Favourite cricket anecdotes

[Rabish Binney]

lol I can just hear him saying it.

There is something to be said for honest commentary.

I have a soft spot for cricinfo commentators who use the term ‘that’s filth’

With regards to Boycott, here's a link to Jonathon Agnew taking the PI55 out of him during a commentary stint.

Does go on for a while but the pretext was that there was a game between England and the Rest of the World many years ago in which Boycott played and that the ICC were cancelling the 1st class status of that game.

Given that Boycott scored his 100th 1st class 100 against the Aussies in the 4th test at Headingly in the 1977 series, retraction of the status of this game would have rewritten the history books and Geoffrey was not happy!!!

'It's a complete wind up' Agnew's hilarious prank on Boycott | Daily Mail Online

'It's a complete wind up' Jonathan Agnew pulls a hilarious prank on Geoffrey Boycott during Test Match commentary. The BBC cricket correspondent convinced former England cricketer that his records had been removed from first class records.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[SC_Power]

Kerry O'Keefe told a great story in one of his books about how he went for a beer with Doug Walters and Rod Marsh the night before a test match in Adelaide in 1976 against Pakistan, he thought it would just be a quiet beer or two but of course it turned into an all night bender.

He said Doug and Rod were right as rain the next day as they were used to that sort of stuff but he was hungover as hell and to make matters worse Greg Chappell lost the toss so Pakistan chose to bat and he had to bowl.

He ended up being Australia's best bowler that day taking 3 for 42 off 19 overs and that was also the day that Thommo busted his shoulder.

This was the test match, back when they played a test match over Christmas, the test match started on Christmas Eve, those were the days.

AUS vs PAK Cricket Scorecard, 1st Test at Adelaide, December 24 - 29, 1976

Get cricket scorecard of 1st Test, AUS vs PAK, Pakistan tour of Australia 1976/77 at Adelaide Oval dated December 24 - 29, 1976.

www.espncricinfo.com

Told this story on air as well, magnificently of course, it was a "tour" of the West End Brewery that started it all.

Transcript here, with link to the audio.

When Kerry O’Keeffe took on Pakistan with the mother of all hangovers

BAC .258: When Skull took on Pakistan hung-over

www.foxsports.com.au

 

[worbod]

During the early 1980s there was a one-day international on the telly, with Greg Chappell being the Australian captain. Ian Chappell happened to be commentating at the time, and during a small break in play he made an observation: "Well we don't have any Irish cricketers out there at the moment, but there is a case of the orange and the green out there at the moment." (an orange had been thrown on to the field by somebody in the crowd)
Chappelli continued: "And Greg Chappell has noticed it just now." (Greg picks up the orange and underarms it away)
Ian couldn't help himself: "And Greg's not bad at the underarm either." (The orange splits and stops rolling) "A bit more splice on it than Trevor!"

Of all the commentators who could have been on air at that moment.

 

[worbod]

During Australia's 1998 tour of Pakistan, as the first Test was drawing towards an Australian victory, radio commentator Jim Maxwell began looking ahead to the second Test. The game was to be played in Peshawar, a city near the Afghan border which was home to many military regimes. For anyone who was not familiar with the city, Maxwell described it thus: "It's a part of Pakistan which, in some parts, you're considered naked if you're not carrying a gun."

 

[worbod]

Another commentary caper was when Eldine Baptiste was bowling in a one-dayer over here for West Indies. At one point in the game Baptiste was having trouble keeping his front foot behind the crease and had five fours hit off his bowling in quick succession. On TV Ian Chappell summed up Baptiste's worries by stating, "And Baptiste has been struggling out there with no-balls."

 

[Sydney Kicker]

Mike Whitney is a very funny man. Story about Bradman.

 

[Pistol Night]

Kerry O'Keefe told a great story in one of his books about how he went for a beer with Doug Walters and Rod Marsh the night before a test match in Adelaide in 1976 against Pakistan, he thought it would just be a quiet beer or two but of course it turned into an all night bender.

He said Doug and Rod were right as rain the next day as they were used to that sort of stuff but he was hungover as hell and to make matters worse Greg Chappell lost the toss so Pakistan chose to bat and he had to bowl.

He ended up being Australia's best bowler that day taking 3 for 42 off 19 overs and that was also the day that Thommo busted his shoulder.

This was the test match, back when they played a test match over Christmas, the test match started on Christmas Eve, those were the days.

AUS vs PAK Cricket Scorecard, 1st Test at Adelaide, December 24 - 29, 1976

Get cricket scorecard of 1st Test, AUS vs PAK, Pakistan tour of Australia 1976/77 at Adelaide Oval dated December 24 - 29, 1976.

www.espncricinfo.com

 

[worbod]

In 1983 Clive Lloyd was being interviewed about the upcoming World Cup tournament. He was asked who he thought were the best challengers to dethrone West Indies as world champions. Lloyd began by giving his opinion on one or two countries and then turned his attention to Pakistan, of whom he said, "Pakistan are always dark horses."
Realising what he had said, Clive and the interviewer had a chuckle before continuing the interview.