remarked, amidst some laughter, that “Jones
ought to thank the champion for teaching him something”.
...
and England’s run-chase
England, wanting 85 runs to win, commenced their second innings at 3.45 with Grace and Hornby. Spofforth bowled Hornby’s off stump at 15, made in about as many
minutes. Barlow joined Grace, but was bowled first ball at the same total. Ulyett came in, and some brilliant hitting by both batsmen brought the score to 51, when a very fine catch at the
wicket dismissed Ulyett. Thirty-four runs were then wanted, with seven wickets to fall. Lucas joined Grace, but when the latter had scored a two he was easily taken at mid-off. Lyttelton
became Lucas’ partner, and did all the hitting. Then the game was slow for a time, and 12 successive maiden overs were bowled, both batsmen playing carefully and coolly. Lyttelton
scored a single, and then four maiden overs were followed by the dismissal of that batsman – bowled, the score being 66. Only 19 runs were then wanted to win, and there were five
wickets to fall. Steel came in, and when Lucas had scored a four, Steel was easily caught and bowled. Read joined Lucas, but amid intense excitement he was clean bowled without a run being
added. Barnes took Read’s place and scored a two, and three byes made the total 75, or ten to win. After being in a long time for five Lucas played the next ball into his wicket, and
directly Studd joined Barnes the latter was easily caught off his glove without the total being altered. Peate, the last man, came in, but after hitting Boyle to square leg for two he was
bowled, and Australia had defeated England by seven runs.
1932-33: Bodyline divides two nations
Lucky was the young sheep-station owner, Ian McLachlan senior, who spent the Sunday after Bodyline’s fever-pitch Adelaide Saturday in the company of Douglas Jardine and
others. A beach excursion to Victor Harbour; that night, McLachlan and Jardine roomed together.
“It’s going to muck up cricket,” said McLachlan, as lights went out, “because you’re going to have cricketers playing in things like baseball masks.”
“Oh, don’t be silly, laddie.”
Bumper bombardments and throat-side field settings did not become the new normal, nor did baseball masks (nor, yet, helmets). Spin bowling survived as cricket’s guileful art. Even Don
Bradman – as exotic as a nine-legged octopus, his fast yet failsafe 1930 mega-scoring having triggered Bodyline’s genesis – half-faltered only briefly. He put ointment on his
bruises and for the rest of his days averaged 100.12.
What lingered was psychological, a suspicion of the English gentleman, a sense that, while Australians wish to win, the English will break bones/rules/morality to win, a slow-blooming
independence. Australia’s ride through our current decade’s economic travails is something Treasurer Wayne Swan attributes partly to “an enduring determination for our country
never again to be at the whim of anyone”. That determination’s cause, Mr Treasurer? “I believe, Bodyline.” C
HRISTIAN
R
YAN
From
Wisden 1933
: Notes by the Editor (Stewart Caine)
The ball to which such strong exception is being taken in Australia is not slow or slow-medium but fast. It is dropped short and is alleged in certain quarters to be aimed
at the batsman rather than at the wicket. It may at once be said that, if the intention is to hit the batsman and so demoralise him, the practice is altogether wrong – calculated, as it
must be, to introduce an element of pronounced danger and altogether against the spirit of the game of cricket. Upon this point practically everybody will agree. No one wants such an element
introduced. That English bowlers, to dispose of their opponents, would of themselves pursue such methods, or that Jardine would acquiesce in such a course, is inconceivable.
To the abuse of this Law may fairly be traced the trouble which has arisen in Australia during the tour now in progress. In suggesting, as has the Australian Board of Control, that bowling
such as that of the Englishmen has become a menace to the best interests of the game, is causing intensely bitter feelings between players and, unless stopped at once, is likely to upset the
friendly relations between England and Australia, the Commonwealth cricket authorities seem to have lost their sense of proportion. The idea that a method of play to which, while often
practised in the past by Australian as well as English bowlers, no exception had been taken in public could jeopardise the relations of the two countries, appears really too absurd.
