There’s only one way off a pedestal, as English cricket has discovered!
England’s whitewash test series thrashing at the hands of Pakistan was such a disappointment following so closely on their rise to the World No 1 ranking. Perhaps the less said about it the better.
On the other hand, when we put folk on wobbly pedestals, there’s only one way they can go – they can’t keep up the balancing act forever. But it was a shame we couldn’t bask in the glory for a bit longer.
Still, it happens to the best of them, and I remember well when Australia – never a weak side – came to South Africa in 1969/70 and suffered a 4-0 whitewash defeat; I don’t think any of the games were even close. But then I suppose that Springbok team was the best that ever took the field – possibly anywhere in the world, though I’m biased of course.
Graeme and Peter Pollock, Eddie Barlow, Denis Lindsay and Barry Richards are just some of the names that spring to mind from what was a legendary line-up of cricketing heroes. And I was fortunate enough to watch them in action live a few times.
I seem to recall that at the end of that year – just before South Africa’s ban from international cricket due to apartheid – Springboks (now known as Proteas) made up half of a World XI touring team!
I was waxing lyrical with a colleague of mine the other day about Barry Richards and I suppose there aren’t too many cricket fans over here who can boast that they have seen him play test cricket.
His glittering career was still at its fledgling stage but it was to be his only ever test series, in which he scored over 500 runs at an average of 72!
He probably became the best batsman ever but that can’t be properly measured as he wasn’t sufficiently tried in the test arena, though the way he ran up runs with such swashbuckling ease during that far-off summer in South Africa seemed to have announced the arrival of a new Don Bradman. His strokeplay was both effortless and exquisitely timed with the ball clattering into the boundary board almost before you realised he had hit it. He demonstrated cricket at its very best; it was sheer poetry.
But he only ever wanted to play for his own country rather than England or Australia as, for example, Kepler Wessels and many others have done since. And even the current England team has greatly benefited from the likes of Kevin Pietersen, Jonathan Trott and Andrew Strauss (the latter born in Johannesburg).
I hope this whets your appetite for the first test against South Africa at The Oval on July 20 when I shall be in London to welcome my Australian brother, who will be coming over for the Olympics, and may well accompany both my brothers to the match – if we can drag ourselves away from watching the Open Championship on TV, that is!
What do you think? You can share your thoughts via charles.gardner@selbytimes.co.uk
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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