Born in '95 so I genuinely only remember ODIs in colour.As late as the '93 Ball of the Century Ashes tour we played the odis in England in white.
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Born in '95 so I genuinely only remember ODIs in colour.As late as the '93 Ball of the Century Ashes tour we played the odis in England in white.
The picture on the back dust jacket of Opening Up by Geoff Boycott has him wearing what looks like the long sleeve jumper that England would have worn in 79/80 if they agreed to wear coloured kit.Only the Tri Series in Australia was played with white balls and coloured uniforms and for a while England refused eventually playing in all light blue before eventually embracing it, for a long time - games in England were still red ball and whites for a long time after - white balls / coloured clothing was part of World Series Cricket introduced by Kerry Packer
And it would have been mid-2000s, maybe, when teams started wearing their own kit, rather than the matching ones provided by the host board, I think?As late as the '93 Ball of the Century Ashes tour we played the odis in England in white.
Born in '95 so I genuinely only remember ODIs in colour.
Judge was a seriously good playerJust before you were born, in the 1993 Ball of the Century tour alluded to earlier, Australia and England played a 3 match series which from memory was 55-overs a side and Robin Smith played one of the great ODI knocks seen up until that time. On paper it doesn’t look much better than most ‘big’ centuries we see now: 167 off 163 but it came in a score of 270 and the next best score in his team’s innings was 33 or something and aside from convicted drug trafficker Chris Lewis who hit a token 13 off 10 or something at the end, no other strike rate was higher than about 52.
It was an amazing innings in the circumstances and aside from the blazing cuts and pulls played by one of the most underappreciated players of his generation one of the things I remember most is that it was played in whites with a red ball and as a kid I could not get my head around why
Judge was a seriously good player
Sadly never quite got it right against slow bowling but probably sits up there with Alec Stewart, Ricky Ponting, Inzy at times, Viv, as far as batsmen go who just looked better and better the quicker the bowling got. He loved it. I didn’t watch it live but I have seen footage of the innings in the Caribbean when he faced Walsh, Ambrose, and it was two of Patterson, Marshall and Bishop from memory and I think he had a finger shattered and got smashed on the jaw and I’m pretty sure he didn’t even have it seen to by the physio.
He was the only Englishman I think to hit a century in the disastrous 89 ashes - he hit two of them, and when he was shitcanned he was the only batsman aside from MAYBE Graham Thorpe who was averaging over 40. Got a really raw deal from the selectors
Savage on the short ball.Sadly never quite got it right against slow bowling but probably sits up there with Alec Stewart, Ricky Ponting, Inzy at times, Viv, as far as batsmen go who just looked better and better the quicker the bowling got. He loved it. I didn’t watch it live but I have seen footage of the innings in the Caribbean when he faced Walsh, Ambrose, and it was two of Patterson, Marshall and Bishop from memory and I think he had a finger shattered and got smashed on the jaw and I’m pretty sure he didn’t even have it seen to by the physio.
He was the only Englishman I think to hit a century in the disastrous 89 ashes - he hit two of them, and when he was shitcanned he was the only batsman aside from MAYBE Graham Thorpe who was averaging over 40. Got a really raw deal from the selectors
Jack Russell also scored a ton in that 89 Ashes series, remarkably he was one of of England's best batsmen in that series along with Smith.
Savage on the short ball.
Maybe Smith was the only one to hit 2 of them - or the only ‘specialist’ batsman; he certainly had a distinction as the ‘only batsman’ to achieve something in that series I do know that, though I was too young to have actually seen it.
The amount of achievements of English batsmen in tests against Australia between then and 2005 was utterly negligible.
Mark Butcher’s century in that chase in the fourth test in 2001, I think Ramps hit a token ‘where was that the rest of your career’ century around the same time or in Australia a few years later. Graham Thorpe hit a really pretty one in 1993 that ultimately didn’t matter one iota (not his fault: I think it was his debut series)
Nasser Hussain carries that ignominy from sending Australia in at Brisbane in 2002-03 but at least he can say he scored a tonne in his team’s only live Ashes win in nearly 20 years during the 97 series
In the second Ashes test at Lord’s, Hughes ran into the English batsman Robin Smith and told him, “You can’t f****** bat.” However, after Smith smashed him through the offside for 4, Smith was quick to reply, “Hey Merv. We make a fine pair. I can’t f****** bat and you can’t f****** bowl.”
Maybe Smith was the only one to hit 2 of them - or the only ‘specialist’ batsman; he certainly had a distinction as the ‘only batsman’ to achieve something in that series I do know that, though I was too young to have actually seen it.
The amount of achievements of English batsmen in tests against Australia between then and 2005 was utterly negligible.
Mark Butcher’s century in that chase in the fourth test in 2001, I think Ramps hit a token ‘where was that the rest of your career’ century around the same time or in Australia a few years later. Graham Thorpe hit a really pretty one in 1993 that ultimately didn’t matter one iota (not his fault: I think it was his debut series)
Nasser Hussain carries that ignominy from sending Australia in at Brisbane in 2002-03 but at least he can say he scored a tonne in his team’s only live Ashes win in nearly 20 years during the 97 series
He was an excellent keeper......who could forget the Dean Jones stumping?Always used to feel a bit sorry for Jack Russell. Remember reading somewhere that around that time, whenever Alec Stewart was struggling with the bat he'd get the keepers gloves out and start warming up next to Russell
Robin Smith: ‘I drank vodka from the bottle. There were no half measures’
Fearless against the West Indies pace attack, the former England cricketer tells Donald McRae how retirement left him drinking heavily and close to taking his own lifewww.theguardian.com
Robin Smith was as gutsy of a batsmen as I've seen.
Life went downhill or him after cricket to such as extent that he contemplated suicide. Link to a great article is attached.
Is doing much better now which is great.
Another South African tourist who payed a heavy cost. Atherton wrote about a time in the 90s when he turned up at an England net bare foot and half cut, had a bowl and still had batsmen jumping, he's probably best known here for being the batsmen in the Dyson catch.That’s an incredibly interesting, sad but somewhat uplifting article.
Loved the bit about Sylvester Clarke.
You’d be hard pressed to find a cricketer who’s ratio of international appearances, to reputation, is more profound.
His name seems to pop up relentlessly as THE guy across any batsman from that era as the bowler you just didn’t want to face
Another South African tourist who payed a heavy cost. Atherton wrote about a time in the 90s when he turned up at an England net bare foot and half cut, had a bowl and still had batsmen jumping, he's probably best known here for being the batsmen in the Dyson catch.
Have you read The Unforgiven by Ashley Gray? It's a great take on the rebel West Indians and a good companion piece to Fire in Babylon.Absolutely, has a first class record that literally forces a double-take and the amount of batsmen who unhesitatingly say he was the scariest of all pretty much tells you where he ranks
Great point Phat.Absolutely, has a first class record that literally forces a double-take and the amount of batsmen who unhesitatingly say he was the scariest of all pretty much tells you where he ranks
Great point Phat.
Of course the feats of Holding; Garner; Roberts; Croft; Walsh; Ambrose; Marshall et al are all well known
As you pointed out, there were a number of test and 1st class cricketers both from the Windies and other countries who said that Clarke and Patrick Patterson were the fastest of them all.
For years there, the Windies seemed to roll out scary (good) fast bowlers on a conveyer belt year after year. Imagine facing them in the nets?
You can even go back to Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith prior to the Roberts; Garner; Holding era.
Ian Chappell once said that one of the fastest bowlers he had ever faced was a Windies bowler named Roy Gilchrist (13 tests) who he faced in the Lancashire League back in the early 1960's when Chappell himself was only 18. Not only was Gilchrist lightening fast, he had a temper to match and it wasn't unusual for him to bowl beamers from 18 yards. He simply hated batsmen and on one occasion pulled a stump from the wicket and was going to bash an opposing batsmen with it. Even the great Gary Sobers was quote as saying " Ah! Gilchrist! He is the most dangerous cricketer I ever played with"
FWIW, one of my favourites Windies bowlers was Ian Bishop. Loved his action. I think his career was curtailed by injury?