A Special Talent
Yesterday, I went to watch an Under 13’s game of Cricket, and saw one of the best young cricketers I have ever seen. Sadly, he is now 39 years old, and has not played Professional Cricket for over a decade.
I have been privileged in my life to have been close to genius.
By ‘keeping wicket behind some of the world’s greatest-ever batsmen, have been able to appreciate their special gifts. Sir Vivian Richards, Javed Miandad, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, and David Gower were something different, a cut above the rest. Meanwhile Graham Gooch, Martin Crowe, Allan Border, Jimmy Cook, Steve and Mark Waugh, Desmond Haynes, Gordon Greenidge, Jacques Kallis and Michael Bevan, were all out of the top drawer, in my opinion. Observing their class from such an ‘up close and personal’ place, either behind the stumps, or from the non-striker’s end, has offered me a rare gift in life.
When assessing young cricketers, and their ‘raw’ talent, I have a perspective based on seeing many of the best from a relatively young age in their development. Next to Herschelle Gibbs, Mark Lathwell is the most gifted young cricketer I have ever seen. I was coaching in Western Province in the 1980’s and 1990’s, and saw the 9 year-old Herschelle Gibbs and also Jacques Kallis move through the age groups and into First-Class, and Test Cricket.
Gibbs’ talent was outrageous across all sports. Kallis was different, more methodical in his approach and wise enough to tap into Desmond Haynes’ wisdom (as the Overseas Player for Western Province) and the highly-respected Duncan Fletcher, his Provincial Coach. Kallis is a hard worker with a deep hunger for runs. Gibbs was a ‘naughty schoolboy’ who indulged himself by playing high-risk strokes and impersonating other great batsmen’s styles. The game was ‘fun’ to Gibbs, and ‘work’ to Kallis. Kallis has achieved more, and continues to do so. He is arguably, the best cricketer in the world today.
I believe my persepctive when assessing, and comparing young talent, has been helped considerably by my playing experiences.
I played for England Young Cricketers against the brilliant Carl Hooper when he was an 18 year old, and Jimmy Adams, in the same West Indies team at 17. ‘Hoops’ made a century against us for West Indies Young Cricketers at Kensington Oval and looked a player of rare pedigree. Sir Vivian Richards thought so too, and as West Indies Captain, included him in the senior West Indies not long after ‘Hoops’ made his debut in First-Class Cricket with Guyana. He suggested he would become a West Indies ‘great’.
I played with Nasser Hussain from when he was 9 years old, and right through to his debut in professsional cricket for Essex. I played against Mark Ramprakash when he was 15 , when he made his bow in County 2nd XI Cricket.
South Africa’s Daryll Cullinan was also a schoolby prodigy who I first played against when he was 18. Daryll went on to enjoy much success in International Cricket to follow on from being South Africa’s youngest First-Class centurion at 16, beating the legendary Graeme Pollock’s record in the process.
Graeme Hick scored 405 not out immediately in front of me (for two days!) in 1988, as a 21 year-old.
To add further perspective, I played a season for Essex 2nd XI in 1985 with Steve Waugh, when we were both 19, and two seasons (1987 and 88) of First-Class Cricket together with Somerset. He was outstanding. His strokeplay at that stage of his career was breath-taking. He was a risk-taker who was capable of taking on the best and destroying them. Three innings stand out for me: a 200 not out in a 50 over game for Essex 2nd’x v Sussex at Hove after we had been 19 for 2 off 11 overs when he walked to the wicket. For Somerset, his undefeated century at The Oval v Sylvester Clarke was both courageous and audacious. Similarly his hundred against Courtney Walsh at Bristol. Waugh’s desire to make a big impact on World Cricket made him change his game in pursuit of greater consistency against top-class bowling, but believe me, in terms of pure talent, his ability was remarkable from a young age.
I played against Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara when they were 19 and 20 years of age respectively, and Lara made a superb 93 before lunch, batting at number 4, for West Indies against Somerset at Taunton.
I saw Marcus Trescothick grow from a 10 year-old heavy run-making machine at school level, shared the field with him on his First-Class debut, and watched him become the most dominant of English First-Class batsmen an International batsman to be feared by all-comers. His First-Class debut was a remarkable match between Somerset and Lancashire at Taunton, which ended in two days. Lancashire, chasing 88 to win in the fourth innings, were bowled out for 72, with Andy Caddick taking 9-32.
Despite Marcus’s gifts, he, in my humble opinion, was not even the most gifted young player at Somerset. Mark Lathwell, despite his modest career record, stands out for me as a young player touched by rare genius.
He was capable of destroying the best bowlers when the conditions most suited his opponents.
His story is one of an unfulfilled talent, who became dis-illusioned by the game, and the way people are managed in professional cricket. He quit in his mid-twenties after a knee injury, combined several years of under-performance relative to his potential. He became desperate to get away from the intrusion of a life in the spotlight, and went back to North Devon, in search of a quieter, simpler life. In the ensuing years, he toppped the Devon Premier League batting and bowling averages for several years, representing his local club, Braunton, despite not training, practising or even picking up a bat or ball between performances.
‘Rowdy’ (nick-named so, due to his shy, quiet ways) Lathwell’s story is, in some ways, a tragic tale. The wider Cricket world was denied the chance to see what I, and several others, witnessed first-hand. He was touched by genius, and in the first half of 1993, he displayed it virtually every time he batted.
‘Rowdy’ Lathwell had not been selected for junior Schoolboy representative sides, his shy personality and ‘non-textbook batting technique not catching the eye. Instead ploughed his own furrow, travelling up to Lord’s every Saturday morning from North Devon for coaching. The 9 hour round-trip every weekend spoke volumes for his desire to improve his game, and the love of a supportive father and family.
MCC’s School of Merit programme aided his progress, and an opportunity to join MCC Young Professionals as an ‘apprentice cricketer’ represented a golden chance to bat, bowl and field every day in superb conditions designed to help young cricketers not connected to County professional playing staffs to work their way across the bridge into the professional game.
He made 70 at Lord’s in his first appearance at ‘The Home of Cricket.’ Playing for MCC Young Cricketers v MCC, he was eventually dismissed by the recent past President of MCC, and former Sussex Captain, John Barclay.
Playing as a triallist, in only his second match for Somerset 2nd XI, he took advantage of an opportunity to open the innings and made 168 not out v Sussex at Hove. He then debuted for Somerset 1st XI against Sri Lanka in the September of 1990, batted at 8, and bowled 7 overs for 35 against the likes of Aravinda De Silva, Marvan Attapatu, and Sanath Jayasuriya. In 1991, he made his List ‘A’ County debut for Somerset v Kent. He represented England Young Cricketers v Australia in the same summer, alongside John Crawley, and against the likes of Damien Martyn, Adam Gilchrist, Michael Kasparowicz and Greg Blewett. He made his First-Class debut against Sri Lanka, making 16 in the 2nd innings (his only knock) at number 6, and broke into Somerset’s team permanently, the following year as an opening batsman.
I still recall one of his early performances with great fondness. It was a NatWest trophy tie at Taunton against our local rivals Gloucestershire in 1992. Courtney Walsh was at the peak of his powers, and a fearsome prospect with 5 and1/2 ounces of red leather in his hand. Lathwell, for the best part of an hour tucked into the attack. Some of his strokes were truly awesome. One particular pull shot off a ball form Walsh which was only just short of a length disappeared like a tracer bullet at head height through mid-wicket, and blasted into the boundary boards. Sir Vivian Richards would have been proud of it, if he had played it himself. He was eventually out for 85 off only 104 balls, with the score on 147-2.
Sadly, we contrived to lose the match despite needing only 89 more runs in plenty of overs! However, a star was born that day.
He had such a good eye and incredibly fast hands, and the courage (in his early days) to trust his natural talent.
He made 50 runs in virtually every innings (and so easily, that it wasn’t funny to us lesser mortals) as an opening batsman when he first broke into our team. His tendency was too often to be back in the Pavilion before 12 0’ Clock with a half-century to his name, instead of compiling big scores. We also nick-named him ‘Troughy’, due to his propensity to feed his stomach (heartily) at every opportunity. There was a suspicion that he kept getting out early so he could tuck into the lunch buffet an hour earlier than the other 21 players!!
The game seemed so simple to him. His future seemed to know no bounds.
The following winter, he came back from an England ‘A’ Tour having made a brilliant 175 v Tasmania against Ricky Ponting, and several others who have featured in last winter’s Ashes series in non-playing roles for Australia (Troy Cooley bowling coach; Jamie Cox Selector; Dene Hills Batting Coach) and played superbly for another century v Glenn McGrath and New South Wales at Sydney, in front of Ted Dexter, the England Chairman of Selectors. His stock was high.
By the end of the 1993 season, Wisden, ‘the Cricketers Bible’ recorded his deeds as thus: ”A major discovery,” it lauded. “Not since David Gower (has) a youngster quickened the pulse like Lathwell.”
He began the new season superbly. By top-scoring for England ‘A’ against Champion County Essex in the first match of the new season, he was being singled out as ‘one to watch’. Allan Border’s Australians were about to arrive for 1993 Ashes, and ’Rowdy’ was being tipped as ‘a contender’ in some quarters. England had toured badly in India the previous winter, and consequently, the selection, leadership, and strategy, were all under the microscope.
England Coach Keith Fletcher came to Southampton to see our season-opener v Hampshire, ostensibly to check on David Gower, who had been controversially excluded from Graham Gooch’s winter touring party. Instead, Mark Lathwell was the story of the day.
He was odds- on to become the first man to make a Championship century in the 1992 season, until he was out for 99, getting a leading edge to short mid-wicket, to what he described as ‘‘a gentle half-tracker’’ from the Hampshire off-spinner Shaun Udal, as he attempted to turn the ball down to backward square leg to reach a remarkable century with twenty minutes to go before lunch! The attack included the legendary paceman Malcolm Marshall, who was gobsmacked by the quality and consistency of Lathwell’s easy boundary-striking. David Gower looked on with similar bemusement. They were witnessing a star in the making.
Despite making only 0 and 15 against the Australians at Taunton in the next match, Mark’s form continued in front of England Selector Dennis Amiss in a B&H one day match at Trent Bridge. After being summoned to bowl the few final overs of the innings from the Radcliffe Road End to the very dangerous Paul Johnson, with a short leg-side boundary to contend with, he conceded nearly 50 runs in the process. His subsequent fury was unleashed on Nottinghamshire’s opening bowlers as he proceded to score 77 amazing runs in no time at all, and set up a remarkable victory.
His outstanding 1993 form continued: 71 out of 91-4 when dis missed against Lancashire in the next match (Trescothick’s debut); 127 in a 2nd XI one day game v Worcestershire; 84 (out of 185 all out) and 40 v Glamorgan; 48 (out of 202 all out) and 132 (out of 197 all out) v Essex; 103 v Shropshire in NatWest Trophy 1st Round. England meanwhile went down to another heavy defeat in the Lord’s Test, after losing the 1st Test at Old Trafford too. English Cricket was crying out for new blood, especially after the 21 year-old Michael Slater had scored a dazzling 152 at Lord’s in only his second-ever Test match, for Australia.
In the County Championship match against Glamorgan at Taunton, we were inserted on a damp, green, lively pitch. The ball seamed all over the place and swung prodigiously in conditions which suited the Glamorgan bowler Steve Watkin, one of the finest exponents of opening bowling of the era. Sir Viv Richards chewed on his gum from second slip, and Hugh Morris (now England Cricket’s Managing Director) waited for the nicks behind the wicket too. At one stage Somerset was 75-3, with Mark Lathwell 70 not out! He was dismissed for 84 out of 110-5, when I walked out to the middle, twenty minutes before the luncheon interval!
At lunch, Sir Viv said that if he were still Captain of West Indies and Lathwell was a West Indian, he would put him in the team tomorrow.
His early season form earned him selection for the Texaco Trophy ODI Series v Australia, but never featured in Captain Graham Gooch’s starting XI in three matches, despite England being 2-0 down after two matches, and a player being brought from outside the original squad to play ahead of him for an injured player (Dermot Reeve for Chris Lewis if memory serves me correctly). Instead of being integrated into the England team, he was left feeling ‘an outsider’, and described it as a ‘Jim’ll Fix it’ experience to meet the England Cricket Team for a few days! An opportunity was lost, especially at Lord’s, when Mark could have played instead of injured Lewis. The series was lost, and to give a debut to an in-form young player who had been ‘tearing up’ county attacks made sense to all but those entrusted with picking the team. England lost the match and the series 3-0.
With England 2-0 down after two Tests in the Ashes, ‘Rowdy’ Lathwell got picked for his England Test debut. He made 20 and 33 on debut in the 3rd Test at Trent Bridge, then 0 and 25 in the 4th Test match, when England lost heavily at Headingley. Graham Gooch then resigned the captaincy, and on July 26th 1993, Mark Lathwell walked off the field for only the second, but, sadly, the last time for England. The whole England ‘experience’ seemed to affect him very negatively. For Somerset, he made two other scores of 70 and 80 in one day matches up to the end of the season, and virtually nothing else of note in between.
Things had changed – he was never the same again after playing for England.
I wonder what ‘mental scarring’ had taken place, and if his desire to be in the spotlight had been adveresely affected by the amount of media scrutiny he came under? Did a sub-conscious thought develop where he never wanted to be part of that world take root? One will never know, but I saw a young man go form having the world at his feet to someone who looked almost forlorn, once he got left out after only two Tests in which he had performed adequately. It wouldn’t happen today.
Disappointingly for me, two men I have held in the highest esteem, Keith Fletcher and Graham Gooch, were at the helm. I was surprised that their period in charge of England was not the success it had been at Essex, where their influence had been, and still is, inspirational.
Was his game ready for the standard required in International Cricket? Probably.
Was his personality suited to the glare of International sport? Probably not.
Could he have benefitted from some quality mentoring support? Most definitely.
If the International game was only about the bat and the ball, and the pursuit of its’ mastery, he would have, (in my humble opinion), become one of the legends of the game. ‘Rowdy’ could destroy top-quality bowling in the way few others could.
Despite being picked for England’s ‘A’ Tour of South Africa in the winter of 1993-4, his heart did not seem to be in the opportunity.
I remember spending some time with him during the match against Western Province at Newlands in Cape Town, and also over dinner for two nights, and feeling sad about his feelings about the experiences he was having so early on the South African Tour, despite making 83 and 133 in the first matches at The Wanderers and Springs. He only seemed to enjoy the period when he had the bat in his hand, and only in ‘the middle’. In contrast, some players love batting in the nets, but ’Rowdy’ was a player who was stimulated by the contest in ‘the middle’, and the challenge of winning cricket matches for his team.
Not being a social animal, touring was not for him. The confined space which a group of 17 people live in for onths on end presents many different challenges. It can get very claustrophobic. Persoanl time and space are at a premium. He even struggled with the travelling schedule across the length and breadth of the UK in a county season. It seemed to wear him down. Unlike his opening partner Trescothick, their homesickness was not the same issue. Mark was able to cope with being away – it’s just that he didn’t really enjoy it. He would just as much prefer the company of some true friends in ‘his local’ in Braunton, playing darts and ‘chewing the fat’.
‘Lathwell & Trescothick’ should have become Somerset and England’s opening partnership for years. It almost has a ‘Hobbs and Sutcliffe’ ring about it. It was unbelievable batting to witness. Marcus says something similar in his acclaimed autobiography, ‘Coming Back to Me’.
Returning from the England ‘A’ Tour to South Africa, Mark opened the 1994 season with a score of 120 in the opening fixture of the season for Somerset at The Oval. But, alas, it seemed his spark of early 1993 had left him. Maybe his spirit had been affected by rejection from the England team, or maybe the daily grind of professional cricket was beginning to wear him down. The constant travelling, hotels, team meetings, net practice (whether you want it or not) fielding practice drill routines etc seemed to be ‘killing’ his love for Cricket. Mark loved the idea of being able to play for ‘fun’ but at the highest level possible to test his skills. Unfortunately for him, and the cricket-watching public, he played in the wrong era. As David Gower had said about England selection at the time: ‘It seems that runs around the block are more important than runs in the middle”.
With increased emphasis being placed on some of the peripheral elements of producing top performance, he battled to adapt to the demands being placed on him by people who he didn’t understand (or they him), on an inter-personal level.
As a person, he was delightful company in a team. Very funny, very sharp-minded, very team-minded. He chose his words carefully, and never wasted any. I always felt there was a likeness to Steve Waugh in his personality. However, their respective careers, and lives, took very divergent paths. Steve overcame his natural shyness, and was forever challenging himself to explore new personal and professional frontiers. Mark backed off, and chose the feeling of relief if he could terminate his time in the spotlight.
Towards the end of 2001, he somehow found himself in the Somerset 2nd XI, playing away to Leicestershire at the end of August, scoring 118 runs. He had earlier made a century in the C&G Trophy to keep SOmerset in the competition, but it, and his last-gasp 118 v Leicestershire 2nd XI, proved insufficient to gain selection in the 1st XI for the C&G Cup Final in front of a packed-house at Lord’s. A ‘Lathwell-less Somerset’ beat us (my new team Leicestershire) to win, and secure Somerset’s first trophy since 1984. Not being part of the experience must have hit the ‘Somerset favorite’ hard.
He played his final First-Class match in mid-September 2001. He walked off the field at Taunton after being dismissed in each innings by Monty Panesar for 92 and 14 against Northamptonshire, never to return.
I can’t help but feel sadness that key people didn’t try to understand him better and prevent a cricketing tragedy from occurring. A the end of the day, I believe everyone lost out. Mark, Somerset, England, and his family, They could have enjoyed a very different life as a consequence of the rewards that success in top sport can bring. He could have been a superstar in the game.
He should have been (at the least) a Somerset Captain as he had a very smart Cricket brain. He was mis-understood, but was capable of understanding others. He changed next to me for a few seasons, and I loved being his team-mate.
His youngest son, Sam, opened the batting for Devon Under 13’s v Berkshire at Wellington College yesterday, and was caressing an on-drive for four through straight mid-on yesterday, as Mark and I reminisced about the past. Maybe Sam will become a good player in due course, and in doing so, discover more about what it takes to be a top batsman. He may even come to understand more about his father, and what a special talent he had with the cricket bat in his hands.
I sincerely hope so.
