I Wish I Was There
The more I thought about the best Tests I have watched, the more it got me thinking about all the other great names from previous generations, and games I have read, or heard about.
People often talk about sport in the manner of: ‘I was there’ when X did Y. How many people claim to have been at Wembley Stadium in 1966 when Bobby Moore lifted the World Cup for England?
There are so many great players and teams who have etched themsleves into the rich tapestry of my favorite sport, which has kept me beguiled and bewitched from an early age. I love it.
From a Cricket perspective, I sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have observed the game over the 134 years that Test Cricket has been alive.
I would love to have seen Sir Donald Bradman bat. Similarly, Sir Garry Sobers. I was too young to have appreciated Sobers’ true quality, even though I was fortunate to see him play.
How good was WG Grace? Statisitics suggest he was peerless as a cricketer. The fact that he was so far and above the standard of his playing contemporaries, marks him out as a remarkable achiever in the game.
I would loved to have seen George Headley bat too. And Denis Compton. I am reliably informed (by John Woodcock amongst others) that Denis was a genius at the crease. And Sir Len Hutton, who Geoffrey Boycott rates amongst the very best.
I would loved to have seen Frank Tyson bowl fast too. And Fred ‘The Demon’ Spofforth – he of the origin of the Ashes fame.
And teams…. How good were Bradman’s Invincibles in 1948? Hutton’s England? Worrell’s West Indians? I know how good Clive Lloyd’s West Indians were, and regard myself as fortunate to have played against Allan Border’s Australians and Viv Richards’ peerless West Indian team.
I would love to have been able to study Richie Benaud’s captaincy, and also witnessed Douglas Jardine’s Bodyline tactics which unsettled Sir Donald Bradman and his team-mates in Australia during the 1932-33 series.
In terms of specific matches and events, I wish Dr Who’s Tardis Machine could transport me through time to see the Tied Test in Brisbane 1960; Charles Bannerman make 165 in the first Test in 1877 and achieve the highest percentage of individual runs against a team total in the process; England score 903 for 7 and Len Hutton break the world record in the same game by scoring 364; Don Bradman score 254 at Lord’s in 1930 (an innings which a school-age Denis Compton told me he ‘snuck in’ to watch and was mesmerised by) which ‘The Don’ is said to have regarded as his finest; the Ashes test of 1953 when Denis Compton’s winning boundary secured the Ashes after Alec Bedser’s herculean bowling feats in the series.
I would love to go back in time and watch Sir Donald Bradman make 309 in a day at Headingley in the Ashes series of 1930 , and also see Arthur Morris play his remarkable innings of 182 at Headingley with Bradman (173 not out), to chase down 404 (for the loss of only 3 wickets) to win on the final day at Headingley in 1934.
If only one could have been present to see Jim Laker’s 19 for 90 in 1956 at Old Trafford – it must surely be the greatest sporting feat?
Whatever the merits of comparing eras, it is such a shame that there is so little footage of the first 1000 Tests. In years to come, young cricketers will be able to watch Viv Richards bat, Michael Holding and Malcolm Marshall bowl fast; Wasim and Waqar swing the ball with devastating effect; Murali, Kumble and Warne spin to win, and Tendulkar, Dravid, Lara, Kallis and Ponting dominate the game with bats as wide as a front door.
The game of Cricket offers us all a wonderful opportunity for narrative. We can author our own stories as we journey through the game, or we can observe others as they author theirs. Young minds will always be influenced by the game’s heroes and as time passess, new heroes always emerge. Who will be threading their names into the game’s history over the next decades?
I hope that the next generation are able to inherit a healthy game and pass on the legacy in even better health in time to come.
