GOOGLIES & CHINAMEN
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 225
September 2021
Caption Competition
Chris Silverwood: Probably change counties. You are playing in the third division!
Out and About with the Professor
This article was written two days before the partial release of the report by Yorkshire
I didn’t watch much of the final day of the Test because I was playing golf, but the people I was with asked if I thought that England had a chance of knocking off the runs. Clearly they had been seduced by the Sky commentators who kept, presumably for commercial reasons, emphasising the possibility of an England victory. The match “could go either way” the end was bound to be “exciting”. The previous evening Warne said, more than once, (come to think of it he often says things more than once) that: “They must have a chance…there’s always a chance”.
This truism, masquerading as wisdom, avoids any specification of the chance. It is the same line peddled by the sellers of lottery tickets – there’s always the chance you might win. People who buy a ticket in the national lottery are paying a voluntary tax and their willingness to do so is a measure of the success of the promoters’ art in emphasising the chance of winning. “Chance” can be measured in terms of probability (on a scale from 0 to 1). A probability of 1 being certain, and of 0 being impossible. Where would anyone who has watched Test cricket for a lifetime put the England team – and especially this England team – on that scale for this run “chase”? 0.0001? 0.00001? Nor, in truth, did I hold up much hope for us batting it out – this is not a side, I think, that can bat for long periods of time without losing wickets, especially on the last day, no matter how flat the pitch. Having said all that of course, the collapse from 100-0 to 210 all out was pretty spectacular even by England’s standards. The fact that it wasn’t surprising doesn’t exactly make it pleasant to watch (even had I been watching).
Actually, I think we could go further back in the match for the real area of disappointment. To bowl this India side out for 191 was a great effort. To then get into a first innings lead looked like establishing a very strong position. But this England side don’t seem to know how to press home any advantage they might gain. Moeen and Pope had moved the side into the lead with some comfort and all they had to do was to carry on doing what they were doing. I can’t recall a more frustrating England player than Moeen Ali. If there was one player in world cricket who you could choose to watch make 100, I would choose him. The talent and the elegance are stunning. A couple of years’ back I saw him score 200 at Scarborough and while he most assuredly was not batting for my team, it was mesmerising stuff. So, is there anyone out there who can explain his wild swipe at Jadeja when all he had to do was stay at the crease for another day. Robinson’s shot, shortly afterwards, was similarly inexplicable. And, of course, there are never any explanations. No one says that the tactics were to get quick runs, or hit Jadeja out of the attack (or whatever); Root just says that they could “take some positives” but doesn’t say what they are nor where he will take them. But if those two, who were well-set, could have batted sensibly, England’s lead could have been sufficient to at least ensure a draw and, quite possibly, a win (a probability of, say, 0.3?).
Since I know this, and everyone who has watched any Test cricket also knows this, why don’t the players know this?
One thing that was very well worth watching, and I did see, was the “You Guys are History” documentary that Sky ran through the lunch breaks. From the start it was powerful and important stuff. Racism is much discussed but the only people who can talk about it with authority are those who have experienced it …and there were plenty of those with eloquent testimony to give. Cricket doesn’t, I think, suffer from overt racism to the extent of professional football (although there were plenty of examples given from the past) but covert, insidious racism is still a major and degrading issue. The term “institutional racism” is often, I suggest, mis-understood. It doesn’t mean that everyone in the organisation is a racist nor even that the institution is set up (cf apartheid) to be racist – it is just that in its processes and procedures, in the opportunities it presents, sometimes even in its casual language, it is indeed racist. How do we know? Well, apart from listening to the players’ testimony, we simply have to look at the outcomes. And, in my case, I don’t have to look too far. Yorkshire has carried out a three-year investigation into Azeem Rafiq’s accusations of racism and has, apparently, agreed that Rafiq had been the victim of “inappropriate behaviour”. Such spineless sophistry is re-enforced by the refusal, to date, to publish the report. I have met a number of the senior officials at Yorkshire and they all seem to be decent, committed people who would, of course, deny that they would have anything to do with racism. But then individuals always do. Institutional racism is not the intended outcome of any one individual (although doubtless there are some revolting exceptions). In the Sky documentary Ray Illingworth is quoted, when England manager, as saying that Devon Malcolm wouldn’t frighten him, let alone the opposition. Many people, I guess, would refute the suggestion that this was an overtly racist remark (as distinct from being an overtly stupid one) but the effect on Malcolm is one he recalls to this day. Illingworth is, of course, a former President and now life-member of Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
I’m sure the Rafiq inquiry team did their work assiduously although individual members have no access to the information they may have reviewed in confronting the charge of institutional racism. But we do have photos. The Yorkshire Annual Yearbook carries a photo of the full senior squad plus managers, support staff, etc. The 2019 Yearbook shows a squad of 35. There are two non-white faces in the photo. Think of all the cricketers in the Bradford League or any other Yorkshire league come to that. Just two non-white faces: Kunwar Bansil, the First XI physiotherapist and…Azeem Rafiq.
Yorkshire are, we know, trying to do something about this, the Club has made a senior appointment to address the diversity issue. But why? Why in 2021 does this issue need “addressing”? Why has it not been “addressed” decades ago?
I don’t know the situation in other counties, perhaps things are different, but it might be optimistic to think so. You Guys are History was compelling television; I wish the English batting had also been so.
This & That
I watched most of the early games in the Hundred and found that they failed to live up to the hype because in general runs were hard to come by. This was partly due to savvy bowling but this was greatly helped by indifferent surfaces, often old and re-used wickets. It probably didn’t help that the Women’s matches were played on them first.
The Women’s game was the biggest beneficiary of the competition but it is absurd to suggest that it now ranks with the men’s game and that they should be compensated the same. I suspect that many of the attendances for the Women’s matches were inflated by free tickets, as indeed was the final for the “sold out” Women’s World Cup final of a couple of years ago. For example, the initial crowd report was that there were 7000 for the first Women’s match at the Oval but it later transpired that half of these were free tickets. These numbers would have been further reduced if there wasn’t a Men’s match to follow.
The anticipated big run scoring didn’t develop and there were few scores over 150. The highest scorer was Liam Livingstone with 382 who was miles ahead of Ben Duckett who was second with 232. Livingstone was made for this competition and his 27 sixes was what it was designed for. Again, he was miles ahead of Moeen Ali who was second with 15. The only other players to score over 200 runs were Vince, Phillips, Malan, de Kock and Davies. Phillips was the disappointment after lighting up the Blast this summer. He only latterly showed his true potential with an innings of 80 from 35 balls for Welsh Fire against London Spirit.
I was very impressed with Harry Brook in the early stages but he didn’t consolidate his run scoring as the tournament progressed. Alex Hales didn’t do his England cause any good and Jason Roy failed to dominate. None of the overseas batters made a significant impact although Paul Stirling came good in the final and made the winning contribution.
Perhaps two of the interesting successes were the impact of two Middlesex wicket keepers. John Simpson scored runs for the Headingley side when others struggled and scored 71 not out from 28 balls against the Old Trafford team. Adam Rossington, the Northants skipper returned to Lord’s and was one of the rare successes for Eion Morgan’s disappointing side.
A lesson from the inaugural competition showed the importance of the good batters getting in early. It’s no good batting at number 4 if when you get to the crease there are only 20 balls left and Phillips suffered from this. Many sides only played five batters and had lots of all-rounders, but if run scoring is difficult the all-rounders are usually not up to the required rapid scoring at the end of the innings.
Joe Cooke had a good game for Glamorgan against Essex in the RLC. First he took 5 for 61 to keep Essex down to 289. He then scores 66 not out from 56 balls to see his side home with two overs to spare.
It is interesting how Sibley and Crawley have been treated. They were both lauded as being long term fixtures in the test side, particularly in Crawley’s case after his huge double century last year. Will Crawley retain his position in the white ball format? I don’t think that Sibley can expect any phone calls from Eion in that respect.
In their CPL match against St Lucia Zouks, Jamaica Tallawahs had reached a formidable 201 for 5 with 14 balls to be bowled but Andre Russell was at the crease and he ended up 50 not out from 14 balls with 6 sixes and 3 fours. The Tallawahs reached an impregnable 255 for 5. The fastest 50 possible is 9 balls according to Jock Grimes. This is getting pretty close.
Having scored runs against Middlesex earlier in the season Mark Stoneman was recruited to try to raise Middlesex’s season to mediocrity. He started ignominiously with a pair but then came good and entered the Middlesex record books by participating in a 376 opening partnership. This beat the Gatting and Langer previous record of 372. Robson made 253 and Stoneman scored 174. Stoneman reverted to type with a total of 12 in his two innings against Worcestershire.
Middlesex are bizarrely currently top of the County Championship, at least of Division 3 thereof. This reversal of fortunes coincides with the unexplained absence, even on the Middlesex website, of captain Handscombe. Tim Murtagh is the new successful captain. He is 40 and it will be interesting to see if the club perseveres with him going forward.
Morgan Matters
B Stokes is taking an indefinite break from cricket with immediate effect "to prioritise his mental wellbeing". He also wants to rest his left index finger.
RLODC: blimey! Middlesex hit form sensation! New Rd: Middlesex 302-5 (S Eskinazi 130, S Robson 57) Worcestershire 289-7 (B D'Oliveira 74, J Libby 58, T Fell 58) Middlesex win by 13 runs and are off the bottom of the table!
RLODC: sensational news from Old Trafford where Middlesex beat Lancashire by 6 runs! Middlesex 257 (S Robson 76) La 251-9 (R Jones 72, L Hollman 4-56).
J Archer has a stress fracture of his right elbow and will not play again this year, missing the Ashes in Oz and the T20 WC.
In the G, Tim de Lisle thinks D Sibley’s “inertia is draining Eng” and should cost him his place in the Test team.
C Cairns (51) is in intensive care in a Sydney hospital after suffering a "major medical event" in Canberra. He was on life support after cardio-vascular surgery in Canberra and he has now had further heart surgery in Sydney.
RLODC @ Hove: Sussex 333-4 (B Brown 105, T Haines 123. J de Caires (in for his bowling apparently) was the most economical (10-0-46-0) and he is due to bat at 7.
Lord's: Root overtook G Gooch to become Eng's 2nd highest run-scorer in Tests with 8,935, Only A Cook is ahead of him, but it looks a long way off: 12,472.
J Harris will return to Glamorgan at the end of the season. M Stoneman (former England opener previously at Durham and Surrey) has joined Middlesex initially on loan until the end of this season, but next year he starts a new 3 year contract.
Gerd Muller "Bayern Munich's German Legend" is dead at 75.
Lord's: The England openers were both out for ducks in a home Test for the first time, though it has happened five times overseas.
RLODCSF: Glamorgan reached the final by chasing down Essex's 289 a/o (A Cook 68, P Walter 50, J Cooke 5-61), Glamorgan 293-5 (H Rutherford 67, N Selman 59, J Cooke 66*) won by 5 wkts with 2 overs to spare.
RLODCSF: Durham reached the final by chasing down Surrey's 280-8 (M Stoneman 117, J Smith 85), Durham 281-5 (A Lees 75, S Borthwick 71, D Bedingham 56) won by 5 wkts, so the final is Durham v Glamorgan.
The ECB has intervened to ensure the publication of a report into racism at Yorkshire CCC after Azeem Rafiq, whose allegations of abuse prompted an investigation, described the process as “a sham”. Yorkshire had “no immediate plans to publish the report” prompting Rafiq to claim the club “was trying to bury it” and appealed to the ECB for assistance. The ECB promptly demanded that Yorkshire deliver a timeline for publication and praised Rafiq’s “considerable courage”. Next day, Rafiq called on Yorkshire's chief executive and director of cricket to resign or be sacked after accusing the county of "fudging" a public apology at the end of a 10 month investigation into Rafiq's allegations of racism, but the club conceded only that Rafiq had been "the victim of inappropriate behaviour".
RLODC Final at TB: Glamorgan 296-9 (K Carlson 82), Durham 238 a/o (S Dickson 84*, C Bancroft 55) Glamorgan won by 58 and take the trophy.
Tom Harrison and a group of senior executives at the ECB are poised to share a projected £2.1m bonus pot despite making 62 job cuts last year in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the Summer Cricketer we are told that some Eng players are certain to withdraw if families are not allowed to join the Ashes tour and also have issue with the 14-day quarantine rule for arrivals. We are reminded that Ken Barrington passed away 40 years ago in the West Indies, he averaged 58.67 in Tests, which is the second best ever for Eng after Herbert Sutcliffe (60.73).
Things are changing (for the better?) at Middlesex: i) Angus Fraser has been downgraded from his director of cricket role to oversee the academy and area group teams; ii) Nick Gubbins and Dawid Malan have joined other clubs and Steve Finn could follow as he is no longer seen as a first choice selection in 4 day matters; iii) Finn has been offered a white ball deal by Middlesex, but could be tempted by the lure of 3 formats at Sussex or Warwicks; iv) Essex are known suitors of Max Holden, who holds the record score for Middlesex in List A cricket yet was deemed surplus to requirements during parts of the Royal London Cup; and v) multiple cricketers around the country are out of contract this year and Rob Jones of Lancashire is on the club's radar.
Managing editor Huw Turbervill tells us that i) Test cricket is still lucrative and popular here and red ball cricket needs protecting more than ever before, as Nasser Hussain says "there is too much emphasis on white-ball cricket. Eoin Morgan is getting the England sides he wants, Joe Root is not: this needs to be redressed"; and ii) many members are up in arms at seeing all their best players drafted out of the Royal London One-Day Cup, Surrey members implored Richard Gould not to sign the contract for the Hundred and now there is talk of a new governing body being formed by counties to protect their interests.
Headingley: Root now has six Test centuries during the calendar year, he is one of six on that number (the others are Ponting, G Smith, S Smith, M Vaughan and D Compton) who are all 1 behind Ponting on 7 (in a different year). Root has now taken A Cook's record for the most runs in a calendar year by an England captain: the top four are Root (1,398), Cook (1,364) in 2015, A Cook (1,270) in 2016 and G Gooch (1,264) in 1990.
Headingley: J Root has now gone past M Vaughan's record of 26 Test wins as captain, with only A Cook ahead of him (I think).
S Finn is leaving Middlesex to join Sussex after 17 seasons.
Ashes Matters
George has been corresponding with his mates over which England side stands the best chance in this winter’s Ashes series
Hi Alex, I had a chat with a Mike Robinson today and we came up with the following:
Hameed
Malan
Stokes
Root
Bairstow
Pope
Ali
Foulkes
Robinson
Wood
Anderson
We also discussed Woakes, Leach, Burns, Buttler and (briefly) Curran. We may have forgotten about Mahmood. Crawley and Sibley only got a brief mention and maybe Crawley deserves more. We’d be relying on spinners’ wickets from Ali and Root and a complement of overs from our No.3. Stokes’ technical batting development puts him in the highest rank now.
We all agree that Leach is the specialist spinner of choice.
So with your:
Hameed
Burns
Ali
Root
Bairstow
Stokes
Pope
Buttler
Robinson
Wood
Anderson/Broad
9 of the players overlap: only Malan and Foulkes for Buttler and Burns are different. We reckon Foulkes batting, a different style from Buttler is an asset, but it’s close. We also reckoned that Ali is pretty likely to get out cheaply at 3. Over to you!
Alex Brodie: Oh, very bold. I wanted to get Malan in, but didn’t think of opening with him. Yes. And Stokes at 3. Who don’t the Aussies want to see come in at first drop? So yes again. It does mean he has to be used carefully as a shock bowler which means 3 of the 4 seamers cannot bowl long spells.
Ali at 7 - that’s where he has got his test runs. Foakes? It would certainly be novel England selecting their best keeper, but I so love watching Buttler bat. So conflicted on that one. Losing Sibley, Burns and Crawley, leaves us with a batting line up oozing class. Are you saying Broad’s Day is done? Surely, he stays for rotation, along with Mahmood. Let’s try and get him in while he’s still young.
George asked for my thoughts and I replied: I don’t see wholesale changes and it will be the usual lot. Buttler is a cert and they will struggle to leave out Anderson and Broad. They also don’t really rate Bairstow at test level.
Ged Matters
Ian Harris shares some diary entries
As “So-Called Freedom Day” Came & Went
It was a strange period; the height of summer in regular times but the autumn of the pandemic, as it were. The government had signalled a possible "relaxing of pandemic restrictions" for towards the end of June, but the highly infectious delta variant of Covid 19 led to the deferral of that "freedom day" until 19 July. There was much re-jigging of diaries and arrangements in the weeks leading up to and following the revised date. For the most part, Janie and I carried on doing what we had been doing during partial lockdown: working, volunteering and playing tennis.
Middlesex v Leicestershire, Merchant Taylors' School, 12 & 13 July 2021
The plan was for me and Janie to go with Fran & Simon on Monday 12 July, but plans have a habit of going awry. The weather forecast for the Monday was awful and indeed it was heaving down with rain in Ealing.
Janie and I abandoned all hope of going to the game by mid afternoon, despite the fact that the rain was mysteriously dodging Northwood and play was taking place beneath leaden skies. I'm rather glad we did decide to bale out of going, as I learnt the next day that it took people from Ealing/Acton way a couple of hours to get home due to the flash floods. Simon ended up watching some rather good cricket solo on the Monday, while I ended up doing similar on the Tuesday. I had arranged to play real tennis at Middlesex University early on the Tuesday morning and went on from there to MTS for my first sight of live county cricket since September 2019.
The Fag End Of The Cricket Season, Lord’s, 23 to 25 September 2019-
Social distancing was still the order of the day, so I sat in a reserved area and was suitably reserved. We were allowed to stroll a bit, which enabled me to encounter some of "the usual suspects", such as Barmy Kev and Jeff Coleman, who for some obscure reason were bemoaning Middlesex's poor play and poor luck this season. I tried to cheer myself up by reading The Economist, which for some obscure reason was bemoaning the economic devastation caused by the global pandemic.
Middlesex were in a bit of a hole second dig, so I do understand why people were pessimistic, especially as Middlesex had been snatching defeat from the very jaws of victory all season. Still, I was strangely optimistic about Middlesex's position given my previous experiences of seeing teams bat last at MTS.
The Hundred: London Spirit v Oval Invincibles Double Header, Lord's, Sunday 25 July 2021
In the end we only got to see half a double-header, as the weather closed in after the women's match. What was predicted to be the possibility of some light showers turned out to be torrential rain and flash floods which caused havoc around London. Mercifully, my weather app tipped me off before the weather got too bad. Despite shortened event due to the weather, we rather enjoyed ourselves. I had arranged to return for the midweek games myself and Janie was scheduled to join me on Finals Day, so we anticipated that we'd still get our fill of The Hundred.
Middlesex v Durham at Radlett, Tuesday 27 July 2021
Parking spaces at cricket grounds don't get much more rural-idyllic than this Janie and I had an early game of tennis, then met Simon at lunchtime/early afternoon at Radlett. I chatted briefly with Mike O'Farrell and others, holding up the process of finding some decent seats and settling in for some old-fashioned List A 50-overs-a-side cricket.
The weather sort-of smiled on us until mid to late afternoon, when a shower threatened to end proceedings but in any case was enough to scare us away from an exposed ground such as Radlett.
After the rain, a tense Duckworth-Lewis finish, which Janie and I watched on the stream at home. As has been the way this season, Middlesex were "close but no cigar".
London Spirit v Trent Rockets, Double-Header, Lord's 29 July 2021
In my desire to really check out The Hundred tournament, I had reserved a member's place for myself at both of the midweek events at Lord's. This was the first of them. I enjoyed the women's game from the pavilion terrace, where I was sitting right in front of the assembled rockets (as it were) while they waited to do their thing. I was delighted to be invited to help choose the walk-on music for some of the players, although I didn't recognise many of the bangin' hits on offer. I had planned to take in the men's game from the sanctuary of the Upper Tavern Stand, but just before the end of the women's game I was joined by Alvin, who then popped out to make a call before I had the chance to tell him my plans. So I watched the first innings of the men's game from the pavilion and then relocated for the final innings.
London Spirit did not do very well in these matches....women......and men. Oh well.
London Spirit v Northern Superchargers, Double-Header, Lord's, 3 August 2021
An opportunity to watch some more cricket and get some reading done, I took in the second of the midweek The Hundred double-headers. I decided to watch the women's match from the Upper Allen stand and the men's match from the Upper Tavern. The women's match was probably the best game (i.e. the most exciting game of cricket) I saw all tournament. The men's game probably the least exciting. Oh well.
Strange XIs
Steve Thompson correctly identified last month’s bunch as part time or wannabee leggies, although, enigmatically, he did hedge his bets by suggesting that perhaps they had all played for the Rangers.
Murray Hedgecock
I heard recently from his daughter that Murray Hedgecock had died. I never met Murray but he was a long time subscriber to Googlies and occasionally contributed. He always enjoyed taking the Professor on in print when the circumstances presented themselves.
Publication Dates
I have always tried to publish Googlies at the beginning of the month whether I was in the High Peak or Chicago. However, following the address book difficulties that I encountered earlier this year I have decided to only send it out from the UK. I will make publication dates as close to the first of the month as possible. Edition 226 will mail on 1 October, Edition 228 on 25 October and Edition 228 on 1 December.
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.
www.googliesandchinamen.com
Googlies and Chinamen
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James Sharp
Broad Lee House
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High Peak
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An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 225
September 2021
Caption Competition
- Stuart Broad: Not a bad series to have been injured for. I should be cert for Oz now.
- Dom Sibley: They told me they wanted a blocker. So what did I do wrong? Zak tells me they loved his uncle at the crease.
- Stewart Law: I always said that it was a bad idea to involve Australians in the set up. Err….
- Jack Leach: I thought that I was in this test team. They can’t all be seamers’ wickets.
- Sam Robson: I’m a capped played with runs under my belt this season. What else do I have to do to get a go?
Chris Silverwood: Probably change counties. You are playing in the third division!
Out and About with the Professor
This article was written two days before the partial release of the report by Yorkshire
I didn’t watch much of the final day of the Test because I was playing golf, but the people I was with asked if I thought that England had a chance of knocking off the runs. Clearly they had been seduced by the Sky commentators who kept, presumably for commercial reasons, emphasising the possibility of an England victory. The match “could go either way” the end was bound to be “exciting”. The previous evening Warne said, more than once, (come to think of it he often says things more than once) that: “They must have a chance…there’s always a chance”.
This truism, masquerading as wisdom, avoids any specification of the chance. It is the same line peddled by the sellers of lottery tickets – there’s always the chance you might win. People who buy a ticket in the national lottery are paying a voluntary tax and their willingness to do so is a measure of the success of the promoters’ art in emphasising the chance of winning. “Chance” can be measured in terms of probability (on a scale from 0 to 1). A probability of 1 being certain, and of 0 being impossible. Where would anyone who has watched Test cricket for a lifetime put the England team – and especially this England team – on that scale for this run “chase”? 0.0001? 0.00001? Nor, in truth, did I hold up much hope for us batting it out – this is not a side, I think, that can bat for long periods of time without losing wickets, especially on the last day, no matter how flat the pitch. Having said all that of course, the collapse from 100-0 to 210 all out was pretty spectacular even by England’s standards. The fact that it wasn’t surprising doesn’t exactly make it pleasant to watch (even had I been watching).
Actually, I think we could go further back in the match for the real area of disappointment. To bowl this India side out for 191 was a great effort. To then get into a first innings lead looked like establishing a very strong position. But this England side don’t seem to know how to press home any advantage they might gain. Moeen and Pope had moved the side into the lead with some comfort and all they had to do was to carry on doing what they were doing. I can’t recall a more frustrating England player than Moeen Ali. If there was one player in world cricket who you could choose to watch make 100, I would choose him. The talent and the elegance are stunning. A couple of years’ back I saw him score 200 at Scarborough and while he most assuredly was not batting for my team, it was mesmerising stuff. So, is there anyone out there who can explain his wild swipe at Jadeja when all he had to do was stay at the crease for another day. Robinson’s shot, shortly afterwards, was similarly inexplicable. And, of course, there are never any explanations. No one says that the tactics were to get quick runs, or hit Jadeja out of the attack (or whatever); Root just says that they could “take some positives” but doesn’t say what they are nor where he will take them. But if those two, who were well-set, could have batted sensibly, England’s lead could have been sufficient to at least ensure a draw and, quite possibly, a win (a probability of, say, 0.3?).
Since I know this, and everyone who has watched any Test cricket also knows this, why don’t the players know this?
One thing that was very well worth watching, and I did see, was the “You Guys are History” documentary that Sky ran through the lunch breaks. From the start it was powerful and important stuff. Racism is much discussed but the only people who can talk about it with authority are those who have experienced it …and there were plenty of those with eloquent testimony to give. Cricket doesn’t, I think, suffer from overt racism to the extent of professional football (although there were plenty of examples given from the past) but covert, insidious racism is still a major and degrading issue. The term “institutional racism” is often, I suggest, mis-understood. It doesn’t mean that everyone in the organisation is a racist nor even that the institution is set up (cf apartheid) to be racist – it is just that in its processes and procedures, in the opportunities it presents, sometimes even in its casual language, it is indeed racist. How do we know? Well, apart from listening to the players’ testimony, we simply have to look at the outcomes. And, in my case, I don’t have to look too far. Yorkshire has carried out a three-year investigation into Azeem Rafiq’s accusations of racism and has, apparently, agreed that Rafiq had been the victim of “inappropriate behaviour”. Such spineless sophistry is re-enforced by the refusal, to date, to publish the report. I have met a number of the senior officials at Yorkshire and they all seem to be decent, committed people who would, of course, deny that they would have anything to do with racism. But then individuals always do. Institutional racism is not the intended outcome of any one individual (although doubtless there are some revolting exceptions). In the Sky documentary Ray Illingworth is quoted, when England manager, as saying that Devon Malcolm wouldn’t frighten him, let alone the opposition. Many people, I guess, would refute the suggestion that this was an overtly racist remark (as distinct from being an overtly stupid one) but the effect on Malcolm is one he recalls to this day. Illingworth is, of course, a former President and now life-member of Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
I’m sure the Rafiq inquiry team did their work assiduously although individual members have no access to the information they may have reviewed in confronting the charge of institutional racism. But we do have photos. The Yorkshire Annual Yearbook carries a photo of the full senior squad plus managers, support staff, etc. The 2019 Yearbook shows a squad of 35. There are two non-white faces in the photo. Think of all the cricketers in the Bradford League or any other Yorkshire league come to that. Just two non-white faces: Kunwar Bansil, the First XI physiotherapist and…Azeem Rafiq.
Yorkshire are, we know, trying to do something about this, the Club has made a senior appointment to address the diversity issue. But why? Why in 2021 does this issue need “addressing”? Why has it not been “addressed” decades ago?
I don’t know the situation in other counties, perhaps things are different, but it might be optimistic to think so. You Guys are History was compelling television; I wish the English batting had also been so.
This & That
I watched most of the early games in the Hundred and found that they failed to live up to the hype because in general runs were hard to come by. This was partly due to savvy bowling but this was greatly helped by indifferent surfaces, often old and re-used wickets. It probably didn’t help that the Women’s matches were played on them first.
The Women’s game was the biggest beneficiary of the competition but it is absurd to suggest that it now ranks with the men’s game and that they should be compensated the same. I suspect that many of the attendances for the Women’s matches were inflated by free tickets, as indeed was the final for the “sold out” Women’s World Cup final of a couple of years ago. For example, the initial crowd report was that there were 7000 for the first Women’s match at the Oval but it later transpired that half of these were free tickets. These numbers would have been further reduced if there wasn’t a Men’s match to follow.
The anticipated big run scoring didn’t develop and there were few scores over 150. The highest scorer was Liam Livingstone with 382 who was miles ahead of Ben Duckett who was second with 232. Livingstone was made for this competition and his 27 sixes was what it was designed for. Again, he was miles ahead of Moeen Ali who was second with 15. The only other players to score over 200 runs were Vince, Phillips, Malan, de Kock and Davies. Phillips was the disappointment after lighting up the Blast this summer. He only latterly showed his true potential with an innings of 80 from 35 balls for Welsh Fire against London Spirit.
I was very impressed with Harry Brook in the early stages but he didn’t consolidate his run scoring as the tournament progressed. Alex Hales didn’t do his England cause any good and Jason Roy failed to dominate. None of the overseas batters made a significant impact although Paul Stirling came good in the final and made the winning contribution.
Perhaps two of the interesting successes were the impact of two Middlesex wicket keepers. John Simpson scored runs for the Headingley side when others struggled and scored 71 not out from 28 balls against the Old Trafford team. Adam Rossington, the Northants skipper returned to Lord’s and was one of the rare successes for Eion Morgan’s disappointing side.
A lesson from the inaugural competition showed the importance of the good batters getting in early. It’s no good batting at number 4 if when you get to the crease there are only 20 balls left and Phillips suffered from this. Many sides only played five batters and had lots of all-rounders, but if run scoring is difficult the all-rounders are usually not up to the required rapid scoring at the end of the innings.
Joe Cooke had a good game for Glamorgan against Essex in the RLC. First he took 5 for 61 to keep Essex down to 289. He then scores 66 not out from 56 balls to see his side home with two overs to spare.
It is interesting how Sibley and Crawley have been treated. They were both lauded as being long term fixtures in the test side, particularly in Crawley’s case after his huge double century last year. Will Crawley retain his position in the white ball format? I don’t think that Sibley can expect any phone calls from Eion in that respect.
In their CPL match against St Lucia Zouks, Jamaica Tallawahs had reached a formidable 201 for 5 with 14 balls to be bowled but Andre Russell was at the crease and he ended up 50 not out from 14 balls with 6 sixes and 3 fours. The Tallawahs reached an impregnable 255 for 5. The fastest 50 possible is 9 balls according to Jock Grimes. This is getting pretty close.
Having scored runs against Middlesex earlier in the season Mark Stoneman was recruited to try to raise Middlesex’s season to mediocrity. He started ignominiously with a pair but then came good and entered the Middlesex record books by participating in a 376 opening partnership. This beat the Gatting and Langer previous record of 372. Robson made 253 and Stoneman scored 174. Stoneman reverted to type with a total of 12 in his two innings against Worcestershire.
Middlesex are bizarrely currently top of the County Championship, at least of Division 3 thereof. This reversal of fortunes coincides with the unexplained absence, even on the Middlesex website, of captain Handscombe. Tim Murtagh is the new successful captain. He is 40 and it will be interesting to see if the club perseveres with him going forward.
Morgan Matters
B Stokes is taking an indefinite break from cricket with immediate effect "to prioritise his mental wellbeing". He also wants to rest his left index finger.
RLODC: blimey! Middlesex hit form sensation! New Rd: Middlesex 302-5 (S Eskinazi 130, S Robson 57) Worcestershire 289-7 (B D'Oliveira 74, J Libby 58, T Fell 58) Middlesex win by 13 runs and are off the bottom of the table!
RLODC: sensational news from Old Trafford where Middlesex beat Lancashire by 6 runs! Middlesex 257 (S Robson 76) La 251-9 (R Jones 72, L Hollman 4-56).
J Archer has a stress fracture of his right elbow and will not play again this year, missing the Ashes in Oz and the T20 WC.
In the G, Tim de Lisle thinks D Sibley’s “inertia is draining Eng” and should cost him his place in the Test team.
C Cairns (51) is in intensive care in a Sydney hospital after suffering a "major medical event" in Canberra. He was on life support after cardio-vascular surgery in Canberra and he has now had further heart surgery in Sydney.
RLODC @ Hove: Sussex 333-4 (B Brown 105, T Haines 123. J de Caires (in for his bowling apparently) was the most economical (10-0-46-0) and he is due to bat at 7.
Lord's: Root overtook G Gooch to become Eng's 2nd highest run-scorer in Tests with 8,935, Only A Cook is ahead of him, but it looks a long way off: 12,472.
J Harris will return to Glamorgan at the end of the season. M Stoneman (former England opener previously at Durham and Surrey) has joined Middlesex initially on loan until the end of this season, but next year he starts a new 3 year contract.
Gerd Muller "Bayern Munich's German Legend" is dead at 75.
Lord's: The England openers were both out for ducks in a home Test for the first time, though it has happened five times overseas.
RLODCSF: Glamorgan reached the final by chasing down Essex's 289 a/o (A Cook 68, P Walter 50, J Cooke 5-61), Glamorgan 293-5 (H Rutherford 67, N Selman 59, J Cooke 66*) won by 5 wkts with 2 overs to spare.
RLODCSF: Durham reached the final by chasing down Surrey's 280-8 (M Stoneman 117, J Smith 85), Durham 281-5 (A Lees 75, S Borthwick 71, D Bedingham 56) won by 5 wkts, so the final is Durham v Glamorgan.
The ECB has intervened to ensure the publication of a report into racism at Yorkshire CCC after Azeem Rafiq, whose allegations of abuse prompted an investigation, described the process as “a sham”. Yorkshire had “no immediate plans to publish the report” prompting Rafiq to claim the club “was trying to bury it” and appealed to the ECB for assistance. The ECB promptly demanded that Yorkshire deliver a timeline for publication and praised Rafiq’s “considerable courage”. Next day, Rafiq called on Yorkshire's chief executive and director of cricket to resign or be sacked after accusing the county of "fudging" a public apology at the end of a 10 month investigation into Rafiq's allegations of racism, but the club conceded only that Rafiq had been "the victim of inappropriate behaviour".
RLODC Final at TB: Glamorgan 296-9 (K Carlson 82), Durham 238 a/o (S Dickson 84*, C Bancroft 55) Glamorgan won by 58 and take the trophy.
Tom Harrison and a group of senior executives at the ECB are poised to share a projected £2.1m bonus pot despite making 62 job cuts last year in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the Summer Cricketer we are told that some Eng players are certain to withdraw if families are not allowed to join the Ashes tour and also have issue with the 14-day quarantine rule for arrivals. We are reminded that Ken Barrington passed away 40 years ago in the West Indies, he averaged 58.67 in Tests, which is the second best ever for Eng after Herbert Sutcliffe (60.73).
Things are changing (for the better?) at Middlesex: i) Angus Fraser has been downgraded from his director of cricket role to oversee the academy and area group teams; ii) Nick Gubbins and Dawid Malan have joined other clubs and Steve Finn could follow as he is no longer seen as a first choice selection in 4 day matters; iii) Finn has been offered a white ball deal by Middlesex, but could be tempted by the lure of 3 formats at Sussex or Warwicks; iv) Essex are known suitors of Max Holden, who holds the record score for Middlesex in List A cricket yet was deemed surplus to requirements during parts of the Royal London Cup; and v) multiple cricketers around the country are out of contract this year and Rob Jones of Lancashire is on the club's radar.
Managing editor Huw Turbervill tells us that i) Test cricket is still lucrative and popular here and red ball cricket needs protecting more than ever before, as Nasser Hussain says "there is too much emphasis on white-ball cricket. Eoin Morgan is getting the England sides he wants, Joe Root is not: this needs to be redressed"; and ii) many members are up in arms at seeing all their best players drafted out of the Royal London One-Day Cup, Surrey members implored Richard Gould not to sign the contract for the Hundred and now there is talk of a new governing body being formed by counties to protect their interests.
Headingley: Root now has six Test centuries during the calendar year, he is one of six on that number (the others are Ponting, G Smith, S Smith, M Vaughan and D Compton) who are all 1 behind Ponting on 7 (in a different year). Root has now taken A Cook's record for the most runs in a calendar year by an England captain: the top four are Root (1,398), Cook (1,364) in 2015, A Cook (1,270) in 2016 and G Gooch (1,264) in 1990.
Headingley: J Root has now gone past M Vaughan's record of 26 Test wins as captain, with only A Cook ahead of him (I think).
S Finn is leaving Middlesex to join Sussex after 17 seasons.
Ashes Matters
George has been corresponding with his mates over which England side stands the best chance in this winter’s Ashes series
Hi Alex, I had a chat with a Mike Robinson today and we came up with the following:
Hameed
Malan
Stokes
Root
Bairstow
Pope
Ali
Foulkes
Robinson
Wood
Anderson
We also discussed Woakes, Leach, Burns, Buttler and (briefly) Curran. We may have forgotten about Mahmood. Crawley and Sibley only got a brief mention and maybe Crawley deserves more. We’d be relying on spinners’ wickets from Ali and Root and a complement of overs from our No.3. Stokes’ technical batting development puts him in the highest rank now.
We all agree that Leach is the specialist spinner of choice.
So with your:
Hameed
Burns
Ali
Root
Bairstow
Stokes
Pope
Buttler
Robinson
Wood
Anderson/Broad
9 of the players overlap: only Malan and Foulkes for Buttler and Burns are different. We reckon Foulkes batting, a different style from Buttler is an asset, but it’s close. We also reckoned that Ali is pretty likely to get out cheaply at 3. Over to you!
Alex Brodie: Oh, very bold. I wanted to get Malan in, but didn’t think of opening with him. Yes. And Stokes at 3. Who don’t the Aussies want to see come in at first drop? So yes again. It does mean he has to be used carefully as a shock bowler which means 3 of the 4 seamers cannot bowl long spells.
Ali at 7 - that’s where he has got his test runs. Foakes? It would certainly be novel England selecting their best keeper, but I so love watching Buttler bat. So conflicted on that one. Losing Sibley, Burns and Crawley, leaves us with a batting line up oozing class. Are you saying Broad’s Day is done? Surely, he stays for rotation, along with Mahmood. Let’s try and get him in while he’s still young.
George asked for my thoughts and I replied: I don’t see wholesale changes and it will be the usual lot. Buttler is a cert and they will struggle to leave out Anderson and Broad. They also don’t really rate Bairstow at test level.
Ged Matters
Ian Harris shares some diary entries
As “So-Called Freedom Day” Came & Went
It was a strange period; the height of summer in regular times but the autumn of the pandemic, as it were. The government had signalled a possible "relaxing of pandemic restrictions" for towards the end of June, but the highly infectious delta variant of Covid 19 led to the deferral of that "freedom day" until 19 July. There was much re-jigging of diaries and arrangements in the weeks leading up to and following the revised date. For the most part, Janie and I carried on doing what we had been doing during partial lockdown: working, volunteering and playing tennis.
Middlesex v Leicestershire, Merchant Taylors' School, 12 & 13 July 2021
The plan was for me and Janie to go with Fran & Simon on Monday 12 July, but plans have a habit of going awry. The weather forecast for the Monday was awful and indeed it was heaving down with rain in Ealing.
Janie and I abandoned all hope of going to the game by mid afternoon, despite the fact that the rain was mysteriously dodging Northwood and play was taking place beneath leaden skies. I'm rather glad we did decide to bale out of going, as I learnt the next day that it took people from Ealing/Acton way a couple of hours to get home due to the flash floods. Simon ended up watching some rather good cricket solo on the Monday, while I ended up doing similar on the Tuesday. I had arranged to play real tennis at Middlesex University early on the Tuesday morning and went on from there to MTS for my first sight of live county cricket since September 2019.
The Fag End Of The Cricket Season, Lord’s, 23 to 25 September 2019-
Social distancing was still the order of the day, so I sat in a reserved area and was suitably reserved. We were allowed to stroll a bit, which enabled me to encounter some of "the usual suspects", such as Barmy Kev and Jeff Coleman, who for some obscure reason were bemoaning Middlesex's poor play and poor luck this season. I tried to cheer myself up by reading The Economist, which for some obscure reason was bemoaning the economic devastation caused by the global pandemic.
Middlesex were in a bit of a hole second dig, so I do understand why people were pessimistic, especially as Middlesex had been snatching defeat from the very jaws of victory all season. Still, I was strangely optimistic about Middlesex's position given my previous experiences of seeing teams bat last at MTS.
The Hundred: London Spirit v Oval Invincibles Double Header, Lord's, Sunday 25 July 2021
In the end we only got to see half a double-header, as the weather closed in after the women's match. What was predicted to be the possibility of some light showers turned out to be torrential rain and flash floods which caused havoc around London. Mercifully, my weather app tipped me off before the weather got too bad. Despite shortened event due to the weather, we rather enjoyed ourselves. I had arranged to return for the midweek games myself and Janie was scheduled to join me on Finals Day, so we anticipated that we'd still get our fill of The Hundred.
Middlesex v Durham at Radlett, Tuesday 27 July 2021
Parking spaces at cricket grounds don't get much more rural-idyllic than this Janie and I had an early game of tennis, then met Simon at lunchtime/early afternoon at Radlett. I chatted briefly with Mike O'Farrell and others, holding up the process of finding some decent seats and settling in for some old-fashioned List A 50-overs-a-side cricket.
The weather sort-of smiled on us until mid to late afternoon, when a shower threatened to end proceedings but in any case was enough to scare us away from an exposed ground such as Radlett.
After the rain, a tense Duckworth-Lewis finish, which Janie and I watched on the stream at home. As has been the way this season, Middlesex were "close but no cigar".
London Spirit v Trent Rockets, Double-Header, Lord's 29 July 2021
In my desire to really check out The Hundred tournament, I had reserved a member's place for myself at both of the midweek events at Lord's. This was the first of them. I enjoyed the women's game from the pavilion terrace, where I was sitting right in front of the assembled rockets (as it were) while they waited to do their thing. I was delighted to be invited to help choose the walk-on music for some of the players, although I didn't recognise many of the bangin' hits on offer. I had planned to take in the men's game from the sanctuary of the Upper Tavern Stand, but just before the end of the women's game I was joined by Alvin, who then popped out to make a call before I had the chance to tell him my plans. So I watched the first innings of the men's game from the pavilion and then relocated for the final innings.
London Spirit did not do very well in these matches....women......and men. Oh well.
London Spirit v Northern Superchargers, Double-Header, Lord's, 3 August 2021
An opportunity to watch some more cricket and get some reading done, I took in the second of the midweek The Hundred double-headers. I decided to watch the women's match from the Upper Allen stand and the men's match from the Upper Tavern. The women's match was probably the best game (i.e. the most exciting game of cricket) I saw all tournament. The men's game probably the least exciting. Oh well.
Strange XIs
Steve Thompson correctly identified last month’s bunch as part time or wannabee leggies, although, enigmatically, he did hedge his bets by suggesting that perhaps they had all played for the Rangers.
Murray Hedgecock
I heard recently from his daughter that Murray Hedgecock had died. I never met Murray but he was a long time subscriber to Googlies and occasionally contributed. He always enjoyed taking the Professor on in print when the circumstances presented themselves.
Publication Dates
I have always tried to publish Googlies at the beginning of the month whether I was in the High Peak or Chicago. However, following the address book difficulties that I encountered earlier this year I have decided to only send it out from the UK. I will make publication dates as close to the first of the month as possible. Edition 226 will mail on 1 October, Edition 228 on 25 October and Edition 228 on 1 December.
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.
www.googliesandchinamen.com
Googlies and Chinamen
is produced by
James Sharp
Broad Lee House
Combs
High Peak
SK23 9XA
[email protected]
