The most wonderful One-Test Wonders XI

Earning a Test cap is the stuff of dreams for many a cricketer. A heady achievement that the majority will never get to experience. Below are examples of those who achieved such great heights. But then fell back to the ground pretty quickly again afterwards. Below is the list of the least experienced one-test wonders ever to have played the game.

1. Jack MacBryan



Jack earned his sole cap for England in the 4th Test at Old Trafford against South Africa in 1924. The match was ruined by rain and only 66 overs were possible over the whole 5 days. All of these overs Jack spent in the field, and he remains the only cricketer in Test history who scored no runs, took no wickets and took no catches without facing or bowling a ball. He was never selected for England again.

Despite this, Jack held a distinguished First Class record and was awarded the title of Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1925. An accomplished hockey player, Jack was a member of the 1920 gold medal winning Great Britain Olympic team.

It was perhaps surprising he could do any of this however, as during the First World War Jack suffered a serious injury to his right arm, meaning he could barely throw a ball at all.

2. George Gibbons Hearne

Hot on Jack's heels however is the strapping young man on the far right of this picture.

George Hearne played just the one test for England at Newlands in the 1892 tour to South Africa. After bowling out SA for 97 on the first day, George failed to trouble the scorers coming in at number 4 in the England reply of 369. SA were then skittled again for 89, losing by an innings. George was never called up again meaning he never had the chance to begin his tally. Incidentally the only other England batsman not to make it into double figures in the innings, was George's brother Alec (second on the right), scoring 9 also playing in his only test innings for England.

His brother Frank (second left in this picture) also made his Test debut in this match, but bizarrely for South Africa. Frank had been playing for Western Province for some time before this and took advantage of the very relaxed qualification laws in the early days of Test cricket. He went on the play 6 tests for them.

Completing this picture is elder brother Walter Hearne (1st left). The only brother not to have played Test cricket. All of the brothers had distinguished First Class careers for Kent.

3. Ken Meuleman (Australia)

Ken was another cricketing victim of an innings victory in his debut test. He opened the batting in Australia's first ever Test against New Zealand in 1946. Despite New Zealand becoming a Test playing nation in 1930, it came as a surprise to me that it was so long before they met their closest cricketing neighbours. Even after this tour, it would be another 28 years before they met in a Test match again. In an era where teams often had to sail for weeks to play cricket tours on the other side of the world, I would've assumed a (relatively) quick crossing of the Tasman sea would've been a fairly regular occurrence. But apparently not. Even though both teams were amateur, the problem lied with the huge gulf in quality between them, with Australia being far more established on the global scene. Perhaps rightly, this gulf was judged too large to make the sail worthwhile.

The gap in quality was certainly seen in Ken's only appearance in the baggy green.

In front of a huge crowd in Wellington, the home team were bundled out for just 42 in their first innings by an Australia team with 7 debutants (including the great Ray Lindwall). Ken then opened the batting but was cleaned bowled for 0 with the score on 9. With Australia declaring on 199-8, they then completed their rout, cleaning up the Kiwis for a paltry 54 in their second innings. Ken did at least get himself in the scorebook, catching the last wicket of the match off the bowling of the gloriously named Colin McCool.

At the end of his playing career Ken remained involved with grass roots cricket in Western Australia, mentoring and coaching some of their future stars, most notably Justin Langer. He founded a sports shop in Perth called Meuleman's Cricket Centre which is still open today, despite Ken's death in 2004.

4. Roy Park (Australia)

A sporting prodigy, Roy played both cricket and Australian Rules Football in Victoria.

He made his only Test appearance for Australia against England at the MCC in 1920, scoring a duck in his only innings.

A fantastic story is attached to this. It was reported that Roy's wife was knitting in the crowd when he walked out to bat, but dropped her knitting just as he was about to face his first ball. She bent down to pick it up as Roy got clean bowled, thus missing his entire Test batting career.

He did manage to bowl an over of off spin in Englan's first innings, meaning that he did at least trouble the scorers slightly.

Outside of sport, Roy was doctor and only after his only Test did it emerge that the night before Roy had got no sleep as he was supervising a difficult birth. He also served with distinction during the First World War as a medic. Unfortunately his work commitments and bust ups with the Victorian cricketing authorities meant he only made a further 12 appearances for Victoria over the next 4 seasons which eventually lead to his retirement from the game.

5. Vijay Rajindernath (India)

Another One-Test Wonder, Vijay was one of 4 wicket keepers that India tried against Pakistan in their 1952-53 home series. He wasn't called upon to bat in either innings as India won by 10 wickets after declaring in their first innings. Poor Vijay also didn't take a single catch in either of Pakistan's fairly brief innings.

His only Test was memorable however. Even though no catches came his way, on a spin friendly pitch he managed to affect 4 stumpings in the match. He still holds the record for taking the most amount of stumpings in a completed Test career without taking a catch.

6. Nadeem Ghauri (Pakistan)

Nadeem has had a colourful cricketing history, despite being a member of the One-Test club. His sole appearance came in 1990 against Australia at the SCG, where he neither scored a run or took a wicket. He was out for a 5th ball duck batting at 11 in Pakistan's only completed innings, and bowled only 48 balls in the severely rain affected match where play was only possible on 2 days.

Upon retirement from his playing days, Nadeem became an umpire and stood in his first Test match at Dhaka in 2005 in a match between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe and has since officiated in 5 Tests, 43 ODIs and 4 T20Is and has been part of the ICC's elite panel of umpires. That is, until April 2013 when he was banned for 4 years by the ICC following a TV sting in India which allegedly showed Nadeem agreeing to accept money in return for making favourable umpiring decisions for certain players in a Sri Lankan league.

Notably Nadeem was also on the bus with the Sri Lankan cricket team that was attacked by gunman in a terrorist attack in 2009, which marked the end (mostly) of international cricket in Pakistan. Luckily he wasn't injured.

7. Lincoln Roberts (West Indies)

When Lincoln was selected by the West Indies for the 2nd Test against Australia at Sabina Park in 1999 he made history. He became the first cricketer from the island of Tobago to represent the West Indies in Test cricket. He batted at number 3, ahead of Brian Lara, despite only averaging 22 in First Class cricket. Unfortunately for Lincoln, like the others above him in this article he also didn't score a run. To rub it in further, he then had to sit on the side lines for the next day and half and watch Lara knock McGrath, Warne, Gillespie et al all round the park for a mammoth 213. He didn't bowl, didn't take a catch and wasn't selected again. Whatever monument the Tobago government were possibly planning to mark his historic selection probably didn't get much beyond the doodling stage..

8. Gerald Bond (South Africa)

All-rounder Gerald Bond had a promising and consistent early First Class career playing for Western Province in the 1930's. When the touring England squad arrived in 1938-39, he took 2 wickets against them (including the prized wicket of Wally Hammond) for Western Province in a warm up match. He was rewarded by being included in the South Africa XI for the first Test.

Unfortunately for Gerald and all concerned, the match was badly affected by rain. During England's first innings, he was used as the 6th bowler and given only 2 overs to bowl. He did not take a wicket. When it came to South Africa's turn to bat, instead of batting at 3 or 4 like he did for Western Province, Gerald found himself stuck down at number 9. When his chance in the middle eventually came he was of course, clean bowled first ball.

Poor old Gerald not only was never selected by South Africa again after this match, he also never played a First Class match again. Poor bloke.

9. Joseph Emile McMaster (England)

Joseph has earned a special place in this XI.

In 1889, South Africa were not yet recognised as a Test playing nation. England sent an understrength squad to tour there, which included a number of club players with little or no First Class experience. One of those players was Joseph. He played all the warm up matches, with his highest score being 34 against South Western Districts. He was selected for the second and final match against South Africa, where he picked up a golden duck batting at number 9 in England's first innings of 292. England then bowled out South Africa twice on the second day (for 47 and 43). And that was that.

Upon returning home from the tour, Joesph went back to Harrow and was never considered again. Therefore his entire Test career AND his entire First Class career consisted of just 2 days. He scored no runs, bowled no balls, took no catches and was on the field for just 76 overs and 4 balls.

10. Peter Allan (Australia)

Aussie seam bowler Peter Allen was another who played just the 1 test, but unlike the others above him in this XI (apart from the famous Jack MacBryan of course), he didn't bag a duck on his only appearance. He didn't need to strap the pads on at all.

He opened the bowling for Australia in the first Test at Brisbane in 1965-66 Ashes series.  He actually did pretty well, taking 2-58 off 21 overs in the first innings to help bowl England out for 280 after Australia had declared on 448. He was only called upon to bowl 3 overs in the second innings as Australia won at a canter by an innings, losing just 6 wickets in the whole match.

Peter was subsequently dropped for the next Test in favour of the returning Alan Connolly. Perhaps aggrieved by his omission, he went back to Queensland and took 10-61 against Victoria in a First Class match, which still remains the 3rd best figures ever recorded in Australia. Having successfully caught the Test selectors eye, he was recalled for the 4th Test, but picked up and injury before the match. His replacement, Garth McKenzie took 6-48 and kept Peter out of the squad. Despite going on a tour to the West Indies with Australia in 1964-65, he wasn't selected and wasn't considered again.

11. The Unfortunate 9

I've decided to keep the number 11 spot for a very special 9 players.

These 9 players all have just the 1 Test cap. And they are the only players in Test history to have bagged a pair in their only Test appearance.

Fred Grace (England) 1880 vs Australia at The Oval

Clarence Wimble (South Africa) 1891-92 vs England at Cape Town

Percy Twentyman-Jones (South Africa) 1902-03 vs Australia at Cape Town
Percy "Plum" Lewis (South Africa) 1913-14 vs England at Durban
Cecil Dixon (South Africa) 1913-14 vs England at Johannesburg
Gordon Rowe (New Zealand) 1945-46 vs Australia at Wellington
Len Butterfield (New Zealand) 1945-46 vs Australia at Wellington
(Both Gordon and Len played in the same match as Ken Meueleman mentioned above.)
Rashid Patel (India) 1988-89 vs New Zealand at Bombay
(Notably, Rashid also once got himself in hot water for attacking an opponent with a stump in a Ranji Trophy match. Perhaps a story for another blog post..)
Gavin Hamilton (England) 1999-00 vs South Africa at Johannesburg
(Poor Gavin Hamilton - England fans of my generation will remember him as the Scotsman who was billed as the next star all-rounder. Unfortunately it never quite materialised for him.)

The Definitive Star Trek XI

Let's face it, cricket attracts geeks. The stats, the subtleties of the laws, the endless tactical changes, the rich history - they can all be pored over and debated endlessly. It can attract a particular kind of fandom. Much like a well known sci-fi institution.

Both evoke images of fair play, decency and utopian "this is how life should be" ideals. I'm not sure there have been many cricket/Star Trek crossovers in the past (although there was a particular episode of Deep Space Nine that saw the crew playing a team of Vulcans at a game of baseball, which is about as close as it got) so I thought I'd give it a go by choosing my all time Star Trek XI.

1. Kirk Edwards (West Indies)

 

Kirk Edwards has played 17 tests, 16 ODIs and 19 T20 internationals for the West Indies. He showed early promise in the early 2000s by vice captaining the West Indies under 19s, but waited for 5 years after his first class debut to score his maiden first class century in 2009. He came to prominence in 2010 when he scored an unbeaten 171 for the West Indies A side against the England Lions and was elevated to the full squad as a replacement for Adrian Barath at the 2011 World Cup. He made his Test debut versus India the following year and his second innings hundred on his debut raised hopes of a new force in the West Indies middle order. Alas, this never quite materialised for him and was dropped from the Test and one day squads in 2014. Now 31, perhaps his best days are behind him, especially considering the current state of Caribbean cricket. He had a brief stint as Vice Captain of the West Indies One-day squad, but never made the top job, robbing me of being able to introduce him as Captain Kirk Edwards. You can't have it all I guess.

2. Barney McCoy (Australia)



Barney played 2 First Class matches for New South Wales between 1920-24. He was a leg spin bowler and right handed batsman, taking just 2 wickets in his FC career and with a highest score of 21. Barney passed away in 1970 aged 74, nearly a year after the final episode of the original Star Trek series aired. Whether in his latter years Barney was ever referred to as 'Bones' we'll never know, but it's certainly an opportunity missed if he wasn't.

3. Datta Gaekwad (India)

 

Yes, I know the spelling is slightly wrong but Data doesn't seem to mind does he?
Datta played 11 Tests for India between 1952 and 1959.  His first Test innings in 1952 at Headingley is notable as India were reduced to 0-4 with Fred Trueman taking all 4 wickets, Datta being his 4th victim. He captained India on the 1959 tour of England in the absence of the usual captain Hemu Adhikari. He lead the team to a 5-0 defeat in a series that was dogged by infighting, reportedly due to divisions between those players from Bombay and those, such as Datta, from Baroda. He did not play another Test following the disastrous series and finished his career with just 1 Test fifty. Come on Data, it's rude to laugh..

4. Steriker Hare (England)



Steriker Hare would be a but a footnote in the annals of Essex County Cricket Club were it not for 1 notable performance in a match against Derbyshire in 1921. Steriker made just 3 First Class appearances for Essex as a right-handed batsman. His highest score was 98 which he made in a stand of 251 with Johnny Douglas for the 9th wicket on his first class debut. Despite missing out on the ton, this partnership remains, for the 9th wicket, the highest of all time for Essex, the 2nd highest in English First Class cricket and the 4th highest in world First Class cricket.
Steriker quit cricket soon after this to become an accountant, working in Baghdad, Iraq from 1928 until 1959.

5. Michael Klinger (Australia)



The name is so close I couldn't possibly leave him out. He's certainly got the forehead for it anyway.
Australian Michael Klinger has been around for quite a while now and has had a prolific last few seasons as the Gloucestershire captain. He began his First Class career playing for Victoria in the 1998-99 season. Bizarrely Michael has the honour of being the only player in Australian cricket to be stranded on 99 not out after a declaration. This occurred in 2000 when the Victoria captain Paul Reiffel decided to call the players in, causing great upset to Michael, eventually leading him to leave Victoria the following season.
Michael Klinger has also competed in the Jewish Maccabiah Games (often referred to as the 'Jewish Olympics') in 1997 playing cricket for Australia and winning a silver medal. These games were unfortunately remembered for 4 other Australian competitors being killed just prior to the opening ceremony in Tel Aviv, when a bridge they were walking over to reach the stadium for the athletes parade collapsed.
Apart from at the Maccabiah games, Michael never represented Australia at Test or One-day level, but is another who is having a relative renaissance period late in his career. Another prolific season for Gloucestershire in 2016 and who knows? We could see him following Chris Rogers and Adam Voges footsteps into the Aussie Dad's Army.

6. Alex Wharf (England)



Worf has been in more episodes of Star Trek than anybody else. He was a main character in 2 series and has been in 4 films. In short, trekkies couldn't get enough of him and there's even a Twitter campaign going on right now called #wewantworf which is a crowdfunding campaign to start a new Star Trek series based around everyone's favourite Klingon.
Alex Wharf has never been as much as a fans favourite in the world of cricket, but like Worf he also won't go away. Alex played for 3 counties in the 1990's and early 2000's and was a decent allrounder, most notably for Glamorgan from 2000 until his retirement in 2009. Before researching him I knew he had made an appearance for England but I was slightly surprised to find that he played as many as 13 ODIs. He actually did pretty well, taking 18 wickets at an average of 24. I remember him being in a line of slightly frustrating "bits and pieces" players that England tended to throw in to one-day squads at the turn of century, along with the likes of other steady-eddies such as Mark Alleyne, Ian Austin and Matthew Fleming.
At the end of his professional playing days, Alex qualified as an umpire and was added to the ECB's First Class Umpires list in 2014. He is now regularly seen on the First Class circuit with a burgeoning reputation.

7.Francis Romulus Burchell (Great Britain)



Yes that's right, I've written Great Britain rather than England. Francis Romulus Burchell was a member of the 1900 Great Britain Olympic cricket team when they beat France in Paris to win the gold medal. This is the only time that cricket has ever been an Olympic sport and reading about the history of it, it's not difficult to see why. Originally, 4 teams were scheduled to play - Great Britain, France, Netherlands and Belgium. The Netherlands and Belgium pulled out before the tournament, leaving GB and France to battle it out for the gold. Neither team were selected by the national bodies. Great Britain were represented by the Devon and Somerset Wanderers club team (of which Francis was a member) and France by mostly British Ex-pats who happened to live in Paris.
Francis's contribution to the win was minimal - he was 0 not out in the first innings and didn't bat in the second. He didn't bowl a ball and didn't take a catch.

8. Andrew Ducat (England)



Andrew Ducat is a distinguished fellow (unlike his decidedly dodgy namesake above - Gul Dukat of Deep Space Nine). There are quite a few cricketers over the years who have played both high level cricket and football, but Andy is one of a small group of individuals who have represented their country at both. He played 429 First Class matches for Surrey between 1906-1931 with an impressive average of 38. He was even named as one of Wisden's cricketers of the year in 1929. His one and only Test appearance coming the following year against Australia at Headingley.
Whilst playing cricket in the summer, his winters were spent on the football field, spending time with First Division teams Arsenal, Fulham and Aston Villa, the latter being the most successful club in England at the time. He was awarded the first of his 6 England caps in 1910 scoring 1 goal in a 1-0 win against Wales. Upon retiring from football in 1924, he turned his hand to management, spending a rather unsuccessful 2 years at second division Fulham.
Andrew is also the holder of 2 'firsts' in English cricket, both of which I'm sure he would gladly relinquish given the chance:
He is reportedly the first batsman in English cricket to be out in 2 different ways with 1 ball - his bat breaking when edging a ball to slip with the resulting shards hitting the stumps (he was given out caught rather than hit wicket officially.
He is also, unfortunately, the only player ever to pass away on the Lord's pitch, suffering a fatal heart after the lunch break in a wartime Home Guard match in 1942 aged just 56.

9. Iain O'Brien (New Zealand)



Like Worf earlier, Chief O'Brien has also appeared in 2 series of Star Trek. And like Alex Wharf, left arm seam bowler Iain O'Brien has also progressed onto a second very distinguished career within cricket, as well as various other projects. Iain played 22 Tests and 10 ODI's for New Zealand, but he was in and out of the team for much of his international career. He has was a loyal servant for Wellington in NZ, as well as serving as overseas pro for both Leicestershire and Middlesex in England towards the end of his career. He quit international cricket in 2009 in order to spend more time with his family in England. Unfortunately his latter years were plagued by various injuries, leading to his retirement in 2012.
Throughout his playing career however writing has been an integral part of life for Iain. He maintained a detailed blog both independently and latterly for ESPN's cricinfo website, providing honest commentary on life as a professional sportsman. He has no held back on details on his personal struggles with dressing room anxiety and depression. His candour is often at odds with the rather sterile nature of interactions between press and professional sportspeople, and his writing is always a refreshing read. He now resides in Derbyshire and is often heard on BBC radio commentating on Derbyshire games, a role I'm sure we'll hear more and more of him in.
Retirement has not meant slowing down for Iain. His writing talents have lead to him co-authoring a children's book entitled Pirates Don't Play Cricket. He has also launched a range of T-shirts called Tranquillo Tees (bespoke T-shirts) and a sports underwear range called 010Gear (use you imagination as to what the 010 bit means).
Iain is one of my favourite cricketing personalities, and I will often seek out his writing and commentating. He epitomises what cricket should be - honest and human. He also once retweeted an appeal I sent to him on behalf of the cricket club I play for when we were struggling for players, which I'll always be grateful for.

10. Jahingar KHAAAAAAN! (India)



Khan Noonien Singh was the genetically enhanced super-villain who attempted to rise up against the human race in the Eugenics Wars. He had a long running spat with Kirk after the good captain put him into exile for being an all round bad egg.
Now there are numerous Khan's that have appeared in First Class and International cricket, and finding one on an equal footing with the physical and mental superiority of their Star Trek namesake proved difficult, but Jahingar here may just fit the bill.
Lahore-born Jahingar was stocky 6-foot all rounder who played for India in its very first Test Match in 1932 whilst it was still under British rule. He later went on to become a cricket administrator and selector for Pakistan following its independence. He is perhaps most famous for an incident that occurred when playing for India against the MCC in 1936, when he managed to hit and kill an airborne sparrow that was happening to fly over the pitch when he was bowling a ball. The deceased sparrow was stuffed and mounted on the match ball (bizarrely) and is still famously on show at the Lord's museum. Yep, that was Jahingar's work.
He is also part of a cricketing genealogy that is only the second to produce 3 International cricketers in 3 generations of the same family (The other being the Headley family from the West Indies). Jahingar's son Majid captained Pakistan in the 60's and 70's, and his grandson Bazid made his Pakistand debut in 2005.
So, freakish ability to pick out tiny moving objects; superior cricketing genes. We had better watch out for young Bazid Khan...


11. Rangana Herath (Sri Lanka)



Surprisingly to most I would imagine, the portly, seemingly rather innocuous Sri Lankan finger spinner Rangana Herath is at number 18 in the table for the best Test bowling figures of all time. His 9-127 in the 1st innings against Pakistan at Colombo in 2014 (Mahela Jayawardene's final test) was enough to secure his place in cricketing history in a match which saw him take 14 in total. Strangely Rangana seems to have the Pakistani batsmen on a bit of a string, taking a striking 88 Test wickets against them over the past 12 years. It wasn't even on a particularly turning pitch, with Saeed Ajmal (pre-ban for a his suspect action) only taking 4 in the match. It was just one of those freakish performances. Amongst the 17 on the all-time list who have also taken 9 or more in an innings, none have taken a higher percentage of their wickets with catches than Rangana did, as 7 out of his 9 wickets were caught around the bat. 7 of 9 wickets. Did someone mention Seven of Nine?

It's a tenuous link I know, but I had to include her. Come on, she was every teenage trekkie's dream.

So there you have it. The definitive Star Trek XI.

Cricketing Characters #6: Henry Blofeld

My dear old things..

I can't think of many things in life that give me more pleasure than listening to Test Match Special on BBC radio. I happily while away many an hour with it filling the air indoors. I often plan my long runs for when it starts on the radio, so that it can entertain me when I'm plodding the streets. It makes report writing at work slightly more bearable (slightly..). I have even been known to stay on the train for a stop or two longer than necessary to listen to a few more overs.

It's not just the cricket that provides the pleasure for me. It's charm is almost entirely down to the personalities that provide the commentary. The general rambling, tangents and off-topic comments never fail to make me smile, even when the passage of play is slow. It has such a rich history in the UK and for so many fans, cricket and TMS are as intrinsically linked as Wimbledon is with strawberries and cream. I do have access to Sky Sports to be able to watch the action unfold, but I rarely switch it on. Not least because I only subscribe to the mobile version (staring at an ipad all day is not the best viewing experience) but also because I find the coverage dull. It's almost too easy for Sky Sports. Their commentary team is made up almost completely of ex-players, and believe me I'm not against that. Some of them speak very well about the game, but the viewer can see quite clearly what's happening and when it comes to describing the game, less is most definitely more. The nature of radio means the commentators naturally have to work harder to describe what's unfolding on the pitch for the listener. They have to paint pictures with their words, making commentary much more of an art form. TMS is the classical concerto to the Sky Sports pop concert. Each of the TMS commentators and expert summarisers bring their own qualities and unique personalities to the role, but none encapsulate the history, eccentricity and uniqueness of the game quite like Henry "Blowers" Blofeld.

His rich descriptions of passing buses, pigeons and random people in the crowd make the game come to life just as much as HD TV. Coupled with his gloriously plummy voice this provides a very tangible link to an era of cricket that is perhaps long gone.

He was born in Norfolk to landowner parents Tom and Grizel Blofeld. He had a private school education, firstly at Sunningdale, then at Eton. Cricket was part of his life from a young age and it seems it provided solace from his faltering academic career. By his own admission his primary aim in academia was merely to "get by". When at the Lower Sixpenny House his wicket keeping and batting skills soon caught the eye of former Oxford Blue and First Class cricketer Claude Taylor, who was the cricket coach and Latin teacher at the time. He fought off stiff competition at Eton for the wicketkeeper role, and built up a formidable partnership with Edward Lane-Fox, a slow left spinner. The line bowled Lane-Fox, stumped Blofeld appeared regularly in the Eton scorebooks. He made regular appearances for the Eton team, as well as being chosen for the Southern Schools XI. It was for the Southern Schools that he scored his first hundred at Lord's against a Combined Services XI in 1956, a performance that provided one of his proudest moments. It is said that Donald Bradman was in the Committee Room that day and sent up personal congratulations to Henry following his achievement. He made his first appearance for Norfolk not long after this and made an impressive 79 in a match against the Nottinghamshire 2nd XI, another performance suggesting that Henry was perhaps destined for greater things.



On the 7th June 1957 however, Henry's love affair with passing buses got off to a rather inauspicious start. Whilst travelling to an Eton net session at Agar's Plough he cycled into the side of one with considerable force. This lead to a serious skull fracture and facial fractures, the effects of which he still feels today as he reportedly has very little feeling on the left side of his face.

Following his long recovery from the accident he continued to play for Norfolk and after entering Cambridge University the following year, made his First Class debut in 1958 for Cambridge University against Kent. Henry was mostly kept out of the team however by regular first choice Keeper Chris Howland. He has been quoted as saying that his reactions were never quite as sharp following his accident, which he felt affected his keeping more than his batting. He played on for 2 seasons as Cambridge's opening batsman, describing himself as the worst opening batsman to play for either Cambridge or Oxford since the Boer War. After faltering in his third year exams he made the decision to leave Cambridge and pursue the next stage of his life.

The next stage of his life, initially at least was in the City, a career that never brought him joy. His way into to journalism came via the cricket correspondent for The Times Johnny Woodcock who Henry met at a cocktail party for the cricket club he played for casually called The Arabs. Johnny Woodcock managed to pull some strings and found Henry a match to report on for The Times. He gradually left his City job behind as he continued to pick up freelance journalism jobs for various papers reporting on various sports.

In June 1968, Henry wrote to the BBC Head of Outside Broadcasting on the advice of a John Thicknesse, a colleague at the Evening Standard. He had a positive response and was given an opportunity to commentate on a 10 minute section of a county match for old Home Service. The BBC were impressed and Henry was retained on a list of cricket commentators for the next few years. Bizarrely though the first Test match he commentated on wasn't for TMS and wasn't on an England Test series. Whilst writing about the 1971 Test series between West Indies and New Zealand, an opportunity arose for him to commentate on the series for RJR, Radio Jamaica. He called all three tests and served as his introduction to international cricket commentary.

On his return to the UK, he was introduced to legendary TMS scorer Bill Frindall in the commentary box at Chelmsford whilst covering a game between Essex and Warwickshire for BBC Radio 2, which lead to him being asked to cover the second and third ODI's between England and Australia for TMS at Lord's and Edgbaston. From here he remained a regular and unmistakable fixture in the Test Match Special commentary team to the present day, despite a short lived foray into television commentary in Sky's early days in the early 1990's.

Despite ill health doing it's best to slow Henry down in recent years (multiple hip dislocations and surgeries, as well as a second near death experience following difficult heart bypass surgery in 2001) he continues to fulfil a full commentary schedule, most recently travelling to the UAE to cover England's tour against Pakistan. As well as this, in recent years he has seen his commitments to the stage grow, completing multiple tours of his one-man show, including tours at the Edinburgh Festival. He received an MBE for services to broadcasting in 2008.

Henry has been a collector of PG Wodehouse First Editions, as well as vintage cartoons by former Australia cricketer Arthur Mailey. In 1977 he travelled from London to Bombay in a maroon-coloured 1921 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost with former mentor Johnny Woodcock, and friends Judy Casey and Michael Bennett in time for England's tour to India to start. Considering the trip took in the sights of, among other places, Tehran, Kabul and most of Pakistan, it is doubtful a similar journey could be achieved nowadays.

Perhaps one of the most intriguing stories about Henry is his link to Ian Fleming and the imfamous Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld. I have vaguely heard over the years of possible links but it was not until I read Henry's autobiography when I finally found the truth. The creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming was friends with Henry Father Tom, having gone to school together and both being members of the Boodle's club in London. Whilst writing Thunderball Fleming wanted an evil sounding name. Having struggled over a suitably sinister name for his villain for a few days, he took a cab to Boodles and presided over the members list in search for a winner. Having reached the both Tom and Henry Blofeld, it is written that he said: "I slammed the book shut, gave a yelp of delight, ordered a pint of champagne and never looked back". So there you have it!

Blowers is as big a part of TMS as anyone else in it's history, and I can't think of many who bring a game of cricket to life quite as well as him. We'll never know where his playing career would've led him had it not been for that unfortunate encounter with the bus in 1957, but I think it can be argued that his broadcasting career will bring him a far greater legacy in the game even if he had captained England. He's 77 years old now and despite the fact he's still very much going strong in the TMS commentary box at the moment, I know he won't go on for ever. But I'm just going to enjoy that voice and the visions of the pigeons and the buses for as long as possible.

Mankading

Most cricket fans either would have seen it by now, or least heard about it. It's been making waves on social media (like everything seems to do), the radio and the TV. It is of course the "Mankading" incident in the final over of the Under 19's World Cup match between West Indies and Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe, needed just 2 to win off the last over with just 1 wicket remaining. WI paceman Keemo Paul came running in, then this happened.

Mankading - the act of the bowler breaking the wicket at the non-striker's end as he runs up to bowl, and running out the non-striker who is walking out of his crease too early.

It was named after Indian all-rounder Vinoo Mankad who, in the second test of a tour to Australia in 1947- 48, ran out Bill Brown at the non-striker's end. Despite having done exactly the same thing earlier in the series, this incident in the Test really brought it to the attention of the public and particularly the press.

The current law is slightly confusing in it's origin, but quite clear. Historically the MCC have been the custodians of the laws of cricket but all laws created and amended by them are ratified by the ICC before being applied to matches. The original MCC law (Law 42.15) reads as follows:

The bowler is permitted, before entering his delivery stride, to attempt to run out the non-striker. Whether the attempt is successful or not, the ball shall not count as one of the over. If the bowler fails in an attempt to run out the non-striker, the umpire shall call and signal Dead Ball as soon as possible.

This law was in place during the famous Vinoo Mankad Test match, and quite simply Mankad had not done anything wrong. His actions were in keeping with the laws of the game.

What many may be unaware of however, is that in 2011 the ICC tweaked this law slightly. They replaced before entering his delivery stride with before releasing the ball and provided he has not completed his usual delivery swing.

Crucially for Keemo Paul, this slight law change also meant that his actions were in keeping with the laws of the game. He has also done nothing wrong.

So why all the controversy?

Immediately after this incident, Twitter instantly went mental. (As it often does). Current players, ex-players, writers and fans all have an opinion and there seem to be few issues in cricket that have divided opinion more than mankading. Most are either vehemently against it, or can't see the problem with it.

Historically it has been accepted that if a bowler feels that the batsman is backing up too far, a warning is given before a run out is attempted. Good old spirit of the game. Growing up, I always thought this was the law of the game. You gave 1 warning, then it's fair game. But even then it never entered my head as I trundled in to bowl to mankad. Even if a prior warning was given. In 12 years of club cricket (which occasionally throws up some idiot attention-seeker who likes to show off his knowledge of the laws to make up for his crapness) I've never seen a mankading incident. In the professional game it rarely happens. Perhaps because of the inevitable press melee that will follow it. Even in professional sport, nobody wants the reputation as a bad sport. Just look at the famous Trevor Chappell under-arm ball incident and Stuart Broad not walking in the Ashes test.

I like to take a pragmatic view of it.

The bottom line is, in the laws of the game, it shouldn't be a problem. It's perfectly legal to run out a non-striker if he's backing up too much, and who can blame a bowler for doing it? Modern day bowlers, especially in one-day cricket are getting more and more flogged. They can't over step when they run in to bowl and have a strict channel in which to bowl in otherwise it's called wide. Why should a batsman be able to steal a yard without retribution? And what makes it worthy of a gentlemanly warning? It's pretty close to cheating in fact. It's always accepted that batsmen can overstep the line when it comes to the spirit of the game. They never walk when they nick it. Surely this is win for a bowler? I don't think you can escape the feeling of hypocrisy when a mankading incident is so maligned by many. I completely agree that a batsman should be more prepared to be run out if he tries to push his luck at the non-striker's end.

But in this case, I think I'm against what happened.

The psychology behind it leaves me feeling very uneasy. At no point was the Zimbabwe batsman trying to gain extra ground. Keemo Paul ran in to the crease with no intention of bowling that ball. The batsman was out of his crease by a millimetre and actually did a better job of staying in his crease than most do. Paul was simply trying it on. What's the difference between this and a batsman not walking you ask? Michael Atherton once wrote that he never walked when he edged it as he felt that in the professional game the umpires are paid to make the decision when it came to marginal calls. With the review system at present, a batsman doesn't easily get away with it now. The skill of the umpire (and they are very skilled, just like the players) was never called upon.

Overall I feel it was a sad sight that a tight match was ended by an incident like this. It just feels wrong. It doesn't feel like it should be part of the game, and it doesn't feel like a match with such importance (a quarter final place of a world cup was at stake) should be decided in the absence of a piece of cricketing skill. I think that it's this general feeling of unfairness that sways it for me. It's ugly to see an U19 player who may be the future of the game to feel comfortable trying a tactic that is so frowned upon by so many. The spirit of cricket is important. It's what makes cricket a game rather than a business.

I'm sure it'll happen again as this may have set a precendent. If it happens in a senior World Cup match, Twitter may explode..

Cricketing Characters #5: Eric Rowan

As all men that have ever played cricket know, there is one absolutely indispensable piece of kit that you would never consider for an instant leaving out of your kit bag. Even more important than the bat. Unless you were aiming for a career as a soprano singer, the box is the first piece of kit that goes on when you're padding up. Having said that, I've had the occasional alarming lapse when I've forgotten it, but have always remembered before reaching the middle.

This guy on the other hand, scored 150 in a test match without wearing one...



This is Eric Rowan. He was born in Johannesburg in 1909 and played first class cricket for Transvaal and Eastern Province, as well Test cricket for South Africa. An often controversial and demonstrative figure, he regularly took on the cricketing establishment both on and off the pitch.

He made his Test debut in 1935 at the age of 25 when on tour to England, as a reward for a prolific few years opening the batting for Transvaal. Wisden reported: "He did not bat with either dignity or precision; he regarded his cricket in most lighthearted style; his confidence was amazing".

He had a stuttering early test career, with inconsistency meaning he was in and out of the team. His initial brimming self confidence playing for Transvaal as a youngster was especially bruised in his second tour for South Africa against Australia, when bowler Charlie Grimmett had him dismissed 5 times in his 6 innings, leading to him being dropped. A pre-war test recall was not forthcoming, and was reportedly as much due to an abrasive manner when it came to authority as it was about lack of runs.

Runs were fairly hard to come by in the subsequent pre-war years until in 1939 he scored a record 309 not out for Transvaal against Natal. This stood as a first class record in South Africa right up until 1993. The war curtailed this upward cricketing momentum however, with a South Africa not playing first class cricket again until 1945. Eric himself serving as a Lieutenant in the Armoured Car Regiment.

When first class cricket resumed, Eric picked up where he left off, nearly scoring a second triple century (284) in 1945 against Griqualand West. Despite his form he had to wait until 1948 until a Test recall came his way, when he was selected for the home series against England.

Perhaps a sign of his ability to rub people up the wrong way, it was announced during play in the second test that Eric would be dropped for the next test. The selectors clearly had an axe to grind! Eric proceeded to score 156 not out to save the test, reportedly so incensed that he went out forgetting to insert the all important box. He batted for 6 hours and reportedly found time to give the selectors a V sign from the middle. When questioned about this he said he was giving them a V for Victory and when told that it was wrong way round he replied "it depends what side of the ground you're sitting"

This performance was enough to get him restored to the test team for the next test, but his relationship with the captain Dudley Nourse remained strained. His performances on the field made him impossible to ignore however, scoring a Currie Cup record of 277 not out in 1950, then plundering 176 before lunch in a match against Rhodesia later the same year.

Further controversy followed in a 1951 Test against England at Old Trafford when he was batting with John Waite. So slow was the run rate, that the pair were slow hand-clapped by the increasingly restless spectators. In true rebellious Eric Rowan style, he and Waite responded by sitting down on the pitch and waited for the clapping to stop. Eric was later reportedly involved in a scuffle in the pavilion on the way off. Clearly his actions ruffled some feathers with the Lancashire faithful.

Despite the various spicy incidents, this 1951 tour proved to be the making of Eric. He was picked as vice captain, and often found himself leading the team due to injury to the skipper Nourse. He went on to dominate the tour with the bat. He hit his highest test score of 236 at Headingley and topped the batting averages in both test cricket and first class cricket. This was enough to see him named Wisden's Cricketer of the Year in 1951.

Somewhat surprisingly he was not retained in the South African squad the following year. Despite being 43 years old he was seemingly still in his prime as a batsman. He responded to his omission from the test squad by having his most prolific season in first class cricket. He retired from first class cricket shortly afterwards however, sensing a test return was not on the cards.

Post retirement he continued playing club cricket in Transvaal until the age of 51 for Jeppe Old Boys, and continued to work with schools for many more years. He passed away in 1993 aged 84.

Eric's career is beset by controversy, fall outs, fights and above all, tenacity. His greatest achievements came when he was going head to head with authority. Maybe it's urban legend that he scored that 150 against England without wearing a box, but it seems to fit with his overall story. He reportedly occasionally omitted his batting gloves as well. Whatever else he was, he was clearly a hard man who evokes a image of a 70's footballer - tough, muddy, an everyman. An image that's lacking in modern sport with all it's professionalism and scrutiny. Although the odd dust-up does happen on the pitch, to me it has often the air of spoilt kids who know the camera is on them (Virat Kohli, David Warner, Marlon Samuels, I'm talking about you in particular..). It seems Eric genuinely didn't care and played the game in his own way. And even if his story has the added the embellishment that time often brings, it's still a good one.

I certainly won't be doing away with my box though in tribute though..

Cricketing Characters #4: Arthur Collins

An Indian schoolboy named Pranav Dhanawade from Mumbai last week set a new world record for the most amount of runs scored in a single innings in an officially recorded match. He was playing for his KC Gandhi school against Arya Gurukul school and he racked up 1009 runs (not out) in a total of 1465-3 declared. He plundered 59 sixes and 127 fours in just over 6 hours at the crease. School cricket in Mumbai is renowned for being of high quality, and boasts Sachin Tendulkar and Rohit Sharma amongst it's alumni. After seeing a few of Pranav's shots on BBC news it struck me just how stylish he looked. I guess you would have to have a decent technique to score over a thousand runs whoever you were playing! (The boundary did look a little short, and a good proportion of the opposition looked at least a foot shorter than Pranav, but still, you've still got to hit 'em.) It made me wonder who the previous record belonged to. It transpires that the previous record was over 100 years old; this effort belonging to Arthur Collins.

A record that has stood for nearly 116 years deserves recognition and you'd be hard pressed to find many who could've put a name and a face to it. So here he is!



Arthur Collins was born in Hazaribagh, India in 1885, but attended school in Bristol. He started at Clifton College in 1897, attending Clarke's House. Clifton College already had a weighty reputation for sport, particularly cricket. None other that W.G Grace attended the school, and latterly his sons. As well as cricket, Arthur was also represented the school as a boxer, and played rugby for the 1st XI.

There's some debate as to whether Arthur's parents survived his early childhood. In a 1999 article for the Telegraph newspaper, Tim Rice described Arthur as "an orphan boy" who's adopted parents lived in Devon. However, the 1901 census shows that Arthur's Mother Esther Ida Collins was still alive at that time.

Arthur was only 13 years old during the match in 1899 that immortalised him in the cricketing history books. He was captaining the Clarke's House side against North Town House on a ground at Guthrie Road, Bristol. The match was timeless, but was played in breaks between lessons. The school houses had 2 half-days scheduled for the match to complete, so the first ball was bowled at 3:30pm on Thursday 22nd June after the day's lessons were over. By the close of play on the first day (6pm), Arthur had already notched up his double ton. Admittedly this was helped by some rather generous fielding from the opposition as he was dropped on 50, 100 and 140. The next day brought 2 more hours play after lessons and again Arthur was in no mood to hang around. As the first hour concluded, the crowd was building as news of Arthur's innings spread around the school. After a dolly of catch was dropped by an poor unfortunate 11 year old named Victor Fuller-Eburle when Arthur was on 400, the previous world record of 485 was in sight. It was downed by 5:30pm. He finished the day on 509 undefeated out of a Clarke's House total of 680-8. By now the news of Arthur's exploits had not just travelled around the local area as, thanks to an article in The Times newspaper the next day, it was declared to the world that a world record has been set (they reported his name, age and overnight score incorrectly however!)

When the match recommenced after the weekend break, a large crowd was gathered to see just how high Arthur could reach. He was still unmovable on 598 not out at the end of the day, but wickets were steadily falling at the other end. Finally, after 25 minutes of play on the 4th day, the last Clarke's House batsman lost his wicket, leaving Arthur stranded on 628 not out after carrying bat for just over 7 hours of play.

The Times remained interested, giving a full report of Arthur's innings on the Wednesday, thus providing him with nationwide acclaim.

The match concluded rather quickly after this with the opposition being bowled out for just 87 in their first innings and a paltry 61 in their second innings, leading to a rather ignominious defeat for North Town House by an innings and 688 runs.

One of the scorers for the match was Edward Pelgar. He was quoted as having said after the match "The score was 628 plus or minus twenty shall we say". It seems it was all a bit much to take in even for the ones with the coloured pencils!

What has endeared me to Arthur the most is his story afterwards. Far from revelling in his new found fame, the schoolboy was reported to have mostly tried to distance himself from it in the proceeding years. It seems many of the national newspapers revered him in the next few years, creating an almost legendary status. Arthur was always going to be the boy who broke the record. One paper wrote "he has a reputation as great as the most advertised soap. He will be immortalised..". To be considered a legend at such a young age took its toll on Arthur, and the constant attention he courted proved to be too much for him by the time he left school. A reluctant hero, he was earmarked for great things in the game, but after finishing at Clifton he chose to pursue a military career, playing cricket sparingly. He did once play at Lord's representing the Royal Engineers in 1913, but never progressed further into First Class cricket.

During his time in the army he served in India, rising to the rank of Lieutenant in 1907 and then to Captain in 1913. He married in spring 1914. Sadly however, Arthur was unfortunate to be of the generation of young men in the prime of their lives at the outbreak of the First World War and, after only a few months of marriage, he was called to action at Ypres. He was killed on duty with the Royal Engineers on 11th September 1914 on the Belgian battlefields. He was 29.

Here's hoping that the future for Pranav Dhanawade is more prosperous. There will certainly be plenty of Indian eyes upon him in the upcoming years. I'm sure there are many cricket fans who may consider both Pranav's and Arthur's records quite perfunctory considering the rather loose definition of "an organised game of cricket". Both were at schoolboy level with opposition of questionable quality. I understand that these may not compare to for example, some of Brian Lara's modern day efforts, but I feel they fully deserve to stand side by side with the big boys. There's a wonderful human quality to both performances. They walked out the middle, casually broke world records, then went back to school again the following day. I certainly would never have contemplated being able to score that many runs in any of my school matches, even if the straight boundaries were only 15 yards in both directions (as was the case with Arthur's). My school record reads 34, 0, 0 and 0 not out in case you were wondering.
It evokes feelings of cricket being played the way we all wish we could hold on to throughout life - a joyful, uninhibited freedom- of-childhood way. It serves to remind you that cricket is indeed, just a game.

Any record that stands for 116 years deserves recognition, and although it seems he was ill at ease with this recognition, I believe the newspaper got it right. In cricketing circles at lease, he has been immortalised.

Cricketing characters #3: Napoleon Einstein

Is it a glut stretch or a pose?

Napoleon Einstein is probably destined to answer questions about the origin of his name for the rest of life. I first came across his name in about 2007/08 when he broke into the India team for the under-19 World Cup in Malaysia. It instantly caught my eye. I mean, how could it not?! He's called Napoleon Einstein!

Instantly questions need to be answered. Why Napoleon? Why Einstein? Why Napoleon and Einstein together? What on earth was going through the minds of his parents?

It's easy to make fun I guess, but the more I read about him, the more it makes sense, and the more likeable he becomes. Purely by walking onto a cricket field he enriches the eccentric tapestry of the game further. If you're going through life with such an unorthodox name, the sport of cricket will of course welcome you with open arms. And that's why he deserves a place in my Cricketing Characters series.

The sad fact for the man himself, is that there isn't a great deal to read about. He has played a few List A games in India for Tamil Nadu. On debut he scored 92 opening the batting in a stand of 203 with current Indian Test opening batsman Murali Vijay against Kerala in the 2006 Ranji Trophy. A second opportunity arose a month later against Assam, but his score of 1 was enough to see him out of List A cricket. He has played several games for Chemplast in the BCCI corporate trophy over the last few years however. The BCCI corporate trophy is an annual competition preceeding the Ranji Trophy, and acts as a high profile starter to the Indian domestic league. The BCCI invites 12 of the country's largest corporations to compete and India's star players are expected to turn out. The aim is to encourage employment opportunities for cricketers in the country, with a rather progressive eye towards looking after its players that come from poorer backgrounds if their dreams of cricketing success do not materialise. Against an Air India XI in 2010 he score a century for Chemplast coming in at number 3 against a strong bowling attack that included India international stars RP Singh and Dhawal Kulkarni. He has never repeated that success however, with just the 1 more half century in the past 4 seasons. He made a brief comeback to the Tamil Nadu side with a solitary T20 performance versus Hyderabad in 2014, scoring 19.

The Under 19 World Cup in Malaysia in 2008 was perhaps Napoleon's greatest triumph as he came away with a winner's medal (despite only playing in 1 game). His reward was to be was drafted into the Chennai Super Kings squad for the IPL in 2008, but he did not get a chance to showcase his talents on India's biggest stage. He was not retained for the 2009 season.

So that's about all there is to talk about in a career that perhaps was never destined to live up to the potential of his ridiculously powerful name. The thought of his name being in lights on the biggest cricketing stages is still a gloriously exciting prospect. Just imagine what the TMS team would make of it. Hearing Blowers introduce him as he walks out to bat would probably be enough to make me weep. He's still only 26 so perhaps I can live in hope for a little while longer.

As for the name itself, Napoleon has provided an insight:  "My grandfather was a scientist. He wrote a letter to Albert Einstein and even got a reply from him. I've got no idea [what the letter was about] even though I've read it. My mother was a physics graduate and she teaches Physics in one of the schools. So I'm Einstein. Napoleon is my father's name." 

"We don't believe in God. In our family, we're rationalists. Other people are named Krishna and Ram after Gods, so we were named Einstein and Napoleon after great people."

I love this last quote. As a rationalist myself, there's something very endearing about the statement that Napoleon's parents have made. It must've been quite clear to them that the name they chose for their son would bring him attention. Although India isn't as religiously conservative as neighbouring cricketing nations such as Pakistan or Bangladesh, it is conceivable that this open statement to rationalism would've brought some consternation in some circles.

Maybe I'm overplaying it slightly to suggest he is a walking philosophical statement, but it seems unjust to dismiss him as just a slightly silly footnote in the annals of cricket. Yes, most people will laugh at his name. Yes, most will agree that I wouldn't be writing about him if it wasn't for his name. His minor fame is testament to a game that celebrates such eccentric anomalies, and I love his story more for that. But it is worth remembering that he is man who's family have aimed high for him. Living up to his namesakes will certainly prove challenging, but the fact that they follow him will certainly mean that he'll be remembered warmly by cricket fans the world over.

  

Cricketing characters #2: Rachael Heyhoe-Flint

"Girls don't play cricket."

That's the response Rachael Heyhoe was given in 1940 when the police stopped a game of street cricket she was playing with her brothers and his friends. They had set up 2 bins in the middle of the road in Rachael's home town of Wolverhampton, but upon hearing police sirens the game came to an abrupt end. The police officers took the names of all the boys, but once Rachael had emerged from her hiding spot and offered her name to the officer, the idea of a young girl playing cricket in 1940 was so incredulous to him that he didn't bother taking it. Rachael, by virtue of her gender alone,  had got away with it.

So started the story of a remarkable life which has seen Rachael Heyhoe-Flint become a trailblazer who revolutionised women's cricket, which created reverberations throughout women's sport in Britain.

Rachel was born in 1939 in Wolverhampton. Her parents were both Physical Education teachers. She adopted the Flint addition to her surname when marrying Derrick Flint, himself a former First Class cricketer who played 18 matches for Warwickshire in 1948-49.


Rachael was first capped for England in 1960 and became captain in 1966. Her playing career was amongst the most illustrious in the women's game and over her 22 years at international level, played 22 Tests and 23 One-Day Internationals. She averaged 45.54 over 38 Test innings (including 3 centuries) and 58.45 in ODI's. Her ODI average remains the highest ever for a batsman with more than 20 innings. An occasional bowler, she also took 4 international wickets. She was replaced as Captain in 1978 but returned to play her final matches in the 1982 World Cup.

Perhaps it is not an over-statement to suggest that without Rachael Heyhoe-Flint, women's cricket would not have risen to the heights it is at in 2015. Her passion and drive paved the way for the recognition of women in the highest circles of world cricket.

Like all women cricketers in her era, she had to find other work alongside her playing career. She found that freelance journalism was the most flexible work, but she also managed to fit in PE teaching and a marketing job. During her time as captain Rachael would often take the scorebooks back to her hotel at the end of a day's play and write articles for the Telegraph, Express, Reuters and the Press Association, in an effort to broadcast the women's game to wider audience. In a 2013 interview with the Independent she stated that seeing the matches covered in the national press gave the rest of the team a boost, even if the words were from their own captain.

Despite her efforts to garner new interest, women's cricket in the 1970's was generally declining in participation and awareness. The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) generally held rather snobbish views and being the driving force behind the development of cricket around the world, women's cricket development away from England also suffered. In 1969 Rachael approached a local Wolverhampton man - Sir Jack Hayward (who had previously acted as a benefactor for the Wolverhampton Wanderers football club). On her requests he had agreed to fund 2 tours for the England women's team to the West Indies. Following these successful tours Rachael and Haywood approached the Women's Cricket Association in 1971 to pitch the idea of the inaugural women's cricket World Cup. Haywood reportedly contributed £40,000 to the tournament. Rachael then worked tirelessly to make her vision a reality, and after securing another £100,000 from Prudential, the first cricket World Cup was contested in England in 1973.

It was contested by 7 teams, these being the main test playing nations at the time - England, Australia and New Zealand; Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago (invited following the earlier successful Heywood funded tours); a Young England team and an Invitational XI (effectively a Rest of the World team). A South African XI was initially offered a place, but the invitation was withdrawn following protests by the West Indian teams due to the apartheid laws in place at the time. Although Rachael was lucky enough to gain paid leave from her work as a PE teacher in Wolverhampton, many of the other players were not so fortunate. Indeed many lost their jobs for the chance to participate, such was the lack of recognition for the women's game. The tournament was won by England with a 92 run victory over Australia at Edgbaston which meant they topped the table following a round-robin format. Rachel herself scored 64 in this match as well as bowling the final over in the match. She recalled of this final over: "I paced out my run, turned to bowl and found that every one of my England team had placed themselves at least 70 yards out on the boundary edge - even wicketkeeper Shirley Hodges".

It is worth bearing in mind that this was played with virtually no monetary support from the sport's governing body or the most influential cricketing body in the world - the MCC. Most noteworthy maybe, is the fact that this was also played 2 years before the inaugural Men's tournament. Rachael's commitment and passion for her sport during this period was recognised when she was awarded an MBE for services to Women's cricket in 1972.

Following on from the success of the World Cup, the MCC somewhat reluctantly recognised the contribution of the women's team to the game, as calls for a first women's match at the home of the MCC - Lord's - grew louder. These calls were lead by Rachael herself who reportedly threatened to haul the MCC in front of the Equal Opportunities Commission if the request wasn't given consideration. In 1972, the MCC president Aiden Crawley finally conceded that the women "had done enough to deserve a game at cricket's headquarters".

Unfortunately this did not materialise until 1976 when England faced the touring Australians at Lord's for the first time, as part of the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations. This test series coincided with perhaps Rachael's most prolific batting form and provided her most memorable performance in an England shirt. Coming in at number 4 with England 66-2, she batted for 521 minutes, scoring 179 which was enough to lead England to a famous draw. It was her highest test score, a world record at the time and to put it into context of the match, the next highest score in the innings was just 39. The series finished with Rachael scoring another century at Edgbaston and averaging 87.50 over 3 tests.

The long-awaited match at Lord's finally came about when the England met Australia in the third ODI of the series. The MCC were gracious enough to allow the England women access to the changing rooms in the Lord's pavilion, as well as to the famous Long Room. Both were traditionally male only.  The match was a success with England winning the ODI by 9 wickets, Rachael herself being one of the not out batsmen and leading the team off the field. Despite the result, there was still reportedly some consternation amongst the more conservative-minded MCC members, with some even taking to the press to voice their disapproval. A member at the time named Brian Wijerane was quoted as saying: "I was quite shocked when I saw the women playing. Cricket is a game where concentration is very important and women are the greatest distraction a man can have around". The MCC had made some concessions by allowing the women players in the pavilion, but still maintained its strict male only policy by not allowing any non-playing female through its doors. Despite the obvious gains Rachael had instigated in progressing the women's game over the previous few years, clearly the MCC nut was going to be a particularly tough one to crack.

Indeed it was not until 1999 when the MCC eventually opened its doors fully to women members, thus ending 212 years of male exclusivity. Rachael herself, in her own words, had "the temerity to apply to be a member" in 1991. Despite this unsuccessful bid, she is regarded as one of the main catalysts to change, culminating in Rachael being one of the first 10 women to be admitted as members. Tony Lewis, the MCC president at the time, stated that "the unanimous thinking of the committee was simply this - we could not claim to be a great cricket club unless we had women's teams and women members". Persuading the 18,000 strong members though remained a challenge and an original vote in February 1999 failed to gain the required two thirds majority, but following pressure from lobby groups and the government, a second vote later in the year overturned the decision with a 70% majority.

Rachael has still been met with occasional resistance in the Long Room at Lord's however. In an interview with the Independent in 2013 she was quoted as saying: "Two summers ago, I walked through the Long Room at a Test match. This dear old codger looked up and he said: "Have you lost your way, my dear?" I thought, oh God, it's only nine years and he doesn't realise. I put my hand in my handbag and brought out my membership card and on it it says 'committee'. His friends were blushing on his behalf, but perhaps he didn't realise."

Even after all of this her other pioneering exploits in sport are quite remarkable. She became the first female sports commentator when she commentated on her beloved Wolverhampton Wanderers football club for ITV's World of Sport in the 1970's. She later became a director of the Wolves board in 1997. She became President of the Lady Taverners in 2001, and was one of the first 2 women appointed to the board of the England Cricket Board (ECB) in 2010. She was the first woman to be inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame, also in 2010. Her 1972 MBE became an OBE in 2008. In 2010 she was ennobled by David Cameron to sit in the House of Lords as a conservative party peer and the following year was created a life peer as she took on the title of Baroness Heyhoe Flint of Wolverhampton.

Oh, and she also played as a goalkeeper for the England Hockey team in 1964.

In 2014, rumours abounded that Rachael would momentously become the first female President of the MCC, perhaps finally breaking down the brick wall of conservatism the lingers in the famous Lord's pavilion. Alas this did not materialise - the job falling to David Morgan in succession of Mike Gatting following an election process described by Rachael as "as secret a nomination as for the next pope". How close she was to taking up one of the most influential positions in cricket is unclear. Rachael described in an interview with The Guardian newspaper in 2014: "If people think it is right that I should be appointed to one of the best positions in cricket, if I live long enough, that will be fantastic, but you don't go around lobbying for it." This lead on to one of my favourite quotes from her:

"If it happens to me one day – fantastic – if it doesn't I'll just carry on knitting and cooking."

Cricketing characters #1: Jasper Vinall

Jasper Vinall was a village cricketer born in West Hoathly, Sussex in 1590. That's right, 1590. Before I write any more about him, I must say I was astonished that cricket was even played as long ago as that!

Whilst researching for the start of this new blog project, I came across Jasper on a brief Wikipedia entry. This entry was so brief but struck such a chord that he was the perfect man to start the cricketing characters odyssey.

History reports Jasper Vinall as the first cricketer to have died during a game of cricket.

Jasper played for the village of his birth, West Hoathly in Sussex from 1620 to the time of his death in 1624. It's reported that Jasper was fielding close in when Edward Tye of Horsted Keynes was batting on 28th August 1624. Tye hit the ball in the air and, seeing the opportunity to hit it again and score more runs, hit Jasper on the back of head with his bat, unaware that Jasper was running up behind him trying to catch the ball. The resulting head injury ultimately claimed Jaspers life 13 days later on 10th September.

There are no official records of this match, and the result is unknown. In fact it is not even confirmed that this was a cricket match at all! At least not what is known as modern day cricket. It is only assumed that this was a cricket match due to the details noted in the subsequent coroners report following Jasper's death. The inquest ruled that he had been killed by "misadventure" and, possibly somewhat insensitively, through "his own carelessness".

This match is one of the earliest recorded in England. Evidence of the the first village cricket match has been dated back to Kent c.1610 when a 1640 court case makes reference to a "cricketing" of Weald and Upland versus Chalkhill 30 years previously. The case reported no details of game being played, but rather concerned a dispute about the land that the match was played on.

Jasper's final match at West Hoathly is the earliest organised match in Sussex for which any reference is thought to exist. It is assumed that this was a village cricket match between 2 neighbouring parishes, and would arguably have been lost to history if it weren't for Jasper's unfortunate accident. There are also no readily available records of who Jasper was, what he did for a living, or whether he left behind a family.

This story raises an interesting question about Law 34 - hitting the ball twice. The incident of Edward Tye trying to hit the ball twice would not occur now as it is outlawed in the modern game. If a batsman is judged to having attempted to score runs of a second hit, he is given out by the umpire. The first official Laws of Cricket were first coded in 1744 by the Marylebone Cricket club as a way to regulate the game for allow for fairer betting. These laws were derived from an amalgamation of various bat and ball games played throughout the country in the centuries before, as betting was becoming more and more popular among British aristocracy. Whether Law 34 was borne out of Jasper's incident or other similar incidents of close fielders being hit by flailing bats is unknown, but the modern law does give protection to these fielders. Therefore perhaps Jasper Vinall's untimely death in a largely forgotten 17th century bat and ball game may have left a legacy on the game we play and watch today. If not, Jasper at least deserves a nod of recognition, and he's a very fitting first cricketing character of this series!

Ian Bell

I'd like to talk about one of my favourite desserts. A panna cotta.

For those that don't know what one of these is I'll describe it for you. It's a mould of sweet cream which is set using gelatine and flavoured with something like sharp fruit, or coffee of rum etc. There are few nice little things served on the side as well usually like some red berries or a smooth caramel sauce. It tends to been seen in restaurants rather than in the home so it's nearly always associated with a nice meal rather than home cooking. When it's made well it's the perfect third course (or even fourth or fifth course). In the right setting and at the right time it can easily be considered the perfect dessert that rounds off a great meal magnificently. It's both comforting and light. The varying ratio of gelatine and cream make it either silky smooth and rich, or delicate which melts in the mouth. It has a characteristic gentle but firm, structured wobble which sets it so elegantly apart from other lesser desserts. It has a sophistication and style that many of the other desserts just don't possess. It is a pure dessert and it is an absolute joy.

So why do I hardly ever order it?

For all its sophistication and silkiness, other desserts just 'hit the spot' a bit more. It's comforting but it doesn't have the all enveloping food-coma inducing quality of a chocolate torte or a hot British pudding with custard. It's light but not as refreshing and palette cleansing as a lemon posset or a sorbet. It's eye catching in its elegance but place a fruity terrine, or a champagne jelly on the table, and everyone's eyes often invariably move to that instead. The factor is always provided more by anything with a bit of sugar work on it.

It's classic, silky and perfect at the right time. But so often it leaves you wanting a bit more.

Sounds a bit like a certain England batsman don't you think?

Looking at Ian Bell's record over a long and very successful career, it's unfair and very difficult to argue with his contribution to English and world cricket. He averages 43 over 115 tests with 22 test hundreds. As far as test hundreds go, he is equal on the all time list with Wally Hammond, Geoffrey Boycott and Colin Cowdrey. Only Kevin Pietersen and Alistair Cook have scored more test hundreds for England than him. There are some special names mentioned there, and Ian Bell has earned the right to be amongst them.

It's always seemed that throughout his career he's had to try and shake off the feeling amongst fans that he doesn't produce when the going gets tough. This has always struck me as being unfair and I think if fans really analysed it properly, most would agree with this. Going back to that famous ashes series win in 2005, perhaps he was the only one who didn't light up the contest with a significant moment. People often forget the very next series though - the same ashes winning squad, albeit minus Michael Vaughan and Simon Jones, lost 3-0 away to Pakistan. He was England's top run scorer and averaged 52 in that series. He was every bit an equal in that squad and announced himself as a international batsman.

And let's not forget the ashes winning home series in 2013. It was 3-0 to England and without a bit of bad light in the final test, probably would've been 4-0. This was largely down to Bell's match saving runs at number 5 when the top order consistently failed. It was a flattering score line for England which preceded the whitewash in 2013/14. He was awarded man of the series.

Yet the feeling persists. For a senior player, he's never really been considered as a captain. He was briefly vice captain in a turbulent 2014, but was soon superseded by Joe Root. I've heard Michael Vaughan say a few times that Bell is one of the first to lose self confidence after a couple of low scores. This was quite evident this year when he scored a big hundred in the first test in the Caribbean, then hasn't really been able to buy a run since. Stephen Harmison has said a similar thing on the radio also. When he gets out it often looks so soft. Regulation nicks to slip and middling it straight to a set field. When a truly top test batsman (eg Sangakkara, Dravid, etc) gets in it looks like only a hand grenade will shift them from the middle. It sometimes looks like a ping pong ball could find Ian Bell's edge.

Perhaps he's been a bit harshly treated? The problem lies with the expectation possibly. As a teenager, so much was expected from him. He was first picked by England aged 19. He was ear marked for greatness from a young age, and with that expectation, I guess it takes a an awful lot to satisfy every critic. There's no better player to watch in world cricket when he gets in. His cover drive is like a fine champagne. This can make it especially infuriating when he gets out in a seemingly soft manner. If he does retire from tests soon (which seems to be the theme of a few rumblings in the background), his stats and his career will stack up will all but the very best that the game has seen. But he won't break into that very top category. Not now. Some see Ian Bell as a slightly wasted talent, but I prefer to sum it up using a laboured simile.

When I go out for a nice meal I often feel the need for a dessert that gives me more than what a panna cotta provides. Much like Ian Bell, probably unfairly, it just leaves you wanting a little bit more...

County cricket, the IPL and fast cars..

This time of year is a very exciting time of year for a cricket fan.

I have very happy memories as a teenager of the Telegraph fantasy cricket league. My brother Gary and I would've spent a week or 2 agonising over the player lists trying the pick a team mixed of proven performers and up and coming players. It was always easy enough to identify the players that would be reliable enough to have a decent county season. The county championship was always full of plenty of old county pros who you could bank on. The key was trying to find a cheap player who was going to have their breakthrough season. The outsider who would elevate a decent team to a winning team. It was skill I always thought I had, but the evidence certainly never backed this claim. My brother on the other hand always managed to do it. The best example was a left arm Worcestershire bowler called Alamgir Sheriyar. Gary picked him in 1999 as a struggling young bowler, and of course he ended up as one of the top wicket takers that season. Gary was actually printed in the top 10 in the country for quite a few weeks in a row.

Today marks the first day of the matches in the county championship and it brings back all the memories of Gary and I were regularly checking Ceefax for the latest scores. We don't do the fantasy cricket anymore though unfortunately. It lost its edge when the England players play so little of the season, and the overseas players change so regularly. It used to be skill to pick a team that had the longevity to perform consistently throughout the whole season, but now it's more of an exercise of managing the numerous amount of transfers each player is allowed. More transfers equals more hits for the paper's website and therefore more revenue. I get that they need to do that. But it takes the edge off the game.

Never mind, it's still exciting, just for different reasons. It marks the start of summer. And it's still exciting to see who will make the breakthrough.

In the last few years, April/May has seen a rival to the county season for our attention. The Indian Premier League.

Now that it's in its 8th year, I've tried to like it and get into it but I've really struggled with it. And I'm not alone in that in this country. You often hear that the sentiment in India (probably the new powerhouse in world cricket) is that England (the old powerhouse) is "jealous" of the successes of the IPL. I can see why that might be thought. T20 cricket originated in England in 2002 but since then India have taken it and turned it into something the ECB would never have thought possible. The IPL is watched by millions and each game is played in front of a full house. The Indian fans have adopted teams with the same intensity as the average football fan over here. It attracts the best players and best coaches in the world. Every team plays in gold. There is advertising everywhere, and in between each over the camera moves to a preening Bollywood star or business leader owner overlooking his latest folly with dark glasses and flowing hair. It is undoubtably a huge success and it's set a template for other competitions around the world.

It's the Lamborghini of the cricket world. A garish bright green Lamborghini, the type that's parked outside the Grand Casino in Monte Carlo.

I think that's why it doesn't sit well with the English cricket fan. We've all grown up with the conservative world of the MCC. Pristine cricket whites, afternoon tea, village greens and stiff upper lips. Everything the IPL isn't.

It is (or was) the Black shiny Rolls Royce. Understated, but of immense quality.

There is an underlying compulsion to preserve the memories that we've grown up with and the IPL doesn't fit with this. We're not jealous, we're just a bit scared. Scared that what we hold dear might change. The IPL and the BCCI hold the power and the money to change the game, and since the IPL the game has changed.

It puts the ECB in a bit of a quandary (one of many they have to sort out at the moment!). After the World Cup debacle, it's clear that they need to change. To embrace the brave new world that that IPL has carved out. But they need to stay true to the past as well as there's too much history to just turn the back on.

Other countries have managed it. Australia have the Big Bash League. Another huge sucess which has lead to them being World Champions. It's a more easy going version of the IPL and more accessible. It suits Australia. It's like a high end convertible. A decent Alfa maybe. The West Indies have a more modest competition (The Carribban Premier League) but it's growing. It seems to be the only form of cricket they are interested in. With all the contractual wranglings in the Caribbean at the moment at Test Level, it is the antithesis. The rough and ready, but comforting VW camper van. The Bangladesh Premier League is corrupt, and has a lot of problems so I can't really compare this with the others but I guess for the sake of this metaphor it can be a car as well. Let's call it a blacked out BMW and move away from it quite quickly.

At the moment the T20 competition in England is getting lost. It's not special. It's not bad, but it doesn't hold the excitement. The county championship and especially Test Cricket are Rolls Royce's (although a bit ageing and will probably need a service at some point soon). The T20 competition is a Ford Mondeo. A bit rubbish. I'm sure the ECB will change things as there are all sorts of ideas flying about, from an FA cup style competition advocated by Midhael Vaughan, to a similar franchise competition to the IPL and BBL. Whatever happens, they need to get the balance right. A Rolls won't work with T20. If a competition can be made that feels like an Aston Martin the I think the ECB would've got it just about right..