SPORTING MOMENTS: Malcolm Marshall, Warney, and an irritating Aussie

Martin Penney’s excellent piece got me thinking about my own international cricket experiences.

Cricket is my other great sporting love, and I’ve been lucky enough to go to most Trent Bridge Test matches since the late 80s, with the occasional trip to Edgbaston and Lords thrown in.

Trent Bridge was always the big day out with my late father and involved a big breakfast near the ground, watching the teams in the nets, and then a day of picnic grazing, hopefully in the sunshine.

Sadly, as he approached 90, the Alzheimer’s that would take his body from us, having taken his mind much earlier, reared its ugly head and then it was just me, and while I now go with friends, I always spend the day thinking of him and the times we had.

But enough of the depressing stuff, let’s get to the cricket!

As with any sport, there’s always something special about seeing it close up and live, particularly the bowlers. Sitting directly above Shane Warne’s arm in the Radcliffe Upper was fascinating, but it was the genuine quicks who really got the blood racing. Richard Hadlee, Brett Lee, Alan Donald, Imran Khan, Courtney Walsh, and Curtley Ambrose to name but a few.

However, the one who really stuck out for me was the late great Malcolm Marshall. I will never forget him bowling to Sunil Gavaskar at Lords in the star-studded MCC v Rest of the World Test at Lords in 1987. After both sides had put up big scores the game was heading for a draw with the World X1 only having to bat out a handful of overs in their second innings.

Gavaskar had made 188 in their first innings and would have been seeing it like the proverbial football while Marshall would have been forgiven for going through the motions, but oh no.

The first two balls were on a length but at a relaxed pace and Gavaskar was in no trouble, but the third was lightning. From side on as we were, it seemed almost simultaneous that Marshall’s arm came over and Gavaskar’s middle stump commenced its 20-yard cartwheel towards the wicketkeeper, and there was a collective gasp from the crowd.

Of course, over the decades there have been highs and lows, the highest and lowest usually involving the old enemy. Australia knocking up 329 for the first wicket in 1989 on the way to posting 602 for 6 springs to mind as a real low, marking the debut of Devon Malcolm, another in a long line of England fast bowling “finds” who were either rubbish for 80% of the time or made of glass (or both in the case of Martin McCague, who would give Darren Pattinson a run for his money as the selectors’ worst-ever idea).

A low of a different kind came in a New Zealand Test in, I think, the early 90s. In those days a refund was only given if less than 10 overs could be bowled in the day. When Dad and I left Lynn, the sun was shining, but as we headed towards Nottingham the clouds built up, and by the time we parked on the banks of the Trent it was pissing down.

However, by about 2.30 it had stopped and brightened a little and, despite a sodden outfield, the PA system announced various inspections, until at around 4.30, in the murkiest of light, play was deemed possible.

The players and umpires emerged and after exactly 10.2 overs the latter decided that the light, which had not altered in any perceptible way (this was before light meters), was now unplayable and called an end to the day. Fortunately, many people had long ago given up hope and left, but those who were still there were very close to storming the pavilion, such was the blatancy of how we had been ripped off. Strangely the refund conditions were reviewed not long afterwards.

A much happier time was had at Edgbaston in 1997. England rolled the Aussies for 118 and then Nasser Hussein and Graham Thorpe put on 288 for England’s 4th wicket with Hussein going to a double hundred.

What made it even more enjoyable was the fact that we were sitting in front of a really annoying Aussie kid and his family. As Shane Warne was going through his repertoire before the partnership really got going the kid was loudly proclaiming “That was the googly!” or “That was the Zooter!” as he could clearly pick deliveries from 200 yards away that a Test batsman couldn’t spot from 22.

However, as Hussein and Thorpe got on top and the partnership grew Warne, like the other Aussie bowlers, got more and more ragged to delighted shouts of “That was the full toss!” “That was the long hop!” and “That was the pie!” from our contingent.

I realise that cricket isn’t for everyone, but for me, there can be few better experiences than a day in the sunshine watching world-class players while drinking wine and eating a picnic.

It certainly beats freezing your bits off at Kenilworth Road in December while trying to peer around pillars to see the action or avoiding a neck-breaking fall while attempting to access the converted corridor masquerading as an away fans bar!

Just wish I could still do it with Dad.