Spirit On The Water (6 page)

We can only hope that the miners and their families who suffered twelve months of poverty and hardship agreed with him. The strike eventually ended in March 1985. Thatcher had defeated the so called ‘enemy within’. Many of the pits were closed and communities destroyed. Manufacturing industry continued to decline and Britain became a haven for bankers and estate agents. At least the economy was safe in the hands of the financial sector. What could possibly go wrong?

Big Brother, Margaret Thatcher and Clive Lloyd all won in 1984 but it’s not always winning that is important, it’s how you win. If you win but in the process humiliate your opponent, does that not tarnish the victory? Watching proper batsmen face fast bowlers is one of the pleasures of Test cricket. Sometimes the batsman wins – Roy Fredericks against Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson at Perth in 1975. Michael Atherton taking on Allan Donald at Trent Bridge in 1998. Kevin Pietersen versus Brett Lee at the Oval in 2005. Sometimes the bowler wins – Curtly Ambrose against the Australians at Perth in 1992. Devon Malcolm destroying the South Africans at the Oval in 1994.

When the fight is even, it is great to watch. When it is a hapless tailender like Pocock being subjected to continuous intimidatory bowling deliberately aimed at his body, it is tantamount to bullying.

Overall, the tour had been a great success for the West Indies. They had won all five Tests, and were unbeaten in all other
first-class
matches. The only game they lost on the tour was the second One-Day International when, amazingly, Derek Pringle was man of the match with 3 for 21 off 10 overs.

The Pocock incident was undoubtedly a blemish, as was the West Indies Cricket Board’s refusal to agree to a minimum number of overs in the day. Before the ICC had the power to regulate such things, it was up to the Boards of both countries to agree the
conditions of play. The result in 1984 was that the West Indies maintained an average over rate of below fourteen overs an hour throughout the series. England had a similar over rate but they can be excused because of the time they spent looking for the ball after it had been dispatched by Greenidge, Gomes, Richards and even on occasions, Holding.

England did not have long to wait for the chance of redemption. They were scheduled to tour the West Indies in the winter of 1985/86. Revenge is a dish best served cold, apparently. Unfortunately for Gower and his team, it is particularly hot in the West Indies at that time of year.
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There are some songs that, when you first hear them, make such an impression that you just have to listen to them again, immediately. I’m not talking about songs that make you think, ‘that’s good, I wouldn’t mind hearing that again.’ There are plenty of songs like that. No, these are songs that obsess you for days on end.

It doesn’t happen very often but when it does, it temporarily takes over your life. A lot of people tend to associate ‘special’ songs with other significant things that happen in their life. The songs I am referring to are rarely influenced by outside factors or special events. They just happen. One day you are going about your business and the next, you can’t get the song out of your head.

It’s a very personal thing. Others may like the song but not necessarily share the same fixation. Over the years, I have been afflicted every now and then by this obsession.
Mr Big
by Free,
I’ll Be Your Lover Too
by Van Morrison,
Last To Die
by Bruce Springsteen and
La Cienega Just Smiled
by Ryan Adams are a few that have made their mark.

I have the same thing with certain cricketers which I will come to in a moment but first there is Bob Dylan to deal with. The best way to appreciate Dylan is to listen to whole albums. Why would you want to pick out one particular song from
Blood On The Tracks or John Wesley Harding
when they are all brilliant? With the advent of CDs, iPods, iTunes, Spotify and the rest, there is an
increasing tendency for people to listen to individual tracks only. CDs and iPods are marvellous, of course they are, but some things have been lost with the demise of vinyl.

There are lots of great Dylan songs but only one has really grabbed me in the ‘obsessional’ sense. This may have something to do with the fact that it wasn’t released on an album so it has to be listened to in isolation. Not only was it not released on an album, it wasn’t finished, has never been performed by Dylan and was only recorded once.

The decision by Todd Haynes to call his 2007 film about Bob Dylan
I’m Not There
was inspired. The sound track CD of the film features covers of Dylan songs and contains just one song by Dylan himself – the “legendary, never-released, never-completed song”
I’m Not There
. At last the song had been officially released and everyone had the chance to listen to it, obsessively or otherwise.

I have the same mild fixation with certain cricketers. As with the songs, there is a distinction between players that I have enjoyed watching and reading about and players that I have a slightly unhealthy interest in.

It started with D.E.V. Padgett. I never saw him play but he was the only member of the Yorkshire team in the 1960s who had three initials. His name and initials resonated with me in some strange way and I would always check the Yorkshire scorecard to see how he had got on before looking for G. Boycott, D.B. Close, J.G. Binks and the rest.

The V stands for Vernon and many years later I would play cricket in the same team as a West Indian called Vernon. D.E.V. Padgett (even now it would seem presumptuous to refer to him as Doug) was most definitely not a West Indian. Born and bred in Bradford, he made his début for Yorkshire in 1951 at the age of 16. He was selected for a couple of Tests but never quite made the
grade. He continued to play for the county of his birth for twenty years before retiring in 1971 to become Yorkshire’s coach.

When he was a child, Michael Vaughan turned up to watch Yorkshire playing at Sheffield. During the tea interval, he was playing on the outfield with his friends when Doug Padgett spotted him and approached him about joining the county. Vaughan was born in Manchester, and at the time Yorkshire had a strict policy of only picking players that were born in Yorkshire (unless your name happened to be Lord Hawke.) Years later, when the rule was removed, Padgett checked up on the young Vaughan and offered him a place at the Yorkshire academy.

If Padgett hadn’t recognised the latent talent, maybe Vaughan wouldn’t have played first-class cricket, wouldn’t have captained his country and maybe England would not have won the Ashes in 2005. It’s all down to D.E.V. Padgett. Even now, when looking at a Yorkshire scorecard of the 1960s, I am drawn to Padgett’s name and have to check how he got on. I would like to stress that I don’t look at old Yorkshire scorecards all the time. Just every now and then.

Merely having three initials isn’t sufficient. M.J.K. Smith never really did it for me. The M.J.K. really only distinguished him from all the other Smiths. K.W.R. Fletcher was always Keith Fletcher or sometimes even Fletch. The Headingley crowd called him other things when he was selected ahead of P.J. (Phil) Sharpe and dropped three difficult chances in the slips on his début against the Australians in 1968.

When Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards started to play for Somerset and the West Indies, all my prayers were answered. Not only did he have three initials, including a V, he was an absolutely wonderful player. For a number of years he was possibly the coolest man on the planet. When I.V.A. Richards came out to bat,
the cricket ground was his stage and all the other players merely the supporting cast.

His brilliant career was preordained. He had an older brother, D. Richards, who played five first-class games and a younger brother, M. Richards, who played just one. It was Viv who was given the three initials and, although his mother apparently thought his brother Mervin was a more talented player, it was Viv who went on to play 121 Test matches and become a legend in his own lifetime.

Although I had other favourites over the years, it wasn’t until V.V.S. Laxman came along that I had a player to really obsess about again. It was in 2001 that V.V.S. Laxman first burst into my consciousness. There was something incredibly exotic about his name and initials. Not just one V but two, and an S thrown in for good measure. To add to his mystique, his surname had an X in it. Not many cricketers can say that. Good game to play at a Test match when rain stops play: Ted Dexter, Martyn Moxon, Roger Prideaux, Paul Nixon. There must be more?

As well as having an exotic surname and wonderful initials, Vangipurappu Venkata Sai Laxman is also a sublime cricketer. He made an indelible mark on Test cricket during the Australian tour of India in 2001.

The Australian team, led by Steve Waugh, arrived in India with fifteen successive victories behind them. Seemingly they were unbeatable, vying with the 1948 Australians to be called the Invincibles, but they needed a series win in India to really prove themselves. No Australian team had won a series in India for
thirty-one
years.

Two days before the First Test in Mumbai, Sir Don Bradman died. Steve Waugh promised that the Australians would perform in a way that would make ‘the Don’ proud. Waugh won the toss
and took a chance by inviting India to bat first. The pitch was a good one and putting India in meant that Australia would have to bat last on it.

Waugh’s faith in his bowlers was rewarded. India were bowled out for 176, with only Tendulkar making a significant contribution. When Australia batted, they also struggled. They collapsed to 99 for 5 and it looked like Steve Waugh’s gamble had failed. Three hours later, they were in a commanding position.

Adam Gilchrist joined Matthew Hayden and proceeded to smash 122 off 112 balls, including fifteen fours and four sixes. The Indian bowlers had no answer to his aggressive sweeping and pulling. Hayden cast aside his early circumspection and joined in the fun. He reached his century one over after Gilchrist.

India didn’t do much better second time around. Once again only Tendulkar batted with any confidence before he was out to a diving catch from Ponting. Australia only needed 47 to win and the openers knocked them off by the end of the third day.

Australia moved on to Kolkata one up in a three match series. They had won their sixteenth successive match and looked likely to be the first Australian team to win a Test series in India since Bill Lawry’s side in 1969/70. This probability seemed a certainty after they scored 445 despite a Harbhajan Singh hat trick that included the hero of the First Test, Adam Gilchrist, first ball.

The certainty looked like a foregone conclusion when India were shot out for 171 and invited to follow on. V.V.S. Laxman top scored with 59 off 83 balls and was rewarded by being promoted to his favourite position of No.3.

Both V.V.S. Laxman’s parents were doctors and it had been assumed that he would follow them into the medical profession. Luckily an uncle spotted his talent and cricket won the day in the end. It would take a modern miracle from Laxman to cure the
Indian cricket team’s batting malaise. Thrashed by 10 wickets inside three days in the First Test and following on 274 runs behind in the Second, the prognosis looked terminal.

At the end of the third day, they were still 20 runs behind with V.V.S. Laxman on 109 not out. Rahul Dravid, who had swapped places with Laxman and was now batting at No.6, was 7 not out.

At the end of the fourth day, they were both still batting. They added 335 runs during the day without being parted. Laxman lived up to his Very Very Special nickname, ending the day on 275 not out. Dravid was 155 not out and neither gave a chance throughout the day.

The same two players batting all day in a Test match doesn’t happen very often. (Geoff Marsh and Mark Taylor did it against England at Nottingham in 1989). It must be incredibly dispiriting still to be bowling at the same two batsmen at six o’clock in the evening that you started bowling to at eleven o’clock in the morning.

Shane Warne was hit for 152 runs off his 34 overs in the innings and only got one wicket. Kasprowich toiled away for 35 over for 139 runs without reward. McGrath and Gillespie, who had bowled so successfully in the First Test, also had three figures in the ‘runs against’ column.

V.V.S. Laxman was finally out for 281 early on the fifth day, going for quick runs.
Wisden
ranks it among the Top Ten Test innings of all time. Not only had it rescued his team from certain defeat, the rate that he had scored his runs allowed Ganguly to declare on the last day and give India an outside chance of victory.

The Australians were set 383 to win or try and survive for seventy-five overs. A draw looked strong favourite as Hayden and Slater put on 74 in twenty-three overs. But once Harbhajan Singh got Slater out, wickets began to fall. Tendulkar took 3 for 31 with
his leg spinners and Harbhajan finished with 6 wickets, including Gilchrist for a king pair.

Australia were all out in the 69
^th
over and their winning sequence had come to an end in spectacular fashion. Only three sides have won Test matches after being asked to follow on, one each century, and they were all against Australia. England famously did it at Headingley in 1981 and before that you have to go back to 1894 when England won in Sydney.

The three match series was now in the balance at one game all and the teams moved on to Chennai. Steve Waugh won the toss for the third time and chose to bat first. That Australia managed to score 391 was mainly due to a belligerent double century from Matthew Hayden which include fifteen fours and six sixes. Steve Waugh became only the sixth batsman in Test cricket to be given out ‘handled ball’
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when a ball from Harbhajan Singh hit his pads and spun back towards the stumps. Harbhajan was denied a wicket this time but took seven others in the innings.

India replied with 501, thanks mainly to an outstanding century from Tendulkar. Laxman and Dravid both contributed again with half centuries. Australia’s second innings started solidly but collapsed again to Harbhajan Singh. He took 8 for 84 in under 42 overs, giving him fifteen wickets in the match.

India only needed 155 to win and, when they reached 100 with just 2 wickets down, it looked like a formality. But this extraordinary series had yet another twist in store. Jason Gillespie removed Tendulkar caught at second slip by Mark Waugh. Ganguly and Dravid followed in the next three overs. While V.V.S. was still there, India were safe but immediately after tea Laxman was
brilliantly caught by Mark Waugh for 66, this time at mid-wicket. Bahutule, a leg spinner on début, was out immediately and India still needed 20 to win with 7 wickets down.

Débutant wicket-keeper Sameer Dighe stood firm with Zaheer Khan, but McGrath was brought back for one last effort. He dismissed Khan with yet another catch from Mark Waugh. By now only 4 runs were needed and Harbhajan had the honour of hitting the winning run.

V.V.S. Laxman had played one of the all time great Test innings and followed it up with two dashing fifties to help steer India home in the deciding Test. He would have reasonably expected to win the Man of the Series award. Instead it went to Harbhajan Singh. Twenty years old and with only a handful of Tests behind him, Harbhajan had taken 32 wickets in the series. Tendulkar was the next most successful Indian bowler with 3 wickets. Only George Lohmann, Richard Hadlee and the great Sydney Barnes have taken more wickets in a three match series. Harbhajan was to go on and be a thorn in the side of the Australians for the next decade.

Although he had made his Test début in 1996, V.V.S. Laxman had not been certain of his place in the Indian side before this series. A truly gifted player equally assured on either side of the wicket, Laxman has been an integral part of the formidable Indian batting line up for over a decade now. He has played over one hundred Tests and, if his average of a little under 50 stops him from being labelled ‘great’, there are few batsmen in the world who are more enjoyable to watch, unless you happen to be an Australian bowler.

Like D.E.V. Padgett and I.V.A. Richards before him, I still always look for V.V.S. Laxman’s score first. It’s only a mild affliction. It doesn’t do anyone any harm. It’s good to have obsessions as long as they don’t completely take over your life or do damage to other
people. It’s really just about having an emotional connection with things. I’ve managed to convince myself that this is true and that’s all that really matters!