The Ashes 1975

The first Ashes series I remember with any clarity took place forty years ago. The early part of the 1975 summer was memorable for the inaugural World Cup, about which I have waxed lyrical more than once. The previous winter had introduced England to the twin pace threat of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson. Now they were bringing their brand of cricket to these shores to thrill teenagers like me, just developing my enthusiasm for cricket.

Australia defeated England in the World Cup semi-finals (through the unfamiliar swing of Gary Gilmour) and gave the West Indies a cracking contest in the final. There followed a four-Test series for the little red urn which would give the home nation a chance for revenge.

England were thumped 4-1 Down Under but at last did end the series on a high, thanks to an innings victory at Melbourne. Even without a sulking Geoff Boycott and John Snow, the tourists turned the tables thanks to a captain’s innings by Mike Denness and Peter Lever’s 6-38. Nevertheless, the Aussie squad staying on from the one-day showpiece was pretty formidable.

Rick McCosker was a very useful opener, Ian Chappell a combative skipper and brother Greg one of the best batsmen in the world. Doug Walters was an old-school, smoker, drinker and gambler yet he ended with a Test average of 48, extremely high back in the Seventies. Rod Marsh was another character, whose wicketkeeping was just as strong. And then there was the bowling. Apart from ‘Lilian Thomson’, Max Walker was a fine exponent of swing and Ashley Mallett offered skilful off-spin.

That’s not to say England were weak. We had world-class players such as Alan Knott, Derek Underwood, Snow, opener Dennis Amiss and all-rounder Tony Greig, so a useful series was in the offing. However. from their standpoint, it didn’t get off to a promising start.

At Edgbaston, Denness won the toss and fielded. Australia notched 359, then on day two, Lillee and Walker ripped England apart. Following on, it was Thomson’s turn to claim a five-for and it was all over by the fourth morning. The match was also memorable for Graham Gooch’s debut. After some great performances for Essex, the 21 year-old was thrust into the Test side – and bagged a pair!

Gooch was retained at Lord’s but there were changes elsewhere. Barry Wood opened, Amiss dropped down to four, while debuts were handed to the grey-haired bespectacled David Steele and Kent all-rounder (as he was then) Bob Woolmer. More significantly, Mike Denness made way for new captain Tony Greig. The result was an honourable draw. Edrich, Greig and Knott nullified the threat of Chappell’s seam attack, and even Gooch scored 6 and 37.

At Headingley, left-arm spinner Phil Edmonds played his first Test, and there were recalls for Yorkshire pair John Hampshire (for Gooch) and Chris Old. England were on top at stumps on day four but were denied the chance to level the series by the infamous pitch vandalism by supporters of imprisoned East End villain George Davis. He may have been, as the ubiquitous graffiti proclaimed ‘innocent, OK’ but cricket fans were horrified that someone could ruin an excellent Test match by digging holes on a length making the pitch unplayable.

I’m not sure whether it was the result of the lost day at Leeds but the fourth Test at The Oval was allocated six days. As such it became the longest first-class game in England. A second-wicket partnership of 277 between McCosker and Ian Chappell took the visitors beyond 500, then the pacemen left Greig’s men to follow on 341 behind. Things looked as grim as the late August weather. However, second time around, England took control. Woolmer, promoted to five, responded with 149, four others passed fifty, and they left the Aussies no time to reach their target.

The series ended 1-0 to Australia, but England had regained some confidence. Gooch’s time would come again and David Steele’s quiet determination and resilience struck a chord with the British public, earning him the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award! Australia would destroy the West Indies the following winter, a result which in turn would lead to Clive Lloyd’s all-pace strategy and a new world order in the sport for years to come.
I doubt whether 2015 will create another watershed in world cricket but hopefully there’ll be plenty of drama and excitement for me and all those teenagers out there looking for new sporting heroes, whatever the nationality.

Steve Smith mixes it with Bradman but Viv and Sunil reign supreme!

As any cricket fan, Sir Don Bradman was the greatest batsman of all time. Full stop. Of course, players have accumulated far superior run totals given the huge increase in international cricket played these days. After all, in the time it took the Australian squad to sail (yes, sail) to England, modern day India and Sri Lanka would probably have squeezed in two three-Test series, seven ODIs and five T20s.

It was therefore interesting to see Steve Smith's aggregate of 769 in the recent series at home to India celebrated as beating the Don's previous record for a rubber against the Indians - and even that was over five matches (but only six innings) back in his twilight years following the Second World War. Bradman's overall series aggregate record of 974 in seven innings (in England in 1930) will take a lot of beating, with five-Test series a rarity these days. Nevertheless, Smith's total was the third highest for four-Test series in cricket's long and illustrious history. He struck four hundreds (all in the first innings) and two fifties, but what about the players above him?

Well, Smith was just five run adrift of Sunil Gavaskar, after whom half the current India-Australia trophy is named, who accumulated 774 in early 1971. The superb opener's feat was notable particularly because it came in the West Indies and also marked his international debut! The Windies had yet to develop their classic fast bowler battery, although Gavaskar would later prove one of the best players of pace and bounce since Bradman himself. Nevertheless, his debut featured two knocks of 60+ and two weeks later came the first century and a resilient 67 not out. He made an uncharacteristic failure in the first innings at Bridgetown but delivered another match-saving performance (117) a few days afterwards. Trinidad then witnessed Gavaskar at his best.

With India needing just a draw to secure the series, the decider as scheduled for six days. Gavaskar started with 124 but the Sobers-led opposition put together a strong first innings lead. He proceeded to grind out a memorable double-century spread over three days which not only saved the match but also set up what was nearly a shock victory.

However, even the great Sunil Gavaskar was overshadowed by one West Indian, King Viv himself five years in the long hot English summer of 1976. In the series which cemented Viv Richards as my favourite sportsman of all time, he batted only seven times yet topped and tailed the series with double-hundreds of power and strength not witnessed for decades.

At Trent Bridge he struck 31 fours and four sixes in 232 off the likes of John Snow, Derek Underwood and Mike Hendrick before top-scoring in a swift declaration-setting second innings. He missed the Lord's Test but on the second day at Old Trafford (rain almost wiped out day 1) nineteen wickets fell, including Viv's for 4. Gordon Greenidge's 134 was sensational in this context. Viv and Greenidge (again) reached three figures next time out, leaving Roberts, Holding and Daniel to destroy Tony Greig's supposedly stubborn veterans and take the game. At Headingley, Viv produced scores of 'only' 66 and 38 in another triumph but it was the Oval climax which raised this series to the heights of one of the most devastating England defeats of modern times.

I recall paying tennis as a 15 year-old in the summer holidays while spectators and families had radios tuned to Test Match Special while England were put to the sword on a pitch browned by weeks of relentless sun and negligible rainfall. Bob Willis had Greenidge LBW early on for a duck but in came Richards to plunder a fabulous 291. We all thought the Sobers record of 365 was absolutely there for the taking. Tony Greig was probably the only man there celebrating when he bowled the great man. Indeed, the crowd was full of can-tapping Caribbean fans anyway. To his credit Dennis Amiss responded with a double of his own but England were still dismissed 250-odd short. Instead of enforcing the follow-on, Clive Lloyd sent in Fredericks and Greenidge to smash 182 in 32 overs before on the final day Michael Holding was unplayable and the series was theirs. Everybody remembers Holding breaking wickets and English hearts that day but it was Viv's 291 and series aggregate of 829 which provided the anchor - nay the shield and sword - for that success. It was Greig who grovelled and the Windies never looked back.

Steve Smith produced a wonderful sequence of scores in the past few weeks but for excitement he has a long way to go to beat those performances of Gavaskar and Richards.

Heatwave Hysteria

Outside London and the Home Counties we go berserk whenever the thermometer creeps close to 25 degrees. Imagine the feeling now after a fortnight of such temperatures! At least the cricketers are getting onto the pitch and fans are confident of buying discounted advance T20 tickets safe in the knowledge the game won't be rained off, unlike last year's miserable summer.

For anybody aged at least 50 or so, the word heatwave conjures up memories of 1976. Weeks of unending sunshine, no wind, the school sponsored walk being curtailed for fear of mass hopitalisation, while the UK economy went down the toilet. Then, as now,it was foreigners getting the blame. In 2013, it's European migrant workers. 37 years ago, it was the Caribbean population in the cities. The white English backlash acquired a voice in the neo-Nazi National Front while these days it's the rise of UKIP and the English Defence League.

Living in Essex black faces were extemely rare but what I shared with the West Indians living in London, Birmingham, Bristol and elsewhere was enjoyment of Caribbean cricket and watching Clive Lloyd's new team bewitch and bewilder England, and not just in terms of cricket. The cacophany of rhythmic beer can percussion, especially at The Oval, still rings in my ears now - and I experienced it only via BBC TV. The vast brown desert of The Oval's outfield traversed by Michael Holding's mesmerising run-up also remains fixed in the brain.

The book and film 'Grovel!' brilliantly evoke the atmosphere of the cricketing summer, and reminded me, sitting in the uncomfortable heat, of the selection measures resorted to by England to counter the threat posed by the four-man pace attack. The notion of a barrage of dangerous bouncers seems alien in these times of batting-friendly rules. Then, while umpires could intervene to stop 'intimidatory' bowling, there was no limit to the number of short-pitched deliveries. And Lloyd's attack took full advantage. Trouble is, the ludicrously long run-ups employed by Andy Roberts, Wayne Daniel, Holding and co made for a dreary spectacle. Twelve overs an hour became the norm, later prompting minimum over rules in Test cricket. The strokeplay of Lloyd, Roy Fredericks and the relatively youthful Gordon Greenidge and Viv Richards was anything but boring. Quite the reverse, and Viv became my all-time favourite sportsman on the back of his scintillating drives hooks and pulls that long hot summer.

But I digress. 1976 was also the summer of recalls for batsmen considered well past their prime, or those whose prime had previously gone completely unnoticed by the short-sighted selectors in their ivory tower at Lord's. In 1975, the grey-haired, bespectacled figure of David Steele had been summoned to replicate his form for Northants, particularly against fast bowling, against Lillee and Thomson. He had scored no centuries but had avoided calamity to the extent that his efforts (rather than achievements) earned him the unlikely accolade of BBC Sports Personality of the Year! A year later, he was an automatic choice, at 33, for the West Indies series. But who to join him?

The answer was probably the oldest English Test side of all time. Geoff Boycott was missing through bloody-mindedness then injury, Dennis Amiss because of fear of fast bowling after being hurt a few times, and so the 39 year-old John Edrich was crucial to open the innings. 34 year-old John Snow remained England's best fast bowler, despite being increasingly injury-prone. However, some of the young county batsmen were not considered ready to throw into the firing line. Enter Brian Close. At 45, the former England captain and professional Yorkshireman (see also Boycott) had moved to lead a young Somerset side but his fearless persona and willingness to take the bruises rather than risk reckless hooks to the short stuff catapulted him into the England team. He performed well enough to keep his place but the West Indies were simply too good. Skipper Tony Greig was given a torrid time after his 'grovel' comments and another late 30-something in good nick for his county, Chris Balderstone, was given a couple of Test caps.

His first innings at Headingley brought 35 runs in 3 1/2 hours before being caught behind off Roberts. Second time of asking, he was out in similar fashion for just 4. At The Oval, he bagged a pair, as Holding ran rampant. By the time England introduced people like Peter Willey, Mike Selvey, Geoff Miller and Frank Hayes, the series was already lost. Willey and Miller continued their international careers but the following years saw wholesale changes promoted by the departure to the 'Packer Circus'.

Nevertheless, I'm just happy to soak up all this sunshine and recall the glorious summer of '76. Get me another Cornetto!

Greig and Grovel

After offering various hints to my other half, I received a copy of 'Grovel!', David Tossell's book on the 1976 West Indians' tour of England. Aged fifteen at the time, it was a summer's cricket I will never forget. These days, it is often remembered most of all for the England captain's threat to make the Caribbean opposition 'grovel'. As a teenager, that infamous interview on BBC TV's Sportsnight passed me by. Now it has returned to the headlines, prompted by the sad death of the aforementioned skipper, Tony Greig.

I recently wrote of the realisation that Greig was more than just a humiliated cricket captain, vilified 'traitor' for robbing England of their top players and the sport of its traditional soul or even a respected TV commentator. He was in fact one of England's best all-rounders of the post-war era. In his five-year, 58-match Test career, he averaged more than 40, less common in the '70s than now, and his 141 wickets came at barely 32 apiece. He played top-class cricket for only 14 seasons, yet aggregated 20,000 runs and 1100 wickets in all forms of the game.

It's no longer unusual for a cricketer to stand six feet six inches tall but forty years ago, Tony Greig appeared to be freakishly tall. A blonde giant, he progressed from Sussex to the England side during the 1972 Ashes series, scoring two half-centuries and taking five wickets on his debut. Unlike team-mate Basil D'Oliveira, Greig was a white South African from Cape Province, with a Scottish father, and his harsh accent often jarred against more familiar domestic tones heard on these shores, especially when he replaced Mike Denness as captain of his adopted country.

He also stood out for having two completely different types of bowling. His gentle medium pace seamers were mixed with spells of off-spin, all delivered from the same eccentric run-up and arm action, something I tried to copy in fun as a teenager! Greig's best performances seemed to be reserved for Tests against India, and on the 1972-3 tour, he scored 382 runs at 64, bagged 11 cheap wickets and snaffled nine catches. He had more success there four years later, and averaged 48 with the bat in the West Indies in 1974. That illustrated his versatility, equally at home against world-class spinners and some of the most fearsome fast bowlers the game has ever known.

It is the latter who helped define his playing career in the long hot summer of 1976. It was at Hove on 2nd June, the eve of the First Test, that he uttered the 'G' word that was to inspire Clive Lloyd's side to reach cricketing heights and put their demolition at the hands of Lillee and Thomson behind them in such exhilarating fashion. However, as Greig writes in the foreword to 'Grovel!' it was taken slightly out of context, following remarks about the Windies' inconsistencies: "...if they get on top, they are magnificent cricketers. But if they're down, they grovel, and I intend, with the help of Closey and others, to make them grovel". In his first innings at Trent Bridge, Andy Roberts bowled him for a duck, and the skipper recalls how the pacemen delighted in giving him their nastiest bouncers, and the likes of Viv Richards, Alvin Kallicharran and Lloyd went after his bowling with greater degrees of glee. With the honourable exception of Leeds, the West Indians tended to get their way.

Greig also wrote that England may have fared better with fewer injuries, an available Geoff Boycott and greater luck, but I still doubt that 1976 would not be remembered by me for the astonishing swaggering strokeplay of Richards and the rhythm of 'Whispering Death' Michael Holding. World Series Cricket (WSC), championed by recruiter-in-chief Tony Greig, prevented the world witnessing the latter playing in an official rematch in 1980. By then Greig was settled in Australia and he was to make his name as an opinionated and highly-excitable commentator for Channel Nine.

Hopefully his passing will prompt a re-evaluation of his value to English cricket in the 1970s. I feel able to forgive him his apparent treachery over WSC and remember AW Greig as a swashbuckling batsman, astute captain and knowledgeable commentator. He may have pushed the limits of fairness in the middle but he was a decent bloke off the pitch and, let's face it, worked hard to drag cricket into the twentieth century and broaden its appeal through exciting innovation. Not how I felt at the time, but in retrospect undeniably true. Criclet worldwide, especially in Australia, will miss Tony Greig enormously.

England in India - England's Best XI

Last time I selected the best India Eleven in Test matches against India over the past forty years. Now it's England's turn, and there have been plenty of headaches because of all the candidates in almost every position.

Generally speaking, Graham Gooch has been England's most consistent opening batsman in this period, although Alastair Cook threatens to replace the moustachioed master. However, India was never his favourite hunting ground. Instead, there are three men who each played only five Tests in India and who each averaged more than 50. Two of them will be my openers with the other at number three. First up is former captain Andrew Strauss, who enjoyed two successful short series dating back six years. At Chennai in 2008 he even managed two hundred in the same match, only to finish on the losing side. His partner is Tim Robinson, the doughty Notts opener who earned 29 England caps before the West Indian quicks blew him away. In only his second Test, at Delhi in 1984, he compiled a match-winning 160.

Lancashire and Durham's Graeme Fowler was a dashing left-hander whose highest score was the 201 made in the victory at Madras (as was) in 1984. In the next game, he scored a patient 69 - and never played another Test! Nevertheless he is in my team, alongside the man who also scored a double-century in that Madras draw, Mike Gatting. Arguably England's least successful captain of all time, Gatts has scored more runs (862) in India than anybody in the past four decades, spread over 13 Tests. At number five is Paul Collingwood. He made hundreds in each of the 2006 and 2008 series, although neither was in the winning cause.

Two all-rounders make it into this fantasy team but each enjoyed considerable success in India with both bat and ball. Ian Botham's career zenith is often cited to be the Ashes 1981, but in the following winter, his batting was even better. He made 440 runs in eight innings, culminating in 142 at Kanpur. His other hundred came in the Golden Jubilee Test two years earlier. The most successful England touring captain was Tony Greig. Not only did he lead his side to a memorable series win in 1976-77 but he also contributed 724 runs and 21 fairly cheap wickets over ten Tests in the 1970s.

Few wicket-keepers made their mark in India but Alan Knott did at least provide some consistently useful late-order runs in the Greig era. That leaves three specialist bowling spaces. Derek Underwood took 54 wickets at 26.51, making him easily our best spinner in an era when India boasted several world-class slowies. Competition for the other seamer spots is particularly fierce. Jimmy Anderson has done quite well in recent times, and two Yorkshire stalwarts, Chris Old and Matthew Hoggard, each captured more than 20 Indian victims at under 24 apiece. Nevertheless, two ohers fared even better. Left-arm swing merchant John Lever took 10-70 on his debut at Delhi in 1976, as England won by an innings. He averaged under 14 in that triumphant series and finished with 32 wickets at under 20 in India. Sadly for him, his pace and swing were less successful elsewhere. He was brought back after a five-year international hiatus in 1986, versus India again, but this defeat was his final appearance in England colours. Bob Willis also enjoyed considerable success there, taking 32 at 22.37, taking most of the wickets left by Lever on that 1976-77 tour.

To summarise: Strauss, Robinson, Fowler, Gatting, Collingwood, Botham, Greig (*), Knott, Underwood, Willis, Lever.

But will this list change in a few months' time? Cook, Trott, Prior, Finn, Anderson et al could all be in with a chance. It should be a great series.