Spirit On The Water (5 page)

Garner was run out trying to give Gomes, who was on 96, the strike. As the players prepared to leave the field, Marshall came out with his left wrist in a plaster. Gomes took the opportunity to reach his century by hitting Willis over his head for a boundary. Marshall managed to hit a four one-handed, to the third man boundary before edging Allott to Botham at slip.

Marshall’s boundary took the West Indies past 300. This was irritating for England but at least he wouldn’t be able to bowl with a broken thumb and his left wrist in plaster ……..…. would he?

Ten minutes later, England had the answer to that question. Marshall opened the bowling and soon had Chris Broad caught off a ball that rose viciously. Paul Terry was England’s latest answer to the troubled No.3 spot. He had scored five centuries for Hampshire that season but followed up his 8 in the first innings with only a single in the second. The gap between county and Test cricket was considerable, especially when it was the West Indies that England were playing.

Marshall took two more wickets, including Graeme Fowler, who he caught and bowled one handed, to leave England on the verge of defeat at 135 for 6. In those days there was no play on Sundays, and when they resumed on Monday morning Marshall took all four remaining wickets to finish with his best ever Test figures of 7 for 53. The West Indies knocked off the required runs for the loss of two wickets and they had retained The Wisden Trophy yet again.

To make the West Indian bowlers even more intimidating, many of those playing in the 1980s and 90s were not only very quick, they were also very tall. Garner was 6’ 8”, Holding 6’ 4” and later Walsh and Ambrose came in at 6’ 6” and 6’ 7” respectively. England seem to be going down the same road. If Tremlett, Broad and Finn ever make up the attack together, their average height will be 6’ 7”. You don’t have to be tall to be a fast bowler though. Fred Trueman and Harold Larwood, who would be in most people’s Top Ten fast bowlers of all time, were both well under 6’. Frank Tyson, one of the fastest bowlers ever, was 5’ 7” in his socks. Of all the formidable fast bowlers playing in the West Indies heyday, Malcolm Marshall was arguably the best, and he was less than 6’ tall.

England still had pride to play for and, at Old Trafford in the Fourth Test, they once again had the West Indies in early trouble at 70 for 4. Paul Allott, on his home ground, bowled well, taking three of the wickets. Greenidge was still there though and together with the wicket-keeper Jeffrey Dujon proceeded to put on 197 for the fifth wicket.

Dujon played eighty one Tests for the Windies over a ten year period. He was an elegant batsman and good enough to hold down the No.6 position in the team. This was important as it allowed the West Indies to play four fast bowlers and Roger Harper. On this occasion, Dujon reached his century but was out just before the close of play on the first day. This brought Winston Davis in as nightwatchman.

Despite his seven wickets with a broken thumb, Marshall had accepted medical advice and was not playing in this game. Davis had taken his place and, as the new boy, had been given the nightwatchman duties. At 267 for 5, the match was reasonably balanced. All England had to do was get rid of Davis as soon as possible the next morning and then ‘clean up the tail’.

It didn’t quite work out like that. Davis chose this moment to score an entertaining and career best 77. Gordon Greenidge went on to complete his second double century of the series and the West Indies were all out for exactly 500.

When England batted, Lamb scored his third successive hundred, and he had Paul Terry to thank for it. Terry had retired hurt when a short ball from Winston Davis hit him and broke his arm. When the ninth wicket went down, Lamb was on 98 not out. As the players began to leave the field, David Gower waved them back on.

Like some young lieutenant in the First World War urging his troops out of the trenches on to the field of battle, Gower ushered Paul Terry on to the pitch. His left arm was plastered and in a sling. Lamb was due to face the next over. England needed 23 to avoid the follow-on. Lamb needed 2 for his century.

Thinking that Terry had come out simply to allow him to get his century, Lamb played the first five balls defensively then took 2 runs off the last ball. He tucked his bat under his arm and once again the players started to come off the field of play. Once again, Gower waved them back on to continue the fight. Presumably, having seen Marshall bat one-handed in the previous Test, Gower was trying to emulate his heroics. Or rather, he was hoping that Paul Terry would.

Terry had to face the next over from Garner. He had struggled against him when he had two good arms. How he was supposed to play him with one arm in a sling was anyone’s guess. Predictably enough Garner cleaned bowled him second ball. It was early days in Gower’s captaincy but maybe he was modelling himself a bit too closely on Paul Newman in
Cool Hand Luke
. I think what we had here was a failure to communicate.

England collapsed in the second innings and were all out for 156. Roger Harper, built like a fast bowler but actually a slow off
spinner, took six wickets. Paul Terry was not asked to make the sacrifice a second time and, like Andy Lloyd, never played Test cricket again.

England had many problems in the series but the No.3 slot was one of the biggest. So far, Derek Randall had scored 0 and 1. David Gower had given it a go for one Test and scored 3 and 21. Finally, Paul Terry had scored 8 and 1 followed by 7 and ‘absent injured’. Seven innings totalling 41 runs at an average of just under 6.

The West Indies No.3, Larry Gomes, on the other hand, over the same four Tests, had scored 143, 10, 92*, 104*, 2* and 30. A contribution of 381 runs at an average of 127. A huge difference that goes a long way to explaining why England had lost all four Tests so far.

Where was Graham Gooch when you needed him? Well Goochie was still playing, indeed at the age of thirty-one, he was in his prime. While England were facing the ferocious West Indian attack, Gooch was scoring over 2,000 runs for Essex in the County Championship, at an average of 69. He wasn’t playing for England because he was not available for selection. In 1982, he had captained an English team to South Africa on a rebel tour.

It was a pretty good team. Boycott, Amiss, Underwood, Hendrick, Emburey, Knott et al but most of the team were past their best. Gooch was different. He would have been an automatic selection for England. The same could not really have been said of any of the other players. So why did he go? Money, a naive belief that what he was doing was OK and money. He probably did not anticipate a three-year ban either.

England could not call upon Gooch so they turned to the next best thing, Chris Tavare. He was having a moderate season for Kent and was unlikely to set the pulse racing when he went out to bat, but at least he would not sell his wicket cheaply. With a bit of luck,
he might irritate the West Indians and also slow things down a bit by walking halfway to square leg and back after each delivery.

So, that was the batting sorted out, what to do about the bowling? Many of the bowlers used by England in the series – Willis, Pringle, Cowans, Foster, Cook, and Miller – were either injured or dropped. The selectors stuck a pin in the county averages and came up with Jonathan Agnew and Richard Ellison.

England had lost four Tests in a row and no English team had ever lost a home series 5 – 0. Could they avoid the dreaded ‘whitewash’ or, as the banner at the Oval famously proclaimed, ‘blackwash’?

Clive Lloyd won the toss and chose to bat. England’s new bowling attack soon had the West Indies at 70 for 6. Had the selectors hit upon the magic formula by a lucky accident? Lloyd led a minor (no pun intended) recovery with 60 not out but his team were all out for 190, their lowest score of the series. Ian Botham, well supported by Allott and Ellison, had got five wickets and in the process joined Bob Willis and Fred Trueman on the 300 Test wicket mark.

Chris Broad was out just before the close and Surrey off spinner Pat Pocock, having scored 0 and 0 in the previous Test, was offered up as a sacrificial nightwatchman. He survived the evening session and lasted forty-six minutes the next morning before being out for another duck. Prior to his dismissal, he was on the receiving end of a persistent short pitched barrage that did neither the West Indies nor the umpires any credit.

The Laws of Cricket at the time, as they do still, quite clearly state that “The bowling of short-pitched balls is unfair if, in the opinion of the umpire at the bowler’s end, it constitutes an attempt to intimidate the striker”. The laws go on to say “The relative skill of the striker shall also be taken into consideration.” The sanctions of ‘no ball’, ‘final warning’ and ultimately not
allowing the bowler to continue for the rest of the innings were all in place in 1984.

For forty-six minutes, Pocock was protecting himself first and his wicket second. It might seem quite entertaining if you are a West Indian supporter but it was against both the spirit and the laws of cricket. “The relative skill of the striker shall also be taken into consideration.” Pat Pocock played in twenty five Tests and averaged just over 6 with the bat. He played 554 first-class games and averaged 11. Pocock was a tailender. It would have been very easy for the umpire to say to the bowler ‘if you bowl another short pitch ball, I will no ball you.’ The umpires, David Constant and Barrie Meyer, chose not to take this simple action.

It’s always difficult to complain about something when you are getting hammered, and England did not make too much fuss but there is a picture in the 1985 edition of
Wisden
that sums it up. The heading is ‘The Unacceptable Face of Test Cricket’. It is a photograph of Pocock avoiding a bouncer from Marshall. One foot is off the ground pointing towards square leg. His bat is in the air pointing towards third man and his head is jerked sideways pointing down to fine leg. It is not a picture of a batsman. It is a picture of someone bravely trying to avoid being carried off the pitch to hospital.

Maybe the West Indies were upset because they had been bowled out for under 200? Perhaps their many supporters at the Oval got them going? Maybe they were just being macho? Whatever the motivation, it worked. England were bowled out for 162. Graeme Fowler negotiated the short-pitched onslaught for a time but eventually was hit on the arm and had to leave the field. He came back later and top scored with 31. No one else got over 20.

When the West Indies batted for a second time, they were once again in trouble early on. Jonathan Agnew joined the party
and claimed Greenidge and Richards as his first Test victims. Gomes had a rare failure and the Windies were 69 for 3. Almost inevitably, as had happened in all the previous Tests, someone came to their rescue. This time it was Desmond Haynes. He had scored only 100 runs in the series up to that point but he got his head down for seven hours and played with a straight bat. His century, coupled with an entertaining 49 from Dujon, helped his side to a total of 346.

England needed to score 375 to win or bat for ten hours to draw. Neither seemed achievable based on the evidence of the first innings. It was clear which option Tavare had gone for when he occupied the crease for over three hours in scoring 49. Chris Broad also hung around for nearly three hours for his 39. Michael Holding then decided to come off his full run for the first time that summer and promptly blew away England’s middle order. There was time for Botham to hit a quick fire 50 and Pocock to collect his fourth successive duck and England were all out for 202.

England had been ‘blackwashed’, bushwhacked, beaten and bruised. The 1984 West Indies team were undoubtedly a very good team but there was something slightly unedifying about the manner of their victory. Two England players had ended up in hospital never to play Test cricket again. Most of the time, short-pitched bowling was the rule rather than the exception. Physical intimidation was the order of the day with the ball frequently aimed at the England batsman rather than at their wicket. And the worst thing of all was that our bowlers couldn’t do it back to them!

Pringle strived to get his pace above military medium and ended up bowling eighteen ‘no balls’ in an innings. Bob Willis was coming to the end of his career and could no longer muster the
sustained hostility he was capable of in his younger days. When Botham, Allott and Ellison did manage to get amongst the West Indian batsmen, it was achieved by intelligent use of seam and swing not by bowling at their heads

The umpires of the day seemed unwilling or unable to enforce the laws of the game and restrict the use of short-pitched bowling. Robin Marlar, writing in the
Sunday Times
at the end of the tour, gives due credit to the West Indians. They were well led by Clive Lloyd, their batting had depth and reliability and their fast bowlers were controlled and penetrative. He examines England’s weaknesses but also speculates how the West Indian batsmen, or indeed any batsmen, would have coped with the West Indies attack. He concludes by saying that the essence of cricket is the defence of the stumps by the batsman, not the defence of the body and that, in his opinion, the way the West Indies team was playing was deeply offensive to the spirit of cricket.

Eventually, a specific law had to be brought in to deal with short-pitched bowling. First of all a ‘maximum of one bouncer per over’ rule was experimented with and then the ‘two bouncers per over’ rule, which we still have today, was established. Although some fast bowlers may disagree, this seems to work. Persistent bowling of bouncers is either dangerous, if aimed at the head, or a negative tactic if continually passing above the head. A bouncer is far more effective as a surprise weapon.

So, in the battles of 1984, Clive Lloyd had unequivocally prevailed over David Gower. I don’t want to spoil it for those who haven’t read
Nineteen Eighty-Four
but Big Brother gives Winston Smith a right going over. Margaret Thatcher’s ‘victory’ over Arthur Scargill was perhaps not so clear cut. She was triumphant but Scargill always claimed that “the greatest victory in the strike was the struggle itself.”