GOOGLIES & CHINAMEN
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 224
August 2021
Caption Competition
Sam Robson: No. These are the teams who have beaten us this year.
Peter Handscomb: Where in the hotel?
Gus Fraser: No. back in Oz.
Out and About with the Professor
“And what do you think has been the most exciting bit?” Thus the question from a gushing woman presenter to a young girl. The presenter was “out in the crowd” and had been telling us that the “atmosphere was electric” (there must be another metaphor for this), that “the crowd was on the edge of their seats” (ditto), and that The Hundred was “taking the country by storm” (yep) and, “never had there been so much interest in cricket”. It was all so exciting!…and the little girl’s answer? “The fireworks”
It would be easy to parody the flimflam and general bollocks that surrounds almost every aspect of The Hundred, indeed, it is very difficult not to: the stupid names, the music, the hideous kit, the TV graphics designed to look like a video game, the dreadful faux-excited commentators (of whom Pietersen must be the worst), etc., etc…add your own dislike here.
But personally, I’m happy to ignore all that if it truly does bring a new generation to watching cricket – and a lot of the cricket that I have seen has been very watchable. The game is obviously T20 on speed but to be a public entertainment (for this target public at any rate) it needs to be. A couple of innovations are worth pondering. I see nothing wrong with five ball “overs”, for example, and the option to take that to ten gives a captain some very useful flexibility. The fact that the game is “on the clock” means that incoming batsmen (aka “batters”) cross on the field and there aren’t these interminable stoppages in play where everyone just stands around. It also keeps hi-viz twelfth men armed with drinks and gloves off the field. Slow play being “punished” by bringing an extra fielder in is a far better option than some meaningless fine collected later.
There have been a few close matches, not least the Northern “Superchargers” (ye gods!) first win with John Simpson hitting a 4 and a 6 with three balls to spare. I have never thought of Simpson as a big six hitter but perhaps those who have watched Middlesex carefully know better. A couple of the women’s games that I have seen have been close. The Superchargers – men and women – had good wins on the same day against the “Invincibles”, which might trigger a name change, or perhaps two. What is a supercharger anyway? Is it a real thing? Can you get one on Amazon?
Individual successes and failures (so far) have also been interesting. Yorkshire watchers have known for some time that Harry Brook is a useful player and, at present, he is top of the runs list. By comparison, Alex Hales has looked somewhat bereft – this is, after all, exactly the format in which he should shine. Perhaps he will soon. Carter has been the stand-out bowler with a run up which might best be described as economical. In the women’s matches, the Indian player Jemimah Rodriges has helped put the Leeds team on top together with the bowling of Davidson-Richards, Levick and Smith.
The overseas players have, in truth, been a bit of a job lot. Notwithstanding all the excitement and edge of your seat stuff, the real stars of world cricket are, for one reason or another, absent. There are a few of course, but the overseas contingent does have a sort of second, or even third, string feel about it.
There are two real problems, I think, with the whole business (unless you think the noise and bluster is itself a problem) and they are those of identity and the impact on the county championship. The identity issue was raised very early on, and it is critical. In its essence, sport demands commitment. To get from sport what it offers you have to care about the result. That is easy if it is an individual sport and you are competing. In a team sport, where you are observing, it comes down to the issue of identity. Do I care who wins these matches? I want Yorkshire to win the County Championship but, frankly, I don’t give a toss about who wins The Hundred. Perhaps that will change. I see young people in the crowds with caps and t-shirts but I suspect these are given away to boost the synthetic excitement. But perhaps, over time, they may truly want the “Originals” to win…stranger things have happened.
The other issue is the deliberate pushing of the Championship to the margins of the season – and this must be a commercial decision. Some Googlies readers might think this is an attack on the bedrock of the game…and they may be right. The ECB have added to the marginalisation of county cricket the most complex tournament structure that they could have devised, notwithstanding their talk of a “grand finale” at the end of the season for the Bob Willis trophy. Some years’ ago Michael Atherton wrote in Wisden that “county cricket served no useful purpose”. Perhaps the people who run cricket in this country have taken him at his word.
So…what to make of The Hundred? Lots of cricket, some, but not all, of a high class. Attracting people who would never go to a county match and, in all probability never will. Putting bums on seats and on the edge of some. And exciting I think…and that’s not just the fireworks.
This & That
What a relief that England didn’t win the Euros. We are spared the celebratory crap that would have gone with it. I watched some of the semi-final and final matches but didn’t stay up for the extra time in both cases. I thought that England looked quite good in the first half in the final and played more attacking football than I would have expected. Sterling looked as bad as he had been for Manchester City, but the reports raved over him. Why is this? Is it because he is a black standard bearer? We are told that England had had special practice and were ready to take penalties. I believe that they took six in the tournament and scored just two. Some readiness.
George sent me this: “nice moment when Azan Khan came in to bat yesterday. Vaughan was purring at his test career strike rate of 166 per 100 balls. What he didn’t spot was that the career had comprised a total of 3 balls”. The commentators seem remarkably ignorant of the modern game outside the UK. Ian Ward kept expressing surprise that Hafeez came in at 4 in the T20s. Anyone who had watched the PSL earlier this year would know that the “Professor” was the most feared of all the big hitters.
In these days of the impact of diet on children and watersheds on advertising unhealthy products it is surprising to see the following products emblazoned across the Hundred team’s shirts: KP, Tyrrells, Popchips, Hula Hoops, McCoys and Butterkist.
Its easy to see what the groundsmen think of the Hundred. They are handing over tired and much used wickets which turn, pop and stay low from the outset. This means that spinners were almost unplayable at Old Trafford and Trent Bridge. Then at Lord’s the pitch was slow and dead. This is OK for the cricket purist but surely is not what the authorities want from their new fast version of the game which presumably requires sixes every over? At the Rose Bowl and at Headingley they used a hybrid wicket which somehow has nylon woven into the surface. It played alright in Southampton, but once Jason Roy decided it was tricky no one could bat on it in Leeds.
The Hundred seems to be more popular in the South than the North. In the early matches Lord’s and the Oval were attracting full houses whilst Trent Bridge was getting proportionately large crowds. Edgbaston and Old Trafford were no more than half full and you could count the audience on two hands in Cardiff.
Marchant de Lange is the leading wicket taker with 8 after his first two outings. He still manged to bowl three No Balls at Trent Bridge which surely is avoidable. Can these modern athletes not measure out a run up? No balls are expensive - 2 runs plus a free hit.
The Sky commentators clearly do not agree with Eion Morgan and Chris Silverwood over who should open for England in the white ball formats. Nick Knight said: “Jonny Bairstow must be England’s best white ball opening bat of all time. It must be a good side that doesn’t have him opening for them.” Later Rob Key said: “JB is probably the best white ball opener in the world at present.” I don’t agree with those who think that Stokes should open. I am not even sure that he should be playing at present. His broken figure is still heavily protected and I believe that his much publicised dropped catch in the Trent Bridge Hundred match was as a result of him trying to favour the right hand and avoid impact with the damaged digit on his left. Stokes also was dismissed cheaply in his two Hundred outings. (He has subsequently awarded himself an indefinite mid-season break).
I suspect that Umpires will have relinquished their Clothes Horse role for good. None of them will want to be laden with jumpers, hats and other miscellaneous kit in the post Covid world. Every over now sees a pitch invasion of twelfth men rushing on and off with kit and beverages.
Alex Lees and Graham Clark added 242 for Durham’s first wicket in their 50 over match against Kent and their side went on to accumulate 405 for 4, a relatively rare 400 in this competition. They then added 230 against Gloucestershire as their side reached 335 for 4. But this wasn’t enough as Gloucester got home in the last over.
After watching an afternoon match I was in two minds as to whether to watch the Somerset v Gloucestershire T20 from Taunton but started and got drawn in. Somerset reached only 89 for 5 in the fifteenth over. Tom Lammonby then added 89 in 5 overs with van der Merwe before the latter was out for 5. Lammonby was run out off the final ball for 90 and Somerset had scaled the improbable heights of 183. A shell-shocked Gloucestershire could never get back in the game and after the dismissal of their talisman, Glen Phillips, they subsided gently to 160.
There has been something of a trend this year of sides digging themselves out of the shit after early collapses. A good example occurred in the test against Zimbabwe in which Bangladesh after being 132 for 6 were eventually bowled out for 468. In the tail Das made 95, Mahmadullah 150 and Taskin 75.
There have also been some hurry-up wins. At Trent Bridge in a match reduced to 7 overs a side Yorkshire may have been reasonably happy with their 60 for 3 against Notts but Hales and Trego knocked them off in 3.4 overs. with Hales reaching 31 from just nine balls.
There are plenty of County players who are enjoying the opportunities afforded by the absence of colleagues playing in the Hundred. Ryan Patel in a Royal London match reduced to 30 overs a side against Notts at the Oval scored 131 from 70 balls including 10 sixes for Surrey.
Another was James Fuller who scored 54 for Hampshire against Sussex and added 116 with Nick Gubbins who made 131 not out. Why is it that Middlesex men always seem to do better when they leave the club? Oh, and Gubbins followed that up with 4 for 38! I don’t remember him ever bowling for Middlesex. And another Lord’s reject, Adam Rossington, the Northants skipper, is opening the batting and keeping wicket for the Lord’s Hundred side.
I have heard no comment about the new Compton and Edrich stands at Lords. I have only seen them via Sky but think that they look good and blend in well with the Media Centre. The ground is looking very good with the much-improved Warner Stand another bonus.
Morgan Matters
The Great man still hasn’t returned to Lord’s
O Robinson is now free to play cricket again despite being given an 8 match ban for "historical racist and sexist tweets". 3 games of the ban have already been served and the other 5 are suspended for 2 years.
Middlesex are playing at Cheltenham and Gloucestershire were all out for 248, J Simpson took 5 catches. S Eskinazi has signed a new contract. Josh de Caires is making his debut for Middlesex in this match, and I am sure that you can tell from his surname that he is the son of M Atherton! Middlesex have been shot out for 101 (Robson 37, de Caires 5, Eskinazi 6, Handscomb 21, Mitchell 0. White 5, Andersson 5, Sowter, Cullen 5, Bamber 0, Murtagh 1*), this included the loss of 8 for 25! There is no way I am watching that bunch of tossers! In their second innings Middlesex fell from 241-4 to 255 a/o (Worrall 5-54, Taylor 5-40). Glo won by 164. Here are the 2nd innings scores of the Mx team: de Caires 4, Robson 0, Eskinazi 102, Handscomb 14, Mitchell 73, White 32, Andersson 0, Sowter 0, Cullen 0, Bamber 3, Murtagh 0*. Middlesex are firmly entrenched at the bottom of the Championship Group 2 table with 1 win out of 9 and a meagre 63 points to their name, 44 points behind the next to bottom team Leicestershire on 107. Anybody fancy a day out watching the lads? I thought not.
T Murtagh is captain of Middlesex for the Championship match v Leicestershire at Merchant Taylors: dunno what's happened to the other tosser... sacked? Tim won the toss and chose to bat and things are going surprisingly well with the lads on 109-1 (Robbo has most of them) with J de Caires out for a career best 17. Middlesex ended the day on 280-3 with Robbo well past his ton. On Day 2 Middlesex reached 324-9 (108.4) Robson 154, having slumped from 266-2, Esky was not fit to return to the crease and stayed on 23*, W Davis 5-66. It is surprising that they are still playing about 15 miles away as we are having the most torrential thunderstorm here which has been going on for a surprising length of time. Middlesex slipped Leicestershire out for 228 a lead of 106 (C Ackermann 82, T Murtagh 3-49, E Bamber 3-54). Middlesex (22pts) have beaten mighty Leicestershire (4 pts) by 121 runs: Might we even get off the bottom of the table? Not a chance, we are still a shocking 27 points adrift of last-but-one Leicestershire! Tanya wrote "there was joy at Merchant Taylor's School as Middlesex celebrated a rare win". "Rare win"? That's the second one already this season!
At Cheltenham Hampshire made 486-7 dec with N Gubbins 137*, why have Middlesex let him go? Extras 81with J Bracey behind the sticks.,
Middlesex have signed Essex batter Varun Chopra (formerly at Warwickshire) on loan for the forthcoming limited overs matches. Chopra averages 46.04 in list A cricket but has not played in the Essex first team this season.
There was a shock at Chelmsford, where Middlesex (169-5, Robson 60) had a surprising win over Essex (160-9, Finn 3-25) which lifted the lads off the bottom of the South Group table, they finished eighth out of nine, one point ahead of Glamorgan. Crack open the champers!
Surrey's ex-England allrounder Rikki Clarke is retiring at the end of the season aged 39. He played 2 Tests and 20 ODIs. J Dernbach is leaving Surrey at the end of the season. He took 583 wickets for Surrey in all competitions. He played for England in 24 ODIs and 34 T20Is.
August Cricketer:
1.George Dobell is one of many to complain about the ECB and the Hundred "we've had some great County Championship action, some great Vitality Blast action, some great Charlotte Edwards Cup action. We've got an England side built in domestic competitions which is No 1 in the world, but the last 12 tweets from @ECB are about the Hundred. Like a long-dreaded visit to the dentist, the Hundred is finally with us".
2. In reaching 1,000 first class wickets "James Anderson became the 216th bowler in history (and possibly the last) to reach the target and the first to do so after debuting in the 21st century. He was the first British bowler to pass the landmark since Robert Croft in 2007 and the first British seamer since Andy Caddick in 2005".
3. The new stands at the Nursery End at Lord's apparently provide "the best seats in world cricket".
4.Tom Maslona tells us that his favourite all-time cricketer is Mark Ramprakash. "Luton Town legend" and close friend of Jeff Thomson apparently,
5.Mick Harford tells us that watching club and international cricket "intrigues him like no other sport".
6.Huw Turbervill tells us that the Hundred "fills the ECB with excitement, but many fans of existing formats with dread
Former England, Derbyshire and Notts seamer Mike Hendrick is dead aged 72. He took 87 wickets in 30 Tests between 1974 and 1981 and was part of 3 Ashes winning series. He had been suffering from bowel and liver cancer in recent years.
Middlesex pace bowlers Blake Cullen and Ethan Bamber have signed new contracts taking them up to the end of the 2024 season.
Lord’s Leak
An anonymous, unofficial source sent me this
I have no idea if there have been ructions amongst the playing staff about captaincy, Director of Cricket et al but there have been financial distractions for the players. Apparently, the club have not been paying into the players’ pension fund although the players themselves have and obviously there is some dosh missing somewhere. An employee has left "under a cloud ". Whether or not this goes any further I don't know but will keep you in the loop if I hear more.
Wembley Reflections
I was copied in on this exchange between two Old Danes who kept agreeing
Ken Molloy: I think the way most of the English team took off their medals immediately after receiving them was disgraceful. Disappointment is no excuse. They were not good enough to win the tournament and should have had the decency to accept the medals with good grace and sportsmanship. The FA could start by fining them for lack of respect. Not much about that in the press I read - in fact I only saw it mentioned in the Spanish papers; the journalists and commentators were too busy heaping undue praise on them in the UK. The behaviour of the people who broke into the stadium and those involved in the awful scenes later was also unforgivable and I hope they are duly punished
Derek Kingaby: I agree with you on all your sentiments. No excuse for being bad losers. Defeatist attitude on the pitch meant trying to hang on to protecting a one nil lead. No real belief in the team. Too much 'puff' about how good the team was. No truly creative ability. Only Grealish had the balls to attack, and he was largely left out which sums up Southgate's style. Pathetic and ill-founded approach to penalties. Very disappointing but all too predictable. We were lucky to see England win the World Cup in '66. I am only sorry for the youngsters of today. Southgate of all people should surely have thought through the impact of missing a penalty on players like Saka. Placement of course, but with power!
Ken Molloy: I forgot to mention the idiots who booed the Italian anthem as well. Money rules, of course, otherwise I think a good lesson for everyone would be to not send England to Qatar. That would really get people’s attention and show how important we think respect is, but I can hear the protests of unfair now.
Ealing Cricket Club - 150 years of Club Cricket at its finest
Steve Thompson reports on this notable event
Whether it was a COVID thing or whether, as the day progressed, it was news of those unable to be present because they were unwell or struggling physically, or sadly had passed away, Ealing Cricket Club’s 150th Anniversary celebrations, a year on because of COVID, was as emotional as it was celebratory.
I arrived early after my trip from Hereford. The Corfton Road ground looked resplendent in watery sunshine, but the brightest sight that greeted me were the two emblazered architects of the day. John Poore and Bob Fisher wore their red, white and green stripes throughout - and why not? Bob Fisher became a colt at Ealing three summers before I was born and at 82 is still playing walking football. John Poore, wonderfully hospitable as ever, oozed all things Ealing and rightly so. As I came through the gate they were embarking on another circuit - probably their 1500th and, but for the silver hair and slightly slower pace, time stood still.
Despite having played against him many times I can’t recall many, if any, post-match conversations with Stanmore’s Arthur Ferry. However, being the two earliest arrivals, we then spent a lovely hour discovering we had much in common, not least of which being bearing the cross that is supporting the ‘Rs’. A trip down Loftus memory lane was the perfect appetiser for the day ahead, which with excellent attendance from Brentham and the Bush had, for me at least, a very West London feel about it.
Most people seemed to recognise most people. Although the fact that the ever-smiling Junior Gayle’s vision didn’t permit him to recognise several people from close quarters caused great mirth for Terry Cordaroy, since Junior is now a senior umpire and was officiating in the match that day. Always lovely to hear Cords’ distinctive laugh.
Very few Middlesex League Clubs were unrepresented and inevitably we were all of a certain vintage. That’s what made it so special. It didn’t matter that you hadn’t seen someone for decades, conversations began as if resuming after you’d just popped to the pavilion bar loo, thirty years before.
The sense of community was palpable. The importance of the occasion was reflected in the presence of four former Middlesex Test players, Radley, Emburey, Fraser and Gatting. I spent my late teens playing several years with Mike and then later several seasons against him; but that was in the early seventies and eighties. Nevertheless, he interrupted his conversation with his former international colleagues to spend ten minutes catching up. A measure of how grounded he is and how that sense of Middlesex club cricket community never leaves you not even when you’ve recently been Chair of World Cricket.
Of course, the absences were as poignant as the attendances. News filtered through that Colin Nash had passed away days before and conversations often began with an enquiry after someone’s health and well-being. That John Lindley and Alan Price’s physical health prevented them from being present was particularly sad given the service they have given to the host club. There was also sadness, as well as some joy, in the afternoon as a plaque was unveiled to recognise Sam Kelso’s enormous contribution to more that a third of the 150 years we were there to celebrate.
As the afternoon wore on and the beer flowed, the West London fraternity seemed to grow and gravitate towards one another. Too many to mention by name here but all played a vitally important part in my formative years, although at the time perhaps they, and I didn’t appreciate just how much.
On a personal note, to have spent an afternoon reminiscing with Alf (Langley) - why the brackets I don’t know, there is only one Alf - was worth the trip alone. How as teenagers we were left in charge of the ground at South Hampstead for a fortnight while groundsman Stan Berry took a holiday still bemuses us. The dressing room bollocking from Don Wallis at 11.40 on a Sunday morning after the night before. South Hampstead, very few for two with a very fragile Thompson and Langley swung out by Arthur Gates - given our state we thought we’d done well to lay a bat on him. Trying to climb the stairs of a dodgy B&B in Rye at three in the morning after day one of a TVG tour. Almost as if it were yesterday. And then back to a much harsher reality and reflecting on his wonderful brother, Mike. The following day at the Bush a memorial game for him will have taken place.
Thank you, John Poore and Ealing Cricket Club, for a very special walk down memory lane. On the train home to Herefordshire the following morning I had time to reflect on something Alf said in a way only Alf could, so eloquently, so meaningfully. I hope he won’t mind me trying to do justice to it in print but in so many ways it encapsulated the importance of the previous day. The loss of his brother a year ago had been so painful and with which it had been so impossibly hard to come to terms. I paraphrase, but now, he said, when he wakes up, he checks everything is working and makes a conscious decision to relish every single moment of the day ahead, even the seemingly mundane.
Now I know that’s not necessarily a very Googlies kind of an end to what was meant to be a cricketing reflection but then for all of us the game, especially the club game and its people, has been so much a part of our lives and explicitly and subliminally from which we all learnt so much.... long may it continue.
The Hundred
Sam Morshead reflects on the opening games
By the first change of end in the chase, the chants of “Don’t Take Me Home” began to drift, long and slow, across the outfield. In the concourses, beer pumps ran hot where 24 hours previously they were barely touched. There were families dotted around but largely this audience was made up of young adults, predominantly white, and - judging by the parade of England limited-overs replicas in the stands and the reaction received by Jimmy Anderson as he wandered around the boundary - mostly existing cricket fans. The atmosphere was as bouncy as it was boisterous. There is nothing wrong with any of this, but it is important.
The ECB have been keen to stress that ticket purchasers for this game were younger than their typical crowd but anyone trying to sell this audience as new would be employing the tactics of a second-hand car salesman. “Fresh gearbox, five years’ warranty, one previous owner - a Mr C Graves”. While on Wednesday, the atmosphere, crowd and platform given to the female cricketers of Oval Invincibles and Manchester Originals were indeed all new, there was a very familiar look and feel to this occasion. In three words? Big Blast energy.
Because, when we look back at the first game of the men’s Hundred, memories of the occasion could quite easily blur with riotous evenings watching Surrey. It is probably unreasonable to judge The Hundred’s relative success or failure by its impact on demographics in its T20 Blast hotbeds: let’s not forget, casual cricket watchers in London have not had much of a chance to satisfy their cravings for a weeknight blowout given county crowds were capped at 25 per cent throughout much of the Blast, and Surrey have manufactured a fabulous reputation for high-energy, high-entertainment fayre in this part of the world. Sell-outs at The Oval are not new, either, after all.
This was a night for that audience - but, critically, that is also Surrey’s audience. And this is where the crossover between the men’s Hundred and the county game becomes so treacherous. This is where The Hundred becomes a threat to the structure which bore it, given its positioning in the school holidays and very affordable pricing. Any accusations of undercutting will be rejected out of hand, but ultimately the schedule feels too condensed to sustain itself in its 2021 form in the medium term. The engine on that 2018 beamer could just give up, and that may come at quite a cost. The question is, and it is a very important one, would that sacrifice - be it the relegation of the 50-over county competition, the peripheralisation of the first-class game or something worse - be worth it to propel the women’s game forward?
Because, there, the situation is very different - partly because the ECB did away with the KSL, partly because the KSL would have required a complete rebrand to popularise it in the same way as The Hundred, and partly because the Charlotte Edwards Cup (the current regional T20 tournament) very much makes sense as a feeder competition for young, homegrown talent. There are very few, if any, competing forces at play, and so The Hundred can develop an identity from scratch, cultivate a fanbase that is much more family-focused, and provide a sensible pathway for talent to mature in big-game environments.
Could the women’s Hundred have pulling power on its own? Maybe, but the evidence is not particularly compelling. The Kia Super League was a fantastic product but in 2019 the ECB reported a group-stage attendance of 27,000 across the venues. It is hard to imagine heavy investment in that competition alone generating the profile and purpose of Wednesday night. The most eye-catching element of the ECB’s at-times scattergun marketing for The Hundred has been the projection of both genders as equal, as being part of the same team.
That message has achieved tremendous cut-through and, in a world where a simple dropped catch in the women’s game compels morons to litter social media with sexist abuse, positioning everyone on the same platform does make a big statement about the progress cricket can make in this country. It also evidently engaged a different demographic this week - albeit boosted by a ticket giveaway to NHS workers, cricket volunteers and families in the Dynamos and All Stars programmes.
The Hundred sits as a major part of an ECB initiative called “Inspiring Generations”, and not just generations of men’s county fans. Could it be that we need to adapt to share the sport? Maybe. Was there another way to advance the women’s game? Possibly. Did Wednesday feel like a real breakthrough? Absolutely. As ever with this tournament - which has been tribalised to the precipice of a black hole for grown-up discussion - there is just far too much nuance for 100 balls.
Strange XIs
What links this disparate bunch and so what Jazz Hat would they wear?
1. Michael Atherton
2. Sam Robson
3. Ken Barrington
4. Dawid Malan
5. Javed Miandad
6. Kim Barnett
7. Jim Parks wk
8. Ken Grieves
9. Bob Barber
10. Colin Atkinson
11. Stuart Leary
Googlies Website
All the back editions of Googlies can be found on the G&C website. There are also many photographs most of which have never appeared in Googlies.
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An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 224
August 2021
Caption Competition
- Sam Robson: Leicestershire, Gloucestershire, Surrey, Glamorgan, Somerset, Essex, Kent, Hampshire
Sam Robson: No. These are the teams who have beaten us this year.
- Chris Whitty: At the beginning of the month two players were injured in the match. Last week it was four. We must do something. If we continue at this rate everyone including the umpires, scorers and tea ladies will all be injured in the match at the end of the month.
- Jos Buttler: I haven’t played a first-class innings for weeks.
- Peter Handscomb: Yes Gus, what do you want?
Peter Handscomb: Where in the hotel?
Gus Fraser: No. back in Oz.
- Gus Fraser: Have you heard the rumour that they are trying to recruit Dido Harding to replace me?
- Sam Robson: Are there any Middlesex players in the Hundred?
Out and About with the Professor
“And what do you think has been the most exciting bit?” Thus the question from a gushing woman presenter to a young girl. The presenter was “out in the crowd” and had been telling us that the “atmosphere was electric” (there must be another metaphor for this), that “the crowd was on the edge of their seats” (ditto), and that The Hundred was “taking the country by storm” (yep) and, “never had there been so much interest in cricket”. It was all so exciting!…and the little girl’s answer? “The fireworks”
It would be easy to parody the flimflam and general bollocks that surrounds almost every aspect of The Hundred, indeed, it is very difficult not to: the stupid names, the music, the hideous kit, the TV graphics designed to look like a video game, the dreadful faux-excited commentators (of whom Pietersen must be the worst), etc., etc…add your own dislike here.
But personally, I’m happy to ignore all that if it truly does bring a new generation to watching cricket – and a lot of the cricket that I have seen has been very watchable. The game is obviously T20 on speed but to be a public entertainment (for this target public at any rate) it needs to be. A couple of innovations are worth pondering. I see nothing wrong with five ball “overs”, for example, and the option to take that to ten gives a captain some very useful flexibility. The fact that the game is “on the clock” means that incoming batsmen (aka “batters”) cross on the field and there aren’t these interminable stoppages in play where everyone just stands around. It also keeps hi-viz twelfth men armed with drinks and gloves off the field. Slow play being “punished” by bringing an extra fielder in is a far better option than some meaningless fine collected later.
There have been a few close matches, not least the Northern “Superchargers” (ye gods!) first win with John Simpson hitting a 4 and a 6 with three balls to spare. I have never thought of Simpson as a big six hitter but perhaps those who have watched Middlesex carefully know better. A couple of the women’s games that I have seen have been close. The Superchargers – men and women – had good wins on the same day against the “Invincibles”, which might trigger a name change, or perhaps two. What is a supercharger anyway? Is it a real thing? Can you get one on Amazon?
Individual successes and failures (so far) have also been interesting. Yorkshire watchers have known for some time that Harry Brook is a useful player and, at present, he is top of the runs list. By comparison, Alex Hales has looked somewhat bereft – this is, after all, exactly the format in which he should shine. Perhaps he will soon. Carter has been the stand-out bowler with a run up which might best be described as economical. In the women’s matches, the Indian player Jemimah Rodriges has helped put the Leeds team on top together with the bowling of Davidson-Richards, Levick and Smith.
The overseas players have, in truth, been a bit of a job lot. Notwithstanding all the excitement and edge of your seat stuff, the real stars of world cricket are, for one reason or another, absent. There are a few of course, but the overseas contingent does have a sort of second, or even third, string feel about it.
There are two real problems, I think, with the whole business (unless you think the noise and bluster is itself a problem) and they are those of identity and the impact on the county championship. The identity issue was raised very early on, and it is critical. In its essence, sport demands commitment. To get from sport what it offers you have to care about the result. That is easy if it is an individual sport and you are competing. In a team sport, where you are observing, it comes down to the issue of identity. Do I care who wins these matches? I want Yorkshire to win the County Championship but, frankly, I don’t give a toss about who wins The Hundred. Perhaps that will change. I see young people in the crowds with caps and t-shirts but I suspect these are given away to boost the synthetic excitement. But perhaps, over time, they may truly want the “Originals” to win…stranger things have happened.
The other issue is the deliberate pushing of the Championship to the margins of the season – and this must be a commercial decision. Some Googlies readers might think this is an attack on the bedrock of the game…and they may be right. The ECB have added to the marginalisation of county cricket the most complex tournament structure that they could have devised, notwithstanding their talk of a “grand finale” at the end of the season for the Bob Willis trophy. Some years’ ago Michael Atherton wrote in Wisden that “county cricket served no useful purpose”. Perhaps the people who run cricket in this country have taken him at his word.
So…what to make of The Hundred? Lots of cricket, some, but not all, of a high class. Attracting people who would never go to a county match and, in all probability never will. Putting bums on seats and on the edge of some. And exciting I think…and that’s not just the fireworks.
This & That
What a relief that England didn’t win the Euros. We are spared the celebratory crap that would have gone with it. I watched some of the semi-final and final matches but didn’t stay up for the extra time in both cases. I thought that England looked quite good in the first half in the final and played more attacking football than I would have expected. Sterling looked as bad as he had been for Manchester City, but the reports raved over him. Why is this? Is it because he is a black standard bearer? We are told that England had had special practice and were ready to take penalties. I believe that they took six in the tournament and scored just two. Some readiness.
George sent me this: “nice moment when Azan Khan came in to bat yesterday. Vaughan was purring at his test career strike rate of 166 per 100 balls. What he didn’t spot was that the career had comprised a total of 3 balls”. The commentators seem remarkably ignorant of the modern game outside the UK. Ian Ward kept expressing surprise that Hafeez came in at 4 in the T20s. Anyone who had watched the PSL earlier this year would know that the “Professor” was the most feared of all the big hitters.
In these days of the impact of diet on children and watersheds on advertising unhealthy products it is surprising to see the following products emblazoned across the Hundred team’s shirts: KP, Tyrrells, Popchips, Hula Hoops, McCoys and Butterkist.
Its easy to see what the groundsmen think of the Hundred. They are handing over tired and much used wickets which turn, pop and stay low from the outset. This means that spinners were almost unplayable at Old Trafford and Trent Bridge. Then at Lord’s the pitch was slow and dead. This is OK for the cricket purist but surely is not what the authorities want from their new fast version of the game which presumably requires sixes every over? At the Rose Bowl and at Headingley they used a hybrid wicket which somehow has nylon woven into the surface. It played alright in Southampton, but once Jason Roy decided it was tricky no one could bat on it in Leeds.
The Hundred seems to be more popular in the South than the North. In the early matches Lord’s and the Oval were attracting full houses whilst Trent Bridge was getting proportionately large crowds. Edgbaston and Old Trafford were no more than half full and you could count the audience on two hands in Cardiff.
Marchant de Lange is the leading wicket taker with 8 after his first two outings. He still manged to bowl three No Balls at Trent Bridge which surely is avoidable. Can these modern athletes not measure out a run up? No balls are expensive - 2 runs plus a free hit.
The Sky commentators clearly do not agree with Eion Morgan and Chris Silverwood over who should open for England in the white ball formats. Nick Knight said: “Jonny Bairstow must be England’s best white ball opening bat of all time. It must be a good side that doesn’t have him opening for them.” Later Rob Key said: “JB is probably the best white ball opener in the world at present.” I don’t agree with those who think that Stokes should open. I am not even sure that he should be playing at present. His broken figure is still heavily protected and I believe that his much publicised dropped catch in the Trent Bridge Hundred match was as a result of him trying to favour the right hand and avoid impact with the damaged digit on his left. Stokes also was dismissed cheaply in his two Hundred outings. (He has subsequently awarded himself an indefinite mid-season break).
I suspect that Umpires will have relinquished their Clothes Horse role for good. None of them will want to be laden with jumpers, hats and other miscellaneous kit in the post Covid world. Every over now sees a pitch invasion of twelfth men rushing on and off with kit and beverages.
Alex Lees and Graham Clark added 242 for Durham’s first wicket in their 50 over match against Kent and their side went on to accumulate 405 for 4, a relatively rare 400 in this competition. They then added 230 against Gloucestershire as their side reached 335 for 4. But this wasn’t enough as Gloucester got home in the last over.
After watching an afternoon match I was in two minds as to whether to watch the Somerset v Gloucestershire T20 from Taunton but started and got drawn in. Somerset reached only 89 for 5 in the fifteenth over. Tom Lammonby then added 89 in 5 overs with van der Merwe before the latter was out for 5. Lammonby was run out off the final ball for 90 and Somerset had scaled the improbable heights of 183. A shell-shocked Gloucestershire could never get back in the game and after the dismissal of their talisman, Glen Phillips, they subsided gently to 160.
There has been something of a trend this year of sides digging themselves out of the shit after early collapses. A good example occurred in the test against Zimbabwe in which Bangladesh after being 132 for 6 were eventually bowled out for 468. In the tail Das made 95, Mahmadullah 150 and Taskin 75.
There have also been some hurry-up wins. At Trent Bridge in a match reduced to 7 overs a side Yorkshire may have been reasonably happy with their 60 for 3 against Notts but Hales and Trego knocked them off in 3.4 overs. with Hales reaching 31 from just nine balls.
There are plenty of County players who are enjoying the opportunities afforded by the absence of colleagues playing in the Hundred. Ryan Patel in a Royal London match reduced to 30 overs a side against Notts at the Oval scored 131 from 70 balls including 10 sixes for Surrey.
Another was James Fuller who scored 54 for Hampshire against Sussex and added 116 with Nick Gubbins who made 131 not out. Why is it that Middlesex men always seem to do better when they leave the club? Oh, and Gubbins followed that up with 4 for 38! I don’t remember him ever bowling for Middlesex. And another Lord’s reject, Adam Rossington, the Northants skipper, is opening the batting and keeping wicket for the Lord’s Hundred side.
I have heard no comment about the new Compton and Edrich stands at Lords. I have only seen them via Sky but think that they look good and blend in well with the Media Centre. The ground is looking very good with the much-improved Warner Stand another bonus.
Morgan Matters
The Great man still hasn’t returned to Lord’s
O Robinson is now free to play cricket again despite being given an 8 match ban for "historical racist and sexist tweets". 3 games of the ban have already been served and the other 5 are suspended for 2 years.
Middlesex are playing at Cheltenham and Gloucestershire were all out for 248, J Simpson took 5 catches. S Eskinazi has signed a new contract. Josh de Caires is making his debut for Middlesex in this match, and I am sure that you can tell from his surname that he is the son of M Atherton! Middlesex have been shot out for 101 (Robson 37, de Caires 5, Eskinazi 6, Handscomb 21, Mitchell 0. White 5, Andersson 5, Sowter, Cullen 5, Bamber 0, Murtagh 1*), this included the loss of 8 for 25! There is no way I am watching that bunch of tossers! In their second innings Middlesex fell from 241-4 to 255 a/o (Worrall 5-54, Taylor 5-40). Glo won by 164. Here are the 2nd innings scores of the Mx team: de Caires 4, Robson 0, Eskinazi 102, Handscomb 14, Mitchell 73, White 32, Andersson 0, Sowter 0, Cullen 0, Bamber 3, Murtagh 0*. Middlesex are firmly entrenched at the bottom of the Championship Group 2 table with 1 win out of 9 and a meagre 63 points to their name, 44 points behind the next to bottom team Leicestershire on 107. Anybody fancy a day out watching the lads? I thought not.
T Murtagh is captain of Middlesex for the Championship match v Leicestershire at Merchant Taylors: dunno what's happened to the other tosser... sacked? Tim won the toss and chose to bat and things are going surprisingly well with the lads on 109-1 (Robbo has most of them) with J de Caires out for a career best 17. Middlesex ended the day on 280-3 with Robbo well past his ton. On Day 2 Middlesex reached 324-9 (108.4) Robson 154, having slumped from 266-2, Esky was not fit to return to the crease and stayed on 23*, W Davis 5-66. It is surprising that they are still playing about 15 miles away as we are having the most torrential thunderstorm here which has been going on for a surprising length of time. Middlesex slipped Leicestershire out for 228 a lead of 106 (C Ackermann 82, T Murtagh 3-49, E Bamber 3-54). Middlesex (22pts) have beaten mighty Leicestershire (4 pts) by 121 runs: Might we even get off the bottom of the table? Not a chance, we are still a shocking 27 points adrift of last-but-one Leicestershire! Tanya wrote "there was joy at Merchant Taylor's School as Middlesex celebrated a rare win". "Rare win"? That's the second one already this season!
At Cheltenham Hampshire made 486-7 dec with N Gubbins 137*, why have Middlesex let him go? Extras 81with J Bracey behind the sticks.,
Middlesex have signed Essex batter Varun Chopra (formerly at Warwickshire) on loan for the forthcoming limited overs matches. Chopra averages 46.04 in list A cricket but has not played in the Essex first team this season.
There was a shock at Chelmsford, where Middlesex (169-5, Robson 60) had a surprising win over Essex (160-9, Finn 3-25) which lifted the lads off the bottom of the South Group table, they finished eighth out of nine, one point ahead of Glamorgan. Crack open the champers!
Surrey's ex-England allrounder Rikki Clarke is retiring at the end of the season aged 39. He played 2 Tests and 20 ODIs. J Dernbach is leaving Surrey at the end of the season. He took 583 wickets for Surrey in all competitions. He played for England in 24 ODIs and 34 T20Is.
August Cricketer:
1.George Dobell is one of many to complain about the ECB and the Hundred "we've had some great County Championship action, some great Vitality Blast action, some great Charlotte Edwards Cup action. We've got an England side built in domestic competitions which is No 1 in the world, but the last 12 tweets from @ECB are about the Hundred. Like a long-dreaded visit to the dentist, the Hundred is finally with us".
2. In reaching 1,000 first class wickets "James Anderson became the 216th bowler in history (and possibly the last) to reach the target and the first to do so after debuting in the 21st century. He was the first British bowler to pass the landmark since Robert Croft in 2007 and the first British seamer since Andy Caddick in 2005".
3. The new stands at the Nursery End at Lord's apparently provide "the best seats in world cricket".
4.Tom Maslona tells us that his favourite all-time cricketer is Mark Ramprakash. "Luton Town legend" and close friend of Jeff Thomson apparently,
5.Mick Harford tells us that watching club and international cricket "intrigues him like no other sport".
6.Huw Turbervill tells us that the Hundred "fills the ECB with excitement, but many fans of existing formats with dread
Former England, Derbyshire and Notts seamer Mike Hendrick is dead aged 72. He took 87 wickets in 30 Tests between 1974 and 1981 and was part of 3 Ashes winning series. He had been suffering from bowel and liver cancer in recent years.
Middlesex pace bowlers Blake Cullen and Ethan Bamber have signed new contracts taking them up to the end of the 2024 season.
Lord’s Leak
An anonymous, unofficial source sent me this
I have no idea if there have been ructions amongst the playing staff about captaincy, Director of Cricket et al but there have been financial distractions for the players. Apparently, the club have not been paying into the players’ pension fund although the players themselves have and obviously there is some dosh missing somewhere. An employee has left "under a cloud ". Whether or not this goes any further I don't know but will keep you in the loop if I hear more.
Wembley Reflections
I was copied in on this exchange between two Old Danes who kept agreeing
Ken Molloy: I think the way most of the English team took off their medals immediately after receiving them was disgraceful. Disappointment is no excuse. They were not good enough to win the tournament and should have had the decency to accept the medals with good grace and sportsmanship. The FA could start by fining them for lack of respect. Not much about that in the press I read - in fact I only saw it mentioned in the Spanish papers; the journalists and commentators were too busy heaping undue praise on them in the UK. The behaviour of the people who broke into the stadium and those involved in the awful scenes later was also unforgivable and I hope they are duly punished
Derek Kingaby: I agree with you on all your sentiments. No excuse for being bad losers. Defeatist attitude on the pitch meant trying to hang on to protecting a one nil lead. No real belief in the team. Too much 'puff' about how good the team was. No truly creative ability. Only Grealish had the balls to attack, and he was largely left out which sums up Southgate's style. Pathetic and ill-founded approach to penalties. Very disappointing but all too predictable. We were lucky to see England win the World Cup in '66. I am only sorry for the youngsters of today. Southgate of all people should surely have thought through the impact of missing a penalty on players like Saka. Placement of course, but with power!
Ken Molloy: I forgot to mention the idiots who booed the Italian anthem as well. Money rules, of course, otherwise I think a good lesson for everyone would be to not send England to Qatar. That would really get people’s attention and show how important we think respect is, but I can hear the protests of unfair now.
Ealing Cricket Club - 150 years of Club Cricket at its finest
Steve Thompson reports on this notable event
Whether it was a COVID thing or whether, as the day progressed, it was news of those unable to be present because they were unwell or struggling physically, or sadly had passed away, Ealing Cricket Club’s 150th Anniversary celebrations, a year on because of COVID, was as emotional as it was celebratory.
I arrived early after my trip from Hereford. The Corfton Road ground looked resplendent in watery sunshine, but the brightest sight that greeted me were the two emblazered architects of the day. John Poore and Bob Fisher wore their red, white and green stripes throughout - and why not? Bob Fisher became a colt at Ealing three summers before I was born and at 82 is still playing walking football. John Poore, wonderfully hospitable as ever, oozed all things Ealing and rightly so. As I came through the gate they were embarking on another circuit - probably their 1500th and, but for the silver hair and slightly slower pace, time stood still.
Despite having played against him many times I can’t recall many, if any, post-match conversations with Stanmore’s Arthur Ferry. However, being the two earliest arrivals, we then spent a lovely hour discovering we had much in common, not least of which being bearing the cross that is supporting the ‘Rs’. A trip down Loftus memory lane was the perfect appetiser for the day ahead, which with excellent attendance from Brentham and the Bush had, for me at least, a very West London feel about it.
Most people seemed to recognise most people. Although the fact that the ever-smiling Junior Gayle’s vision didn’t permit him to recognise several people from close quarters caused great mirth for Terry Cordaroy, since Junior is now a senior umpire and was officiating in the match that day. Always lovely to hear Cords’ distinctive laugh.
Very few Middlesex League Clubs were unrepresented and inevitably we were all of a certain vintage. That’s what made it so special. It didn’t matter that you hadn’t seen someone for decades, conversations began as if resuming after you’d just popped to the pavilion bar loo, thirty years before.
The sense of community was palpable. The importance of the occasion was reflected in the presence of four former Middlesex Test players, Radley, Emburey, Fraser and Gatting. I spent my late teens playing several years with Mike and then later several seasons against him; but that was in the early seventies and eighties. Nevertheless, he interrupted his conversation with his former international colleagues to spend ten minutes catching up. A measure of how grounded he is and how that sense of Middlesex club cricket community never leaves you not even when you’ve recently been Chair of World Cricket.
Of course, the absences were as poignant as the attendances. News filtered through that Colin Nash had passed away days before and conversations often began with an enquiry after someone’s health and well-being. That John Lindley and Alan Price’s physical health prevented them from being present was particularly sad given the service they have given to the host club. There was also sadness, as well as some joy, in the afternoon as a plaque was unveiled to recognise Sam Kelso’s enormous contribution to more that a third of the 150 years we were there to celebrate.
As the afternoon wore on and the beer flowed, the West London fraternity seemed to grow and gravitate towards one another. Too many to mention by name here but all played a vitally important part in my formative years, although at the time perhaps they, and I didn’t appreciate just how much.
On a personal note, to have spent an afternoon reminiscing with Alf (Langley) - why the brackets I don’t know, there is only one Alf - was worth the trip alone. How as teenagers we were left in charge of the ground at South Hampstead for a fortnight while groundsman Stan Berry took a holiday still bemuses us. The dressing room bollocking from Don Wallis at 11.40 on a Sunday morning after the night before. South Hampstead, very few for two with a very fragile Thompson and Langley swung out by Arthur Gates - given our state we thought we’d done well to lay a bat on him. Trying to climb the stairs of a dodgy B&B in Rye at three in the morning after day one of a TVG tour. Almost as if it were yesterday. And then back to a much harsher reality and reflecting on his wonderful brother, Mike. The following day at the Bush a memorial game for him will have taken place.
Thank you, John Poore and Ealing Cricket Club, for a very special walk down memory lane. On the train home to Herefordshire the following morning I had time to reflect on something Alf said in a way only Alf could, so eloquently, so meaningfully. I hope he won’t mind me trying to do justice to it in print but in so many ways it encapsulated the importance of the previous day. The loss of his brother a year ago had been so painful and with which it had been so impossibly hard to come to terms. I paraphrase, but now, he said, when he wakes up, he checks everything is working and makes a conscious decision to relish every single moment of the day ahead, even the seemingly mundane.
Now I know that’s not necessarily a very Googlies kind of an end to what was meant to be a cricketing reflection but then for all of us the game, especially the club game and its people, has been so much a part of our lives and explicitly and subliminally from which we all learnt so much.... long may it continue.
The Hundred
Sam Morshead reflects on the opening games
By the first change of end in the chase, the chants of “Don’t Take Me Home” began to drift, long and slow, across the outfield. In the concourses, beer pumps ran hot where 24 hours previously they were barely touched. There were families dotted around but largely this audience was made up of young adults, predominantly white, and - judging by the parade of England limited-overs replicas in the stands and the reaction received by Jimmy Anderson as he wandered around the boundary - mostly existing cricket fans. The atmosphere was as bouncy as it was boisterous. There is nothing wrong with any of this, but it is important.
The ECB have been keen to stress that ticket purchasers for this game were younger than their typical crowd but anyone trying to sell this audience as new would be employing the tactics of a second-hand car salesman. “Fresh gearbox, five years’ warranty, one previous owner - a Mr C Graves”. While on Wednesday, the atmosphere, crowd and platform given to the female cricketers of Oval Invincibles and Manchester Originals were indeed all new, there was a very familiar look and feel to this occasion. In three words? Big Blast energy.
Because, when we look back at the first game of the men’s Hundred, memories of the occasion could quite easily blur with riotous evenings watching Surrey. It is probably unreasonable to judge The Hundred’s relative success or failure by its impact on demographics in its T20 Blast hotbeds: let’s not forget, casual cricket watchers in London have not had much of a chance to satisfy their cravings for a weeknight blowout given county crowds were capped at 25 per cent throughout much of the Blast, and Surrey have manufactured a fabulous reputation for high-energy, high-entertainment fayre in this part of the world. Sell-outs at The Oval are not new, either, after all.
This was a night for that audience - but, critically, that is also Surrey’s audience. And this is where the crossover between the men’s Hundred and the county game becomes so treacherous. This is where The Hundred becomes a threat to the structure which bore it, given its positioning in the school holidays and very affordable pricing. Any accusations of undercutting will be rejected out of hand, but ultimately the schedule feels too condensed to sustain itself in its 2021 form in the medium term. The engine on that 2018 beamer could just give up, and that may come at quite a cost. The question is, and it is a very important one, would that sacrifice - be it the relegation of the 50-over county competition, the peripheralisation of the first-class game or something worse - be worth it to propel the women’s game forward?
Because, there, the situation is very different - partly because the ECB did away with the KSL, partly because the KSL would have required a complete rebrand to popularise it in the same way as The Hundred, and partly because the Charlotte Edwards Cup (the current regional T20 tournament) very much makes sense as a feeder competition for young, homegrown talent. There are very few, if any, competing forces at play, and so The Hundred can develop an identity from scratch, cultivate a fanbase that is much more family-focused, and provide a sensible pathway for talent to mature in big-game environments.
Could the women’s Hundred have pulling power on its own? Maybe, but the evidence is not particularly compelling. The Kia Super League was a fantastic product but in 2019 the ECB reported a group-stage attendance of 27,000 across the venues. It is hard to imagine heavy investment in that competition alone generating the profile and purpose of Wednesday night. The most eye-catching element of the ECB’s at-times scattergun marketing for The Hundred has been the projection of both genders as equal, as being part of the same team.
That message has achieved tremendous cut-through and, in a world where a simple dropped catch in the women’s game compels morons to litter social media with sexist abuse, positioning everyone on the same platform does make a big statement about the progress cricket can make in this country. It also evidently engaged a different demographic this week - albeit boosted by a ticket giveaway to NHS workers, cricket volunteers and families in the Dynamos and All Stars programmes.
The Hundred sits as a major part of an ECB initiative called “Inspiring Generations”, and not just generations of men’s county fans. Could it be that we need to adapt to share the sport? Maybe. Was there another way to advance the women’s game? Possibly. Did Wednesday feel like a real breakthrough? Absolutely. As ever with this tournament - which has been tribalised to the precipice of a black hole for grown-up discussion - there is just far too much nuance for 100 balls.
Strange XIs
What links this disparate bunch and so what Jazz Hat would they wear?
1. Michael Atherton
2. Sam Robson
3. Ken Barrington
4. Dawid Malan
5. Javed Miandad
6. Kim Barnett
7. Jim Parks wk
8. Ken Grieves
9. Bob Barber
10. Colin Atkinson
11. Stuart Leary
Googlies Website
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