The Hundred: 40 to 31

40: Garfield Sobers

As any young cricket fan in the Seventies would know, the West Indian all-rounder scored 8,032 Test runs and 365 not out, both world records lasting many years. I’m just about old enough to remember seeing him on the News tonking poor Malcolm Nash all over Wales in 1968 and his batting masterclass against England at Lord’s in ‘73. He was a bit creaky bowling Sunday League stuff for Notts but Dad would remind me I was watching one of the world’s greatest players – and he was right. 

39: Mahela Jayawardene

OK, so his record outside Asia was rather modest but the man from Colombo was one of the batsmen I most enjoyed watching this century. The adjective ‘elegant’ is normally reserved for tall men but, at 5 feet 7,Jayawardene was the exception. He could play shots all around the wicket with effortless ease and no right-hander has surpassed his immense 374 against South Africa in 2006. His century deserved to win the 2011 World Cup Final, but MS Dhoni had other ideas, and Mahela also really rocked the helmet-and-bandana look. 

38: Richard Hadlee

As a contemporary of Lillee, Holding, Marshall, Kapil Dev, Botham, Imran Khan and others, he rarely gets a look-in when it comes to video montages of 1970s/80s pacemen. However, it was the New Zealander whose new-ball pace and swing made him the first man to reach 400 Test wickets. He was the lynchpin of the Black Caps’ excellent Eighties outfit and played many county seasons for Notts. I never saw him bowl but he came on for the tourists as 12^th man at Chelmsford just after his knighthood was announced. The applause must be the loudest ever heard for a sub fielder! 

37: Gordon Greenidge

Another familiar face (and moustache) on the county circuit - for Hampshire – Greenidge was the epitome of explosive strokeplay yet calmness under pressure. I loved it whenever he strode out to the middle for the West Indies because we were usually in for a treat. He notched well over 50,000 runs in all formats and of course was an excellent catcher, too. Gordon’s final day 214 not out at Lord’s in ’84 was nothing short of sensational and to think he was once qualified to play for England…. 

36: Jonty Rhodes

I can’t think of many cricketers who people would pay to watch just for his fielding but Jonty Rhodes as certainly one of them. His Test career was delayed by South Africa’s ban but for 11 years he was one of the most electric fielders on the planet, not so much for his acrobatic catching but his athleticism and throwing from the covers or backward point. Batsmen took him on at their peril. He was ostensibly a batsman, albeit down the order, and he averaged a decent 35 or so in Tests and ODIs. However, he was worth many more runs and wickets with his stops and run-outs. I was fortunate in 1998 to witness a few of these against Essex. 

35: Virat Kohli

I remember seeing a young Virat Kohli playing in an ODI for India and wondering why on earth he wasn’t in their Test team. He wasn’t a slogger, yet scored quickly, efficiently and unflappably. Since his 2011 Test debut he has gone on to become the greatest – and richest – all-round batsman of his generation, accumulating centuries, ODI run records and a global fanbase. He may not be the best traveller but I always enjoy watching him bat as well as marshal his fielders. At Cardiff I also noted his willingness to respond to adoring crowds urging him to “Give us a wave”, the sign not only of a great sportsman but also a superior role model. Kohli has it all. 

34: Ian Bell

I often attach myself to cricketers who go about their business skilfully but without fanfare. Walking egos like Botham, Petersen and Stokes crave attention but I prefer my players to be like Ian Bell. It’s amazing to think he made his debut against the Windies sixteen summers ago, top-scoring with 70, since when he played 118 Tests and 161 ODIs. He has endured some torrid times but was imperious in 2010 and 2011, then again in the 2013 Ashes series.  I also appreciate his loyalty to Warwickshire, although he is currently woefully out of form. 

33: Hallam Moseley

At a time when I lapped up every West Indian fast bowler, it’s fair to say that Hallam Moseley didn’t exactly hog the headlines. He was no Joel Garner, but proved a great servant to the county throughout the 1970s. I saw him play live only once (in 1981) but he was a frequent fixture on TV. Besides a very useful limited-overs seamer, the bespectacled Barbadian was extremely popular for his under-arm throwing to the wicket, good humour and readiness to sign autographs on the boundary. 

32: Craig Kieswetter

A decade ago, Somerset were blessed with two classy wicketkeeper-batsmen. One was the teenage Buttler, but even he wasn’t the best. Instead the SA-born, Millfield-educated Craig Kieswetter was for a while England’s preferred option for ODIs and T20, in which he was an outstanding improviser, but it was his superior red-ball batting which led the county to sacrifice Jos at the end of 2013. This made his horrific facial injury suffered the following July all the more galling. He never fully recovered, officially quit cricket in 2016 and at Somerset has never been replaced. 

31: Greg Chappell

The Aussie also played briefly for Somerset but a few years before my time. Then, during the ‘70s, Greg became one of the most prolific Test batsmen in the world. He was very hard to get out and always looked so upright and elegant at the crease. He blotted his copybook in a 1981 ODI by, with a six needed off the last ball, instructing his brother Trevor to bowl a sneaky daisy-cutter. I recall as a boy trying to copy his tidy medium-pace seam-up bowling action but it’s for his imperious batting – and he scored centuries in his first and last matches - that he should be remembered.

Foreign Inspirations: Overseas County Cricketers

At the start of each year, county websites are full of excited reports raving about their new overseas signing for the forthcoming T20 Blast or maybe three Championship games in May. Rolling my eyes at such promotional puff I recall the days when many of the world's biggest stars would appear for the same county, year after year, April to September, first-class fixtures and one-dayers.

Long before I was born, overseas players would extend their earning period by signing as a professional in the Yorkshire or Lancashire leagues. This continued well into the Eighties – imagine taking guard at say, Haslingden, watching Rishton’s Michael Holding steaming in towards you! – but I feel fortunate that my initiation into the joys of cricket coincided with a golden era of international cricketers on the county circuit.

It was probably no coincidence at all. In the early Seventies, watching live coverage of one-dayers, especially the Sunday League, I was thrilled by the performances of the overseas recruits. Most of them were West Indians or Pakistanis, who seemed to play a different way from the home-grown contingent. It’s cricket, Jim, but not as we know it. The Caribbean crew in particular seemed to boast the fastest bowlers, most athletic fielders and finest strokemakers. Watching the likes of Clive Lloyd (Lancashire), Roy Fredericks (Glamorgan), Alvin Kallicharran (Warwickshire) and Vanburn Holder (Worcestershire) also meant I didn’t have to wait four years for the next West Indies tour to enjoy their unique approach to the sport. I vividly recall the black and white images of Nottinghamshire’s Garfield Sobers heaving poor Malcolm Nash for six sixes in an over in 1968.

It wasn’t just about telly. At my first taste of live cricket in May 1975, it was the batting of Somerset’s Viv Richards and fielding of Essex’s Keith Boyce which made the greatest impression on me. Later that summer, I became engrossed in the inaugural Prudential World Cup, noting that many of the biggest names were already on the county scene. If they weren’t at that stage, I wouldn’t have long to wait.

They weren’t the modern day ‘blink-and-you-miss-it’ contracts either. Lloyd, Richards, Kalli, Greenidge, Walsh, Marshall and Zaheer Abbas each represented their respective counties for a decade or more. With none of today’s distractions of year-round T20 tourneys and short ODI series, they racked up career tallies of first-class runs and wickets which dwarf those of current Test superstars. Boosted by their prolific seasons at Gloucestershire, Hampshire and Northants, Courtney Walsh, Malcolm Marshall and Bishan Bedi each retired with well over 1,500 first-class scalps to their names. At the time of writing, Dale Steyn has a mere 612, and even the perennially fit Jimmy Anderson remains ninety short of the thousand landmark.

Throughout my life I haven’t attended a huge volume of county matches but I’ve been lucky to have witnessed some superb international players in action, even if they weren’t necessarily at their best. In addition to the incomparable Viv and Joel Garner for Somerset, Essex used to feature batsmen of the quality of Andy Flower, South African Ken McEwan and Aussies Allan Border, Mark Waugh and Stuart Law.

Other personal highlights have been the giant Sarfraz Nawaz bowling for Northants and Younis Ahmed’s resounding crack of an off drive for Surrey in ’76  (it resonates in my mind still), the jaw-dropping pace of Warwickshire’s Allan Donald (bowling second change) at Ilford in ’95 and Mike Procter almost singlehandedly saving Gloucestershire against Somerset at Bath in ’81. I’m glad he failed in the end!

My favourite Procter (pictured below) moment, however, was when he destroyed Dad’s beloved Hampshire in a 1977 B&H Cup semi-final, this time with his pace bowling. It must have been the first time I’d seen a hat-trick. Had South Africa not been isolated by their country’s political apartheid abomination, Procter would surely have gone down as one of the greatest ever all-rounders. His compatriot Barry Richards was similarly disadvantaged but he and Gordon Greenidge formed for several years the county game’s most formidable opening partnership.

In subsequent decades, other Southern Africans opted to seek international cricket with England by serving their seven-year county apprenticeship to achieve residential status. Allan Lamb, Graeme Hick and Kevin Pietersen spring to mind. It’s not all about traditional Test playing nations, either. I recall in the ‘80s/’90s the extremely economical Danish seamer Ole Mortensen for Derbyshire and Somerset’s profligate Dutchman, Adrian van Troost promoting the European Union.

Imran Khan graced the county circuit for many years, too, first with Sussex then Worcestershire, by which time Pakistan’s Wasim Akram (Lancs) and Waqar Younis (Surrey and Glamorgan) were also on these shores. Banned rebel West Indian Frankly Stephenson twice achieved the 1000 runs/100 wickets double for Notts in 1988 and 1989. In the Nineties, it was against Durham at Edgbaston that Brian Lara stunned the world with his record-breaking 501 not out, and two decades later with Surrey that both Ricky Ponting and Kumar Sangakkara opted to end their first-class careers, the latter in stunning style in 2017.

In more recent times, county fortunes have often been galvanised by the arrival of foreign internationals. Mushtaq Ahmed’s leg-spin transformed Somerset and especially Sussex for whom he helped win two Championship titles. Shane Warne’s overall aura and astute captaincy gave Hampshire impetus in the Noughties, and the veteran Ottis Gibson bowled Durham to success. Several Aussies, unable to break into a formidable Baggy Green batting line-up, also proved influential over here, notably Stuart Law, Michael di Venuto and Chris Rogers, while Michael Klinger’s batting and leadership took Gloucestershire to T20 glory.  

All this brings me back to the current fetish for ultra-brief stints by the likes of Muralitharan, McCullum and Gilchrist, plus jobbing Twenty20 specialists such as Dirk Nannes, Aaron Finch, Colin Munro and the Sultan of Sixes himself, Chris Gayle. These stars undoubtedly help shift season tickets and advance Blast sales. Unfortunately, when in 2015 Somerset snapped up Gayle, the biggest star of them all, it proved to be a bittersweet experience. In the January, it was revealed he’d made good on a three-year promise to join the county for a maximum of six T20 fixtures. Six games! Yippee! He was certainly a huge draw and demonstrated the right attitude towards promotional appearances in schools, etc.

On the pitch, too, the Jamaican fulfilled the hype with devastating innings at Taunton, even if his 151 not out against Kent wasn’t enough to win the match. If only I’d crippled the visitors’ team bus the day before when our paths crossed at Membury Services maybe the result would have been different! Sadly Gayle decided that three matches were enough and duly buggered off. Remember that “maximum of” prefix to the six? He did return to play what must have been an exhausting five matches the following June but with considerably less impact.

All a far cry from those dizzying days of Asif Iqbal, Farokh Engineer, Wayne Daniel and Sylvester Clarke, who’d delight county crowds week in week out. And when they weren’t representing a county, such cricketing celebs would also grace our grounds as part of the country’s tour schedules, which deserves a chapter of its own.....

Cricket in the SPOTYlight

In my younger days, one of the television highlights of the year was the BBC Sports Review of the Year. Broadcast live every December, I would enthusiastically wallow in nostalgia, loving the ‘goosebump’ moments from that year’s sporting events as well as the compilations of ‘funnies’ and special guests in the Beeb’s studio, watched by rows of mostly blokes in blazers.

This weekend, the programme will be hosted in the huge Genting Arena in Birmingham, complete with Oscars-style production values and a substantial audience expected to be wearing more dinner jackets and posh frocks than beige blazers. Amongst the many awards to be presented will be two of the more traditional ones: the overall BBC Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY) and its Overseas equivalent.

The former has, since 1954, been determined by a public vote, be it by names submitted on a postcard or the current instant online method. By and large, those chosen have been worthy winners although BBC viewers have occasionally served up surprises.

Perhaps the greatest of them all came in 1975 when, after being called up by England to face the intimidating Aussie attack of Lillee and Thomson, cricketer David Steele saw off allcomers to take the SPOTY prize. Just as well, because the Ashes were lost but, while he scored consistently without once reaching three figures, the England batsman’s prematurely grey hair, schoolmasterly specs and shy-but-solid character endeared himself to the viewing public in an extraordinary way. Two years later he was largely forgotten but the name David Steele will forever be engraved on one of the trophy’s plinth shields.

In 64 years, only three other cricketers have taken the main award, and only two others placed second or third. In 1956, Jim Laker triumphed on the back of his 19-wicket achievement against Australia, then in 1981 and 2005, further Ashes accomplishments received SPOTY recognition, to the benefit of Ian Botham and Andrew Flintoff. Geoff Boycott and Graham Gooch are the additional pair to claim the minor prizes. Since cricket accepted self-imposed exile on Sky, becoming a minority sport in the process, the chances of a cricketer winning SPOTY have decreased sharply. I can’t imagine even Alastair Cook, Jimmy Anderson or Joe Root making Sunday night’s shortlist of six. Only another outstanding Ashes or World Cup performance could end the drought. 2019 perhaps?

But what about the Overseas Personality prize? Well, cricket hasn’t fared much better. Of course, individual sports are more suited than team games to such awards. While tennis and athletics have dominated in recent years a mere three cricketers have been selected by the judges (not public). The award was introduced in 1960, too late for Garry Sobers’ 365. However, the West Indian did receive the accolade in 1966, shared with World Cup footballer Eusebio.

It was another 28 years before Brian Lara erased the record, and a few others, making him a shoo-in for the BBC’s 1994 award. Then, in 2005, to balance Flintoff’s SPOTY and Ashes triumphs, the trophy went to the brilliant Aussie spinner Shane Warne, whose individual performances in defeat eclipsed even Freddie’s. However there has never been space in the panel's affections for superstars such as Dennis Lillee, Viv Richards (defeated in his vintage year of ’76 by gymnast Nadia Comaneci), Imran Khan, Sachin Tendulkar or Muttiah Muralitharan.

So could a cricketer win in 2018? Despite there being a Winter Olympics, Commonwealth Games and football World Cup, I reckon those charged with deciding these things must surely consider the claim of Virat Kohli. After such a stonking year for him personally, making loads of runs in all formats while shouldering the burdens of India’s captaincy and expectations, It is surely time for cricket to take centre stage once again on BBC Sport’s gala night of glory.